Getting ready to go

I've been moochdocking at my sister's house over the weekend again.  Got the ASU back and a new remote switch from the company for my refrigerator Thursday evening.  He had emailed me that the ASU tested good and that it might be the switch.  I reinstalled it, first trying the original wire, then the replacement wire.  No joy.  For a while, I thought the compressor might be going but not the fan.  That turned out not to be the case.  It is exactly like it was when it failed.  I think it must be the ASU despite their tests.  The electronics box attached to the compressor and wired to a manual switch to turn the compressor on and off works fine and it cools very well including the freezer (a workaround).  I just have to watch the temperature and keep it from freezing and remember to turn it back on when the temp rises.  Not ideal but better than ice in a cooler.  So, after determining it simply does not work Friday, I reinstalled the manual switch and put the fridge back into the cavity and secured it for the ride home.  It started cooling.


Then my nephew-in-law came over to look at my van because he got an old 4 wheel drive van that he wants to make into a camper and he had never seen one in real life.  2 hours later, he really had to go to work.  He learned a lot.  Don't think he thought he would learn so much seeing a real one.  His wife is less than thrilled with the idea.  Her idea of camping is a condo but she has gone tent camping with him.  I pointed him to ExeditionPortal forum as a lot of self-builds are documented on there and they do exactly what he wants to do.

By that time it was about 1pm.  We wanted to drive up to Estes Park for a short hike and dinner.  My sister started driving west on US34 and up the Big Thompson Canyon.  My sister pulled over and said she was done driving.  We decided I would drive but my sister warned me that I had to drive like an old lady so my BIL won't get carsick.  That's ok, it's a beautiful drive.  I succeeded.  We were headed to the hike to Gem Lake.  Got there, set my sister up with pillows in the back seat (she had her ankle replaced and is still hurting a lot from it).  My BIL and I set off on the trail.  I looked at the dark cloud and thought, odds are not good here.  But we set off anyway.  Got 1/2 mile up the trail to the T when it started raining hard.  3 women were under a tree, we tried for a while as it came down harder and got soaked.  I had cell signal so I called up the radar and looped it.  No love there.  Big cell moving over the park and not likely to let up anytime soon.  So we went back down and got really soaked.

So beautiful even with rain.  The trail had turned into a stream in a lot of places.  Can't blame anyone but myself.  I knew that storm was likely headed our way and I knew almost every afternoon in the Rockies produces thunderstorms.  It's what makes it so pretty and green.  Didn't bring either of my rain jackets or even a change of clothes.  But it was still fun.  At least it didn't hail.  Hail hurts.

No real harm but it was not comfortable in wet clothes.  We decided it would be good to get souvenir T shirts at that time.  So into Estes Park.  I have never seen Estes Park ever but jam packed. We found a parking place and across the street was a T shirt shop.  A public rest room across another street provided a place for me to swap wet shirts for dry and it was a bit better.  Still raining some but not a downpour.  We decided on dinner at the Chop House.  Delicious ribs and sweet potato fries.  Then down the hill.  Surprisingly little traffic on the downward path.

It was a fun afternoon.  My BIL and I took the dogs to their land to swim in the irrigation canal and he waters his pumpkins.  We did that Thursday afternoon and Friday too.  At first, my dog couldn't make headway swimming upstream.  She had the stick come to her while she swam furiously to stay even.  Saturday, she was able to make some headway.  She had remembered the land and the fun she had last year.  Got really excited as we slowed and made the turn.  We get wet and muddy in the process but the dogs have a lot of fun.  She has been playing with her boyfriend, Pete, and doesn't show any problems with her elbows.

This morning, Pete was barking a lot and got put into the garage for it.  My dog was in the back yard.  As I was cleaning up the van, the neighbor brought my dog over.  Embarrassing.  She had gone over the fence and was "helping" them babysit their young grandson.  She really loves small children.  So back to the pen.

I was aiming for departure on Sunday but the day is more than half gone after getting the van cleaned up and ready to roll so I decided I'll go fairly early tomorrow morning.  We will swim the dogs this evening after my BIL gets his things done for work and is ready to water the pumpkins.

Dirona gets the stick and drops it for Pete to take

Swimming upstream

The mouth-off

And Pete gets the stick as if he had actually retrieved it