Sunday Oct 16, 2022 - Mancos State Park CO to Lyman Lake State Park AZ

A drizzly day, pretty much all day so good day to test the van in wet weather. One last chance to experience the stinky pit toilet. All hygiene was done in the van which has water and light and sink so no biggie. We are appreciating that we really are self contained so we could survive a zombie apocalypse as long as they were only armed with soft things as weapons, you know, so they couldn’t break the windows or crowbar the doors open. Maybe they could let the air out of the tires, hmmm. I really have not been focused on that, really.

No cooking for breakfast (yogurt and hard boiled eggs) even though we had plenty of power left (68% after all night with the furnace running). We split the driving back and forth all day. First stop was Durango, where we enjoyed coffee and chai at  the Durango Coffee Company, which was pretty busy. We found easy parking for the van and car and did a little walk around town.

Then we told Google maps to get us to Gallup, NM on I-40 where gas was 30 cents cheaper (thanks Gas Buddy app), which it was. We filled up in Gallup then down the interstate into Arizona, then south on RT 191 to Lyman Lake State Park. They seem to be getting a lot of rain in this area, and there were saturated fields all over and signs of water running into the RT 191 (mud from side roads). By the way, New Mexico has a lot more potholes than Arizona. We noticed both ways.

The Lyman Lake park ranger was running the store and said the lake was only at 12% capacity. Partly because they have been pulling water from Lyman to fill smaller reservoirs below it, but mostly because there has been less precipitation (summer rain and winter snow pack) for the last 6 years. They got a lot today but need a lot more.

We found our site easily and cooked dinner then walked (in the rain) to the showers. The park seems to be only ⅓ to ½ full.

So sitting here typing this with the lights and heater all running, hot drinks steaming nearby and 88% battery still left. Back to Bisbee tomorrow, we think.

Nerdy engineers report:

I caught the refrigerator on today and it draws 3.3 amps, not sure of the duty cycle.

It appears the range with a full tank of gas is 500 miles or so.

I got 21.9 mpg today the last 100 miles or so and Deb said she got 22.something on her driving leg this morning.

We still need to figure out how to make the little red light on the dashboard stop blinking all night (black tape?)