Monday morning we left our beautiful site and headed back to Rocky Mountain National Park Moraine Park Campground, about 20 miles. We enjoyed watching the abundant numbers of elk and mule deer in the area.
We also saw a couple of coyotes and some Bald Eagles as we explored the area around the campground.
Tuesday around noon we got the call that the new tires had been delivered, so we left the campground late in the afternoon and started heading closer to the tire shop (CMC Tire in Johnstown, CO). We stopped in Estes Park for diesel (and a few more t-shirts), then made our way to their city water fill location to load ER150's water tank with fresh potable water (for a very small fee).
As we got close to the water fill area we noticed cars were stopped all along the road, and people were out standing and walking with cameras and binoculars. We soon noticed that there were several large groups of elk (wapiti) making their way through the area along the road, the road-side, and in the fenced-in park fields. They were everywhere (Bulls, Cows, and lots of Baby elk)!
It is rut season, and we knew that bull elk are especially aggressive now, so we slowly approached the water fill and waited until several elk cleared out before we began filling our tank. I kept a close watch while Mike was getting everything set up and filling the water. It was amazing! There was a community ball field and other fenced-in areas all around us, and the elk had found their way everywhere there was an open gate and some grass to eat. There were numerous people watching and taking pictures, and stopped all along the roads. The elk were in the middle of the road too causing quite the traffic jam.
The water fill was a pretty slow process (due to their low water pressure) and it took a long time to fill our nearly 100-gallon water tank, so we took lots of pictures of the elk while as we waited. Some of the elk were behind us with beautiful mountain backdrops behind them and the sunlight shining on them made for some really nice photos.
By the time we finished, the elk had begun moving down the road toward a nearby lake, so we were able to get back on the road and head back toward the Bass Pro Shops in Loveland where we decided to camp again (for free) for the night. We drove about 40 miles Tuesday.
We spent Tuesday night in their parking lot and got up early Wednesday morning (5:30am) to drive 7 miles to be the first in line at the tire shop
to get our new tires. We arrived just before 6:30am and they moved us into their large bay and got to work on ER150 just before 7am.
We wondered what kind of huge machine these tires (shown below in their parking lot) were for. And we thought our tires were big 😎.
The kitties were in their carriers in the waiting area with us, and they were not too happy but did just fine.
We had been on and off in touch with Lee and Tristan at this CMC Tire location for about a week and a half and they were ready for us when we arrived. We had originally thought we would install the newer Michelin X-Force tires but learned that Continental had finally released their long-awaited MPT91 tire with a heavier load rating and higher speed rating than the Michelin and our current Continental MPT81 tire. They were also a good bit cheaper than the Michelins so it was a no-brainer for us on which to choose since we were fans of the Continental tires. And CMC Tire is also an official Continental dealer.
While waiting for our work to be done we met many of the crew there at CMC Tire and everybody was extremely nice, professional, and very knowledgeable about Earthroamers, their tires and our Hutchinson Beadlocks (wheels). They do much of the work Earthroamer requires for tire needs for all of their different models (LT, LTs, LTi, LTx, SX, HD).
Our old tires came off, and the new ones went on -
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along with new beefier synthetic O-rings than the originals put on by Earthroamer, and should not be as prone to leak. We were extremely happy to hear about this since two of our wheels (the spare, and one rear) would lose psi during the day and require Mike to refill with air constantly - the leak coming from the skinnier white O-rings that did not fully fill the tire gap.
Old O-rings (white) vs New O-rings (orange/brown):
The guys worked extremely fast and professionally and it took just about 2 hours to get the tires replaced and wheels balanced. Lee gave us a couple of extras of the new O-rings in the event we needed them in the future (thanks!). We settled up the bill and a little while later we were on the road again. The drive out was so smooth... 😃
(We had an Excellent experience working with CMC Tire - we will give them all of our Earthroamer tire business in the future. 5 out of 5 stars!)
We traveled back to the Bass Pro Shops parking lot and decided to take an hour there to get the kitties situated and get settled. Mike re-attached the MAXTRAX recovery boards back onto ER150's rear spare tire and locked them down. We then got everything else we needed secured and ready to begin our drive home. We stopped in one more time at the Chick-Fil-A just across the parking lot, grabbed some food, and got on the road. What a smooth ride it was with the new tires (and our new alignment from earlier)!
We intended to drive halfway but ended up going the entire way (650 miles) to the Harrah's Kansas City Casino in Kansas City, Missouri.
We were able to get two comped nights, and since Thursday October 22 was our 32nd wedding anniversary, we thought this was a good place to celebrate. It was nice to have some space and a large spacious bathroom for a couple of days! And the kitties had some peace and quiet in their own personalized RV parking spot in the parking lot.
Favorite bird seen: American Goshawk (our nemesis yay!), seen in Kansas
Our journey:
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