2021 Bigger Truck across Colorado, day 8

 Day 8 would be mostly a travel day, and it started out with some pretty fortunate and comforting news. After scaling Monarch Pass a few days ago, the Bigger Truck developed a check engine light about 15 minutes after we reached the bottom. Now, grant you this was much better than the last time we came down Monarch Pass, but with this being the maiden voyage we were a bit nervous.

We stopped at the local NAPA and asked for them to do an OBD code read for us. The woman that helped us out was a saint, she boarded the Bigger Truck, read the code, and while I explained that I had checked all fluids and vital signs, she said "oh, did you come over Monarch Pass? That can throw an O2 sensor code now and then, we see it quite a bit." She cleared the code, and we headed back up the mountain with a renewed confidence.

At the top, we paused for a bit, opened the hood and let the ol' girl cool off, and stopped in the moutaintop gift shop. 

This was also a good reminder to not open any packaged food or drink item at 11k'+ altitude. I had opened a ketchup container at about 9k feet and covered the entire counter with it, and this granola mix was definitely trying to send me a warning message

Now - I must digress, while looking up Monarch Pass for this blog I was thrilled - no, elated - no, embarrassed to have not already known this, but I discovered that a portion of Fast & Furious 7 was filmed right here at Monarch Pass. Now if you are not a fan of this franchise, you may as well close this link, delete any other possible connection to this blog, and go sit in the corner and think about all the things that went wrong in your life to not allow you to connect emotionally with Dom Toretto and la Familia.

Note the first minute and a half, where the crew attempts a ridiculous rescue attempt of Ramsey, mostly occurring on Monarch Pass with a few shots happening at Pikes Peak (blog foreshadowing at its finest).

I will allow you as much time as you need to either watch a few more Fast & Furious youtube clips or perhaps binge the entire franchise (including the tour de force that is Hobbs & Shaw).

Ok - back to the road trip. We had nothing but miles to cover, and what should have been spectacular scenery was pretty much this.

The smoke from the Dixie Fire and several others has obscured the skyline for most of our trip, and with the winds really picking up in the past 24 hours, 

there isn't much to see and it also makes for an interesting drive of this giant loaf of bread.

Fast forward to Lone Duck campground.  I will show you all of the good things about this campground in the below series of photos.

That's right. Complete disaster. We rolled in after 4 days completely off the grid, somewhat excited to be near Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, and wifi. We immediately discovered that there was no wifi, our site was comically small and nearly inaccessible for our rig, and the neighboring campsite had 14 cars and was bumping Dr Dre at full volume at 4pm.

We were basically camping next to myself and my friends from 20 years ago at Ivan's Campground in Baldwin, MI. Only this time, I was the old guy trying to get some sleep. 

We decided to circle the wagons, make the best of it for the night, and evaluate the situation in the morning. 

Tomorrow - try not to be the 'get off my lawn' guy and explore Co Springs.