Camerasutra

It is hard to believe that it has been 4 years since Jess and I first tried our luck at the Longmont Bingo Alley.  I must say that its been an wonderfully adventurous 4 years.  How about we celebrate many more anniversaries here amongst the elderly, downtrodden and hopeful?

Where it all began

I loves me some Strawberry Hot Springs.  I’ve never been there during the day.  It is wonderful.  You can see where you are going as you rush furiously across frozen rocks towards the relief of the hot springs.  With it being clothing optional at night, there is also alot less risk of sauntering up to some dude wearing nothing but a smile.

Ruby rests her chin on the future Uitto baby

The changing room at Strawberry Hot Springs

Yes, we do have clothes on...

Wading with the Uittos

Cooling off the baby pool

The Strawberry Hot Springs

I’ve got one weekend left with the use of my right leg before I go under the knife for yet another ACL reconstruction.  I’ll be damned if I was going to just sit inside all weekend watching reruns of Say Yes To The Dress and chain-comping almond butter brussel sprouts.  This weekend we are heading into nature.  So, we packed up the trailer and Westy and headed back to Steamboat Springs for some nature and relaxing at Dumont Lakes campground.

Saturday morning at Dumont Lakes Campground

While entering the site last night, we started to hear a clunking noise coming from the backend of the Westy.  Hoping it was just the trailer, I unhooked the trailer and drove us into Steamboat Springs for some breakfast.  Unfortunately the noise continued.  Noises in these old Westfalias generally translates directly to laying out money for a repair.  While at breakfast, I found a nearby VW Repair Shop called Intergalactic Motors.  The comments said that the owner is hard to reach, but if you reach him, he does great work.  Well, we reached him.  Upon describing the situation, he suggested I check the bolts on the rear suspension.  Low and behold, the rear suspension had no bolts and the clunking noise was the shock banging the inside of the wheel well.  So, I removed the shock and headed South towards his shop.

Doing manly stuff under the Westy

The proud mechanic displays a freshly removed shock

Prior to buying the Westy, I had read a great quote that can be summed up as “the interruptions are the journey”.  Once again this proved true as we happened upon an amazing shop.  The shop owner, Fred, has lived here since 1976 and converts just about anything that runs on gas to run on hydrogen.  He even has a Hummer H2 that now runs on hydrogen…ts exhaust is water.  While we didn’t have the time or budget for the Westy hydrogen conversion, he did put our shock back on and tightened up all of the bolts on the other shocks.  His invoice…just $20.  Since he spent a good hour working on the Westy, I offered up a check for $40.  I know…high roller…

Intergalactic Imports

Our poor Westy has a broken leg

Fred performs magic to repair the displaced shock

Hydrogen-powered Hummer H2

H2 H2

Back on the road with our securely attached shocks