After three nights in Topeka, we take our leave in slow motion. Today’s mission is to tow the RV to a storage lot in Watkins CO, east of Denver, before dark. We'll park the trailer there for 10 days while we take a side trip. The 527 miles to Watkins will be one of the longest drives we've done with this rig.

Conditions aren't ideal for a long slog. Snow blows across I-70 for the first 200 miles, and the road is only partially plowed in spots. Barry keeps the throttle at 45 mph, mollifying the anxious back seat driver to his right. 

Our Subaru Ascent rolls over the 100,000 mark during this stretch. It's been a reliable performer, pulling the trailer for more than a third of that distance. Most people get a pickup for the job but we couldn't park a truck in our garage. The car fits in just fine – one of its endearing qualities.

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Mike AylingGreat cars.
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Thankfully it’s not too busy out here and conditions gradually improve. We poke along to Junction City where Barry takes the exit so he can refill one of the RV propane tanks at a hardware store.

We started the trip with two full propane tanks and plan to use them to keep the food stashed in the freezer frozen while the camper waits for us at the storage lot. Yesterday I went out there to hunt for a few things needed for the next leg of the trip. Shivering in the 5-degree cold, I turned the heat on for a little while and then turned it off, or so I thought. Apparently not because the furnace was running hours later and one of the propane tanks was nearly empty. So there’s an RV life lesson for me – be sure the furnace is all the way off.

The exit ramp is downhill, curvy and packed with snow. It seems the road crews focused on the highway and had less time to clear the exits. The car fishtails around the curve just enough that I fear we’ll slide off to join two cars and a semi-trailer stranded in the snow on the roadside. 

I give my captain a lot of credit for tolerating my fretful yelping as he steers us safely to the hardware store. He’s got this, of course, because as he calmly reminds me, he learned to drive on the snowy winter roads of northern Wisconsin. Sure, I think, but you weren’t pulling an RV on the interstate then. In the moment, I manage to keep that thought to myself.

By the time we approach Hays near the middle of Kansas, the roads are clear enough to pick up the pace to 55 mph, then 60. We’ve done this drive with the trailer a few times but I forget how much fuel it takes to pull it up the long ascent towards the Rocky Mountains. Normally we get 10-12 mpg towing the trailer. Today our fuel burn rate sinks below 5 mpg, the worst ever. I'm starting to wonder if we’ve pushed the Subaru past its limit. The bikes and snow piled on top of the car probably don’t help.

Gas stations can be sparse out here so I’m plotting stops to refuel every hour or so. After I relieve Barry at the wheel near the Colorado state line I pull back a little on the speed and our fuel consumption improves to 8 mpg. We’ll have to remember this for the next pass through western Kansas.

At 4:30 we finally reach Watkins, Colorado and turn south for the storage lot on a farm. I booked the space on the Neighbor app a month ago and hadn't looked at the route to get there. The hilly rural roads around here have been only partly cleared by the plows. I crawl along, trying to stay out of trouble as the daylight fades.

On Google maps the marker for the farm is on the wrong side of the road so I miss it and have to turn around. At this point I'm more than ready to turn the wheel back over to the captain. Barry expertly steers us into the storage area on the farm and backs up the RV into its spot in a snow-covered field. 

The temperature is all the way up to 20 and we have maybe 10 minutes of daylight left to pull the three bikes off the top of the car and stow them in the RV. They’ll hibernate while we’re gone, their snow-covered tires probably melting on the new floor Barry installed last summer.  

It's a relief to get here safely and drive away without the extra baggage. There's plenty of time for dinner before we check in to a hotel near the airport for our flight to Portland tomorrow.

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