September 25, 2010 (Sat) Bryce Canyon NP (3) 37/71° - Maintenance day. We expected crowds today, it being Saturday, so we decided to do some of the things day tourists probably wouldn't - like do laundry and dump and clean holding tanks. We were right. No lines at either venue. That taken care of, we spent most of the rest of the day sitting around enjoying the warmth (in the sun and relative to night time temps). In the evening we walked over to Sunset Point for an evening view of the canyon. Beautiful! The crowds were thinning so the views were mostly unobstructed. As it began to get dark we saw people way down in the canyon on trails and wondered about their ability to find their war to the top again after it go dark.
September 26, 2010 (Sun) Bryce Canyon NP (4) 41/65° - We had planned to take the Navajo Loop trail down into the canyon from Sunset Point this morning but decided against it. Mark was feeling a slight shortness of breath from the altitude and worried a bit about the steep climb out. Instead, we drove out to a couple of view points we skipped the other day. Getting to some of the platforms there involved uphill climbs. They were negotiated with no more than the expected and normal panting.
After a restful afternoon we both felt ready to tackle something more challenging. The Navajo Loop is only 1.3 miles long. Almost straight down then back up, true, but if we take it slowly we should be alright. It was the most spectacular hike! Photo opportunities at every turn. But strenuous. By the time we were back at the top - we can't believe the decent into the canyon was only 550 feet! - we were so dragged out that the 1/2 mile walk back to the campground seemed an impossibility. Fixing and eating dinner were almost as challenging. We were in bed very early!
September 27, 2010 (Mon) Bryce Canyon NP (5) 37/65° - We were going to drive over to Zion National Park for the day - campground is long since full - but we decided that a day of rest is in order. Mark seems fully back to normal (maybe) after yesterday's hike but Joy thinks the exertion may have reinvigorated her cold.
Well, best laid plans etc. After sitting around a while we decided a walk over to the General Store (a camp store and requisite gift shop) would do us good. And to make it more interesting than following the road we decided to take the "Rim Trail" from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point - a beautiful walk with many more photo ops. By the time we got to the store - we got lost between the trail and the store - we didn't feel like walking all the way back. So we took the park shuttle bus. Even so our pedometers registered 3.6 miles - not much when we are used to walking 6 miles a day but at 8000 feet and after yesterdays grueling hike, we were beat when we got back.
September 28, 2010 (Tue) Bryce Canyon to Zion to Bryce Canyon. (200/6802 miles) - In Bryce we are at the top of the canyon looking down (unless we hike down into the canyon) at Zion National Park we were at the bottom of the canyon looking up (unless we chose to hike up which we didn't!) Although only a hundred miles or so apart there is no comparison of the two landscapes. Both are beautiful, even spectacular in their own way.
After showers and breakfast we hit the road southwest. Most of the trip was the usual Utah scenery, flat with mountains in the distance, but as we approached Zion National Park the scenery became more and more unbelievable. As we descended into the canyon the rocks towered higher and higher above us - and closer and closer to the road. The road in was under construction but that helped in a way - we couldn't drive faster than we could see the scenery. Not that we could drive all that fast on those extremely winding roads anyway. If we were asked to rank this road with the road over White Pass into Skagway, Alaska, we'd be hard pressed to decide which is the most beautiful. The ride today really was beyond belief.
Normally we would have had to have an escort lead us through the 1.1 mile long tunnel into the canyon (we are 6" too wide to go it alone) while on-coming traffic waited. But the construction required one-way traffic through that area anyway so traffic was stopped one-way for everyone - and we didn't have to pay the $15 escort fee. Even though there was no on-coming traffic, it was hard to "take our half out of the middle." We bumped the side at one point. There was no damage, or even evidence that we had hit that we could find but the humiliation persists!
Once in the park proper, we parked at the Visitor's Center and took the Zion Shuttle, stopping to hike short distances on the trails and to take pictures along the way. There is far more than can be seen or experienced in a few hours. We had no illusion that this would be our "been there, done that" for Zion. We will be back and next time we'll camp in the park like we did here.
