Been a while since you heard from us, hasn’t it? We’re a long way from those near-daily updates you were getting for a while. Ah well, this is the way of the world.

In a nutshell, we have not moved very far. We have gotten in touch with the folks at Alamo Rentals Insurance division and they are sending out the cheque. It’s nice to see that some people have shunned the computer era and are still taking 48 hours to write a cheque. No, wait. They *are* using computers and it *still* takes that long to write a cheque! Don’t ask me how it works - I am getting more confused by the day.

In any event, the cheque is coming and we have to hang around the Denver area until it does so we can take the van in and get it fixed. They are also paying for us to have 2 days of car rental and 2 nights in a hotel while it is being repaired (needs to be repainted apparently, so takes a while), so it’s not too bad.

It’s too expensive to be in Denver though, and frankly, Denver is a cultural wasteland. There are so many museums of cultural value that we consider it a “wasteland” in other words… Museum of Contemporary Art. Museum of Classical Art. Museum of Museums of Contemporary and Classical Art. You get the idea - Dullsville Central for us.

As a result, we are in Kremmling, Colorado which is home to 3000 odd people, and many of them are indeed odd people, by their own admission. The current excitement in town is that there is a new fence being built. Pretty scintillating stuff, I am sure you’ll agree. It’s a nice fence. A bit crooked though.

We also managed to find our second town in over 24 states of the USA that wants to charge us to access the internet - US$1 per 15 mins and since we’ve made it this far without paying for it, we’re damned if we’re going to start now. Most irritating aspect of it? They are connected all the time to the net and have 4 computers sitting idle, with lovely long hours each day, and we can’t use them…

The town motto of Kremmling is “Sportsman’s Paradise” but should be “By Golly, The Wind Gets Really Strong Here Every Afternoon And Blows Your Tent Over”. Still, it is working out well to be here - much cheaper than to stay in Denver and there’s enough around here to keep us busy looking at stuff.

Currently accessing the net through the computer belonging to the RV park owner since he was also horrified that we’d have to pay for it at the town library. What a good bloke, huh? We highly recommend this RV park by the way - it’s the only one we’ve found in the USA that provides complimentary soap and bathmaths for showers, firewood and a great place to spend the night. If anyone is in the Kremmling area, forget the library as an option to check email for free, but be sure to stop a night in the Red Mountain RV Park. Tell them we sent you and ask Jeff and Sara about the fence. It’s a nice fence. Bit crooked though.

We are estimating that by the time the cheque arrives in Kremmling at the Post Office (getting it sent there as “General Delivery” aka “Poste Restante”) and get back to Denver and through the body shop (aka “panelbeater” for those of us who speak English…*grin*), we are expecting to get away from here about 10 days or so from now.

There’s no hurrying some people, but I have to admit that the guy we have been dealing with for the insurance has been very prompt in helping us since we have a unique situation. Still, we were hit on the 18th May and we’re expecting to be on the road okay again by the 13th June - not exactly a blindingly fast period of time.

We encountered three SPOTDs in one day in Lakewood, Colorado recently.  Check out the relevant post for more details.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001