Cherry Creek State Park

Hint: The best time to camp at this urban prairie state park is during the week! Click on the pictures to make 'em bigger.

Some storms remained in the area after we set up camp. But that made the air nice 'n fresh!

They hadn't mowed yet, so there were lots of flowers on the ground.

Cherry Creek SP is an urban park, where the prairie meets the city. 

Satellite radio, tv, iPad... All the necessities!

Denver, I-225 seen from the top of Cherry Creek Dam.

The lake.

Beenie weenies 'n bier. Good eatin' outdoors!

Wetlands filter pollution outta the water.

Sunrise Over Denver

Biloxi Visit, Pre-Hurricane

The Beau Rivage Hotel in Biloxi. A smaller version of The Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. Nice.

 

 The Marina at the Hotel.

  The Gulf.

Two models were posing for a TV commercial. Notice that they don't look like anybody else at the pool.

The Mississippi Coastline, pre-hurricane.

Travelin' The Desert

I'm searching for the fotos we took a few years ago when we traveled in our Winnebago Minnie Winnie from Las Vegas to Houston via Zion National Park. While Zion is stunning, the drive along the Vermilion Cliffs and Marble Canyon along Hwy. 89 was breathtaking!

Until I find those fotos, here are some pictures from Wikipedia that replicate the fotos and views we enjoyed. As always on this blog, click on the picture to get the huge version.

This is the incredible view that greets you as you drive towards the Vermilion Cliffs from the Zion area. Wowzers!

This is the Navajo Bridge that crosses the Colorado River and Marble Canyon. The Grand Canyon is located downstream from here.

After this drive from Las Vegas and Zion, we spent a frozen night at a KOA Kampground in Flagstaff, Arizona. We arrived after dark and I set up camp in the snow. In the morning I got a lapfull of frozen poo when I tried to open the black tank drain. Imagine stinky frozen coca cola. Real stinky.

Health Conditions Worsen as AZ Fire Spreads

SPRINGERVILLE, Ariz. (AP) -- Smoke from a massive wildfire in eastern Arizona that has claimed more than 30 homes and forced nearly 10,000 people to flee has officials worried about serious health impacts to residents and firefighters as tiny particles of soot in the air reached "astronomical" levels.

"It was off the charts," Mark Shaffer of the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality said Friday night.

Calmer winds helped firefighters gain some ground, but also concentrated the sooty air, keeping it stagnate and raising pollution to levels officials hadn't seen yet since the blaze began several weeks ago.

"We've got a serious potential health problem on our hands," Shaffer said. "When you get levels like this, it's off the map."

The Weather Channel

Back 'Ta Hooton, One More Time.

Took the Windy down to Hooton to clean out TEH BUNKER. T'was really HOT. Now we're back in God's Country, where it's gonna be room temperature outside for awhile. Excellent!

The Windy enjoying a break at a Kansas rest stop.

Beastie helping with the packing.

The pank 'n gray iMacs!

TEH BUNKER is all empty.

They have to chain down the buffalo in Kansas.

We stopped at Walker Lake on the way back to DenBRRR. Must camp here some time.

Beastie restin' in The Windy.

Our Tribby Is 2 Years Old And Going Strong

Cold 'Spring' Day in DenBRRRRR!

After days of room temperature, today we got wind, snew, sleet, and rain all falling at the same time! Luv the weather!

Also watching storm chasin' live on the interytoobs: http://stormscapelive.com/
This evening a huge mass o' rain and hard frozen stuff is blowing in from the north.

The Windy Is Back Home...

I'm $2500.00 lighter in the billfold, but the Windy has 3 new faucets, new plumbing connections, new valves, a new water heater and a new battery.


Think I'll winterize next time.

The Other Colorado

When most peeps think of Colorado, they think of mountains. And skiing. Guess what? There's another Colorado. Almost half of Colorado is not mountainous. In fact, the western edge of the Great Plains covers the eastern half of Colorado. The plains may look dull, but if you spend some time there, you will discover a vibrant, arid ecosystem and lots of wildlife.

The Great Plains in eastern Colorado. Looks just like Kansas and Nebraska here!

Denver sits at the western edge of the Great Plains.

You can find prairie dawgs in some vacant land in Denver as well as throughout the Great Plains.

