As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, I was a bit apprehensive about tackling the steep downgrades along Interstate 70 as we headed toward Denver. The exhaust brake on our Winnebago diesel pusher just doesn’t have the same effect as the Jake brake did on our MCI bus conversion.

Dennis Hill from the RV Driving School e-mailed me to say “Keep the RPM’s high, no matter what gear you are in. The exhaust brake works best at high RPM’s. Shift down often – the transmission won’t let you go into too low of a gear.  Apply the brakes very firmly and slow down at least 5 MPH when you use them.”

I followed Dennis’ advice, and we had no trouble at all. The mistake I was making in the past was expecting the exhaust brake to give me good braking power at about 1500 to 1600 RPMs. By downshifting and keeping the RPMs up to about 2200 – 2300, I saw a tremendous difference in efficiency. Thanks, Dennis! Even an old dog can learn a new trick now and then!

We pulled out of River Dance RV Resort in Gypsum, Colorado a little after 9 a.m. and headed east, passing lots more beautiful Rocky Mountain scenery all the way.

How would you like to have this for a view every day?

By the time we reached the summit of Vail Pass, at over 10,600 feet, our Cummins turbo diesel was working hard, and about all I could get out of it was 40 miles per hour.

Then we began the downhill run.

Some sections weren’t too bad, but others really made the exhaust brake work.

All too soon we were climbing up again, to Eisenhower Tunnel, at 11,158 feet high. The tunnel was long, but well lit and easy driving.

We passed more great scenery, including these old mining buildings.

The worst of the downhill run was between Eisenhower Tunnel and Denver, and the closer we got to the big city, the steeper the downgrades got. They have lots of signs warning truckers not to get careless.

We even passed through another tunnel somewhere along the way!

There are not a lot of places to get diesel along Interstate 70 in Colorado, especially when you are driving a 40 foot motorhome, towing an extended length cargo van. By the time we got to Downieville, at Exit 234, we were getting really low, and when I saw a small truck stop on the north side of the highway, I stopped and filled the tank.

We passed Lookout Mountain and Buffalo Bill’s grave, which we covered in one of our earliest issues of the Gypsy Journal, and soon we were hitting a lot of traffic as we entered the Denver metropolitan area. We got onto Interstate 76 and scooted around the northeast side of the city, and soon came out into agricultural fields.

It is amazing, that coming into Denver from the west, we were crawling down steep mountain grades, and less than 30 miles east of the city, we were out on the open plains, with few trees, and mostly flat terrain.

Interstate 76 had some rough patches, but we rolled along, making good time, and eventually crossed into Nebraska, where the highway ended at Interstate 80. Another 75 miles or so east brought us to North Platte, where we pulled into the Flying J about 5:30 local time.

We topped off our tank, had a less then mediocre meal at the restaurant, and  parked for the night. We covered 391 miles, and we still have about 560 miles to go, to get to Forest City, Iowa. We’ll make that easily by sometime Thursday, so we can get our name on the list for a service spot at the Winnebago factory. It’s worth pushing to get there, and then be able to get our work done, before we continue on to Michigan for Terry’s annual medical appointments.

Thought For The Day – Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to use the Internet, and they’ll forward junk e-mail to you forever.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We thought about making the drive back to Glenwood Springs yesterday, just so we could drive through Glenwood Canyon in the van, but it was very windy for much of the day.  We had such a backlog of paperwork and e-mails to wade through because we have been busy with the wedding the last few days, that we decided to act like grownups and stay home and work instead. I don’t like being a grownup!

But just because we had to work doesn’t mean you can’t do some virtual sightseeing. Colorado is a colorful place, and here are a few pictures we took the other day that I’ll share with you.

Between Eagle and Vail, Interstate 70 passes through some awesome red rock formations. U.S. Highway 6 parallels the interstate through here, and we took the slower route just so we could pull over and take in the dramatic scenery.

When the sun is setting, the cliff faces just seem to glow. It’s really something to see.

We even saw a covered bridge, though it is not as old, or has the character, as the ones we have seen in Indiana, Iowa, and New England.

Sunday night we were treated to a beautiful sunset, and Miss Terry managed to capture a couple of good shots of it.

