The City of Rocks State Park is almost 30 miles Northwest of Deming, New Mexico and it is a pretty boring ride out there and back on the same road but it was worth it. That was the opinion of the kids – of all ages. Carol remembers her grandmother being there with the family when she was about 8 years old and there we were taking our grandkids there on Brooke’s 8th birthday. The park is really nice but most of the sites have no electricity. We were lucky enough to get two adjoining sites with electricity. It was fun for all of us.
From there we went home – with the rest of the family – completing our trip.

Share on Facebook

We got lucky and got some good weather for the balloon fiesta. We left the house at 5:15am and got to the first food vendor right at 6:00am. Cindy and Michelle’s house is just about 20 minutes away from the balloon field so we parked close and got right in. This is our second visit with them during the balloon fiesta. Our first visit was back in 2009 on our return from another GMCWS and GMCMI rally at Pueblo, CO. That year we had wind and it delayed the morning festivities and left lots of balloons out. This year we got very lucky. Here are our photos:

Share on Facebook

We have been here (Santa Fe) a few times before and each time we come we find it more crowded and less fun. The last visit was about 6 years ago so we figured some things had to change. The local tourist magazine said the new fun area was the Railyard area and we had not been there so that is where we started. All we wanted was a good cup coffee and some bakery food but we could not find that in the Railyard area. We got back in the car and took a drive around the old town area but it was jammed. The plaza, the heart of old town, was jammed – it did not make us want to park and walk around as we have done in the past.

We headed back “home” around noon with the intention of heading back out in a couple of hours for a late lunch/early dinner. On our way back we passed two very crowded restaurants that were on the Old Las Vegas Highway where our KOA is. One closed at 2:00 so it was out but the other is open all day until 9:30 pm so that was our choice. Harry’s Roadhouse was crowded with locals and regulars. It has excellent service, a varied menu and good food. I had a small pizza and Carol had “an amazing smoked chicken quesadilla”. Highly recommended.

Share on Facebook

We left Rapid City on Thursday morning with the objective of spending the night at North Sterling State Park in Colorado again. The park is 10 miles off of our planned route but it is quiet and we really liked it on the way north. The coach ran great all day and our only problem was the wind that was strong and gusting from our left all day. The good news is that the coach hardly minds the wind except for its effect on power and gas mileage.  We did make it to the park and spent the night snug as a bug despite the howling wind.

On Friday morning we left for our next planned stop at Cheyenne Mountain State Park just south of Colorado Springs. Again this was our stop on the way to Rapid City and again we decided to spend two nights because it is so nice. Carol and Gordie joined us at the park again. The wind wasn’t as bad on Friday but the fog was terrible. It was dense fog the whole way – most of the drive was with about 1/4 mile visibility – pretty scary sometimes.

We spent the day Saturday resting and doing laundry. Carol did the laundry – the facilities are very nice – while I did a little maintenance. I fixed two rattling valances and cleaned the throttle and choke mechanisms on the carb – just a little spray can work. Also had a campfire with Carol and Gordie and their daughter-in-law and two really cute granddaughters. 

Sunday morning I discovered a tire was low on air – intermittent leaks? – and my Harbor Freight tire inflator quit while I was trying to fix it. I had to run down to O’Reilly and buy another one – this one is guaranteed for 3 years. The HF one was probably guaranteed for a month or so? The tire held up fine all day – I’ll check it again before we leave. Sunday night we are in Santa Fe but we don’t have cell reception. As strange as it sounds, all of the carriers except Verizon work here – Verizon cell phone don’t. Our internet connection through Verizon does work but it has the advantage of a roof-mounted cell antenna – I good idea from an old buddy named Dan Gregg.

Share on Facebook

We got up and headed over to breakfast and hadn’t even finished it when I got a call from the machine shop that they had repaired my distributor. The name of the place is Johnson Machine and they are co-located with a NAPA auto parts store right around the corner from the fair grounds, so very handy. I got the distributor assembled and installed by 10:00 a.m. Makes me feel a lot better about driving again tomorrow. I bet I will be able to tell the difference.

After a long and boring club meeting and then a luncheon and raffle drawing – we didn’t win – we decided to take a ride to visit Deadwood, the location of Wild Bill Hickok’s murder, and Sturgis, the site of the annual motorcycle roundup (or something like that). It was a nice ride, we met a nice guy who owns a local deli – a friend of a friend. On our way back we passed right next to the Black Hills National Cemetery so we had to stop to pay our respects. When we got home we went out to dinner with Carol and Gordie at Murphy’s Pub and Grill – a very nice place with great food and excellent service. All four of us had fish and chips and it was delicious.