It's off to Arches National Park tomorrow.
Q068035 Sunset Campground, Bryce Canyon National Park #239 dry $7.50 A (x6)
QC03-09 Bryce Canyon & Zion
QC03-08 Eastbound The Beginning.
September 21, 2010 (Tue) Dalles, OR to Mountain Home, ID (361/5949 miles) 60/84° - We were up at 6:00 and ate breakfast but we waited around until the sun was up enough to light the bluff to our West. The rock and earth formations were worth waiting for a good picture. Once under way we proceeded east on the Lewis and Clark Trail (I-84) through the Columbia River Gorge. Beautiful! The windmills must be producing plenty of power, there are enough of them. The trains along both sides of the gorge are long and plentiful. Much commerce being moved!
Once out of the gorge, we stopped at a "Space Age" truck stop to readjust our itinerary - we wanted to go further south than we were going. While Mark fired up the computer, a horse trailer pulled up next to us. It was loaded with black and white cows! One of them stared at Joy, and she at it, eyeball to eyeball for longer than she would have wished. (Do you wish for that kind of thing?)
Our drive alternated between mountains and plains, all very scenic though in different ways. At 12:31 we passed over the 45th parallel - the half way point between Equator and North Pole. There was no dotted line that we could see. We are now on Mountain Time which through us off schedule a bit - it's later than our bodies tell us it is.
The young lady in the Walmart Customer Service department said that we were only allowed to stay 3 nights in their parking lot. That seemed fine with us. Nothing to see from here anyway.
Q067422 Camp Walmart Mountain Home, ID
September 22, 2010 (Wed) Mountain Home, ID to Great Basin NP, NV (412/6361 miles) 50/70° - Well here we are perched 8000 feet up on the side of a mountain in a stand of trees (Aspen) rare in these parts. Q is tired, as we all are, and his butt is covered with a thick layer of road dust from the three mile washboard dusty gravel road to the campground.
Today started out normally, if waking up in Walmart parking lot can be considered normal. It was very quiet there and dimly lit, good for sleeping. Up before dawn and back onto I-84 at 7:30. At 9:00 we turned onto US93 south and headed for Nevada. US50 in Nevada has been named "The Loneliest Road" but US93 must be a close second - mile upon mile of nothing, no trees, no hills, no wildlife or livestock, no buildings and no traffic. If we passed more than one car every five miles, we were in a traffic jam. There was only sage brush, sand, puffy clouds in a blue sky, and the highway lined with miles and miles of clumps of yellow flowers called rabbitbrush. Luckily we stopped for gas in Wells because as we left town and got back on US93 there was a sign saying "No gas for the next 78 miles"! Then there was another 50 some miles to the next station - a lot like Alaska but less scenic.
The fellow at the Lehman Falls Visitors Center (in the Great Basin National Park) said "You're 24 feet long. No problem, You can get into any site in any of the campgrounds." Mark asked again are there any sites available?" "No problem. You can get into any of the sites." That non-answer should have sent up a flag for us but it didn't. He was wrong on both counts. Lower Lehman Creek was full - mostly class A motor homes and fifth wheels (how they fit into those small spaces is a mystery). Upper Lehman Creek campground, with access roads that would have been a challenge to 4 wheel drive ATVs, had two "available" sites, neither anywhere near flat. One had a hump so big Q would have bottomed out - if he could have gotten into the site at all. The other had possibilities even though it was about as big as Q's footprint (i.e. 24'x8') We tried but our rear step hit the severe steep slope into it. The next campground up the road is Wheeler peak - only vehicles of 24' and less are allowed up there - but it was 12 miles further on and at over 10,000 altitude! Our information was that the water had been shut off because it tends to freeze up there this time of year. We resisted the temptation to go there.
Baker Creek campground is at the end of another spur, a three mile long gravel road. We took the first empty site we came to even though it was far from ideal. Q is low in his dusty rump and lists to starboard a bit but we're calling it home for tonight. Sleeping with our heads low will be an adventure.