I mentioned the other day that Terry’s son, Cody, is the accountant for one of the major developers in the region. Besides allowing him to live in this outdoor sports wonderland, his job comes with some pretty neat perks, including these gondolas that he can ride right from an upper floor of his office building to the top of the ski slopes! How cool is that?

As promised, yesterday I posted a preliminary schedule for our upcoming Gypsy Gathering rally on our Rally Registration Page. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the seminar lineup. I will be making some changes and adding more seminars as we go, but we have over 50 listed now, so there is sure to be something for everyone!

Today we will be heading east on Interstate 70, through the Eisenhower Tunnel and down into Denver. I’m a bit apprehensive about this stretch of highway, which tops out at 10,666 feet at Vail Pass, and then follows a lot of steep downgrades as we descend the Rocky Mountains.

As I’ve said before, while our Winnebago diesel pusher climbs the mountains much better than our old MCI bus conversion did, the exhaust brake on the motorhome is not nearly as effective as the Jake brake was in the bus. My Mountain Directory shows that there are several places on the eastern descent where the speed limit for heavy semi-trucks is 32 miles per hour. I plan to be in the right hand lane poking along with them all the way down!

For those of you who get concerned when I write about doing long days on the road, here’s fair warning that we’re about to do it again. We want to stop at the Winnebago factory in Forest City, Iowa and have some work done on our coach.

Since the Winnebago Grand National Rally is in Forest City, Iowa this week, I wasn’t sure about the chances of getting in for service. I  called Winnebago to ask about an appointment, and was told that they do not make them during rally week or right after, but if we arrive by Friday at 3 p.m., we can put our name on a list to get service, and we should be able to get in by Tuesday or Wednesday. But, we have to actually be there to sign up, they won’t take our name by telephone.

It’s 940 miles, so we can do it easily, and we’ll scoot right along, so we can hopefully catch up with some of our friends who are in Forest City for the rally, before they hit the road.

While we were out taking pictures and attending weddings, Bad Nick was home posting a new Bad Nick Blog titled Who’s The Racist. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – We wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

America really is a land of contrasts, and probably no more so than in the American West. That fact was brought home to us yesterday in our drive from Williams, Arizona to Bakersfield, California.

We left Williams, at almost 7,000 feet, about 9:30 in the morning, and before long we had begun to drop down into the desert, with scrub brush and cactus replacing pine trees.

A few miles outside of Kingman we stopped for fuel at the Loves truck stop, and then we continued west on Interstate 40. Just before we crossed the Colorado River into California, we came to a long construction zone, with traffic down to one lane as they painted new centerline stripes.

Unfortunately, whoever they gave the job of placing those orange plastic cones on the roadway to must have been having a bad day, because the cones were about 1/3 of the way into the only lane we had left, forcing big rigs to run with their left wheels on the narrow shoulder. Most of the cones has been run over and were laying down, several right in the road where there was no way to avoid hitting them. Most were crushed flat, but one stuck up enough to thump the front of the motorhome, leaving a scratch that we hope we can rub out.

It was 72 degrees in Williams, and in Needles, California it was 106. We sure were glad we had our air conditioner to keep us cool! Interstate 40 through the Mojave Desert is mile upon mile of nothing. Some mountains, lots of semis, bumpy roads, and not much else.

Interstate 40 ends in Barstow, and from there we took State Route 58 west past  a stretch of black lava beds, then an expanse of desert covered by salt/gypsum deposits, near Boron. 

We passed Edwards Air Force Base, and then began the long uphill climb to Tehachapi. Here the scenery became much better, as the barren desert gave way to yellow grass covered hillsides.  In the spring, when they have had some rain, this area is green and beautiful. But even now, the scenery is pretty dramatic.

Lines of windmills top the hills, generating electrical power, and railroad fans love to come here and watch the trains wind their way up and downhill, and through the tunnels.

From  Tehachapi Summit, we had a series of 5% and 6% downhill grades, and our exhaust brake did a fine job of holding our speed in check. I just stayed in the right lane and let faster traffic go around me.

As we dropped down into the Central Valley, we entered a land of irrigated farms where they grow everything from grapes, almonds, and citrus, to every kind of produce.

Traffic was frantic in Bakersfield, where we got on State Route 99, and we were glad to get through it safely and put the city behind us. A few miles north of Bakersfield we stopped at the Flying J to top off our fuel tank, and they had one of the tightest entrances I have ever seen at an RV fuel island. The entrance was narrow, there was a deep hole cut into the pavement, and sawhorses were intruding into the entrance to make matters worse. Even though I tried to avoid it, my rear tires ran over the curb getting in. We’ll avoid this stop in the future.

