We left Mancos, CO yesterday, just before 9 AM, figuring we had about a 5 hour drive ahead of us. We were only going 200 miles, but the combination of slow RV driving and mountainous driving we knew would slow us down. Here are several of the signs we saw along the road, a few of which will come into play later. Check out how we not only have the regular deer crossing signs, up here we have elk and even Big Horn Sheep crossings.
These road signs are the ones that played into our "almost calamitous" day.
Here are some pictures of the roads we were driving on. You must realize we were deep in the mountans, almost 12,000 feet at the summit. This very 1st picture shows the road cracked on the edge...the edge on my side of the RV. I worried that with 30,000 lbs in the RV we might be too much for the road and crumble down the cliff. Notice my mirror looks like it is already off the side of the road. Also notice that between the white line and the cliff there is very little room for error. These roads would be a bit unnerving in a car, never mind an RV.
And how about doing some figure 8s in a 40 ft RV? If you enlarge the pictures you can really see how crazy they were. Going up the mountain we were mostly on the side of the road where the cliffs were, while going down we were mostly on the mountain side of the road. But going down was absolutely harrowing.
These are some pictures of Ouray from the side of the road. I am paying homage to the town because we were so relieved to get there!
If it wasn't for the burning brakes and the oil leak, and if the roads through the mountains weren't so frightening, it would have been a beautiful day (haha). Only the trip into the woods when the GPS took us the wrong way in Tennessee compares to today for stomach knotting. Here is some of the scenery.
Check out this video and key in on the cliffs.
This is where my blog title, "Hooray, Ouray!", comes in. I couldn't get a picture of the 1st problem because it was too serious. This is it: Cathy and I were driving along, slowly taking each turn as we descended the mountain, when we both got a whiff of burning rubber. A group of motorcycles had just gone by, so we wrote it off as their exhaust. Just a few miles later, we smelled the burning rubber again, and believe it or not another motorcycle had gone by, so we HOPEFULLY wrote it off again, but with a knot in our stomachs. Not 2 miles later, Cathy looked in the rear view side mirror, and SMOKE WAS SPEWING HEAVILY OUT OF THE BACK OF OUR RV!!! We are panicking now, trying to find a spot wide enough to pull over, and once we do we get out of the RV...all smoky and smelly...and thankfully 2 guys pulled over to help us. They owned an RV, and told us it was our brakes burning up. They even said to get the fire extinguisher out of the RV, that our coach could catch on fire. Luckily for us, after about 45 minutes there was no more smoke, and we thought we could press on. The guys had told us about downshifting and using the engine brake, so we thought we could proceed.
Well, no, that would not be the case. We now noticed that, totally unrelated to the burning brakes, our front tire was leaking oil...we didn't even know that we had oil in there. Again, the 2 guys helped us get off the hub cap cover where we could see that almost all the wheel bearing oil had spilled out because the plug had popped off. After using a sponge to clog it up, they told us we were almost at the bottom of the mountain, and in the town called "Ouray", there was a gas station that could probably help us.
So this is John, the gas station man of Ouray, taking off the hub cap and ultimately filling our wheel bearings with the appropriate oil. Cathy even found the plug that had popped off, so we were greatly relieved.
These are some pictures of Ouray from the side of the road. I am paying homage to the town because we were so relieved to get there!
If it wasn't for the burning brakes and the oil leak, and if the roads through the mountains weren't so frightening, it would have been a beautiful day (haha). Only the trip into the woods when the GPS took us the wrong way in Tennessee compares to today for stomach knotting. Here is some of the scenery.
And more scenery...I think I did a puzzle of this 1st picture...nice scenery to surround your house, huh?!
Right outside of Gunnison is the Blue Mesa Reservoir, man-made and finished in 1965. It is Colorado's largest lake with 93 miles of shoreline.
So, a drive of 200 miles, that in an RV should have taken maybe 4 1/2 - 5 hours, instead had us arriving 8 hours after take-off, finally, arriving in Gunnison and our RV Park. Notice it says Palisades "Senior" RV Park. This place is run by the city as a non-profit, and is supposed to be for 55 and over, but they let me slide at 54.
And the final video...is Cathy courageous, or what!!!?? I would have been immobilized with fear, and we would still be on that mountain if I was driving!
I am a little confused. Some pictures look like you are going down on the outside part of the mountain and some on the inside. I know from experience coming down on the outside is extremely scary!
ReplyDeleteWhat the hell do you mean your brakes where burning????
I think I made the right decision. There would not be enough zoloft for me to take to get thru that.
Get pictures. It is beautiful
OMG I would have died. In a car it would have been slow going for me. Was there much other traffic? Not an interstate is it? Cathy, you are a brave woman.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, the scenery is just awesome.
At different times we were either in the inside lane or the outside lane...especially scary in the outside lane, and that is whether you are going up or coming down. The rubber on the brakes was smoking so bad we could still smell it in the back of the RV, the bathroom and the bedroom, hours later. You wouldn't believe the amount of smoke coming out when we stopped!
ReplyDeleteThere was traffic behind us, but other than being an annoyance, Cathy tried to ignore them and focus on the road. We were exhausted after getting to the RV Park.
Ellen, whether the brakes were burning or not, I think this excursion over the mountain would have had you lying down in the back of the RV with a pillow over your head! It was really scary!
Great pictures, I would have been laughing the whole way and Paula I can hear you breathing in the 1st video. Ha Ha
ReplyDeleteHallie there is no way you would have been laughing. You would have been yelling at Cathy to get away from the edge and thats if you were even looking out the window.
ReplyDelete