A laptop project

Carl's daughter, Kim, had given him a laptop that was no longer working well. He decided to dig into it while we were in Fruita. It had several symptoms -- 

• Windows was running really slow - diagnosis:  slow hard drive, 8G memory, old technology
• it would not remember basic settings when booted up (date and time, boot order) - diagnosis: battery for NVRAM was not working
• it would not work without being plugged in and it was difficult to keep the power supply plugged in - diagnosis: laptop battery shot and wire in power supply was broken

He got a new power supply, and now it stays plugged in okay.

After taking the back/bottom off, he could see components...

Zoomed in: The NVRAM battery was a 3V button cell, but not the same any that we had, however, he could replace it with a 2032 button battery. It now remembers the boot order; it still doesn't keep date and time, but he is thinking that a new laptop battery might resolve that.

A task still in progress...  I think he likes tinkering...

Enjoying our site -- Colorado River State Park, Fruita

The orientation of our site gives us shade on our "public" side in the afternoon...

We had our chairs set up on the side with shade.

The Jee-rage is getting a little shade from a tree on the other side of the campground road.

Carl had gotten up and started to examine a couple of suspicious wet spots under Gracie. They were near the passenger side underneath the rig.

They weren't large, but any drips are potentially a problem sign... when he checked the bay on the passenger side, the floor of the compartment was wet (and, unfortunately, it is carpeted, so the carpet was soaked).

He got into the same bay on the driver's side (he is behind the opened door), and found that one of the hoses for our RO water filter system had a pin hole and was spraying water in the compartment. The lid of one of the plastic containers in the compartment was full of water, and the floor/carpet on this side was also soaked.

Carl was able to replace the small hose very quickly which eliminated the ongoing leak, but the wet bay floor/carpet needed to be addressed. We pulled items out from the driver's side and temporarily put them under the rig. On the passenger side, we pulled everything out that was physically on the floor -- thankfully, on that side we have a shelving unit and a slide drawer that elevates most things off the floor, so there were only a few things that needed to come out. We left both bay doors open until sunset, and then closed up for the night.

In the morning, Carl opened up the bay again -- we made sure everything that we could take out was out, and put a fan to blow through the compartment.

By evening, with the low humidity (~20% in the morning, down to 11% later in the day), the carpet seemed to be all dried out, and we could put everything back. 

We have a water alarm in that bay, but it seemed to be dead. It would still alarm, but not loudly -- we had been away most of the day when we discovered the wet spots underneath Gracie, so we wondered if it alarmed while we were gone. 

We were grateful that the wetness from the bay with the water filter system did not seem to migrate into neighboring bays -- there must be enough of a lip that the water didn't travel and the carpet didn't wick. It was also interesting that the two drips of water were close to the passenger side (since the water filter system is on the driver's side), but we're grateful that they were there where we could see them when sitting outside -- we may not have noticed it as soon if the drips had been anywhere else. We thought that the rig was a leaning a little toward the passenger side, maybe that is why the drips ended up under that area of the bays.

As Carl says, "It's always something!"

Colorado National Monument

I have to admit that I had not heard of Colorado National Monument before I started planning this summer's trip... but after reading about it, we knew that we wanted to see it, and got up relatively early on Thursday to drive through and enjoy the national monument on our way down to Grand Junction to get some shopping done and pick up an Amazon package.

The "west" entrance to Colorado National Monument was only a couple of miles from our campground...

A map of the monument -- you might notice really squiggly road at the top side (which is actually west -- North points to the right side of the map) -- and another really squiggly road at the bottom (east) near Grand Junction. We'd be climbing quite a lot, going along at a relatively level elevation within the monument, and then descending down into Grand Junction.

The view of rocks right behind the map display

There were a couple of tunnels on the way up.

We drove through the Saddlehorn Campground -- I had looked at the potential of booking a site there, but the size limit for sites is 40' (40' for RV+toad, and Gracie is 40'9" all on her own). The sites are definitely more suited to tents and pop-ups.

Near the campground was Window Rock Trail which we decided to try -- it was supposed to be a 1/2 mile loop... 

It was a nice walk...

... though the trail was not very well marked...

... so whether we were on the trail or not, we weren't sure! That's Fruita in the valley below.

Looking back into the canyon of the national monument...

Looking south / east toward Grand Junction

Obligatory selfie!

We had looked up information about the national monument and two different individuals had recommended 4-5 overlooks by name, so we decided to stop at those...

From Independence Monument View we could appropriately see Independence Monument...

... evidently it is common for people (*some* people, not people like Carl and me) to climb it on 4th of July -- but we won't be around this area through then.

From Grand View, we had side view of Independence Monument -- it looks quite different from the side!

We could see various spires and monuments...

... with the valley beyond.

Valleys

These were called "Coke Ovens", not because they were, but because they looked like coke ovens to explorers who were the early viewers of these sites.

This is Red Canyon Overlook, with the hanging canyon looking down to Grand Junction. You can see a small indentation at the end of the valley which is where the stream has cut down.

My Carl!

Cold Shivers Point...

... with another view down into Grand Junction.

On the far side of this broad valley is another set of cliffs -- I thought that we heard that it is Grand Mesa, but when I look at a map, it appears Grand Mesa is south of this area.

Carl out getting pictures of the views!

