Year 1 Day 32 Locked In

Today was a rather trying day.  It started out just fine as we bundled up LeuC for our drive up to the Denver area and the St. Vrain State Park.  Mary Margaret followed me out of our Trinidad Lake State Park site to the sewer dump station just past the park entrance so we could empty our grey and black water tanks.  I then tried to open LeuC’s door to set up the sewer hose.  However, when I pulled on the door handle, it would not open.  The door has two locks: one is a simple dead bolt that you mechanically pull to lock and the second is an electric lock which locks when you push a button.  It was the electrical lock that would not budge.  Gulp!  I was locked inside our bus and could not get out!

I tried everything I could think of to unlock the door.  We have a number of buttons located around the bus that locks and unlocks the door.  I went to each location and pushed the button.  I could hear the “click” inside the door each time I pushed one of the unlock buttons but still the door was locked tighter than a drum.  Double gulp!

By now, Mary Margaret arrived from parking the car and was curious as to why I was still inside LeuC.  When I explained my predicament, she suggested that I pass her the key that would unlock the door from the outside.  Brilliant!

Unfortunately, the key would not turn the locking mechanism and the door remained lock.  Next, she tried inputting the door unlock code using the code buttons that are on the door handle.  Once again, I heard the lock mechanism “click” but the door still would not open.  Panic was now starting to set in.  I felt locked up in a jail cell with long term sentence starring me in the face.  Triple Gulp!

By now another RVer had pulled up behind us to use the sump.  Since we were not able to readily drain our tanks as we struggled to free me from my prison, I pulled LeuC up and then backed her into a slot on the other side of the sump, letting the other RV pull in to drain his tanks.  The driver then came over and offered his assistance.  Alas, he too could not free me from my jail cell using the key, the fob, or the door handle unlock code.

In desperation, I next decided to call our technical assistance number to get instructions from an expert.  In time, he came on the line and had me try all of the procedures which had failed to work already.  I suggested to him that Mary Margaret could pass me the tools I would need to remove the door handle plate from the inside.  He suggested that I do not attempt that because I would not readily be able to refit the plate back on when I had sprung the locking mechanism and thus, would not be able to close the door.  He said it takes someone who knows the system to do this properly.  Instead, I should just call for a mobile service to come and free me.  Damn!

Mary Margaret then came up with her second brilliant idea.  She suggested that we just drive both of our vehicles to the local truck stop to see if they had a mobile service.  I jumped at that suggestion and off we went.  The truck stop was just a few miles away, at the freeway on/off ramp to the town of Trinidad.

As I pulled into a truck parking space, a mobile service truck was pulling away from the gas pumps.  Mary Margaret spotted the truck leaving and ran after it frantically yelling and waving her arms.  Unfortunately, the driver did not see her and off he went, back onto the freeway.  Double damn!

However, a rather seedy looking fellow in a pickup, packed with a couple of dogs in the back seat, pulled up and asked Mary Margaret if she needed help.  He gave me the evil eye as if I was threatening her from the inside my prison.

After Mary Margaret explained our situation, he came over and suggested that he tried the key on the lock.  With little hope, since we had already tried the key a couple of times, she passed him the key.  He slipped the key in and…bingo!  The lock turned, I opened the door and was freed from my temporary prison cell.  Yay!

Now we cannot explain why the key worked for this scruffy looking fellow but we really did not care.  I also tried the locking buttons and they now all worked!  Go figure!

After tipping the scruffy looking fellow (his name was Cliff), we hooked up our little car to the back of the bus and off we went.  Yea!

While we originally left our campsite this morning at 0900, we did not arrive at our campsite at the St. Vrain State Park until after 1630.  This is because during our travels we had to stop once to shoo out a wasp that had snuck into our bus at the truck stop, we stopped and enjoyed lunch at George’s Drive-In near Walsenburg (at the recommendation of our cruiser friends, Bill and Tracy of S/V Zephyr), fought through very bad traffic going through Colorado Springs, fought through very bad Friday afternoon rush hour traffic as we went through Denver and finally, stopped at a truck stop in the middle of Denver to fill up our diesel tank and DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) tank.

Once we had unbundled LeuC in her new camping site, we each heaved a big sigh of relief.  Now was time to play!

Our good friends, Shalene and David, who live in Brighton, just a few miles away, were coming over so we could all go out together for dinner.  When they arrived, we gave them a brief tour of LeuC and then off we went, heading out for the Echo Brewery which was about 10 miles away.

The brewery served delicious beers which we quaffed down, wiping the suds off our faces.  We also enjoyed the brewery’s artisan pizzas.  It was wonderful to be enjoying a fun evening with such good and old friends.

By the time we returned to LeuC, we were exhausted from such a long, long day.  However, tomorrow we will be up bright and early as Shalene and David will be taking us on an all day tour of the Rocky Mountain National Park and then driving down to the old mining towns of Central City and Black Hawk for a dinner.

Photo Of Our Route Up To Denver After Breaking Me Out Of My Prison Cell

 

View Of Pike’s Peak As We Approached Colorado Springs

View Of Famous Castle Rock As We Approached Denver