It was fabulous going to sleep last night knowing we had nowhere to go and no specific plans to do anything today. Staying a week in one place will do that for you. Oh, and don’t forget being able to sleep in. We slept as long as we could and still woke up 7 AM. Bob made his usual Sunday breakfast for us and we talked about our plans for the day. The forecast was for sunny (77 degrees) and windy. Looking outside, we can’t get enough of the view.
Auggie went for his morning walk and stuck his nose into ever gopher home there was.
We made plans to drive into the park today and pick up a brochure on the hikes available. Going online to their reservation system to allow us access into the park, we discovered all the 2-hour slots at 6, 8, 10, 12, and 2:00 were all filled, so we took one of the 3:00 slots. Seeing that so many were reserved, we decided to make a reservation to enter the park on Monday at 12:00 (all the earlier times were taken) and Tuesday at 10 AM. Today after we got our hiking trail info, we made plans for going into the park later in the week. Around 11:00, Bob tried to re-level the bus and he got a power warning on the leveling system. He got a low voltage warning from the jack stabilizer, so he started the engine. It ran for a few seconds and shut off. At the same time, we lost most of our 12-volt power. The engine would not restart. Bob figured it was a fuse somewhere because it was so sudden. He checked all the bussbar fuses and all of them were fine. He called Coach-net, our warranty supplier, and they hooked us up with a local mobile diesel repair shop in Longmont, about 40 miles away. They would send someone who would arrive in an hour–around 2:00.
Once he got here, he diagnosed the problem within 10 minutes and discovered a 300 amp fuse stacked with a 150 amp fuse had blown.
It took out our ability to start the engine and most of the 12-volt power, which we don’t need unless we’re arriving or leaving. He ordered the fuse we needed (we actually bought two in case it happened again) and will return tomorrow to install the new fuse. He was gone by 3:00, so we could still enter the park at our 3:00 reserved time.
We waited in line 20 minutes before we checked in at the entrance station.
Once we got in, we took a short drive. We wanted to do a dry run of the check-in system and check out one of the campgrounds that we have stayed in before. We drove to the Moraine Park Campground to check out the campers. Due to COVID, only 2 camping loops out of 5 were open. There were no large RV’s or motorhomes in the campground. It was mostly tenters, but the campground was full. The views going into the park were awesome.
Purple mountain majesty around every bend.
On our drive out of the campground, we drove past the meadow and saw a mule deer standing under a tree.
Bob spotted it off in the distance. He has such great eyesight! Of course, there was a warning about bears. The campsites all had bear boxes in which the campers should store their food.
We stopped at the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center which was closed due to COVID.
We were hoping to get a brochure on the hiking trails, but later found it in the park newspaper we got at the entrance. We headed back to the campground and just before we got to our driveway entrance, Bob spotted 2 elk cows grazing along the side of the road.
We sat there for awhile and then watched them walk across the road behind the Jeep into the campground.
Then we watched them move farther into the campground to graze on the bushes.
It was the perfect ending to a disappointing part of the day. but it all turned out well in the end. Prayers work wonders and thank goodness it happened while we are here for a week. If it happened when we were only on an overnight stay, it would have been more of a problem and we wouldn’t have been able to move on. Having this bus creates a big learning curve which we’re trying to work through one issue at a time. It was a beautiful weather day, but many campers left. We enjoyed our short visit to RMNP today and will return at our reserved time at 12:00 tomorrow. That was the earliest time we could get, but we’ll make the most of it. We took our walk with Auggie down to the field to check out a herd of elk that were gathered there. Most were hidden behind the trees, but we were able to see this mother and her calf. One was laying in the grass.
Bob spotted some elk prints further up into the campground. Sometime recently, they were here.
We watched some TV and are anxious to see more of the park in the next few days.
Great footage and nice pictures of the elks and grounds. Now you can get some rest before your next adventure. Stay safe.