Aug 19th to 21st - CO to NM

Aug 19th –Fri – to Salida
We continued with the waiting and trying to contact the insurance company. We did the coffee & doughnuts in the park again this morning and then back to the repair facility where Terry told me about a waiting room so I didn’t have to sit outside on a hard bench to read. The wheels finally got there about 3 but then we had to wait some more while someone went to get lug nuts and then made another trip to get the correct size of lug nuts!
Our rig was finally pulled out about 4:30 and we were on our way west. We were about 7 miles out of town and just about to lose cell coverage when the service manager called and said our microwave turntable was sitting in the office. I said we would be back, we found a place to turn around and headed back. Just as we were pulling off the highway, we saw the service manager turning around to go back to the shop as he saw us. We lost cell coverage as I was talking to him and he didn’t hear that we were coming back. So we got the turntable and headed out once again.
We ran out of water in the rig this morning and I asked Terry a couple of times to find a way to put some water in but in the relief of getting everything done he forgot. So we drove past a few dry camping areas to a campsite that we had seen on our previous trip to Salida. We pulled in only to find that they did not have any vacancies. We passed WalMart and finally decided that since it was close to 7 we better not drive further hoping to find a place to stay. We returned to WalMart, went in and bought 3 gallons of water and stayed there overnight.

Aug 20th – Sat – to Great Sand Dunes National Park
Terry returned a socket for the new lug nuts that he bought at WalMart (wrong drive size) and we were on our way fairly early. We went through Alamosa and then west & north to just before Sand Dunes Park to an RV park that we found in a brochure. We had no trouble getting a spot as all the UFO people (!?) are camping in the tenting area.
We set up, put some water in the fresh tank, did some cleaning and had a late breakfast. A young couple on a motorcycle who camped beside us was leaving. They had broken a latch on a storage box and lost their map so we gave them a map and a strap with Velcro to hold the box together. Then we went to Great Sand Dunes Ntl Park a few miles away. We watched a film, browsed through the visitor center and drove to a parking area where a lot of people head into the dunes. We had sandals on and they are not recommended as the sand gets very hot so we took pictures and came back.
Then it was back to Alamosa for diesel, a socket and an oil change. I guess 2 out of 3 is OK. We tried to get an oil change at WalMart (only place in town to get one on Sat afternoon) but they did not have the specs for the drain plug torque (rig is too new?!!) so they couldn’t do it. We got some steaks for dinner, hit a rain storm on the way back and relaxed. The rain was over by the time we got back to our site so Terry didn’t get wet when he BBQ’d the steaks and we were able to go for a nice walk after dinner.

Aug 21st – Sun – to Bernalillo NM
We woke up early as we went to bed early so we were on the road just after 8. We went back to Alamosa and then pretty much straight south. We drove through several rain showers on the way but most of the areas looked like they needed rain. It would have been a 4 hour drive but we stopped for lunch and a little gambling at a casino.
We got set up at the Coronado Campground where we have stayed before. Then we decided that we didn’t have quite enough gambling so we went to the Santa Ana Star Casino which is way too close to the campground.
It was time for happy hour when we got back and then dinner.