Day 3781

 I woke up at 7:30, played games, and then got up for breakfast.  We only had to do 130 miles today, so there was no hurry to leave.  We took our time getting hooked up and was still out of the park by 8:50.

 The first 70 miles or so of the drive was pretty "flat" ground and good pavement.  We only saw a couple of cars.  I say "flat" because it was all a gentle rise.  We actually climbed a couple of thousand feet.  After that we really started to climb.  The road went to a narrow canyon stretch like Richland, but with a much steeper slope.  Then it opened up to straighter sections but still kept climbing.

At the top of the pass (8640 ft) there was a sizeable town.  It looked like a cool tourist town.  There was no way I was going to stop with the trailer though.  Right after the town we started to go down.  The drop in elevation was 4,300 feet in about 19 miles.  The road wasn't bad though and with the exhaust brake I really didn't have to use the brake pedal much at all.  The scenery was fantastic though.  We got a great view of White Sands thousands of feet below us. 

The park was only a couple of miles from the bottom of the pass.  Unfortunately the truck had started a regen before the top.  It did the same thing it did last regen.  There was the usual stedy increase in soot until a little over 60%.  Then it rocketed up to 100% in a few miles and started a regen.  It was at about 40% when we started down.  Of course that made the regen stop.  At the bottom of the hill it started a warmup.  I drove about 10 miles on the highway by the park until it finished.

The park is kind of a dingy place, but it's OK.  The place they had us in was hard to get out of.  I'd parked in it when the manager suggested that I move to another space.  That required me to back the trailer out and make a 45 degree turn while I was doing it.  I did it perfectly.  All that fucking around parking the trailer at home has made a difference.  

We had lunch once we set up.  Then we went into town.  I drove from one end to the other just to see the place.  I stopped at a grocery store to look for protein drinks.  They had them, but not the right flavor.  The prices there were sky high for everything. 

We took Abby to the dog park in town.  She had a good time chasing birds and being chased by other dogs.  I walked 2 miles around the perimeter of the park.  On the way home we stopped at a tourist trap just because I like to go through them.

When we got back to the trailer it was videos.  Dinner was leftovers.  After dinner I watched a movie.  It was fun for a while, but I quit about 3/4 through.  I did a little surfing and then took an early shower.  It's going to get down to 48 tonight.

I think that this was a great day.  The drive was nice and we had fun going through the town.  Tomorrow we're just going to chill out here.  With the cold tomorrow that might be literal.