10/27/21
We arrived in Colorado early in the afternoon and thank goodness for that as it took us some time to find a campsite after the road to the place we had picked out was closed. They didn’t provide a place to turn around at the road closure so we had to back up for about a quarter mile until we reached a spot to turn around. Also, many RV parks around the Rockies were closed for the season. We ended up finding a campsite at Estes Park, Colorado in the Rocky Mountain National Park which was beautiful.

We saw that one of the jacks that levels the RV seemed to be leaking hydraulic fluid so we had scheduled it for repair at a local RV shop. Unfortunately, they took one look and told us we needed a new jack and they did not have these in stock. We tried to call customer service for our RV to plan this repair and got nowhere so Luke called the executives of the manufacturer’s parent company. Customer service had told us that they would do the repair in one month and somehow after Luke made his call, the scheduled it for the next day.
The only local option for the repair was Camping World. We were a bit nervous about this, but what could we do. We didn’t want to get stuck at a campground unable to pull the jacks up and leave so we had to deal with this. Camping World offered to let us camp in their parking lot while they waited for some parts so that’s what we did. I have family in Boulder I hadn’t seen since I was 12 so we had the chance to hang out with them a few times while we were in the area. They were wonderful hosts to us and amazing chefs so we really enjoyed our time with them. They took us on a hike at Chautauqua which was in walking distance from their home and a beautiful area.
We went to Rocky Mountain National park of course to explore and take photos. The mountains around here are all snow capped and magnificent. The sunsets are also almost always colorful. I learned that this is due to the high altitude as well as pollution. We also checked out the town of Nederland where a local man had himself cryogenically frozen in a shed and the town now holds an annual festival to commemorate him called Frozen Dead Guy Day. Apparently the family of this frozen dead guy does not love the festival, but the town certainly seems to with their coffin races, a poetry slam, hearse parade, polar plunge, snowy human foosball, and frozen t-shirt competitions among other events. This celebration happens in March so we weren’t able to participate…maybe another year we can.

Frozen Dead Guy Day

We also took a trip to Denver to take a tour of the International Church of Cannabis. Their beliefs are to be your best self and take care of others. This message was shared during a musical laser light show/meditation we participated in during the tour. They also had a lounge area with games, art, funny furniture, video games, and snacks. It was a fun place.

While we were stuck getting all of our RV problems fixed (they were also replacing the piece of aluminum J-wrap that had blown off in the wind in South Dakota), I experienced what I am calling “traveling blues”. It did not last long, but I had a day in which I worried that this was all a big mistake and our lives would be filled with stress and arguments rather than joy and adventure. We weren’t too happy that we need3d significant repairs this early in our journey. Also, getting these repairs was such a difficult process and it made me start to worry that this was the way it would always be.
However, it helped that we were in a beautiful area and the employees at Camping World working with us treated us great. They kept us informed and checked in with us daily. They also showed genuine care and compassion towards us. They told us that they had been contacted by high level executives from the manufacturer of our RV and told to take good care of us. They said that frequently they have had customers who had to wait months for a repair or the manufacturer would not pay for warranty repairs so they were quite Impressed that we had managed to get VIP treatment. They asked if we could teach their other customers how to do this so they would have less angry customers. This industry is troubled. We decided that we would help people when we could, but we didn’t want to give up our plans and dreams to devote our lives to RV advocacy just yet since we only just began.