Dry Camping in the Denver Suburbs

Wednesday, May 22 was a short travel day from Colorado Springs to Standley Lake Regional Park in Westminster, Colorado, north of Denver and not far from where our son Erik's family lives in Thornton, Colorado. The drive only took about an hour and a half and the traffic through Denver was manageable for the noon hour. The only issue that had our concern was the amber check engine light on the instrument panel. Yes, it is back. We've been seeing it intermittently for a couple of weeks since our stay in Nebraska, but now it was on constantly. DANGER, DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!

Once we got ourselves to Standley Lake we set up the trailer for three days of dry camping. This particular regional park doesn't have any electrical, water or sewer connections at the designated camping sites, so you need to bring what you're going to need. We left Colorado Springs with 2/3 of a tank of fresh water and empty gray and black water tanks for our three day stay. Because we arrived early, I had an opportunity to run over to O'Reilly Auto Parts to have the problem analyzed. They provide that diagnostic service at no charge to anyone. Their diagnostic report indicated the truck had a bad engine turbo actuator that we needed to address. The turbo actuator performs a simple but important role – it provides a pressure relief valve that controls the boost output of the turbo, redirecting excess exhaust gases away from the turbine wheel. This controls the speed of the turbine, preventing it from over-speeding and regulating the speed of the compressor. I know, I know...more than you needed to know.

Fortunately, I was able to get hold of a local Dodge/RAM dealership and scheduled a service appointment for the next day, Thursday, May 23 at 10:30 AM. That was miracle number one and with the dealership only 7 1/2 miles away from the campground, my plan was to drive the truck to the dealership that morning and bring my e-bike along so I could ride it back to the trailer. Karen decided to stay behind and do some work on the computer and make some phone calls while I dealt with the truck issue.

Our two biggest repair concerns related to the amount of time the dealer might need the truck and the ultimate repair cost. Our diesel repair coordinator, named Selvin, told me they would need the truck for at least one day. So I got on the e-bike and took myself out to breakfast at IHOP before riding back to the RV. The ride was awesome! The Denver suburbs are covered with miles of biking/walking trails that follow many of the streams and creeks that flow from the mountains. So I totally enjoyed my trip back to camp.

Selvin called around 2 PM and confirmed that the turbo actuator needed to be replaced. The bad news was that the turbo actuator would cost $1400 plus labor. Miracle number two was they had the needed part in stock. I mentioned our extended warranty to Selvin so he agreed to submit the charges to Allstate and see what they would cover.

The plan for our evening was to not worry about the truck repair and go spend the evening with our son Erik's family. He picked us up at the campground around 4:00 PM after getting our grandchildren from school and daycare. This was the last day of school for the kids and Tori, our daughter-in-law, so we celebrated by going out to Chinese food, courtesy of Grandpa and Mimi. After getting back to their house we hung out for a few hours before hitching a ride back to the campground with Erik on his way to work that night.

Friday morning, May 24th we slept in until 8:30 AM before we both mounted our E-bikes for the ride from Standley Lake to pick up the repaired truck. When we arrived, Selvin informed us the repair came $2430, but we only had to pay the warranty deductible of $50. This was miracle number three! Karen and I were again blown away by God's provision for us.

We mounted our E-bikes on the rack attached to the back of the truck and drove over to Erik's to pick up all 3 grandkids. We made plans for them to spend the day and night with us. After we loaded up the brood we headed up to Johnstown about an hour away to go to lunch (Chick-fil-A) and Scheels Sporting Goods store. Why, you may ask? Well, their stores include attractions such as aquariums, arcade games, and their famous Ferris wheel. We all had a blast hanging out there.

Before driving back to the campground for dinner, a movie and a sleep over we stopped at Buc-ee's for some fudge and beaver nuggets. Dinner was hot dogs, tater tots, cucumbers/tomatoes with vinegar and green beans. After dinner we walked to the lake so Arley could get muddy and then it was back to the RV for a movie: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This was a real different adventure for Grandpa and Mimi; exhausting, but we loved every minute...almost.

We had a bit of a surprise during the evening and didn't get to finish the movie because we used up all our stored battery power for the 110v appliances. So we called it a night and all went to bed. The next morning, another surprise...no power to run even the 12v appliances. Our batteries had discharged to 10.8v, so we went out for breakfast. When we got back from breakfast Karen and the kids packed up the inside of the rig while I pulled out our Honda generator and charged up the batteries so we could have power to bring in the slides. Everything worked out fine and we pulled out of the campground at 11 AM on Saturday, one hour before check out time. We headed to Thornton to moochdock at Erik and Tori's for the next three days and return our grandchildren to their rested and refreshed parents.