If It’s Wednesday, It Must Be Mosca

October 19 to October 21, 2022 – San Luis State Wildlife Area, Mosca, CO

As we have said before this is another one of our favorite campgrounds. It is basically free, with the exception of a $10 per person annual pass. And, this is a really big AND, it has free 50 amp hookups. There is no water at the campground. The water system broke down years ago and after it went from being a State Park to a State Wildlife Area, it was never repaired. There is a dump station, but no water to flush with. The nearest water source is the Great Sand Dunes National Park, which is about 30 minutes away.

Last time we were here we couldn’t get our favorite spot because it was already occupied, so we choose a double site next to the camp host. Guess what? This is now our new favorite spot and we were able to get it again this time.

We made several observations this time around. When we were last here 3 weeks ago, there were half a dozen rigs that were here that are still here. But there is a 14 day stay limit, how can that be? Another observation is that it is mainly older people that stay here, not young families with screaming kids. (Yay!) That means the campground is very quiet. (Double Yay!)

I asked one of the folks that seemed to be here well past the 14 day limit about the rules. The response I got was the camp host is cool, just move to a different spot every 14 days and one one will hassle you. Hmmm. We will have to remember that next time.

Since both Verizon and AT&T cell and data service is very good here, we decided to get busy with planning. After all, that was one of the main reasons for coming back here. And dang it, we discovered the weather was going to deteriorate significantly over the next five days. Snow, freezing temps and wind. So that certainly lit the fire under us to come up with a plan.

The other thing looming over us was we had to get our mid-term ballots from our mail service so we could vote! No way were we going to sit on our fannies and let the other side win. We had to get to a Post Office somewhere warmer that would accept General Delivery. It’s a common misconception that all Post Offices accept General Delivery. You have to call or go by the Post Office of your choice to find out if they accept it at that location and to find out how they want it addressed. Sometimes you even have to fill out a form before they will accept General Delivery. One Post Office we found wouldn’t accept it unless you had a PO Box with them. What? If I have a PO Box what do I need General Delivery for? So, as you can see, it’s a process.

But, the weather was going to be great for the next couple of days, so we become tourists. We didn’t make it to Great Sand Dunes NP last time we were here because the road connecting to NP with our campground was under construction. This time it’s open. So we mosey on over to see the dunes,

and go for a hike.

We also went to Zapata Falls Campground, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Everything I read said the road to it was horrible, you needed a 4-wheel drive and high clearance vehicle. Apparently the information I was reading was very old. The road is paved all the way from Colorado 150 to the campground. This is a no reservation, first come first serve campground, that has 2 or 3 spots that Miss Mosey would fit into and the views to the west are amazing. We will be back.

Well, the weather is going to be getting nasty, so it is time to head south.

Obligatory cat picture follows:

Purple Anniversary

9-23-2022 – San Luis SWA Campground, Mosca, CO 

EJ and I were discussing that we had been RVing a good part of the time since 2010, when we bought our second motorhome, “Big Guy”, a 34 foot Winnebago Itasca Meridian Diesel Pusher. “Big Guy” was named thusly since he was almost twice as long as our previous RV, a 19 foot Class B Roadtrek named “Roadie”.

Just for fun we decided to tally up the amount of time we have actually lived in our Motorhomes since we really started RVing in 2010.

The numbers show that we have lived in our RVs 65% of the time over that 11 year period.Wow! That’s enlightening. So for 11 years we have been paying property taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, HOA fees and who knows what else for something we only live in 35% of the time. But that is a thread for another time.

As those of you who follow this blog, you already know we spent a good deal of time in 2019 and 2020 taking care of my Dad and handling his estate after he passed away. That convinced us of two major things. 1), live life to the fullest while you can. 2), we all have a bunch of stuff that we don’t need.

So in 2021 we spent the year getting the townhome ready to sell and getting rid of everything we absolutely did not need. It was not an easy task as the things you hang onto have emotional meaning and memories. But we finally got it done.

So as we were discussing our RV lives we decided we needed to define the moment we became full timers. To us, fulltime means you are living in your RV, sleeping there and eating there. So we needed a milestone to identify when that happened. We decided it was September 23, 2021.

Why that particular day you ask? Well it involved a wrestling match. Our opponent emulated a 160 pound slab of Jell-O that was so wide in 2 dimensions that there was no way for us to grab it. It was so limp, there was no way to pick it up. It would just there like a puddle of pudding if you tried to lift a corner or a side. It was so heavy we could not carry it even if it had cooperated with us.

We finally decided the best way handle this beast was to hog tie it. This thing was 6 foot 8 inches by 5 foot by 1 foot. So we wrestled and grunted and sat on it and finally got it rolled up and tied up only to discover it would not fit through the 28 inch wide doorway in the RV.

Cursing our opponent, we took a break to consider a new strategy. There are only the two of us. And neither of us was particularly strong and at our ages, the likelihood of us getting any stronger real soon was remote. So, we were going to have to man up and tough it out. Our bodies will pay the bill tomorrow. While our opponent was trussed up, we drug it from the house to the door of the RV. (On a moving pad of course as we wanted to leave no evidence of the struggle).

Once at the door, we untied the varmint and tried to get it to stand up. Imagine if you will, trying to stand a cooked spaghetti noodle on it’s end. It doesn’t work. And similarly our opponent was incapable of supporting itself in anything but a horizontal position. We were going to have to be lifting this thing if we needed it in an upright position. Which, of course, is necessary to get it through the RV door. Oh, and to add to the challenge, the floor of the RV is 3 feet above ground level. So not only do we have to wrestle our adversary through the door, we have to lift it 3 feet in the process, and lest I forget to mention, go around a 90 degree corner. I’m about plumb wore out just reliving the experience.

So we grunted, we pushed, we swore, we lifted, we cursed, we pulled, we sweated, we said foul things about the ancestors of our adversary but in the end we persevered and somehow managed to get this 160 pound slab of Purple Jell-O into the RV and onto the bed platform in the bedroom.

This item, this thing, this adversary that almost did us in, is the most comfortable mattress we have ever slept on. It is the Purple 2 queen size foam mattress with a 2 honeycomb layer on top that supports you in ways you never thought possible. For this reason we fought this battle and knew we had to succeed at all costs. Our muscles and joints would be delivering their opinions the next day.

We had moved the Purple into the motorhome in preparation for a trip to Kansas to meet family and scatter my parents ashes. We swore, this being the second time we moved the Purple into the RV, that we would never move that mattress again.

The townhome now being bedless made easy the decision that from this date forward we would be sleeping in Miss Mosey. Thus, September 23, 2021, became the first day of our full timing lives.

Obligatory cat picture follows: