West Quest Part Deux - Days 68 and 69

Breckenridge, Colorado to North Platte, Nebraska to Henderson, Nebraska

Back to Days 66 and 67

Sunday and Monday, 16 - 17 October, 2022

On Sunday morning, we departed our 48-hour “home” in Breckenridge, Colorado with a touch of sadness. It was a remarkable place to spend a couple of days and dream of what it might be like to be able to have a getaway place in such an amazing location. Fortunately, our Ollie allowed us to enjoy it for a couple of days.

BTW, that is frost on the windshield! It was well below freezing at night.

We decided to have breakfast at in nearby Frisco at a place called Butterhorn Bakery & Cafe on the way out of town. Yum!

With a hearty meal in our bellies, we got on Interstate 70 heading East toward Denver and ultimately North Platte, Nebraska.

Frisco is at 9,097 feet above sea level. Amazingly, once on I-70, you must still climb up to 11,158’ through the Eisenhower Tunnel before you start heading down to the famously “mile high city” of Denver at 5,690’.

Once through the Eisenhower Tunnel, I estimate I never touched the gas pedal for over 45 miles. This was, without a doubt, the most intense driving of our entire summer.

It’s quite remarkable as you leave the Rockies behind and the Great Plains begin. How the mountains can be so steep and the plains so flat in such a short distance is fascinating.

Our destination on Sunday was the Golden Spike Tower in North Platte, Nebraska.

Bailey Yard is the largest railroad switching yard in the world, and the Golden Spike Tower provides a way to observe it. Unfortunately, our arrival time was after it had closed for the day (I failed to note we would cross into Central time today), was the first of two mistakes I would make today. The other more painful mistake would happen in the middle of the night…

Back in Breckenridge, the RV resort charges extra for electricity because the lots are privately owned. I’m quite proud of our Ollie’s boondocking capabilities, so we chose to use our solar and lithium batteries rather than plug in. I didn’t care about the small amount of electricity use as much as I just wanted to use the systems we paid for. What I failed to realize, because we are still learning, is that the batteries must not have been fully charging each day given usage and lack of sun in our spot.

So, around midnight in North Platte, with temps outside in the high 20s, Ollie went dead. Completely dead. Apollo 13 type of dead. This meant no propane furnace because it requires at least 12 volt power, no ability to keep our Truma on-demand water heater on to prevent freezing, etc. Besides not being able to go back to sleep out of worry over the water heater, it was pretty darn cold in the trailer as we bottomed out around 40 degrees inside. And, as fate would have it, with North Platte being on the extreme western edge of Central time, sunrise wasn’t until a few minutes before 8 am.

Here’s how things looked at 8:01 am as we drove back from the local Starbucks:

At 9 am, the Tower opened and we went to go look at trains while we waited for our Zamp Solar charger to do its thing with the batteries.

That’s Ollie out there in the gravel parking lot.

The switchyard was fascinating but I could not relax over worry about how we were going to get going and if I had damaged the water heater. You see, we had disconnected upon our arrival so we could go out to dinner, so I also had the two rear and the one front electric jacks deployed. With no power, or not enough power, we would not be able to hook up the truck without manually raising the jacks (not a fun prospect in freezing temps). We were nowhere close to any electrical outlets and we do not have a generator. I wasn’t even sure how we would summon help for someone with a generator. It was not a fun morning. And did I mention is was COLD?

By around 11 or so, to my relief, we had enough power to get the heat on, verify the water heater was OK, and most importantly, get the jacks up. Ollie came through, but I was worn out. I had so much wanted to enjoy looking at Bailey Yard, but it just didn’t turn out that way. Oh well.

Around 3:30 or so, we arrived at Prairie Oasis Campgrounds & Cabins in Henderson, plugged in to AC shore power, and counted our blessings for having survived a challenging day.

Tomorrow, we head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota one more time as we continue to head east toward home. Why Sioux Falls? Because we enjoy what the city has to offer and want to see it again.

Go to Days 70 to 73