Schellhase 2017 Northwest Trip: 18 May - Snow and Garden of the Gods

18 May
As predicated we woke to frozen white stuff falling from the sky! It was wet and heavy, and continued to fall throughout the day. I would guess we received about 4-5 inches today based on what I cleaned off the truck X 3.

The snow starts

Beautiful in the pines

Our campsite

Cleaning off the truck in preparation for our trip to Pueblo

We were supposed to drive about an hour south to Pueblo to meet Bill and Linda Callison for lunch, but we started out about 11am and then returned to the campsite. The roads were terrible but with a 4-wheel drive dually pickup I was not too concerned. I was more concerned about others out on the road and the visibility was absolute trash. We could not keep the windshield clear, so we pulled the plug on our trip today. We will meet them Saturday, weather permitting of course!

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in the RV, watching TV, reading and relaxing. In the afternoon the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds were on TV. Periodically I had to go outside and shoot water up on the satellite dish to melt the accumulated snow and restore signal.

Inside we were toasty without using the propane hog furnace. There is an electric heating fireplace in the living room that does a very nice job. We also have an electric "tower" heater that also puts out a lot of heat. We move it from the dining area to the bedroom in the evening, or where ever we need a little extra heat. All in all, we are very comfortable.

The fireplace

The tower heater

We pulled the plug on the white water rafting trip for Saturday based on the weather forecast. They will go rain or shine, but neither Doreen nor I wanted to catch pneumonia out there in the freezing water and morning temps predicated at 26 degrees F. We explained our situation to the company and they agreed to provide a full refund. Yeah! We also now will not need to board our dog which will save a little.

Doreen called and changed the dog grooming appointment to 5pm today, so we dropped Liberty off at Petsmart and then headed to the Garden of the Gods. It is a city park featuring beautiful natural rock formations, hiking/biking trails and rock climbing for those who are properly trained. The visitor center was closed by the time we arrived, but the park itself is open and we did the driving tour.