Welcome to Leg 8 of #ptparadsummer2019 (catch up on Leg 7, Leg 6, Leg 5, Leg 4, Leg 3, Leg 2, and Leg 1).  Last post we ended our big day at Rocky Mountain National Park.  In this post we’ll head to Colorado Springs and stop at Florissant Fossil Beds on the way.

Day 12 – 09 July 2019 – Estes Park to Florissant Fossil Beds to Colorado Springs

On Day 12 we traveled south to get in position to explore Colorado Springs.  Mostly on the way between our two campgrounds was Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  We couldn’t pass up the chance for some more junior ranger bling.

Heading South

We had Patty all packed up around 9 am and we drove out of Estes Park.  Instead of driving interstate through Denver, we chose a more leisurely route along the west side of the city.  After winding south on two lane highways and city streets, we got on a four-lane highway for awhile.  The on-ramp for the highway had a huge frost heave in it.  As soon as we hit the heave, my dash flashed an error code that the trailer wiring disconnected.  I immediately pulled over thinking the trailer plug fell out.

On the side of the road we found everything in order.  The plug was still attached to the truck.  There wasn’t a pile of trailer brake components on the side of the road.  The lights and signals still worked, but the brakes didn’t.  We decided to push on at a slower pace instead of trying to diagnose next to 70 mph traffic.

Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument

We pulled into Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument right around lunch.  The kids requested grilled cheese sandwiches and chips, so the parents obliged.  Based on our schedule, we decided to hike one of the trails while the kids filled out their junior ranger books.  The monument is an odd one.  It’s similar to Agate Fossil Beds National Monument in that someone discovered fossils and people descended on the area.  Unlike Agate, businessmen descended on the fossil bed instead of scientists.

There are thousands of documented fossil types in the fossil beds.  The majority are insects and small vertebrates, but the most interesting are huge redwood stumps.  Unfortunately, the businessmen I mentioned above allowed early tourists to dig and find their own fossils from the site.  It is unfortunate that early explorers to the site did not protect this site for future generations.  However, what still remains in the park and in the visitor center is impressive.  The theory of what created the fossils is a volcanic event.

We finished up the hike.  The kids got their junior ranger badges.  We loaded up to finish our drive to home base for our Colorado Springs adventure, Cheyenne Mountain State Park.

Arriving at Cheyenne Mountain State Park

We arrived to Cheyenne Mountain State Park in the early afternoon.  This was our spot through our whole Colorado Springs stay, but we spent the most time here the first day.  The kids started riding bikes and enjoying the quiet campground.  They climbed around on the rocks surrounding our campsite and had a good time.

We got a fire going to make hobo dinners.  The kids enjoy making them and put together their foil packets.  We had a nice dinner outside.  The kids even went  back to their rocks to eat.

While we were finishing dinner, Erin went back to the underside of Patty to see if there was something obvious that we missed on the highway.  She found a wire dangling from the axle.  So we had some work to do!

After Dinner

The kids kept playing.  The adults starting investigating the wire dangling under the trailer.  Jack determined that the wire was a positive wire for the brakes.  The manufacturer had used a crimp butt connector to join three wires together.  Fortunately we had some three-way connectors in our toolbox and we got to connecting everything.

We got the wires all hooked back up and successfully tested the brakes.  All was working.  Jack went back through and swapped out all of the crimp butt connectors that spliced three wires.  He used a three way connector and taped everything back up nice and pretty.

With our maintenance activities completed, we took the kids down to the playground.  They ran around with other campground kids until the sun started to set.  We walked back to Patty to get cleaned up and hit the sack.

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I think that’ll do it for this post.  This was quite a busy travel day, but we accomplished so much.  Next post we’ll explore Colorado Springs.  Thanks for reading.

 

-See you out there

Part-Time Paradise