From the Great Basin brochure:
Q067834 Baker Creek CG, Great Basin National Park. #6 dry $6 C
September 23, 2010 (Thu) Great Basin NP to Bryce Canyon NP (UT) (201/6562 miles) 48/75° - We experienced the Great Basin described above in living detail both yesterday and today. After coming down off the mountain we stopped in Baker for gas at the only act in town. At $3.25 a gallon, we limited Q's intake to 10 gallons. We probably could have made the next 75 miles of nothing but didn't want to take the chance. Then it was across a wide flat plain, over a mountain pass, across a wide flat plain, over a mountain, etc. at least four times. The road was dead straight most of the time. As we came over the pass we could see it all the way to the top of the next pass, maybe 20 miles away. What a fantastic drive!
The campgrounds in Bryce Canyon National Park are first-come-first-served, meaning no reservations are accepted. We got here at about 2:00 and found one campground full and the other almost full. We should have started out earlier! Even so we have a good site and will stay for a few days.
September 24, 2010 (Fri) Bryce Canyon NP (2) 30/69° - It got cold last night! 31°. By the time we had eaten our breakfast and were ready to explore the canyon it had dropped to 30°. Then as we drove out to Rainbow Point, the end of the 18 mile rim road and 1000 ft+ higher, it had dropped even further to 27°. But the temperature was soon forgotten as we walked out onto the viewing platform. What a spectacular view. It was beyond awesome! Think Grand Canyon without the steroids but with spires and rock formations more imaginary than can be imagined. After 4 hours we had hundreds of pictures and very weary legs from hiking the trails. (the 9000 foot altitude thin air was slow to feed aging muscles use to sea level exercise.)
Q068035 Sunset Campground, Bryce Canyon National Park #239 dry $7.50 A
QC03-07 And now to rest
September 13, 2010 (Mon) Yakima, WA to Edmonds, WA (214/5323) 54/77° - Gas is not cheap in Washington. We saw only prices over $3.00 as we drove to the campground last night. Some as high as $3.11/gal. We found the prices better in the city- $2.99 was common. When we saw a station advertising $2.91, we pulled in behind a van pulling a travel trailer. Big mistake! After waiting several minutes, Mark noticed the the van was not only not getting gas but was actually too far from the pump the get it if he wanted to. There seemed to be no one in the driver's seat and kids were running back and forth to the convenience store - and to the pickup truck at the other island not getting gas either. This went on for maybe another five minutes - it seemed like an hour - before there was any sign of drivers for either vehicle. We were completely blocked in, including cars behind us, so we couldn't leave. When we finally did get to the pump (maybe 15 minutes later) it was cash only, not even an option to pay more to use a credit card! We don't carry enough cash to fill the tank of a motor home. We went to another station.
The drive over Steven's Pass through the Cascade Mountains on US 2 was as beautiful as we remembered it from 5 years ago. The road has improved, widened to 3 or 4 lanes in many places, so we didn't feel guilty about our slow pace. We stopped at several scenic view points and took some good pictures. We hope!
We got to Phil and Gail's house high above Puget Sound at about 1:30. They and their daughter Alison greeted us and helped us make ourselves at home. It will be good to stay put for a while.
September 14, 2010 (Tue) Edmonds, WA (2) - A day of shopping trips now and then for Joy and generally a day of relaxation for both of us. And, of course, lots of visiting.
September 15, 2010 (Wed) Edmonds, WA (3) - Phil took us into Seattle (Fremont actually) this morning. This is an artist's village with many very interesting shops. Among the many attractions is the Fremont Troll who lives under the Aurora bridge. The was commissioned by the Fremont Arts Council and built by several artists several years ago. It was meant to keep the area under the bridge from becoming an urban ghetto and tire dump. We had lunch in a very good Thai restaurant in the village. On the way home we stopped by the Chittenden Locks which provides a link for boats between the saltwater of the Puget Sound and the fresh water of the ship canal connecting to Lake Union and Lake Washington. We are always fascinated with watching the boats go through locks.