We finished up our drive through the national monument, exiting the "east" exit near Grand Junction. We had planned to stop at an Indian buffet restaurant for lunch, but when we got there, they no longer have a buffet, so we headed to a soup and salad place (The Garden of Eat'n) that we enjoyed! We got grocery shopping done, picked up our Amazon package, and then headed back to Fruita.

James M Robb Colorado River State Park - Fruita

When making plans for this summer, I didn't have specific plans for Fruita, but it seemed a logical place to stop between Dinosaur and Gunnison, Colorado -- two other places where I had plans to stop. I found the state park and made reservations -- I don't honestly remember much other about it. I couldn't get a full hookup, but we'd be okay on electric/water. Either I didn't notice that the electric/water sites were 30A, or I thought that the weather would be cool enough that we'd be okay without 50A service. I wasn't anticipating temperatures in the upper 90s and near 100 -- this is Colorado! Oh well... it is pleasant early in the day!

Our first morning, we walked around a little in the campground -- beautiful view of the mountains that make up the Colorado National Monument (of which I had never heard before booking our camping in this location!).

Naturally, the Colorado River flows right by the campground. There is a boat ramp and bike/walking paths and day-use areas available as well.

We can survive with just 30A service. We need to consider how many things can be running at the same time -- our general rule is that each heating/cooling appliance takes ~10A, and the refrigerator can kick into its defrost cycle at any time, usually the worst possible time -- so that's 10A that could hit at any moment. When an air conditioner starts, it starts with a large draw, so we don't figure that we can run more than one at a time. So, refrigerator + one air conditioner takes 20A -- so one other appliance for cooking. Keep the water heater off except when we want to take showers, and then use the diesel burner. 

Meanwhile, see what we can see here -- trying to do things in the early morning and stay cool in the afternoons!

Over Douglas Pass to Fruita

Leaving Rangely on Tuesday, we headed south toward Fruita, Colorado, where we had reservations at the James M Robb Colorado River State Park.

Heading up to Douglas Pass

As we crossed over Douglas Pass, the view down...

The arrow is pointing to where the road is going...

The arrow is pointing to the area by Douglas Pass where we had just been, as we were now on the road executing a number of tight switchbacks...

A doe deer by the side of the road -- Carl saw two fawns beyond her as we passed.

Meanwhile, Miss Kitty was in exhibitionist mode, bathing in the front window!

The road gradually got less curvy...

... less elevation drop...

... as we got closer...

... to the plains by Fruita.

In the distance, we could see red cliffs on the other side of the Colorado River...

... as we were coming through farmland that probably hark back to the source of Fruita's name.

As we got close to the campground, this art in the center of a traffic circle recognizes the physical activities enjoyed in this area.

We got to the campground, and it seemed that our network connectivity was pretty slow -- Carl did a speed test and found Kbps speeds -- wow... we aren't used to internet that slow! Regardless, it seems that we are able to stream videos and blog and upload pictures -- all that we've needed to do!

We are excited to see what we can enjoy while in Fruita (though they are experiencing very high temperatures too!).

Silver Sage RV Park

When we made the decision that boondocking at Dinosaur National Monument wasn't going to work for the days we had planned, I was concerned about whether we could find a campground with hookups that would have space for us (we would be arriving on a Friday -- and often weekends are difficult to get reservations). But, I checked on RV Life Tripwizard and found Silver Sage RV Park in Rangely -- on our way from Dinosaur to Fruita -- where we had reservations next. They had full hookup 50A sites, so we decided that would work for the four nights that we needed accommodation.

It wasn't a scenic campground -- gravel sites with a few trees. 

But the sites were large and the power was reliable, which was great since we needed to run the air conditioner a lot!

We chose a site facing east which happened to be their more premium sites (very wide) -- but all the other sites face west, which is awfully hot with the sun coming in our big windshield.

We have pretty much given up finding available sites without making reservations far in advance, so it was an unexpected gift to find this RV park that could accommodate us!

Rangely Rock Crawling Park

When looking for things of interest around Rangely, I also found mention of a Rock Crawling Park (https://townofrangely.colorado.gov/about-rangely/parks-recreation/rangely-rock-crawling-park-ohv-trails):

Just a few miles southwest of the Town of Rangely is the only designated natural rock crawling park in the state of Colorado. With more than 560 acres of natural terrain designated by the Bureau of Land Management as a four-wheel drive park, the Rangely Rock Crawling Club has one of the largest areas in the country to climb.  Among this vast terrain of rocks is a well-designed OHV Trail system. You can spend a day exploring and never see the same country twice. Check out our OHV Trail Guide for maps of the terrain. 

I was imagining being able to see things (and hoping to take pictures) like I saw on the Rangely municipal code documentation or from the pictures on the Rangely OHV Adventure Rally Facebook page:

Alas! It seems that (1) those types of rocks are not near the public roadways (and our Jeep, while having a "Trail Rated" marker on its front, is *not* an off highway vehicle and we weren't going to drive off road to try to locate them) and (2) this is not the time of year when the events are scheduled which would bring the OHV folks to be participate in using the trails in great numbers (though we did have a few folks in our campground with real OHVs).

We got to the parking area for Rangely Rock Crawling Park, and I studied the map in vain to see if I could find where the bare rocks might be...

... we could see off road trails, but no bare rock areas were visible from where we could park.

Regardless, it's an interesting activity that Rangely can support to bring visitors to town!

The major industry in Rangely is oil. If you're interested in a bit of history about Rangely, check out: https://townofrangely.colorado.gov/about-rangely/history