Our new Velvac mirrors

When I was shopping for an RV, I noticed a few years after mine was built, Winnebago incorporated superior mirrors. Recently Motorhome magazine had an article about upgrading to the new ones so I decided to do it. The list price for the mirrors was about $500 but I got my pair for $250.

The old mirrors.

The new mirrors.

The part number to order is 713854.
Here is a link to order them for the $250 price.
New Velvac Mirrors
http://www.ryderfleetproducts.com/ryder/af/ryder/core/content/product/srm/key/U80%20713854/pn/Mirror-20-25-black-revolution-pair/erm/productDetail.do

They came complete with both right and left mirror and base. The only thing we had to buy was new screws. We used the old ones as a guide on what to buy.

The mirrors were well packed and appeared to come right from the factory. I had to order a roll of tape to get the price up to $250 so I could qualify for free shipping. :-)

The difference in visibility is huge! Not only can we now see if our steps are out but we have great visibility to the side and no blind spot that I could see. Well worth the money! I just have to get rid of the old mirrors. I'll probably post them on craig's list.

Look who moved in while we were gone

A Bull snake exits our garage.

Then heads across the driveway to the bushes. Hopefully he is vacating the premises and not just going out hunting.

The upside is that we saw no evidence of mice.

Great Sand Dunes National Park

Our last stop for the trip was at Great Sand Dunes National Park. What a treat! I did not know how much I would enjoy this stop and had included it simply because my husband had come here as a child and loved it. We will definitely be back. I think this may have been the highlight of the trip as far as the National Parks go, simply because I did not expect much. Our campsite was OK. Nothing special with lots of other campers nearby. We stayed at Pinyon Flats Campground in the National Park.

We did have a view of the dunes and there was a great path right next to our site where we could walk down to them.

So first thing in the morning that is where we headed.

The dogs were thrilled and playful like pups.



I was amazed at how big the dunes were.


We headed right in search of the creek that runs in the spring.

Eventually we hit wet sand.

The doggies are hiding in the shade. Lest you think we were mistreating them we brought plenty of water, were monitoring the temperature of the sand with our bare feet and they were back in the RV by 11 a.m. I had read about how hot the sand got so was careful to turn back in time. Amazingly alot of people were just taking their dogs out on the sand as I was coming back up the trail. I warned them about the sand temperature.

But after a while of this I started back with the dogs while my husband continued on.
Blossom rests back at the camper.

Eventually he found the creek.

And took some pics of the water.

I however, was glad to have headed back early as it had gotten really hot out. My husband reported that we could have walked on a jeep trail that runs parallel to the river and kept the dogs off the hot sand. I will have to check this out next time we go.

Last stop (to dump) before leaving the park.


Last view of the dunes.

Breakdown on Wolf Creek Pass

About noon we left Mesa Verde to get to our intended campground for the evening on the other side of Wolf Creek Pass. Unfortunately our fuel pump died as we started up the pass. The end result you can see below.

Why did the fuel pump die? Was it old age or bad gas? Or was it because when I asked the mechanic's shop this year at our yearly oil change if we should change the fuel filter he looked in the records and said we did it last year and there was no need. After it died I checked my records and saw that we replaced the one on the generator, not the engine. So maybe the fuel pump was working too hard to get us up all those mountain passes.

The end result was that we were camped at the mechanics that night and the next morning the dogs got to wait in their holding pen until we got a new fuel pump. This took all day due to them having to drop the gas tank and move some of the plumbing out of the way.


By about 5:30 p.m. we were on our way again.

Mesa Verde

We had reservations at Mesa Verde's campground, Morefield Campground, for one night but lucked out and got it for two. It was a full hook up and a lovely site. It was surrounded by vegetation such that you didn't see anyone else although they were not very far away. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of it. Both nights we attended the ranger's 9:00 p.m. talk.

The first morning I signed up for a bus tour right from the campground. It was $25 and supposed to last 5 hours. It turns out we only had 3 on the tour so instead it lasted for 7 hours and included the museum. I really lucked out as it was a wonderful tour.

First we stopped at the Far View sites. There are a number of villages and an ancient reservoir that you can tour by walking a one mile loop. Our guide was excellent and brought along alot of visual aids in addition to telling us about what we were seeing. She pointed out the fire wind blocks, the vent shafts and tunnels that connected the kivas. In addition she pointed out plants along the way and explained what people made from them and how they used them. She also covered the general history of occupation and development of the area. It was very illuminating to learn so many details about how people lived in this region.





Next we went to the Spruce Tree House for a guided tour. Everywhere we went people would stop and ask her questions. We were very lucky to be with someone so knowledgeable as we were never left wondering about anything we saw and she pointed out some things that we would have missed.

This is the water seep spring at Spruce Tree House.



I got to climb down into the kiva that was open to the public.

These stones were used for grinding corn.

After the Spruce Tree House tour we went through the museum and then stopped for a picnic lunch that was included in the tour. Then we drove around the loop and saw many other sites from the scenic overlooks.


The next day we drove our RV around and saw some of the sites not included on the tour. The roads were good and it was pretty easy to do with an RV as there were pull offs with plenty of room to park. One road out to some major sites doesn't allow anything over 22 ft so we could not do that portion of the park.

This is a pit house.







The cliff houses were only used for 80 years and one can see why. They are way to difficult to access. Probably after they built them they wondered what they were thinking and moved out to go south where they could live on a river. The Far View sites that we first toured on the flat land were used for farming and were occupied for hundreds of years. It is thought that an extended drought (25+ years) may have pushed people into the cliff dwellings near the seep springs.

Four Corners

We stopped at Four Corners Monument on our way to Mesa Verde. Not much to see as far as the monument but I did some more shopping at the booths which was fun.

Scenic overlook on the way out of the Grand Canyon park and shopping.

Today we headed back toward Colorado. On our way to the Grand Canyon we saw a ton of Indian roadside stands with jewelry and other items. But we did not stop due to the time of day and the heat. We had also seen a scenic overlook and decided on the way out we would stop there to look and do some jewelry shopping. Boy do I wish we had stopped at every set of stands. The shopping was fabulous! The ladies were super nice and a number of them had unique hand made items. The pricing was also excellent.

Below is the view from one of the scenic overlooks.

Orange Bus route

The next day we took turns taking the Orange route bus to view the sites.


In this picture you can just barely see a mule train heading to Phantom Ranch with tourists.



























Folks viewing the canyon at the South Rim visitor center.