Is anyone else surprised that we are already more than halfway through January, 2019? I certainly am. The last six weeks have been very busy and full of activity as we were home for the holiday, then hit the road again just before the New Year.
The holidays were fun. I wasn’t sure what to expect for our first year of not having a brick and mortar house with all our decorations. But of course, my Mom and sister are huge decorators and we were able to put our own tree up in my sister’s house for our Benton family Christmas morning. Plus, there are some advantages to having all the boys in one place. My sister and I finally were able to dress them all alike and have an impromptu cookie making session, just like when they were little!
After the holidays and living in other people’s homes for six weeks, it was nice to be back amongst our things. Though a hard transition staying with Mom who kept us well-fed. I had to remember how to plan and create meals! The trip started out a bit rough as we were delayed in getting into the rig. We had put it in the shop for some maintenance work that took longer than we planned so we didn’t get it until the day of our departure. So much for getting it all organized before leaving!
While you can easily drive to Colorado in a day or two in a car, travel is a bit different and slower in a motorhome. We took the longer way through Kansas to avoid wintry weather in southern Colorado. The driving went well, but we were caught by surprise when temperatures dropped below freezing. Knowing we were spending a month in Breckenridge, we had prepared for the cold but had not put all the preparations into effect before starting out. So New Year’s Eve was spent in Ellis, KS at a nice city park we had stayed in last year. There we encountered a very cold night (#grateful for our heated mattress pad bought at Christmas) which resulted in frozen water pipes for our first time.
When we got to Golden, CO, our pipes had frozen again during the drive. Luckily we had a couple days in Golden where there is a Camping World and hardware stores. Lesson number one, pipes that freeze will eventually defrost and that can be a bigger issue. Our external water filter cracked as it defrosted, creating an opportunity for Barry to learn a lot more about our plumbing. Lesson two – sometimes new parts do not match up with the threading on old parts and leaks will eventually create an icy mess!
However, two weeks in at Breckenridge and we are doing pretty well. Lots of lovely heat from our very large propane tank, plenty of water flow as we figured out best placement of small heaters to keep everything cozy down below and added the heated water hose. Plus, we have gotten to use a snow shovel, a new adventure for a Louisiana boy and Texas girl. But shoveling snow means great skiing!
