A Relax Day at Sterling State Park

Sunday August 2, 2015          Day 6    Sterling State Park, Sterling CO, site 23,  3^rd night

 We got back to the campsite late last night after our long day adventuring in the Rocky Mountain National Park area.  We have a destination in mind at one of those three national forest campgrounds we checked out yesterday, but getting in late, we decided to take an extra day at the state park to get some things done and not rush over there first thing in the morning.  It also will let everyone leave both there and here, so things will quiet down and we can be more assured of a site we like at our new destination. 

We had our first cooked breakfast since leaving home and had our first campfire this morning with our coffee and Irish Cream.  It was at 07:00 and it was almost 70^o by the time we got up at 06:30.  (We sleep in sometimes when we’re camping).  So we didn’t hang out long or put more wood on the fire.  It got to 96^o here today.  It was 94^o yesterday.  It goes to the low 60s at night.  There is always a breeze here and the humidity is only 30%.   Where we are going tomorrow has highs in the mid 70s and lows in the low 50s due to elevation differences from here.

We spent a lot of the morning unloading pictures from our cameras, sorting them to the appropriate folders, writing our blogs, and uploading the pictures.  We couldn’t have done it without the cell booster we bought last year to kick up the weak cell signals in the middle of nowhere.  We use our phones as hot spots, but you need a data connection for this.  It’s because of investment in the cell booster last year that you readers have the joy of being able to get postings from me out here.  I take my blogging seriously and do what I can to get it to you.  I also enjoy it.

We also took a walk around the campground to watch people pack up and leave and let us have the north end of the campground to ourselves.  We had to go check-in pay to stay for another night.  There is a visitor center here and we walked to that.  I bought a non-resident 5-day Colorado fishing license to start tomorrow.  $21 plus $!0 for a habitat stamp.

We went into Sterling today, 15 miles away by county roads (although they are paved).  Sterling, CO has a population of 14,000, a little larger than my home town of Grand Haven MI.  Sterling is the biggest town in Logan county.  We went to Walmart for some groceries.  Got the gas tank topped off so I wouldn’t have to do it with the trailer in the morning, although it isn’t a problem, just easier to maneuver without it.

The breezes really whipped up this afternoon and blew out my grill hallway through making burgers.  Had to turn it certain ways and use my propane stove as a wind shield.  Finally got it going.  Had to put the chairs away because they kept blowing over.  There were some thunder storms in the distance.  You can see them for miles.  There are no trees to block wind or views of the sky.  The fizzled out before they made it here.

So here we are.  Our first day of no travel at all.  Tomorrow will only be a 3 or 4 hour travel day.

Since there are no pictures for today, I’ll put some from a couple of days ago that I forgot to send.  Here’s the boring straight roads of Iowa or maybe Nebraska, I lost track.

 

Grain elevator.  Every 10 or 15 miles

 

Same road, no grain elevator

 

And here is one of the many ethanol plants we see dotted every 50 miles or so in the corn country.  Note the tanker rail cars.

 

Newsflash:    My check engine light went off yesterday.  That was when we were high up in the rockies.  The low barometric pressure may have affected it.  I hate driving around with that light on, telling my my engine has a problem.. I intend on getting the canister purge valve replaced when I get to a big town again, like maybe Vernal, Utah or Bozeman, MT.  The truck has been starting perfectly and the problem I described the other day has not returned.  Partly because I don’t shut off the engine when refueling.  I did some more research on the internet and a not working purge valve causes starting problems after refueling in a lot of cars, not just F-150s of a certain vintage.  Mazdas and Audis were mentioned in the article, too.  It’s a simple fix and unlikely to cause someone to be stranded.  It’s a $61 part available at any auto parts store.  I raised the hood and looked for it.  I couldn’t identify it.  I think it may be hidden under the air intake ducting.

Something else I forgot to mention, when we were on US-34 going toward Loveland and Estes Park and when we were returning on CO-14, we saw those oil pump things scattered around the fields.  We saw yards were fracking machinery and equipment was stored.  I never knew that Colorado had oil.  We saw some triples and doubles.  I never knew what those reciprocating pumps were called, so I looked them up on Wikipedia:

A pumpjack (also called oil horse, donkey pumper, nodding donkey, pumping unit, horsehead pump, rocking horse, beam pump, dinosaur, grasshopper pump, Big Texan, thirsty bird, or jack pump) is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well.

They were sparsely scattered and I saw no new drill rigs anywhere.  This is not a Williston, ND I described last year.  However, all but a few were pumping.  So even though I didn’t have much adventuring to talk about today, I still gave you some tidbits of knowledge.

More tomorrow (if I get a signal).  Otherwise, you may have to wait a couple of days.