Marc h 18-23, 2011 Drive to Littleton, CO via Nebraska

We are certainly anxious to see the mountains again as we cross the very wide and uneventful state of Nebraska. We did see a lovely sunset as we drove West on I-80 across the state. It was a huge orange glowing circle on the horizon—beautiful. We also got very lucky with mild weather in NE.  Apparently, the interstate closes frequently due to inclement weather. To be stuck in Nebraska any longer than necessary could be a real bummer.  We did camp at another superb Wal-Mart in North Platt, NE that night.  It was a lovely experience. ..words cannot explain how lovely!! Haha!!

The next morning we woke up and hit the road early to get to Littleton, CO where Sonia’s college friend, Kristen and her family live. Littleton is about 30 min SW of Denver. We made great time and arrived around 1 pm on Saturday.  Little Addy, Kristen’s 1 year old daughter, was asleep. We all got to catch up over sandwiches.  It was a glorious day-sunny, 65 degrees!!  Addy woke up just as cute as can be (Sonia wanted to punch her she’s so cute J ).  We all went to the playground and we all had fun.  We came back in time for cocktail hour in the sunny front yard. Living the life.

We shared plenty of good food, drink and conversation over the next few days. Sonia and Kristen had ample time catching up and visiting. Sonia enjoyed seeing Kristen in her new role as a “Mom”. She and Chris are doing an excellent job at raising a well-adjusted and happy child.

Sunday we all geared up and headed South on I-25 to Colorado Springs to Garden of the Gods State Park.  It’s a whole other experience traveling with a small child. It was another good lesson for us in pseudo-parenting. Addy is an easy-going happy kid so that makes it easy and enjoyable to tote her along. The park was stunning. Huge red rocks, evergreen junipers with a backdrop of snowy Pike’s Peak, one of Colorado’s 14,000 ft mountains.  It was crowded but we still wandered around on a few shorter hikes to be amongst the rocks and landscape. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. Everybody was happy.

Monday after Kristen and Chris went off to begin the work week, we stayed home with Laura, Kristen’s sister, and Addy to hang out and play.  We spent most of the morning making phone calls, checking Craigslist to replace our stolen bike tires.  What a hassle this has become. We headed into Denver to follow up on a few leads on Craigslist which took us into a “not-so-friendly” part of town, E. Colfax Ave, to Walgreen’s.  It already sounds bad. We met this super duper sketch case, Dennis, who was this greasy, smelly, shady character with a 26” Bontrager wheel  for $60. Let’s just say, he didn’t fit the picture of health and most likely this wheel was hot(=stolen).  It wasn’t what we were looking for and we left. No harm done. Loafy was acting kinda funny when we started it up to leave. This high elevation is certainly taking its toll on the ol’ boy. So we’re on our way. We pull up to a stop light. There’s a homeless dude on the corner. Sonia reaches into her pocket to give the fellow a dollar. Jason says “why?” Sonia says, “just give him the buck, maybe he really needs it”. Then the light turns green and Loafy is dead. WHAATTT??  It’s 3:30pm, rush hour traffic in Denver and we’re broken down—SWEET!  Flashers are on. We are trying to start the van and its not turning over. People behind us are honking and getting impatient.  Jason in his frustration, as his switch is flipped, jumps out and throws his hands up  in the air!  “Don’t you see my flashers on??!! I’m dead in the water!”  Sonia tells him “shut up and get in the van!” (before we get shot or something). The homeless dude is standing there, “are you out of gas?” Bless his heart, he offers to help push us across the street and folds up his little homeless person sign.  Luckily (if there is any luck in the matter) , there’s nobody going  through the light in the N-S  direction. We can quickly push the van across the intersection while the light is red. The van is so lightweight it’s an easy push out of the flow of traffic. Well, now what? Jason thinks it could be the fuel pump or fuel injector. So we have to take everything out of the van to get to the motor in back, including taking the bike rack off the back end. Just a bit inconvenient. Now we have all our crap spread out on the church lawn and are  trying to diagnose and fix the problem. Jason taps the fuel pump with a screwdriver and voila It worked!! What the hell is that all about???  We load everything up again and decide to head for home and deal with it there.  It’s now about 5pm and in the middle of rush hour on CO Hwy 285…and Loafy’s dead again. We limp to the edge of the road and unload all of our crap again and figure out what’s really going on. Jason is under the van on the side of the highway-its disgusting. Garbage, petrified dog turds, plastic bottles. Sonia’s Yoga mat was sacrificed so Jason could have a barrier between his clean white shirt and the roadside disgustingness.  This time the VW tap didn’t quite work.  Jason had the fuel line disconnected in 4 different places and the fuel injectors to see if there was a blockage without any success.  There was gasoline spraying all over the place.  The highway courtesy patrol guy stopped to see if he could help. He drove Jason to a nearby auto parts store. Sonia stayed behind guarding the van and belongings while reading the Onion. Atleast, she had the Onion.  They came back and voila the van  started up. The mechanic said it may have had an airlock in the fuel line and needed to sit for 30 min then it should be fine. Kind of like a baby that needed to burp or fart??  We decided to stay off the highway and stick to the backroads home to avoid creating any potential traffic jams.  We did make it back to Kristen and Chris’s safely—hungry and pissed off but home at last. Jason called in a parts list to a local auto parts store that will come in the next day. So, the day was totally useless. We went into Denver for bike tires, wheels and/or rotors and came back with a broken Loaf and no bike parts!!  It was time for a beer.