September 19, 2010 (Sun) Edmonds, WA (7) The last few days have been full of all those things that make family visits so much fun - fun to experience, not so much fun to read about. Thursday, Joy, Gail and Alison went into Seattle, to the famous Pike Market to be exact, while Mark stayed home to fight a coming on cold. The girls ate at a French restaurant and pronounced it very good. Today Mark, Joy, Gail and Phil went into downtown Edmonds to the their "Summer Market", a weekly farm market extravaganza. (Maybe not really an extravaganza but big and interesting anyway). Other than that we all pretty much hung out nursing various stages of our colds.
One highlight, among many, was our spectacular view of Puget Sound from our bedroom window. What a treat that was!
Q066796 Phil and Gail's driveway (parked) (x7)
September 20, 2010 (Mon) Edmonds, WA to Dalles, OR (265/5588 miles) - A tearful good-bye and heartfelt thanks to Phil, Gail and Alison for sharing so much with us. We will be back and we won't wait 5 years next time. It was drizzly and overcast as we packed Q in preparation for the long trip home. The drizzle, just enough to allow the 18 wheelers to keep our windshield constantly covered, continued down 1-5 and East on I-90 until we started into the Cascade Mountains then it began to rain as if it meant it. The sightseeing was replaced with tension filled driving. It didn't let up until just before we reached Yakima - where it seldom rains. We stopped there, got gas and picked up supplies before going on. The winds picked up considerably as we headed for the Columbia River Gorge, blowing us around as much or more than it did when we crossed Kansas a couple of weeks ago. And it's blowing still.
This campground is run by the US Corp of Engineers, as are many on waterways with dams and locks. It's a first come, first served campground so we had hoped that getting here relatively early (4:00) in the middle of the week would mean we'd get a campsite and maybe even a good selection. Didn't happen! There are a lot of fishermen here expecting a run of salmon. So we are in the overflow area (read parking lot). But except for what looks like permanent tent village at the other end of the parking lot, the scenery is wonderful. There are high bluffs all around us topped with scores of wind turbines. While we can't see the Columbia River from here, there is an inlet a few hundred feet away. It's quiet now and we expect it will be overnight as well.
Q067061 LaPage Park (COE), Dalles, OR dry $6.00 B
QC03-06 Pacific NW here we come
September 9, 2010 (Thur) Franktown, CO to Meeker, CO (266/4061 miles) 53/76° - It was clear and we could see the Rockies this morning. What a beautiful place to have a house! Thank you Jer and Kim for sharing your view with us - and, of course, your facilities and most of all, yourselves. We had a great time.
Our first stop was the King Sooper (a supermarket) for gas where a very friendly local swiped his membership card in our pump giving us a 3¢/gal discount on our gas. Then we headed for Meeker, CO following Lee and Frannie. We, Mark and Joy, missed the turn to the interstate around Denver and found ourselves in the heavy commuter traffic. Actually it wasn't bad by New York City standards and we didn't lose much time at all. When we met Lee and Frannie at the the Grizzly Creek Rest Area in Glenwood Canyon, it turned out that they hadn't gotten there much before we had. In spite of the detour it was a spectacular drive through the Rockies - especially through the canyon. The canyon is hard to describe and impossible to photograph, the walls are so close and so high, But what a ride!
After eating lunch we took off separately and met again at the Walmart in Rifle, Co. Lee had some things to pick up for their weeks in the wild and we can always find something we need there. As we were about to leave a big two trailer FedEx semi-truck came into the parking lot. It was fascinating watching him make the very tight turn into the lot. We didn't think he was going to make it, but he did and we pulled Q into a tight turn toward the exit road where the FedEx truck was then making a turn into the parking lot proper. We heard a loud bang and looked over to see that a large nearly round boulder (decoration on the corners of the grass islands at the end of each parking row) under the near side of the second trailer. It was big enough (larger in diameter than the truck's wheels) that it held the rear wheels up off the ground. Instead of stopping, the truck kept going causing the wheels roll up the boulder, almost tipping the trailer over! If they had topped the rock it would have gone over for sure but the wheels slipped off and the trailer slammed back town onto the rock. This happened several times and each time we thought the trailer was going to go over. It didn't and the driver finally became aware of what was happening and stopped. In addition to pulling the boulder off the island, his tight turn had knocked over a sign that read "No Trucks".
