Serendipity's First Run!

The Crags/Pikes Peak from Mueller State Park

Larry and I took Serendipity up to Mueller State Park - a beautiful Colorado State Park in the shadow of the Pike's Peak massif - for her first run this week.  We figured we needed to do a shake down run before we stored her for the winter, and while out we could enjoy the aspens as they changed their colors to the beautiful golden hue they take on before dropping their leaves for the winter.

We are tenters, have been for years. But the summer of 2012 ended that part of our life.  We took Heather and her kids - Aiden, Brooke Lynn and Connor camping to Zion National Park where it rained, poured actually, and filled our tents with water, then flash floods rushed down the river and we watched from our riverside campground as the river rose and rose and rose... and we were within inches of having to grab everything and head for high ground when it finally subsided.

And then our trip with H and the kids was aborted on the way back to California at Mesa Verde where I woke Larry and Heather up in the middle of the night with heart problems and ended up in the hospital, first in Cortez where my left ventricle quit working altogether, then Durango where they gave me a pacemaker to keep me alive and kicking.

That was it.  We were through with tent camping!  But we have always loved seeing the U.S. by road and campsites are often much more scenic than hotel rooms.  And we had always said we would like to tale long leisurely trips to different areas of the country taking in the sights and culture of the place.  So we evaluated our life, and decided we were old enough to buy a trailer and sleep off the ground inside a "box" with a kitchenette, a bathroom steps away - inside our abode - not down the trail.Serendipity was the outcome. In a previous blog I waxed on about how we found her.

So we found ourselves at Mueller State Park camping with our friends the Golondziniers - who have a much more luxurious trailer,  a fifth wheel. And were we planning on traveling with four people regularly, we might very well have bought something quite similar.  But we couldn't quite leave our tenting roots behind, and we don't think we'll have too many hitchhikers with us on our future travels. So we brazenly used their trailer for the night time card and board games we played but were contented with Serendipity for our own use.

 It was lovely to stumble down the length of the trailer to the toilet in the middle of the night (we are older) and to be able to plug in the computers and work at the table after dark - with electric lights.  Or watch TV... had their been dish coverage (yes we have a t.v.) or had we thought to bring a DVD with us.  I think we're going to really enjoy travelling around the country with Dippy.  We do need to get a couple of camp chairs so should we invite someone to play cards inside Dippy, we can and not be users all the time.

Maybe in a year or two we'll succumb to the lure of a fifth wheeler, but for now we're quite content with our choice for an entree into the RV world.

Serendipity (the table comes out giving a direct shot down the trailer bed.)