From the Flying J, it was just a few miles to the Elks lodge outside of Wasco, where we got a back-in RV site with water and 30 amp electric for $10 a night. Nothing fancy here, just blacktop, and unfortunately, lots of dog crap around where you have to plug in your utilities. Why can’t some people clean up after their critters?

According to our cell phones, we have excellent high speed Verizon EVDO signals here, but we had a terrible time trying to make or receive calls, and even with our Wilson external antenna and amplifier, we could not stay online for more than a minute or two at a time.

There were three other RVs at the Elks lodge, but except for brief hellos with our neighbors, we didn’t have time to visit. I had covered 468 miles since we left Williams, but we weren’t done yet. We drove the van back 15 miles to Bakersfield for dinner at Hodel’s Restaurant, a very nice buffet style place that has been in business for decades.

Ben Langworthy and Sandy Atwood from Teepee Creepers met us at the restaurant. Terry has been corresponding with Ben ever since she ordered us both a pair of his super comfortable moccasin style slippers a while back. Ben and Sandy have a fifth wheel, and we had a nice visit as we discussed their company, the RV lifestyle, and life in general.

I’m afraid I wasn’t great company. I was worn out from the long miles behind the wheel, and my energy level still is way down from the crud I had over the weekend. After we said our goodbyes to Ben and Sandy, Terry drove back to the Elks lodge, and I wrote the blog and tried to get it to post on the poor internet connection.

Today we only have about 130 miles to Oceano, and if we can indeed get into the Elks campground, as the host assured us we could, we plan to play tourist, eat more seafood than they can catch, and just have fun for a few days.

Thought For The Day – Every mother hopes that her daughter will snag a better husband than she managed to do, but she’s certain that her boy will never get as great a wife as his father did.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally!

We pulled out of Juniper Ridge RV Resort about 9:30 yesterday morning, drove twelve miles  in to Show Low, and then followed U.S. Highway 60 south 48 miles across the White Mountain Apache Reservation to the Salt River Canyon, a dramatic chasm that folks here in Arizona refer to as the “Other Grand Canyon.”  The route took us from the high pine country of the Mogollon Rim to the fringe of the desert. The road between Show Low and the canyon is mostly two lane, with frequent passing zones.

The seven miles down to the bridge at the bottom of the canyon are a series of tight switchbacks, with more twists and turns than a politician’s biography. It can  be intimidating to a flatlander driving an RV through here for the first time, and the rule is slow and easy. I shifted our Allison automatic transmission down to third gear and let the transmission and exhaust brake hold us back.

Climbing back out of the canyon on the south side, the Cummins diesel engine did a fine job, and before long we were out of the curves and making good time rolling south. We did have to stop for a few minutes at a road construction zone that had the highway down to one lane.

In Globe, we picked up State Route 77, a narrow roadway with its own share of hills and curves, and took it south past the mining towns of Winkelman and San Manuel, then past the historic town of Oracle, and the turnoff to the Biosphere, until we eventually came to Tucson.

We pulled into Tra-Tel RV Park a little after 2 p.m. We had covered exactly 200 miles, dropping from 6500 feet elevation in Show Low to 2300 at the RV park. With that drop in elevation came a steep rise in temperature. On Sunday we had two inches of snow in Show Low, and it was 95 degrees when we stepped out of the Winnebago in Tucson!

Tra-Tel  is a small, friendly place, which is our base whenever we’re in Tucson. The RV park is less than half full, and we got a nice 50 amp full hookup pull through site. The minute I had the electric cable plugged in, Miss Terry turned on the air conditioner to cool it down inside the motorhome.

The purpose of our visit to Tucson is to spend some time with my cousin Beverly, who is one of my favorite people in the world, so once we were settled in, we drove across town to her apartment near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Along the way, we passed the Pima Air and Space Museum, with it’s impressive collection of military aircraft, and then the Davis-Monthan “bone yard,” where retired military aircraft are brought for storage and eventual dismantling. There sure are a lot of taxpayer dollars sitting behind those chain link fences!

