Denver through Four corners loop.

[Southwest Dave]

Homeward bound.

I am glad we had left the heating on after learning our lesson in Leadville as it was a bitterly cold morning. As I peered between the curtains all I could see was an icy mist upon the window. I turned the thermostat up to get some warmth inside, as we had kept it on a low setting overnight so it wasn't running constantly. I opened the door and realised it was Leadville all over again, with snow on the ground and bitingly cold air I stepped outside, it was very icy and slippery underfoot.



The others were up soon after and we started packing the cases and giving the RV a once over inside. After a hot shower in the Dakota ridge facilities [very nice too] we had a hot drink, packed the last few bits away and I took some fire wood and fire lighter we had left over and gave them to our neighbour. We were almost ready to roll, we just had to empty all the water tanks.

Knowing the valves had survived minus 9 temps in Leadville I wasn't expecting what happened next, everything was frozen solid including the drainage valves and they wasn't budging. Running the hot water off into the tanks and warm water over the pipes outside [didn't want to crack anything] had little affect. Having nothing to create a heat source outside [even the hair drier wouldn't reach as we had no extension lead] and the temps still well below freezing we were facing a $250 charge for returning with our tanks unemptied, something I was not going to take laying down. We were about to give up [and that was over an hour in sub zero temps] when it all fell into place. I noticed the "Beware gets hot" warning on the Furnace vent and casting my eye over the lenght of the waste pipe I thought it has got to be worth a go. I turned the heating up full blast and placed the waste pipe over the vent and Simon then held the other end to the seized valves. I had to be careful and make sure the pipe didn't start sticking to the side of the RV as it got a little soft. It wasn't long before the pipes were producing steam and water started to trickle, although it was another hour or more before the valves finally opened and we could hook the pipe back up and dump. A cold and miserable job but I would do it again for $250.

The problem now was we still had a 45min drive [and that's without the snow and ice] and still had to fill the propane and gas tanks and wash the outside of the RV and only 30 mins to do it all in, and we still had a 20 [plus] hour journey home to look forward to !

We filled the tanks and made our way to the car wash while Lezli was on the phone to Cruise America to say we were delayed by the weather.

We arrived "Gladiator chariot style" with spikes on the wheel !



We started with the power wash, cutting through the slabs of ice that had formed behind the cab and the back wheels. As we foam washed things didn't go quite to plan, and we ended up with a psychedelic ice cube !



It became even more fun as we tried to wash the freezing foam off as the floor beneath us froze, it was like a comedy sketch. Talk about "Bambi on ice" ! Finally we rinsed the mirrors and front windows and wiped them immediately [10 secs and they were frozen again] and we were on our way, albeit with some rather large ice spikes hanging from the overhead cab Lol!

Cruise America were great, they didn't charge us for the late arrival and the driver they had arranged to take us to the airport was very understanding. Luckily our flight wasn't untill early evening so we still had plenty of time to get to the airport where we had a meal before boarding our flight to Chicago and then back to London. Our flight went smoothly although we were on the runway for ages and then we found out why as the plane was blasted with liquid from either side. We had been queuing to get de-iced before we could take off. Our day had started at 6.45am on Saturday US time and ended in Sussex at 2pm Sunday UK time and some 25 hours later.

On returning home I discovered that it was another record breaking low temp for that time of year in Denver, minus 9 overnight, minus 7 when we were trying to release the tanks and minus 5 as we left Denver later in the day.

Did we care? Not one little bit, nothing could take the shine of our little adventure !