Heading West by Southwest more or less anyway

It is only a few weeks since we left Nebraska and now, we are on another road trip that will eventually take us to Utah, with a couple of stops planned in Colorado. Our first scheduled layover was in Denver, where we booked a two-night stay in a KOA campground about thirty miles east of the city. The reason for choosing this location was to ensure a strong internet or 5G connection for Sherrie to facilitate her online teaching classes.

Whenever we have the opportunity, we try to visit museums or public gardens, so we decided to visit the Denver Botanical Gardens, which was established in 1951. Although it’s a relatively small garden, spanning only 24 acres, they have managed to make the most of the space. The tropical garden is one of the largest in the country and can easily be compared to the Climatron in the Missouri Botanical Gardens in St. Louis. Although it was mid-April, which is a little early for most flower beds at an elevation of 5,000 feet, we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. Our visit coincided with several daycare classes, and we learned that the children were no longer told to stop running but rather to use their “walking feet.” I’ll try that on my grandsons.

Although I have pulled our Off-Road Vehicle (ORV) over several passes without much concern, crossing the Rockies through the Eisenhower tunnel worried me for weeks. I have driven on I-70 into the mountains many times, but never pulling a 7,000-pound camper. I knew the rig could handle it, but there was still a concern I could not shake. To mitigate the risk, I emptied the tanks and hit the road at 6:00 AM to avoid as much traffic as possible. However, people in Denver get up early, and the roads were quickly clogged. I got in the middle lane and ignored the suggestions of passing motorists. Once past the western edge of Denver, the traffic was light, allowing me to select my speed and roll along up the front range through the tunnel and down to Frisco without any trouble. Although I still do not like driving through tunnels, the Eisenhower didn’t cause a problem. The hardest part was refilling the gas tank in a ski town. Frisco was not designed to accommodate pulling a trailer easily. I guess the biggest obstacle is sometimes my imagination, which always conjures up the worst-case scenario that seldom materializes.

With the tunnel behind us, our adventure is underway, and our next stop is Grand Junction and the Colorado National Monument.

Dennis

For those who are interested in trailer towing, here are some technical details that most of you will probably ignore. Similar to what I recorded in a post on October 16, 2021, about the 2012 RAM 1500, the 2022 model did about the same, but I was able to hold a higher speed without all the downshifting, probably because of the 8-speed transmission and a 3.92 rear end. The weight of our ORV on a CAT Scale is about 7,000 lbs., and we travel with empty tanks whenever possible and don’t carry a lot of stuff. Our tow vehicle is a RAM 1500 with a 5.7L gas engine. The outside temperature was around 50° the day we crossed the pass. At the summit, the oil pressure was 52 psi, the coolant temp was 208°, the transmission temp was 188° (compared to 174° when driving across Kansas), and the oil temp was 248° (22° higher than normal).