Our truck update
We crossed The Rockies and oof....it wasn't pretty. Well, it really was pretty but talk about hills of new proportions!! Twists and turns and ups and downs!!
About 60 miles outside of our destination, we had to cross Monarch Pass. This pass is located on the Continental Divide on route 50. Remember in middle school when you first really kinda understood percentages? The sign said 7% downgrade. Ok, 7% is less than 10% and doesn't sound that bad, right? WRONG!!! We followed a truck who never seemed to hit his brakes on the way down. Odd... he was probably in like 6th gear.
FYI Wikipedia's headings for Monarch Pass are as follows:
Location & Basic Details
Advisory Speed Curves and Grades
Scenery
History
Weather Station
We're nearing the bottom of Monarch Pass and driver Vern says to passenger Ashleigh "Um, I don't think our brakes are working". Not what you want to hear in the mountains!! We managed to find a pull off gravel site about 45 east of Gunnison to attempt to problem solve. No cell service. We got out our Starlink internet satellite to attempt to make Wi-fi calling. (Don't worry, we had to google how to do this.)
Our insurance company said they'd try to find someone for roadside assistance and call us back. In the meantime, we called a tow company in Gunnison and they said they could send two trucks out (one for the truck, one for the camper) but we probably just needed to let our brakes cool down. At this point, we had been off the road for about an hour and no longer smelled anything 'hot' coming from underneath the truck. We decided to chance it. The tow truck guy said it was mostly flat and to go slow.
We made it to the campground around 7:30pm, parked in the parking lot and called it a day.
The following day, Gunnison police called to make sure we were ok because apparently our insurance company didn't get the 'cancel service' request. It's nice to know police actually complete welfare checks.
Locals said to take our truck to the mechanic in town on Monday. $4700 later, we have new calibers, brake pads, rotors, and sensors... Expensive lesson to learn. We had a rainy day fund for something big. The brakes on our truck were the only thing not replaced before leaving so at least we'll have brakes for the rest of our trip. And we will not be crossing there again, we've already checked the map for October!
We're safe & sound. We're staying put until August 11th!
