You may follow along in our journey by visiting Julie's Journal page. It will include photographs, suggestions, mishap adventures and our experiences on the road and back-country trails.

If you would like to know more about the history of our adventure click here for the history page. How we planned, saved money, chose our equipment and prepared for ten months on the road.

These are some other web sites we found useful and/or have recpical links with.

written by Julie Hackler & David Fink

March 27, 1999 to April 10, 1999

Mesa Verde, CO; Durango, CO; Colorado Springs, CO

It all began with our trip from the Grand Canyon to Mesa Verde. We started off early and planned a stop at 4 Corners for lunch. We were making good time and got to the 4 Corners Monument about 11 A.M. We ate lunch, got out and felt the trailer tires for heat. All were cool except the front left tire. Warm, but nothing to alarm us. We went and took our pictures with an arm in Colorado, one in Utah, a leg in Arizona and the other in New Mexico. Then we were on our way. Once in Colorado we stopped at the Visitors Center, picked up some info on white water rafting, state parks and snow mobiling, then off again. Only this time the trailer seemed to be making a lot of "creaking" noises. We only had about 12 miles to go to Mesa Verde and after about 5 miles the noise stopped. Again, nothing out of the ordinary, it has made noise before, only this was a bit louder. We got to Mesa Verde and found out the campground was closed for the season, luckily only about a ½ mile further was the A. A. Mesa Verde Campground. We got a site for the night and asked the nice man where a local shop was to take a look at the brakes. He told us of one, but it was Saturday so we'd have to wait until Monday to get an appointment. "No problem" we thought. We choose a back in site (site #26), so I hopped out to help Dave back in. As I motioned to come back to the left, I watched as the front left tire on the trailer bend a way I know was not right. "Did you see that" I said, as Dave was already out the door of the truck. He banged it with his hand and the whole tire looked like it was going to fall off any minute. He stood up and went right for his tools, jack and jack stands. He jacked it up, took the tire off and we discovered about a handful (or two) of dust. Dust made out of tiny metal shavings which at one time was our brake assembly. "Call Good Sam" Dave said, as I was already heading for the phone.

We couldn't get a tow until Monday so we slowly backed the trailer (minus one tire) into site #26. We tried to keep our spirits up, so we went into town to grab a bite to eat. We assumed the worst, but hoped for the best as we kicked back a few micro brews.

We decided to go ahead and visit Mesa Verde on Sunday. I was a nice day, only many of the cliff dwellings were closed for the winter. We got to climb through the main one behind the Visitors Center, Spruce Tree House. All the top dwellings were opened, so we walked through them also. The overlooks of the cliff dwellings enabled us to see them, pretty interesting idea those Indians had. We spent the day there and felt satisfied that we did all we wanted to in a day. Maybe if there was more of the park open it could have taken longer, but we were happy with what we saw.

Monday morning we had a tow at 9:30 am to A. A. American Towing and RV Service in Durango, Colorado. Our tiny 19 foot trailer hardly fit onto the flatbed truck they came to tow us with. The process to get the trailer onto the truck was an ordeal I couldn't watch for too long. It looked as if he could do some real damage, if he wasn't careful (which we later discovered he did). And off to Durango we went.

We found a rather cheap hotel (nice one - remember this was during the off season) right in the center of town. Walked the main street, grabbed a bite to eat, and waited for some word from the shop. Nothing Monday night. Tuesday morning Dave went out for bagels and the phone rings. $600 estimate, we melted the castle nut to the axle. All I could do was nervously laugh. The kicker was that the axle couldn't get to Durango until early next week. So we got another night in the Durango Lodge.