The campground in Meeker is really a parking lot with a few electrical outlets, some of which worked - ours didn't - for overnight RVs. The $15 a night fee provides some loose change income to the Meeker Chamber of Commerce. We walked the very interesting little town and had dinner in the Meeker Hotel, frequented in the past by the likes of Theodore Roosevelt, Gary Cooper and Billy The Kid.
Q065534 Meeker, CO Municipal Park dry $15
September 10, 2110 (Fri) Meeker, CO to Riverdale, UT (328/4389 miles) 50/69° - It got a little chilly during the night. Since we were going to take showers, we turned the furnace on for a few minutes to warm things up before getting up at 6:30. Lee and Frannie's dog, Red Bone, has been favoring his right front paw for several days. They decided to have it looked at this morning so we said our good-byes and they went off in search of a Vet. After tending to Q's sanitary needs and fumbling around for a the best route west we finally settled on SR 64 and got under way.
The mountains were behind us, but the scenery was no less beautiful. What we were watching pass by cannot be easily described. It was the type of scenery that looks spectacular in real life but falls horribly flat and uninteresting in pictures - unless take by professionals. And to make matters more frustrating, the most photogenic scenes came along when there was no way we could pull over to take the pictures. Even so we got a few for our memory book.
We crossed the state line into Utah at 11:39am and almost immediately the landscape looked more "Utah". It took on the red cast and butte dominated skyline seen so ofter in advertisements for Utah. It was all very beautiful. It is amazing to us Easterners how there can be so much undeveloped land. We would travel for miles and not see a single man-made object except for the road and an occasional passing car or truck.
At one scenic pull-off we met a young couple who was bicycling across the country. Not being journalists, we neglected to ask many important questions. We did learn that they had started in New York city and that he had grown up in a small town near Syracuse, NY (he knows where Fayetteville is), but questions like when did they start out and what is their destination city were left unanswered.
Q065862 Camp Walmart, Riverdale, UT (north of Salt Lake City)
September 11, 2110 (Sat) Riverdale, UT to Meridian, ID (360/4749 miles) - The Riverdale Walmart is one of the nicest places to park that we've encountered. It's quiet - meaning no fast, muffler challenged cars or motorcycles roaring past, no trucks with engines running, no trains blowing whistles, no street sweepers cleaning the parking lot at ungodly hours. We thought we might have a problem with aircraft noise from the nearby Air Force base but only one plane attempted to land on top of us. And the view beyond the stores around us was of mountains - when it was light enough to see them.
After a good night's sleep for both of us, we were up at 6:15 and on the road by 7:25 (45° clear). As we left the City we saw a road sign for the Golden Spike National Historic Site with no indication as to where it was. Several miles up I-84 later we came across the exit. It turned out to be 40 miles out of our way but the detour was well worth the time and gas. Today being Saturday, we saw the full reenactment of the ceremony surrounding the driving of the golden spike to signify the completion of the country's first transcontinental railroad. The narrator and volunteer "actors", one from the audience, were in period costume and worked their way through their scripts with very few stumbles. The replicas of Central Pacific's Jupiter and Union Pacific's No. 119 locomotives were decked out in authentic, bright colors. Beautiful! They puffed across the desert and met in front of us where the ceremony took place.
Although it started out cold this morning, 41° when we got up, the day warmed up considerably. It was 66° as we ate our lunch in the Golden Spike NM parking lot (Q had been sweltering in the Utah sun) and well into the 70s by the time we pulled into the Walmart parking lot in Meridian (near Boise), ID. The manager there said, when we asked him about spending the night, we could stay up to 3 nights. We said we only needed to stay 1.
