21 May - Goodbye Air Force Academy, Hello Buckley Air Force Base

21 May
This morning we departed the Air Force Academy FamCamp at Colorado Springs about 1015 hrs and headed north on I-25 to Denver and Williams FamCamp on Buckley Air Force Base.  This is campground number 5 out of 29 on this trip.

 Today's trip was just 61 miles which was nice as it put us in here shortly after noon.  We had made a reservation a couple months ago and they told us that since we were arriving on a weekend to just pull into any vacant spot and come to the office on Monday to register.  Unfortunately the only vacant spot was a back-in site on a narrow road.  The space and angle needed to back our 41' 11" fifth wheel into the site forced us off the pavement and onto the muddy shoulder.  We made a mess but I got it in there...  I then spent quite a bit of time scraping the mud off the road.  I was obviously not the first one to put tires on the shoulder.  So far I am unimpressed with Williams FamCamp...

Many have dropped a tire off the pavement while attempting to park their RV's.

No trees here!  Great Directv satellite access!

We got 'er in there!  Satellite is up.  "Chicago Cubs are on the air!"

Not much extra room for the truck

The other issue here is there is no drinking water.  We have 50 amp electric and we have a sewer connection, but no fresh water.  Apparently the air base was directed to drain a nearby pond to help minimize water fowl and the issues with bird strikes and aircraft.  So they drained the pond but it kept refilling.  They traced the source of the water to leaking underground fresh water pipes in the nearby campground!  So they had no choice but to shut off the water to the entire campground until the underground pipes could be replaced.  We knew that in advance so we filled out fresh water tank at the Air Force Academy before we departed.  The offset is they are only charging us $12 per night!  Overall not a bad place to camp for a week.  

We will be in the Denver area from today through the 28th and depart for Grand Junction CO on the 29th.  While we are here we will have dinner with Orlen Wolf and his wife Carolyn.  Orlen and I were stationed at Loring Air Force Base in Maine back in the mid-70;s.  Orlen and Carolyn also attended my military retirement a couple years ago and camped with us at Prairie Flower Campground near Saylorville Lake.

We also plan to tour the Coors Brewery, tour Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies baseball team plays and also watch the Rockies host the St Louis Cardinals on <corrected> Sunday.  We will visit Rocky Mountain National Park and Wings Over the Rocky's Air and Space Museum, We are also checking in to visiting the Argo Mine where you will learn about mining and can pan for gold.  We will also see Doreen's relative Barbie and Jake again as they will be attending the ball game with us.  Lt Col (retired) Jim Freese who I deployed to Iraq with will also be at the game!

Buckley Air Force Base is part of Air Force Space Command and hosts active duty, Guard and Reserve. The 140th Fighter Wing Colorado Air National Guard resides here.  I have visited them before.  Buckley's missions include air operations, space-based missile warning capabilities, space surveillance operations, space communications operations and support functions. Here we can see many of these "snowball" satellite antennas on the base

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For all you stat-trackers (to date):

Point to point travel miles:  1036 miles

Vicinity miles:  501 miles

Total miles:  1537 miles

Total point to point driving time:   21 hrs 06 minutes

Total fuel purchased:  137.386 gals

Total fuel cost:  $332,32

Average fuel cost:  $2.422

Average MPG:  10.975 miles/gal

Lodging cost:  $342.90

Average lodging cost/night:  $18.05/night