Trains navigate curves as they approach/leave the mountains west of Denver near Boulder. Denver and the Great Plains are visible in the background.

Be sure to click on these pictures to see 'em in full size!

Antifreeze? What Antifreeze????

So we parked at a nearby state park the other day and set up camp. As soon as I hooked up the water, I hear a waterfall. Several waterfalls. Knowing there's no waterfall nearby, I shut off the water and found 4 leaks in the Windy.

When we got back home the next day, I inquired about frozen pipes on RV.net and found out that I am supposed to put RV antifreeze in them pipes after draining 'em out. Oh. Never had to do that in Southeast Tejas, but it obviously got a lot colder here in the Front Range than down theah.

Time to run the Windy over to the butt-crack man!

Winter is almost over.

Got a big relief yesterday. You may remember me mentioning that I "blew" the electrical system on Windy back in December by running waaay too many power stuffs. Well, yesterday I fired up the Windy and wondered if there was a circuit breaker somewhere I've missed and sure enuf I turned on the genny and popped the cover and there was a big ol' 30 amp breaker in the off position. I turned it on and voila! Powah restored! TV, Heet, A/C etc. operational.

Only thing left on the fairly immediate list is to replace the switch for the bedroom slide. It's getting a little touchy. Later I can figure out about the rear running lite problem, but I don't plan on any nite driving for a while since there's lots of camping close to the home 20.

Denver Sunset!

A Day Trip To Colorado/Manitou Springs

White snew on the ground and a clear bloo sky. Perfect weather to take a little day trip down I-25 to Colorado/Manitou Springs! We needed to blow off a little stink after hanging around TEH CONDOH during the recent snewy weather.

On the way, we located a Yogi Bear Campground at mile marker 174.

Imagine this scene with snew on the ground.

Only a few of these sites are open during the winter.

The campground has a great view of the surrounding hills and evergreen trees. We'll pay this place a visit when it warms up a bit.

On we drove to the Springs. We checked out a doll shop, but it appeared to be a private home and nobody was home. We had better luck at the next place:

Needleworks By Holly Berry

2409 W. Colorado Ave.

Colorado Springs, CO 80904

Lots of knitting stuff, yarn, patterns, etc. While we were perusing the goods, I overheard a conversation between the staff and someone who must be on the city council. "We need a red light... We need better parking..." You know, the usual.

We et lunch at:

On The Menu

Black Bean Soop

Cajun Crepe with Shrimp, Onion, Mushrooms, Spicy Cream Sauce

Crusty Garlikky 'Taters

Rise and Dine Breakfast Crepe with Black Forest Ham 'n Eggs

Fruit

A fyne Herbal Tea

Chime Chardonnay

We took our time eating this delish food!

We found our old friend, the El Colorado Inn. We stayed there a couple times in the past.

Then off to Garden Of The Gods and a brief hike among the red rock formations.

Bloo sky over Colorady

Darkness fell as we returned to Denver. The hordes were already hitting the freeway going home from work. Oh yeah, the weekend begins NOW!

A RUDE Surprise: The horrific costs to register vehicles annually in Colorado

Last year, I paid about $75.00 to register the Tribby in Texas. This year, to register the Tribby in colorado cost about $280.00! Wowsers! The cost to register the motoryhome here in Colorado will be horrific. Here's a posting on a blog that explains why many peeps register there RV's outta state:

One thing my friend noted is that the RV dealer salesmen and managers he talked to in Denver and Colorado Springs areas when asked what the taxes and registration fees would be, every person he talked to "had no idea" as if they'd all been trained to play the same phony script. How can you sell these things for a living and not know how much it costs to pay taxes and buy plates? You can't...but you won't tell a potential customer because he'll be SHOCKED to find out how bad the bill really is. And if you call DMV to try and get an estimate before the sale...they won't help you, either.

So I have done some digging in the Colorado tax code to shine a light on this for folks so they don't end up stunned with the equivalent of a second property tax bill for their big resource-sucking toy.

Take my friend. He bought a five-year old diesel pusher motor home...in great condition I must agree. The MSRP for that motor home in 2005 was around $225,000, and he got it for $90,000 from it's elderly owner who had to sell in a bad economy due to illness. After trying a few days before making an offer to get an idea of taxes and fees, he just decided to throw caution to the wind and pull the trigger. Bad idea...

