Found this little fellow wandering by:
I tried riding my bike up to Lake Como, but the grade became too steep to ride, so I instead explored jeep roads around the RV:
Neighbors visiting again:
We had a big storm in the afternoon:
Good Shabbos from the foot of Blanca Peak, near Alamosa, Colorado!
Good morning from a dispersed camping near Alamosa, Colorado:
The fridge isn’t working at this higher altitude (7500’), and I suspected that it’s a bad regulator, so I went into town to buy a new one. Old regulator removed:
New regulator installed:
Turns out the problem didn’t go away. RV propane fridges aren’t rated to operated above 5500’. I did a little reading, and it sounds like at higher altitudes the ratio of air to propane becomes biased towards propane because there’s less air at altitude. The solution seems to be to reduce the propane regulator’s pressure to bring the ratio back into balance. I tried this and the fridge seems to be working now. I’ll have to buy a manometer to be able to accurately control the propane-air ratio.
While in town I visited the San Luis Valley Museum:
The museum’s collection is eclectic but interesting:
On the way back to where I’m camping, I stopped at the Blanca Wetlands, but it turns out they’re closed for seasonal bird breeding:
Back at home. Not bad!
In the afternoon, the neighbors came out for a visit:
I’ll be here for a few days, I think.
Good morning from Alva, Oklahoma:
Today was a driving day. I made my way from Oklahoma to New Mexico to Colorado, overnighting outside of Alamosa, Colorado. See the trip map for today’s drive.
Sunrise at Cowley State Fishing Lake. It feels like the trip starts today:
I hiked down to Cowley Waterfall:
More lake views:
I crossed into Oklahoma to motorcycle Kaw Lake:
The last stop of the day was Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge:
I ran the Eagle Roost Nature Trail:
Bird blind:
Another trail:
The last stop was the reason most people come to Salt Plains NWR: to dig for Selenite crystals. The “road” out onto the salt flats was very rutted, so I parked here and decided to run the rest of the way:
I found an existing hole and continued working it:
I found dozens of Selenite crystals:
I overnighted at a gas station in Alva, Oklahoma. See the trip map for today’s drive.
Good morning Arkansas!
First stop, Buffalo National River:
I went for a quick run from the visitor center down to the river:
On the way out of the park, I went for a run/hike in the Collier Homestead, one of the last claims from the Homestead Act, made in 1931:
I drove back into Missouri to visit George Washington Carver National Monument:
The site preserves the childhood home of George Washington Carver, agricultural scientist who lectured at Tuskegee Institute, which I visited on our Winter 2019 trip. Carver was an infant slave when he and his mother were kidnapped by slave raiders. A bounty hunter was hired to recover them, but he only brought back an infant. The child raised as George Washington Carver could very well be a different person than the infant slave kidnapped from the Carver homestead.
I toured the visitor center:
A replica of Carver’s lab at Tuskegee Institute:
I ran the park’s nature trail:
A replica of the home in which the Carvers raised their slave George:
Graves of George’s owners:
I continued into Kansas to overnight at Cowley State Fishing Lake. See the trip map for today’s drive.
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