T-shirt and the clouds move in.

The next day we went to Alamosa for gas and lunch. We saw they had a festival but skipped it in favor of getting to the Sand Dunes when the visitor center was open to see the displays and get a t-shirt. While doing that the clouds moved in and the stream looked like this:

Surprisingly the water wasn't that cold. The wind and air was but the water was still nice to walk in.

San Luis Colorado State Park

After failing to score a site at the Great Sand Dunes National Park we headed to Zapata Falls campground where we also failed to get a site. A little worried I called San Luis Colorado State Park and they had availability! So we headed right there where we had our choice of prime sites.
http://cpw.state.co.us/placestogo/Parks/Sanluis

Evening view of our first site.

Originally we only planned to stay one night so we chose a site that was only available for one night but in a prime location. The campground had level, widely spaced sites with good facilities. Electric was included for only $20.

Morning view of our first site.

 The next day we decided to go back to the Sand Dunes so found another open site and reserved it for that evening.

Site for our second night.

I should mention that although this park says it is on a lake and in maps and such it shows a lake there is no water there at all, just dust bowl. The park personnel said that there had been no water for the last 4 yrs. However it is very close to the sand dunes and with the widely spaced sites and electric it was a deal for $20. We have the state park pass so I'm not sure what the park entrance fee was. I would stay there again.

Great Sand Dunes National Park with the water flowing!

One of my favorite destinations in CO is the Great Sand Dunes National Park. http://www.nps.gov/grsa/index.htm

I've always wanted to go when the water was flowing in Medano Creek. It only flows in the spring. You can check the creek conditions here:
http://www.nps.gov/grsa/medano-creek.htm

Approaching the park.

 So as we usually do, we set of with no reservations. And of course when we got there no spots were available at the first come first serve sites within the national park. No worries. We went right to the dunes parking lot to enjoy the creek.

Sand Dunes with parking lot at base.

Medano Creek. As much as knee deep in the wavy channels.

Blossom says this is so much better than the hot sand. You really can't walk with dogs on the hot sand as it will burn their paws. If you bring your dog make sure you bring booties for them or only walk in the early a.m. or at night.

The dogs enjoying the cool sand and the shallow water.

Gasp, a water leak

I was so proud that we had never had a water leak. Turns out we did have one. Where the fiberglass roof joins the side wall on one side there was a crack in the caulk and water leaked into the cabinets above the oven and sink. It is caulked now and we are also going to eternabond those seams like we did the front and back cap.

When we got the RV we caulked all the windows with expensive silcone caulk. This does not appear to have been the best choice as we are seeing small cracks at some places so we will redo those areas. Thankfully no leaks appear to have happened because of those.

Air bag pressure

We took the RV out of storage last weekend. Everything tested out great on it. I couldn't remember the air bag pressure and did a search for my old forum posts. Turns out the air bags are supposed to be 70 psi. Same as all the tires. They had gone to 50 psi over the last two winters and last summer which isn't unusual for them to lose a bit of pressure over time.

When we bought it we caulked everything and covered the roof seams with the tape that is supposed to last forever (don't remember the name of it). That has paid off as we have never had a leak.

We had to get it emission tested for the registration this year. Passed with flying colors. In the drive to and from the storage lot it sounded great. We only had one small problem when checking it over. The outside shower attachment which is in the rear compartment must have been hit by something moving in the compartment and it snapped off. Have to get to Camping World and get a replacement.

I should have snapped a picture of it while it was here. I feel in vacation mode just being inside it.

Thor Ace 27.1

I'm posting two pictures that I took of the Thor Ace 27.1 king bed area. I'm impressed with the layout of this coach and all the storage you get.

At the head of the bed 4 generous overhead cabinets and one below the large bedside table on the left.

Across from the bed a full wall of cabinets. Two large wardrobes on the sides of the top. Two good sized drawers in the middle. One very large cabinet below on the right with a shelf. I think the lower left one contains the fresh water tank. But I'm not 100% sure because we looked at so many RVs.

A brake fixing we will go...

We blew out the water lines before the first freeze but were lazy and didn't get out all the battery items out or do the deep clean for winter storage. So we decided to get it done this last weekend. Unfortunately our brake light was on and the brake pedal went to the floor with no resistance. Fortunately a call to our Good Sam's Platinum roadside assistance has a tow truck winging their way to the RV to get it towed to a local repair place. Crossing our fingers on the cost for the fix but good brakes are important so this wasn't a do it yourself job.

Edit: It turned out to be a bad master cylinder. The part was only $71 but the whole repair was $531.

2nd edit: We picked up the RV and the brakes work great but there is a high pitched whine to the engine that was not there before. I'm going to call them tomorrow to see if they have an idea of what could be causing it. If they took belts off or anything that may be the cause.