Deciding we needed to try and save money, I came up with the idea to go to Colorado Springs and use our tent. We could still do everything we came out here to do. We just wouldn't have the comfort of our RV. Wednesday morning we checked out and headed up to Colorado Springs. A 5 ½ hour trip over a few mountain passes including Wolf Creek Pass. The San Juan Mountains were a sight. I fell in love with Colorado despite all that was going on. Once in Colorado Springs we stopped at a Cracker Barrel and tried to decide where we could camp. We made a few phone calls and found most of the places were only offering RV sites, no tents, due to the winter. But we did find one, a KOA on the outskirts of the city. It was an exceptional windy night out, but we decided it would be okay. After many struggles, we pitched the tent and again tried to make the best out of it.

On Thursday morning it was sunny, no wind and warm. I decided it might be fun to go horseback riding through the Garden of the Gods. At 10 am we headed out to see the sights. The Academy Riding Stables are right on the boundary of the park, so a 2-hour ride took us a good portion of the way into the park. Dave got a slow moving horse named Dusty who had to be put in the back of the line. Along the way she seemed not too shy to let out a "toot" for every step uphill. I got a snob named Star who didn't want to listen to me when I tried to get her to slow down, turn or to stop. But the ride was very enjoyable and scenic. Throughout our 2-hour journey we noticed it getting more cloudy and cold. From there we decided to visit the Olympic Training Center for a free tour. We met a guy at the gate who said he was from New Jersey and never planned to return. He loved it too much in Colorado. The tour lasted about an hour and a half complete with a movie to get you in the mood. The facility was nice and we got to see many gold medalist and future hopefuls just wandering and/or working out throughout the campus. Our group got an extra special treat when we got to watch some of the 1996 gymnastic team practice in the gym.

It seemed to just be getting colder and colder. So Dave talked me into getting a hotel room. We drove back to the KOA, tried to get our money back, (which we did all but $5) and packed out. We had a 10% coupon for a Motel 8, so we headed straight for it. No more than 10 minutes after we left our campsite did it start to rain. As we drove along I-25 in the rain for about another 10 minutes, it started to snow. And snow hard. We got to the hotel and already an inch was on the ground. We cozied up in the warm beds, turned on the T.V. and went to bed. When we woke up Friday morning we looked out the hotel room window to find it snowed 2 feet no lie - 2 feet. Imagine if we stayed in our tent? And it was still snowing.

It snowed all day Friday and into the morning on Saturday. Once we got over the initial shock of it, we realized that in the 2 months we've been on this trip it had not rained once on us. The one time we try and save money and stay in a tent, it SNOWS! Just our luck. We didn't get to Pikes Peak due to the snow and we didn't get to see a lot of a Colorado Springs. So we plan to return on our way back to New Jersey. We did get to eat at a great place called Joe's Crab Shack, great atmosphere. The servers actually dance on cue, fun place for everyone. Great food too and the prices weren't too bad. Saturday afternoon we decide to head back to Durango. We took a detour back to the Garden of the Gods to see it all covered in snow. Very peaceful and beautiful. I decided to add a little beauty and build a snowman, then it's back to Durango and the Durango Lodge.

We pray the axle will come in Monday and we're back on the road on Tuesday. Monday - no axle, Tuesday - no axle, so I ask the people if they would mind if we stayed in the trailer at night because the hotel rooms are getting just too expensive. They agree and we spend Tuesday night in the trailer. We have to be out by 8am, so we grab as much stuff as we can to keep us busy and head to the local park. Wednesday - no axle, Thursday - no axle. Finally Friday morning the axle comes in. In 2 ½ hours he fixes the axle and lubes and adjusts the back two tires. Lucky too - since he said they looked like they were ready to go at any minute also. We thought the ordeal was finally over and we could be on our way. The lone mechanic took off on a tow call and wished us luck. We pack up the trailer and are all ready to go. Dave walks around the back of the trailer and notices the back stabilizer bars are bent. They bent when the guy was taking the trailer off the tow truck so we had the nice lady call back the mechanic 10 minutes to an hour we had to wait. He got back and in about 20 minutes he winched the stabilizer bars back into place. Wha-hoo!

But now it was too late to travel all the way to Utah. So we stayed the last night in Durango, Colorado in the Wal-Mart parking lot playing UNO just happy to be back "home."