Thankfully, there was a positive note to this day. Lance, a guy Jason had been emailing with from Craigslist had some 29” wheels, tires and rotors for sale and conveniently lived 2 miles away!!  We drove over in Chris’s car and Jason got hooked up by this guy who was a total bike junkie-road, downhill, and cross bikes, etc.  We bought rims, tires and a rotor from him. He told us about Fruita, CO—a great place to Mtn bike on our way to Moab, UT that’s up and coming in the mtn bike circuit.

Oh yeah--there was another positive note about this day. When we came home all pissed off and disgruntled, Addy woke up from her nap and was all smiles when she saw us…it made everything better. She’s such a lil’ cutie…and she just loved Sonia. We had fun playing with her.

Another night spent in good company with Kristen, Chris, Laura and Addy. Mel, another college friend of Sonia and Kristen’s, stopped by to have pizza with us that night. We sat around reminiscing about college days and got caught up. A good evening to a reasonably crappy day.

Tuesday was spent at home fixing bikes and the van….why is everything breaking all of a sudden???  What did we do that was so bad??? We’re still wondering….. Let’s just be so grateful the Jason is so mechanically gifted and can fix the Loaf. He replaced the fuel filter, fuel injector and replaced the sparkplugs. $200 something  and an entire day later, Loafy was running really good. He (the van and Jason too)  just sounded so much better and less stressed.  Just in time—because tomorrow he’s got the biggest pass to climb at 11,000 ft and we can’t be having any issues.

Sonia stayed in and babysat Addy while Laura had to take care of some business.  Addy and Sonia had a good ol’ time. Sonia was trying to teach Addy “in/out”  and the shapes sorter toy. She’s got the hang of “out” as she pulls all her toys “out” of the toybox and all her clothes “out “ of the drawer. She’s pretty funny.  Kids--always making a mess and creating more work. Now Sonia understands what her Mom meant when she said that kids are a lot of work!  It is amazing how a 20 lb houseguest  can create such a mess in such a short time!! And it’s not just this kid. It’s any kid. It’s all part of it. We are certainly getting our fill of “kid-time” on the Loaf Love Tour.

We had a great time with Kristen, Chris, Laura and Addy. Thanks for letting us move in for a few days. Hopefully, we earned our keep by cooking and cleaning along the way. We love you guys and look forward to seeing you all soon. Take Care.