Q066222 Walmart Meridian, ID
September 12, 2110 (Sun) Meridian, ID to Yakima, WA (360/5109 miles) 51/87° - As we lay in bed waking up, this morning, we were prepared to rate this Walmart one of the better ones. In addition to the very friendly management, there were relatively few loud muffler incidents and none after 10:00 or so. The parking lot was big and quite empty where RVs were allowed to park. 15 minutes later we were scrambling to leave as fast as we could. As we were in the process of converting bed room to living room a big white pickup truck pulled into the space next to us - strange in itself since there was a whole parking lot to choose from - so close that it was a wonder its extended rear view hadn't scraped along Q's side. Looking out the driver's window, Mark could see that if it were to move another 6 inches forward, its rear view mirror would seriously damage Q's rear view mirror. It was too close by 3 inches! Mark also saw that the driver was staying in his seat. The fellow, quite heavy in the stomach, didn't seem interested in us - we didn't feel particularly threatened (a bit nervous maybe) but we did wonder if he might be taking exception to the Obama sticker on Q's rump. Since he was just sitting there - drunk? high? tired? oblivious? distracted? - there was no way of knowing when he would pull out, taking our mirror with him. We decided to abandon our morning routine and head for a rest area. We stopped at McDonald's for some coffee on the way out of Meridian but the rest area wasn't very far - just across the state line into Oregon. There we finished our bed-to-living conversion, got dressed and fixed and ate our breakfast before moving on.
I-84 is under construction in several very long stretches and we passed two accidents - one where the vehicle was so badly damaged that it was hard to say whether it was a car or a pickup - it apparently rolled several times. There was also a serious backup in one construction area. Chatter on the CD indicated that some yo yo had a flat tire on his trailer - utility as it turned out - and had stopped in the middle of the barricaded, single lane road to change it - rather than going on to where he could pull off the road.
The scenery through Oregon was mostly rolling knobby brown hills - for miles. No trees. just dried out grass with some sage brush mixed in here and there. It often looked very alien, like a Martian landscape, and like in Idaho, there was constant long vistas with high mountains in the far distance.
We've stayed in Sportsmen State Park every time we've been in this area. It's a nice little park, and very popular with the local community on weekends.This time we won't be visiting the Chinook factory though. Trail Wagons is out of business - some five years now.
Q066582 Sportsman State Park, Yakima, WA #44 dry $21.00 B
QC03-05 Westward Ho
September 5, 2010 (Sun) Springfield, MO to Independence, MO (182/3257 miles) 64/86° - The phrase "rolling hills" is never so apparent as when driving north through Missouri. Picture an arrow-straight 4 lane highway centered in a very wide swath cut through green forest, undulating up and down as it recedes into the distance. That is Missouri to us. US13 was our path this morning. We expected a somewhat winding 2 lane road out of the Ozark Mountains. So did Hildene. Every few miles she'd instruct us to navigate back onto the road. A look at her screen map showed that she thought we were driving across open fields/farm land. No wonder she was so insistent! Apparently the highway we were on was build since her maps were created. In fact some signs along the road indicated that the road had been open only since summer.
The drive was easy and spectacularly beautiful all the way to Kansas City. Then the nightmare began. The interchanges, exits and lane changes on the interstates, the only way to get to where we needed to go, were bad enough but we also had to negotiate some city streets. Still not too bad. But we could not see the RV park from the address Hildene led us to, correct as it turned out. It looked like a city park rather than an RV park. We ended up in the congested streets of Independence where there was some sort of festival going on. Most of the streets were blocked. After calling the campground we knew where we needed to go but there was literally no way to get there, directly at least. We had to get out of the festival area and make a wide circle and come in from another angle. Even then the only way to break out of an endless loop that we found ourselves in was to go around a road block. Luckily no one saw us or cared if they had. We pulled into the campground at about 12:30 and took the showers we had put off this morning.
Ed and Kathy, on their way home from Alaska, arrived at about 2:00. We spent the afternoon talking travel experiences and then went to the Hi-Vee supermarket for dinner. Big mistake! Wegmans or Whole Foods they are not!!