We had a nice visit with Bev, took her out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, and then went back to her place to chat some more. By about 8:30 I was getting droopy from our long day, so we said our goodbyes and promised to see Beverly again today. Miss Terry drove back to the RV park, and we spent the hours before bedtime catching up on e-mails that had come in during the day, and watching the Biography channel on television.

We’ll be here in Tucson a week or so, and it’s supposed to be in the mid-90s all of the time we’re here, so I expect our air conditioner will get a good workout.

Thought For The Day -  A smile is a curve that sets everything straight.

Click Here To Register For Our Eastern Gypsy Gathering Rally! 

Readers have been asking me for an update on how we like our new to us Winnebago Ultimate Advantage motorhome, now that we have lived and traveled in it for almost six months, as compared to the MCI bus conversion we built and lived in for over eight years.

Overall, we are both very happy with the Winnebago, though we have had to make a few adjustments. We love having the extra room the bedroom and living room slides give us. However, we actually had more inside storage room in the bus, due to the extensive cabinetry that Miss Terry designed and built for it.

But, even though we had three huge bays underneath the bus, we still have more basement storage in the Winnebago than we did with the bus. The reason for that is that one entire bay of the bus was used for our holding tanks, which do not take up bay space in the Winnebago, and also because half of one bay in the bus held our house battery bank and inverter, and half of the third bay held our twin propane tanks, plus the fuel tank for our Onan gas generator.

We had a huge gray/black waste tank in the rear bay, and when we were parked in a campground with full hookups, we could turn a diverter valve and let the gray water run directly into the sewer, which meant we could go a long time without dumping the waste tank. In the Winnebago we have to dump the black tank about every seven days. We could probably stretch that if we were boondocking and being very careful, but the difference in tank capacity is really noticeable.

After our first night in the Winnebago, we could really tell the difference in insulation between the two rigs. We built a lot of insulation into the bus, and it was both quieter inside, and much warmer (or cooler, depending on the season), than the motorhome. But, the bus had a single rooftop air conditioner that was vented directly inside, which was much nosier when running than the ducted basement air conditioner in the Winnebago.

After driving across the country in the Winnebago, I don’t know how I lived with the tired old Detroit diesel in the bus for so long. These days I think nothing of cruising up long grades at 60 miles per hour, passing eighteen wheelers, instead of crawling along in the right lane with the radiator misters on at fifteen miles per hour, hoping some eighteen wheeler didn’t run over us. The Winnebago definitely has more power and gets better fuel mileage than the bus did, but I find that I don’t have as much confidence in the Winnebago’s exhaust brake as I did the Jake brake in the bus when going down steep grades.

Everything in life is a tradeoff. Terry misses the household style refrigerator, gas range with oven, and separate washer and dryer that we had in the bus. But, the larger kitchen area and the spacious bedroom/bathroom layout of the Winnebago is much more comfortable. She’s learning to live with the Winnebago’s microwave/convection oven, and the Splendide RV washer/dryer combo.

When you add in a lot of creature comforts and handy accessories, such as cruise control, automatic HWH leveling jacks, automatic Winegard rooftop TV dish, two gas furnaces, and a heat pump, for us the Winnebago comes out the winner.

Several readers have asked us if we will be at the Winnebago Grand National Rally in Forest City, Iowa in July, if we’ll be vendors, and if I’ll be presenting any of my seminars at the rally. The answers are yes, probably, and I don’t know. Yes, we plan to attend the rally, we’ll probably be vending (I haven’t registered yet), and I don’t know if I’ll be presenting any seminars. I haven’t been invited to do any, and the inquiry I sent was never answered. But if you are a Winnebago owner and will be at the rally, and would like me to do a seminar or two, why not give the folks in Forest City a shout or an e-mail? They have no idea who I am, since we have not had our coach that long, but if they see there is an interest, they might invite me to do a couple of seminars.

Speaking of RV seminars, while our schedule won’t allow us to be at the RVSEF RV Lifestyle, Education and Safety Conference in Bowling Green, Kentucky, June 3-6, Walter Cannon has come up with an excellent RV education program filled with great seminars. There is a 10% discount for anybody registering for the conference before March 1^st, so if you plan to attend, register now and save yourself some money on this excellent program. 

Thought For The Day – Virtue is the only true nobility.

Register Now For Our Arizona Gypsy Gathering Rally