Loveland, CO: Happy Birthday Dana!

First of all, Happy Birthday to my sister, Dana Rene, who turns 50 today (08/08/08). how cool is that? She told me every one's so excited it's her birthday they are throwing a big party for her in Beijing... and they are going to light a big candle in her honor. She's a sweetheart and deserves it... Anyway, Happy Birthday Dana!

Well, it just wasn't meant to be...

All MLA & I wanted to do today was to get a better understanding of the campground membership program run by Coast-to-Coast AND to get a cable TV connection so we could watch the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics however, it just wasn't meant to be...

First we pulled up stakes in Colorado Springs and drove North to the Monument area of Colorado, where the Coast-to-Coast campground is located. We pulled in and registered, at which time they told us our 90 minute 'buyer's presentation' was scheduled for the middle of Saturday which effectively broke the day in two pieces... not great but OK, not a show stopper.

They lead us to a site through a picket fence of pine trees, each tree looking like it ate RV's for fun. Several had massive gashes in their tree trunks where other RV's had fought the battle of tree & machine, and the tree's clearly had won.

OK, not a show stopper. So I used my superior driving skills, which are finely honed by my fear of MLA if I put a scratch in her RV, and I successfully negotiated the twisting, narrow path through the forest.

I eagerly looked at all of the open sites located in the woods, wondering which one was ours. Yep, you guessed it; none of the wooded sites was to be our home. The campground golf cart led us to a rocky scab on the surface of the earth that they called a campground site. OK, not a showstopper, they must reserve the nicer sites for members. Nicer being a relative term since none of the sites were what you would call nice.

In any case I masterfully backed the RV into the slot, put down the stabilizer legs and extended the slide outs, only to discover, since our site was so narrow, we were now invading out neighbors site. So I pulled the slide in, pulled the levelers up, moved the coach so that it invaded each neighbors site equally, and repeated the set-up process. So now it was time to connect the utilities.

Oh, except the site only had a 30 amp connection, not the 50 amp we had requested. And no cable TV. Normally I don't care if a campground has cable since we do not watch a lot of TV however the whole reason for agreeing to a 90 minute sales pitch was so we could watch the Olympics this weekend.

When they offered to move us to a site with 50 amp service and it turned out to be a dirt field, some parts flooded, still without cable, so we decided to exercise the most basic right consumers have; we right to leave. The ability to pack up the RV and go is mighty handy, besides, we could go park in a dirt field ourselves without someone collecting $$$ for the experience. So we left.

Mind you, it wasn't ideal timing. It put us going through downtown Denver at 4:30 pm on a Friday afternoon but hey, you have to be willing to stand up for what is right. If people promise you something and then don't deliver, you are under no obligation to 'just put up with it".

In any case we travelled about 45 minutes North of Denver to Loveland, Colorado. We found a great campground that can accommodate us for a week, on a wooded site, with cable TV. Whoo Whoo! And on Monday, when the weekend crowd has packed up and gone home, they are moving us to a wooded site, with cable, and it is right on the Big Thompson river. Beautiful!

For those of you who don't know, Loveland is just 30 minutes outside the Rocky Mountain National Park and Estes Park. Beautiful country and we are excited to explore. Never been to the Rocky Mountain National Park so we have to figure out what to see and how best to attack. What little we've seen so far is beautiful.

Remember I said "it just wasn't meant to be"? Well, a storm came through Denver right when the HD broadcast of the Olympics started and knocked the broadcast off the air/cable. So we missed the opening ceremonies except for some of the parade of countries and the lighting of the torch. It's being re-broadcast at 1:30 am MST so I'll have to set the alarm.

Speaking of lighting the torch.. How cool was that guy 'running' along the outer edge of the bird's nest? How do you move your legs and arms without touching anything... a lot harder than he made it look!

In any case, we should get to explore this area AND catch a few Olympic competitions. I told MLA that the women's beach volleyball was a 'must see'; she informed me 'it's just not meant to be....'

See Ya!