Q064730 Campus RV Park, Independence, MO. #3 w/e/s $28.28 C
September 6, 2010 (Mon) Independence, MO to Goodland, KS (366/3623 miles) 69/84° - Campus RV Park was thickly populated (maybe 12' between rigs) and noisy (mainline trains went through very nearby every 15 minutes or so all night long, driven by engineers with sadistic bents (they would lay on the horn as they entered town and not let up until they were out, some five minutes later - it seemed like an hour), a next door neighbor's dog whining and barking to be let in 10 feet outside our bedroom window for about 20 minutes (11:30pm) and a diesel pickup, it turned out, left with its engine idling right in front of Q (12:30pm) But the company was superb! Thanks, Ed and Kathy, for meeting us and for the chance to share stories. We'll do it again sometime - in a different town.
We got off at about 7:30am, said good-bye to Ed and Kathy and drove west on Truman Rd (Independence, MO in the hometown of Harry Truman) to I-70. From there is was I-70 all the way across Kansas. There is not much to be said about the scenery. Kansas is pretty much flat and unremarkable. Some say that this stretch of the road as boring and they are relieved when it is behind them. To us it is beautiful and not at all boring. Even in the mid-western prairies there is an endless variety of landscape and things to see and talk about. We love it. The only distraction was the buffeting we got from heavy cross winds - 20 to 30 mph according to some radio meteorologists. We were both exhausted when we pulled into the Goodland, KS Walmart for the night.
Some interesting things along the way:
We'd seen signs every few miles for maybe 50 miles for an adult (sex) superstore. It turned out to be right off the interstate. On the ramp leading back onto the highway there was a large billboard that said, in part, "The eyes of the Lord are on you."
We saw huge wind mills across several ridge lines - hundreds of them. And later on we saw one of the blades for a similar windmill on a transport truck. It's unbelievable how big they are.
There were signs advertising, among other things - i.e. tourist trap goodies - the worlds largest prairie dog. We wanted to stop to take pictures to email to Jeff and Jennifer but would have had to pay to get in to see it!
Q065096 Camp Walmart Goodland, KS
September 7, 2010 (Tue) Goodland, KS to Franktown, CO (170/3793 miles) 51/77° - Since we'd gone to bed so early last night - as soon as it got dark - we were awake and ready to get up early this morning, 4:45! We were on the road at 5:15 (51° still dark but sky looked clear , no wind), got gas and proceeded west on I-70. At the first rest area we stopped and ate our breakfast watching the dawn. There was a beautiful sunrise in the rear view mirrors as we pulled onto I-70 again.
The scenery is all very "western" now with panoramic vistas of signature rolling knobby hills. Except for these very low variations the whole area seems almost flat, but in fact, we had been slowly going up for the last several days. Topping one particularly big hill our altimeter showed 6285 feet. That's over a mile above sea level!
We eagerly watched and waited for our first view of the Rockies but our vigil went unrewarded for quite some time because of haze on the horizon. We passed a building calling itself "Peak View Motel" and assumed that Pike's Peak must be visible from there so we made a concerted effort to see it and we did - very vaguely. The Rockies are still there.
We got to Jeremiah and Kim's at about 9:30 am. Frannie and Red Bone, their dog, were there to greet us. Jer and Lee were off shopping and Kim was working (via computer). We all got together after a while and had a great time visiting and renewing family relationships. For dinner we went to a Thai/Vietnamese restaurant in a near by town. Excellent!
September 8, 2010 (Wed) Franktown, CO (2) 61/76° - A day to hang out and visit. We continue westward tomorrow.
Q065266 Jer & Kim's yard
QC03-04 Out of the south
September 1, 2010 (Wed) Englewood, FL to Cordele, GA (393/2290 miles) - We broke camp and Joy went in and said good-bye to her mother - tough! Stops at Publix in Englewood for supplies, the Walmart in Venice for gas and a Subway for coffee took about an hour. We were finally on the road at 9:36. Why Walmart gas? By using a Walmart gift card that we buy (or recharge) with an American Express card, we can save the equivalent of about 8¢ a gallon on already very inexpensive gas.
