I had the pleasure of driving our
Scamp from MN to Colorado for the week before Labor Day this year.
After work on Friday, my wife and I packed our 3 pugs into my 2004 Ford Ranger and we hit the road. Sometime around 1am we stopped at a walmart in Omaha, NE. I picked this spot because this was our first big trip out and if something managed to go terribly wrong in the first hours on the road, we would be pulling into a shopping center with a Walmart, Menards, and Home Depot. The next day we arrived at Golden Gate Canyon State Park near Golden, CO.
At the Colorado Welcome Area:
Despite taking an extremely challenging road into the park and it beginning to storm as we pulled into the site, our stay at the state park was very peaceful since it was Sunday-Wednesday.
We popped over to Fort Collins on Tuesday for a tour of New Belgium Brewery and to check out the town. As a craft beer lover- New Belgium was just amazing. On Wednesday we headed out for a drive down to Eleven Mile Resevoir State Park. This took us out to Frisco/Lake Dillon, then down highway 9 and across the continental divide at Hoosier Pass.
With much better weather (and daylight) when we arrived at Eleven Mile State Park, I was much happier with our campsite setup. Actually got some wood under one of the wheels and leveled the camper out side-to-side. I'm seriously considering some of those stackable blocks for ease of getting the camper up onto them, anyone have any feedback?
I purchased and installed a 100W
solar panel and a fantastic fan just prior to this trip- they were amazing! The
solar panel kept us charged up with minimal
light use, regular water pump use, and heavy fan use.
My wife and I agree, even with the busy labor day weekend, Eleven Mile was our favorite park. The scenery was fantastic- the backdrop of mountains, a clear view of the resevoir, and plenty of rocks to "climb" on. We also drove out to Buena Vista on Friday to do some white water rafting.
On Sunday morning we headed home. With the wind behind us, the Ranger got 17mpg while towing the
Scamp. Considering my daily driving is usually in the range of 17-18mpg, I was very happy. We parked overnight in one of the "modern" Iowa rest areas before Des Moines, then finished the drive home in the morning. It was comfortably crowded in the Scamp/truck with the 5 of us, in such a way that we find ourselves standing and sitting closer to each other at home now.
On a different note- we have been married a year and a half- very happily in love and enjoy so much of life together. However, like all couples, we have moments of frustration, miscommunication, or lack of patience. As upper 20-somethings, we strive to always work on our relationship skills and understanding for each other. It was the best relationship builder to be in the
Scamp for a week- the only moment of tension in the entire week culminated in me taking a bottle of ketchup from my wife to wipe off the cooler water and then opened it... only for the mountain pressure change to cause it to spray ketchup all over when I popped the cap. The only thing left was to laugh.
1992 Scamp Side bath
Prairie Schooner
Linear Mode
