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October 19, 2009, a Monday
Roosevelt National Forest (Laramie River Rd) to Fort Collins (E&SilJ), Colorado, USA
— Dinner with E
It was raining steadily when we awoke, so we decided to stick around the RV for the morning. J made a big breakfast of Denver Omelets and potatoes. It was partly cloudy with a deep blue sky by 10:25. We decided to stick with our modified plan to leave today because of the lack of moose, and prepped the RV to move. We left at 11:05 with me in the RV and J following in the Jeep. We didn't want to hook up the Jeep to tow near the boondocking spot because we wanted to keep as much mud as possible off of the Jeep by not towing it several miles along a dirt road.
We stopped when we reached the main (paved) road to hook up the Jeep to tow. It was the first time I had attached the umbilical cord since applying the DeoxIT contact cleaner and protector yesterday, and I wanted to see if the contacts were working any better. I don't think they were because neither of the rear lights on the Jeep were working. :( The Jeep tail lights are supposed to mirror the tail lights of the RV when we're plugged in, and previously I had noticed that the left tail lights were not operating. We got underway at 11:40 and headed towards Fort Collins.
We went by a small group of bighorn sheep ewes and lambs on the road at 12:11. We decided not to stop because: 1) the setting wasn't that exciting, 2) we had recently taken lots of bighorn portraits, and 3) we were on a mission to reach Fort Collins.
We stopped in the Albertson's (grocery store) parking lot in Fort Collins around 1:15 to go online through our Verizon USB sticks. A potential bidder requested the number of shutter actuations on the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk II I have on auction at eBay, and it took quite a while to figure out how to get the information. I tried two different exif viewers, and they didn't show the information. I finally got the information by opening a RAW file in Photoshop CS3, "converting it," and then going to File > File Info, and then looking in the "aux" info. Before leaving Albertson's, I went inside to buy a loaf of rye bread. We left around 3:15.
I dropped J off in front of The Armstrong Hotel in Old Town Fort Collins. It's an historic boutique hotel where J's daughter E works, and we hadn't been able to contact her via phone since getting back into cell range. I tried circling the block, and got stuck in a deadend on Oak Ave. :( I called J to have her meet me at the RV instead of in front of the hotel like we had planned, and she let me know that E was available for dinner but SilJ (J's son-in-law-J) wouldn't be home until later. I unhooked the Jeep so we could leave and parked it in a legal spot. We left in the RV and went ...
To the Poudre Valley CoOp around 3:55 to use their dump station.
Then we went to the Loaf 'N Jug gas station near Drake and College to load up the RV with relatively cheap gas. It was $2.349/gal with our 10¢/gal discount by using our King Soopers (grocery store) club card.
I parked the RV on the main street behind the hotel around 4:55 with the intention of leaving it parked there for the evening. J called E again to finalize plans for the evening, and invited her and her friend R for dinner in the RV. Unfortunately, the parking spot had a slope that wouldn't be too good for eating, so we would move the RV to the alley by their place, and we'd spend the night there too. J left at 5:04 in the Jeep to go to a Safeway (grocery store) to buy some things to fix dinner, and I left at 5:05 in the RV.
I parked the RV in the alley near E and SilJ's (J's son-in-law-J's) place, and J arrived around 5:30. I bid on two Lee Filters graduated neutral density filters on eBay.
We went into E&SilJ's place around 6:20 to visit. E's friend R was there, and we shared a large bottle of Samuel Smith Imperial Stout while having some cheese and crackers. E's dog Ottmar, a Weimaraner, kept dropping his bone on the hardwood floor to demand attention.
We went out to the RV and I gave R a tour while J started to make her black bean burritos and fresh guacamole. R declined to stay for dinner, so it was just E, J, and I. E brought out some Guinness that she and I enjoyed with dinner. E took two burritos into SilJ after he got home to eat while he was finishing some work on his computer. SilJ came out to visit for a while.
E&SilJ went back inside around 10:00 and I cleaned up the kitchen. I checked eBay, and I won the 1-stop Lee Filters soft graduated ND filter and lost the 3-stop.
We stopped when we reached the main (paved) road to hook up the Jeep to tow. It was the first time I had attached the umbilical cord since applying the DeoxIT contact cleaner and protector yesterday, and I wanted to see if the contacts were working any better. I don't think they were because neither of the rear lights on the Jeep were working. :( The Jeep tail lights are supposed to mirror the tail lights of the RV when we're plugged in, and previously I had noticed that the left tail lights were not operating. We got underway at 11:40 and headed towards Fort Collins.
We went by a small group of bighorn sheep ewes and lambs on the road at 12:11. We decided not to stop because: 1) the setting wasn't that exciting, 2) we had recently taken lots of bighorn portraits, and 3) we were on a mission to reach Fort Collins.
We stopped in the Albertson's (grocery store) parking lot in Fort Collins around 1:15 to go online through our Verizon USB sticks. A potential bidder requested the number of shutter actuations on the Canon EOS 1Ds Mk II I have on auction at eBay, and it took quite a while to figure out how to get the information. I tried two different exif viewers, and they didn't show the information. I finally got the information by opening a RAW file in Photoshop CS3, "converting it," and then going to File > File Info, and then looking in the "aux" info. Before leaving Albertson's, I went inside to buy a loaf of rye bread. We left around 3:15.
I dropped J off in front of The Armstrong Hotel in Old Town Fort Collins. It's an historic boutique hotel where J's daughter E works, and we hadn't been able to contact her via phone since getting back into cell range. I tried circling the block, and got stuck in a deadend on Oak Ave. :( I called J to have her meet me at the RV instead of in front of the hotel like we had planned, and she let me know that E was available for dinner but SilJ (J's son-in-law-J) wouldn't be home until later. I unhooked the Jeep so we could leave and parked it in a legal spot. We left in the RV and went ...
To the Poudre Valley CoOp around 3:55 to use their dump station.
Then we went to the Loaf 'N Jug gas station near Drake and College to load up the RV with relatively cheap gas. It was $2.349/gal with our 10¢/gal discount by using our King Soopers (grocery store) club card.
I parked the RV on the main street behind the hotel around 4:55 with the intention of leaving it parked there for the evening. J called E again to finalize plans for the evening, and invited her and her friend R for dinner in the RV. Unfortunately, the parking spot had a slope that wouldn't be too good for eating, so we would move the RV to the alley by their place, and we'd spend the night there too. J left at 5:04 in the Jeep to go to a Safeway (grocery store) to buy some things to fix dinner, and I left at 5:05 in the RV.
I parked the RV in the alley near E and SilJ's (J's son-in-law-J's) place, and J arrived around 5:30. I bid on two Lee Filters graduated neutral density filters on eBay.
We went into E&SilJ's place around 6:20 to visit. E's friend R was there, and we shared a large bottle of Samuel Smith Imperial Stout while having some cheese and crackers. E's dog Ottmar, a Weimaraner, kept dropping his bone on the hardwood floor to demand attention.
We went out to the RV and I gave R a tour while J started to make her black bean burritos and fresh guacamole. R declined to stay for dinner, so it was just E, J, and I. E brought out some Guinness that she and I enjoyed with dinner. E took two burritos into SilJ after he got home to eat while he was finishing some work on his computer. SilJ came out to visit for a while.
E&SilJ went back inside around 10:00 and I cleaned up the kitchen. I checked eBay, and I won the 1-stop Lee Filters soft graduated ND filter and lost the 3-stop.