Big Bertha Adventures

 Today we planned to do a shorter trail that we could get to easily from our campsite, by going through a neighborhood on a paved trail. It was a really nice trail and the kids really loved the last section which was called Tony's trail.  Derek used his drone to get these photos of our campground and surrounding property.  This was the view at the end of our ride this morning.  Madi and I took advantage of some flat paved trails to get our run in. It was nice to be on flat ground! I really feel like she is starting to look more and more like my mini-me.  Today's ride was through a lot of these white oaks, and was beautiful! Such a great day of riding! He was going in to give her a kiss. I thought I caught it.  Such beautiful views! He was still ok with kisses from mom! Our ride down Tony's Trail! We went around town after our hike today. Madi is on a mission to find rainbow Teva sandles. 

 This morning we got up with the plans to bike some trails in Crested Butte. Our neighbor was out when we were unloading our bikes and we were talking about the route we had planned. He said it is a great ride, but the ride to get there was exhausting and he was worried the kids wouldn't make it. He offered to drive us there which was about 3 miles. We took him up on his offer and man are we glad we did. The climb up the neighborhood to the trail was very steep and long. When we got on the trail it was awesome. It was so much more like the mountain biking I had hoped for.  Some climbing, some downhill, some turns, and some beautiful sights! Madi and Derek  There was some uphills that the kids worked hard on.  And lots of downhill which Dylan loved.  The sights were amazing! I absolutely loved this bike ride even though we went through rain and sleet! Dylan kept climbing. Derek too! Madi made it and took a rest! This was my style of mountain biking! We took a sho...

While we know the whole trip couldn't go off without a hitch, we feel really lucky that our first issue occurred where and when it did. Last night, as we were leaving Walmart our leveling jack system started beeping at us. We had only pulled forward a parking space, and a lady came running to our window saying were leaking transmission fluid. We were so concerned. She said her husband was a mechanic and he was parking the car but she wanted to make sure we didn't drive away. He came over and we were able to discover that the hose to the leveling jack had come off. It was very hot and he laid under the camper and removed the hose and went with Derek to a NAPA auto parts across the street to see if they had the piece to fix it. They met a Michigan native who is an avid RVer. He said he would make a new hose in the morning and come over and show us how to install it. So we stayed at Walmart for the night, enjoyed some authentic Mexican food, and had a little scare when the CO dete...

 Today we left our RV park and headed to Glenwood Springs Adventure Park where we rode a mountain roller coaster, did a mine drop, rode swings that looked over the canyon, and did a large swing that dangled you out over the canyon.  We rode a gondola up to the top.  The kids enjoyed the rockclimbing.  Madi made it to the top. Dylan did too. Dylan thought we should get a chair like this for camping.  This was our first ride which was called a zip line.  We did enjoy the other rides too. I just don't have pictures of them. The mine drop was pretty intense.  These are pictures I found on the internet of a couple of our favorite rides.  This was a mountain roller coaster that you could control the speed of. 

 After leaving Steamboat Springs we headed to a Costco in Gypsum, CO. We were able to sleep there for the night and fill up for gas the next morning. We went into the town of Eagle to do some mountain biking. There was a pump track and a community pool in the area. We went on our first bike ride which was on the high school\"s course and was about 3 miles. It was very hot and a lot more work than the downhill riding of Steamboat Springs. As we were in the parking lot we met a couple of people that all recommended we go to Crested Butte instead of our planned stop in Fruita due to the extreme heat.  This type of biking was much different than the straight down of Steamboat! We started on the high school course.  It sure was hot there.  We also had the recommendation to ride a path called Boneyard and then Pool and Ice on the way back down. They said it was a great route in the area. The kids were not interested in doing more biking so we let them go to the community c...

 Today we had planned to bike Emerald Mountain, which would require uphill (mountain) pedaling. I was looking forward to it, but I am not sure anyone else was. We went to a pump track before we were going to climb the mountain and Dylan broke his pedal off his bike.  We thought he was going to need a new bike or some extensive work on his bike. We decided to ride into town and stopped at a local bike shop where they told us they could fix it today and it would be a simple fix. Luckily Derek scootered on back to the camper because the parking police were about to give us a ticket. Our FreeRoam App steered us wrong when it said you could park at the Community Center in town. She said we can\"t take up two parking spaces. So Derek talked his way out of the ticket and moved the camper to the other side of town at the rodeo. Even though Dylan\"s bike was fixed he was not interested in the uphill climb of Emerald Mountain so we decided to rent tubes and head down the Yampa River. I...