Let's start with the Colorado ownership tax. This is a substitute for the ad valorem personal property tax. It's based on the original MSRP of the vehicle when new. Note that is NOT what the first buyer actually paid for it. Manufacturer's...List...Price. If you've ever paid list for a vehicle you are a sucker and a half. Nobody pays list (unless maybe they're trying to swing a deal with bad credit and an upside-down loan on a crappy trade-in).

For a motor home, which is "class C" property under Colorado tax code (not to be confused with Class A/B/C motorhomes), the ownership tax is computed based on 85% of that original MSRP and on the years since first registration.

Year 1 - 2.1% of 85% x the original MSRP
Year 2 - 1.5% of 85% x the original MSRP
Year 3 - 1.2% of 85% x the original MSRP
Year 4 - 0.9% of 85% x the original MSRP
Years 5-9 - 0.45% of 85% x the original MSRP
Year 10+ - $3

For a travel trailer, which is classified "Class D" property, it's the same, except that in years 10 and beyond, it remains 0.45% of 85% x the original MSRP (or $3, whichever is greater)

So for my buddy's new (to him) motor home, in year 5, his ownership tax works out to 0.45% of (85% x $225,000), or $861, and will remain the same for the next four years.

Oh, but that's not all. The registration fee is based on the vehicle's weight. For vehicles below 16,000 lbs, it's based on the vehicle's empty weight (found on the title as CWT, or curb weight, in hundreds of lbs). For vehicles over 16,000 lbs empty weight, the registration fee is based on gross (loaded) weight. My friend's diesel pavement pig comes in at 21,000 lbs with all the goodies aboard. The relevant tables that the tax dept won't even point you to can be found in CRS 42-3-306, and in the case of a motor home, in subparagraph 13. (www.michie.com/colorado is a good resource to look this up), the registration fee will be $24.50 for the first 4,500 lbs, and $0.60 per hundred lbs above that, for a total of $123.50.

Oh, but that's not all. There's the new (in 2009) SB09-108 Road Safety and Bridge Surcharges. (Department of Revenue - Division of Motor Vehicles:SB09-108 FASTER (Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery)) That's $55 between the two for a vehicle over 16,000 lbs, and will go up $8/yr for the next two years.

And there are a couple miscellaneous small fees...but that's not all.

Sales tax. An RV is taxed at the same rate as an iPod or a pair of jeans. The slick salesman will tell you that Colorado state sales tax is 2.9% out on the lot. When the final bill comes across the table, though, it'll include county, local districts, etc...in El Paso County, a total of 7.4%. Add another cool (but one-time) charge of $6,660.

So for the privelege of that first year of RV bliss, he paid the state $7,700, and he'll continue to get a bill for over $1,000 every year, just to put plates on it.

Oh, but that's not all. He hasn't told me yet what he's forking out for insurance...

Anyway, there you have it, some idea for how the numbers are derived and their sources, since neither a dealer nor DMV will tell you before the sale. And a not-so-subtle submessage: "RUN AWAY!!!" 

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/colorado/925326-cost-register-rv-colorado-denver-colorado.html#ixzz1B8ENb68K

January 15, 2011 Snew Depth Map

A SNEWY Sunday Afternoon

Santy forgot his Christmas reindeer.

Don't leave yer car out overnight!

Rowdie quat doesn't want to go outside for a change.

Never too old to learn....

Our drive in the Windy from the South Coast to Colorado a couple weeks ago reminded me that after years of RV'ing, you can still learn a few things not to do.

F'instance. Don't put stinky moist cat food near the LP gas leak detector. The alarm will whine and whine and whine. With the Workhorse chassis, don't try to start up in the cold before it is ready. It'll just sit there quiet and ded. Don't turn on an electric space heater while running the electric hot water heater while running a coffee maker while running the coach heater with a bunch of lights on. THAT blew a main fuse somewhere!

Live and learn.

A Snewy Colorado Day

  The Windy at home as the snewfall begins!

 

Workhorse Brake Recall Done, Time To Relocate Windy To Colorado!

Next week.....

December 10, 2010 Snew Cover Map

 

I'm told that anywhere that has snew today should have a white Christmas!