Share on Facebook

The weather went from too hot – even for South Dakota – to windy, rainy and foggy for two days. When I painted the coach I worked extra hard to find and fix all the leaky spots but I did miss a couple. Last year, after a little detective work I found and fixed the remaining leaks, but… Two more showed up just as we were preparing to leave on this trip. I didn’t see them leaking but the evidence was there with stuff that had been wet. One in the cockpit passenger side that doesn’t really hurt too much and another at the foot of the bed on Carol’s side. That one proved to be pretty bad and the corner of the bed was soaked the first rainy night. The next day we dried that out and did a small patch in a suspicious place and tightened the mounting bolts on the rear rooftop air conditioner. Meanwhile, when the rain resumed more detective work found the general area that was leaking and I managed to get it to drip into a container so we could stay dry. I think some dreaded silicone caulk will have to be applied to a couple more suspicious areas. Dreaded is because it is tough to get off and paint doesn’t stick to it.

One of our presenters was the builder of my distributor and I asked him about the pin that holds the mechanical advance weight and spring. As I think I said in a previous post, one of the pins came loose and the weight was not doing what it is supposed to. He suggested that the only way to fix the problem was to get someone to weld the pin in place. I disassembled the distributor again this morning and found the pin and the spring had both migrated to the bottom of the distributor and were stuck to the magnetic “pole piece” under the rotor – could have broken something in the wrong place. I took the piece and the pin to a local machine shop that is part of a NAPA store and they promised to weld it tomorrow morning. We’ll see.

All in all the rally has been fun. Lots of nice people and only a couple of bozo’s – don’t have any of those at GMCWS – and lots of GMC talk.

Share on Facebook

Lots of GMCs – about 115 or so – and some good info about distributors and other GMC stuff. Carol made a blanket for a local charity and I found some very interesting wood carvings in the yard around the fair grounds buildings. The artist carved these figures into trees whose stumps are still rooted in the ground. 

Share on Facebook

We spent the night in the strictly dry-camping Wind Cave National Park campground. It was beautiful and quiet. By the way, we figured out that one night pretty much depletes our batteries – our new tri-metric meter tells it accurately. At 7:00 a.m. we just drove  about 1/2 mile down to the parking area in front of the HQ building and had some breakfast while we waited for it to open at 8:00 a.m. so we could buy our tickets for the first (9:30 a.m.) tour and be on our way.

Our tour guide was Ranger Rick (really) and he was pretty entertaining. The cave and the whole experience was a little tough though – very narrow and tight the whole way compared to many other cave tours we have done.  After the tour we drove to the rally with stops at WalMart and a do-it-yourself car wash for both vehicles. Dinner at the rally – one of only two provided – was a whole roasted pig which didn’t quite make it for all 200+  people – oops. Below are some photos from the cave tour and the dinner.

Share on Facebook

Today we drove about 5 hours from the Northeast corner of Colorado to Wind Cave National Park in Southwest South Dakota. On the way we stopped to pay homage to carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska. We saw a few buffalo on the way into the park but wonder what it must have been like when there were thousands of them filling the wide open spaces.

We stopped twice for gas. The first time we had no issues but the second time we had the same old problem. The engine recovered pretty quickly – a minute or so – and the noise was kept to a minimum because I have replaced the exhaust manifold gasket. I guess we will have to learn to live with it. I did check the distributor and the advance is still moving freely – don’t know if the spring post is still OK or not but at least the advance is not stuck on any more.

We are camping at Wind Cave National Park and it is beautiful.  Very serene.  Camping is only $9 per night – no hookups of course but that’s why it is so quiet and peaceful here.  The ranger told us the camping area has never been filled.  I guess lots of people don’t like dry camping but we love it (short term of course).  When we drove into the park, we saw the small herd of buffalo pictured above and then later saw one resting near the road.  Tomorrow is the big buffalo roundup in Rapid City and we will miss seeing it so glad that we got to see these guys today.

Share on Facebook

Maybe my theory about running hot due to a poorly maintained distributor was correct. It was cooler today but it did get into the low 80’s F(high 20’s C) where we have had problems on prior days. The engine started and ran great. It had no problem going up a very steep hill inside the park like it did when we came in. We stopped for gas after about 100 miles or so and had no problems afterwards like we have had for almost the whole trip.

We are staying in North Sterling State Park in the Northeast corner of Colorado very close to the Nebraska state line. Streets & Trips (it has lots of good features) took us on a roundabout route to this park that included several miles of unpaved (but relatively smooth) county roads. We were very dusty when we arrived and are planning to hose the whole rig off once the rangers leave. So far we are the only ones here. The section we are in, called the Elks Campground but nothing to do with the organization, has electricity (30 AMP) and a dump station and only cost $20 per night. Looks like it will be quiet.

Share on Facebook