Friday, April 29, 2011 - Meeker CO

Camped, Wilderness Rendezvous RV Park, Meeker CO, April 30, 2011

Moving too far too fast

I thought I'd easily find dry camping boondocking spots along my route north today. I passed through some beautiful country but I didn't find anything suitable and ended up driving late into the day all the way to Meeker CO where I stopped at a most unlikely campground, Wilderness Rendezvous RV Park.

How to describe this abominable RV park

Wow - what were they thinking? This has to be the least user friendly RV park I have yet to encounter. If I had found a suitable boondocking spot on my travels today I'd have stopped long ago for the night. By now it was nearly dark and threatening snow and I needed to stop looking.

Nothing here works as expected.

The automated check-in keosk doesn't respond logically. Once I fought my way through the confusing interface, chose my site and paid for it, what did I get? A receipt for a different site, a $3.00 overcharge, and instructions to take a copy of the non-existent map to find my site. O .. K, where's the manager?

I find the site, hook up, and ... no power. It's frickin' cold. I paid dearly for this site - I want power dammit. A call to the number on the receipt (which is, get this, are you ready?: (970) 878-3474200 ). Woman answers: Hello? Is this the RV park? Oh.. yes.

After my polite rant about being overcharged, receipt for wrong site, and no power, she tells me the 50 amp breaker has to be on to energize the 30 amp breaker. Right - who'da thunk it. Hubby is having dinner with someone - I'll send him over with the $3.00 when he's finished - the keosk was supposed to reflect the reduced price on it's price list - I guess it didn't get reset right. Ok. Later - hubby hands me $3.00 with apologies - but not the taxes I paid on that $3.00. Oh the heck with it - I've had enough, I'm not going to argue the point. Good night.

What's that domed thingy with the blue cover? Some kind of frostproof water hookup I'd guess - I couldn't get the cover off to see. And why are the sewer hookups 6 inches above grade? Does sewage run up hill in Meeker? That should be fun to watch.

There's a good chance I won't be staying here again.

On that broken generator pan

Broken Generator Pan Temporary Repair, May 2, 2011

I got it fixed, temporarily at least. It turned out to be astonishingly easy once I found a hardware store. The first one I came to on my northward journey today was a Lowe's in Grand Junction CO. There I rummaged through their metals racks and picked out a length of 1-1/4 x 1-1/8 perforated steel angle. It turns out the pan is mounted with 3/8 bolts to it's hangers. And, miracle of miracles, the distance between bolts aligned perfectly with the 3/8 holes in the steel angle. And, there was bolt length enough to accommodate the angle and nuts. I jack up the generator, bolt on the steel angle and I'm done. I thought I'd be out there drilling and fiddling and bolting for an hour or two. How lucky can you get? And this thing looks strong enough to work for years though I think I'll either get a new pan or a proper welded up fix. At least it's good to go for now.

Night camp

Boondocked - Wilderness Rendezvous RV Park, Meeker CO

• Verizon cell phone and EVDO service - fair signal
• Locate Wilderness Rendezvous RV Park on my Night Camps map
• Check the weather here