Flying J truck stops have prided themselves and have a reputation for being RV friendly. They are beginning to lose that with us. They now charge $10 to dump RV holding tanks. It used to be free. It's half price for RV Club members (there is also a 1¢ discount on gas). On the way south we got our 50% but there was no fresh water available at that station. We had to stop at another for that. Did we steal it if we didn't pay another $5 fee? If so, so be it! Today we were told our club card was no longer active. What? We were told we should have gotten a new one in the mail. We didn't. So it cost us $10 to dump and then we had to wait in the gas pump line, even though we didn't need gas, to get our fresh water. From now on we patronize Flying J only in desperation.
Crossed into Georgia at 3:44 and made our way here to the Cordele Walmart. It's hot here too!
Q063763 Camp Walmart Cordele, GA
September 2, 2010 (Thu) Cordele, GA to Clear Creek Rec Area, William B. Bankhead Nation Forest (299/2589 miles) - Our friend Ed would appreciate the fact that the Cordele Walmart is about 500 feet from a railroad (CSX?) main line. Every 5 to 15 minutes a 50 plus car train rumbles past - in each direction! - blowing its whistle for the nearby crossing. Unnerving to say the least! We get relief only when we turn the generator and A/C on to reduce the 92° heat. Luckily they stopped running at about 10:00. Mark and Joy disagree about whether this was one of the noisiest or quietest Walmarts we've stayed at. Neither slept well but Mark evidently slept through the noise and Joy through the quiet.
Needless to say, we were up early (5:45), ate breakfast and were ready to hit the road just before 7:00 (72° clear sky but hazy) We stopped for coffee at a very busy McDonald's not at all set up for motor homes, even those as small as Q. Almost all of our driving today was on US280 to avoid the rush and angst of the interstates. Most of it was a real pleasure, very little traffic and the beautiful rural Georgia and Alabama landscapes to watch out the window. Peanut and cotton fields predominated the more rural areas with an occasional pecan grove filling in. The villages understandably slowed us down but most of them were only minor annoyances. Americus, GA was an exception. It is a small city and US280 went through the downtown section. Birmingham, AL was a nightmare!! 'nuf said. We are glad for the peace and quiet of a National Forest campsite where we will stay an extra day to recover.
September 3 2010 (Fri) Clear Creek Rec Area (2) - This campground is a lot like the Strom Thurman Dam campground we were at the end of our winter trip in 2008. The configuration of the lake shore and the look of the "beach" are almost identical. But it's all hill here. It's a steep hill all the way from the gate to the campground and lake (maybe a mile). We'd thought we might take our bicycles out to explore but had second thoughts. This kind of terrain is good for going down but impossible for going up with our out of condition legs. Instead we explored on foot. We probably did less than two miles in all but by the time we were back home our legs were rubber. It's been cooler today than it has been but still too hot for that kind of exercise. In general, it's been quiet here and a good place to unwind after a couple of weeks of stress. We were almost alone most of the day but the Labor Day weekend crowd filled the empty campsites by late afternoon.
Helping to contribute to our ability to "get away from it all" is our almost total lack of contact with the outside world - no TV, no phone reception, no internet and only a handful of radio stations, most with unexceptionable program content. This isolation has been both a blessing and a frustration.
Q064062 Clear Creek Rec Area, William B. Bankhead NF #70 w/e #12.05 A (x2)
September 4, 2010 (Sat) Clear Creek Rec Area to Springfield, MO (486/3075 miles) - We woke up this morning and discovered that we'd crossed into a different time zone sometime on Thursday. So our bodies were telling us we were getting off at 8:36 but it was really 7:36 (58° clear sky, crescent moon) - that after eating breakfast, breaking camp and tending to Q's sanitary needs. Our route out of the national forest and back onto US78 was through some very rural areas of Alabama. Although Hildene didn't direct us onto any dirt roads, there were plenty to be seen. The rest of the drive was pretty much straight forward up US78 and US63 from Alabama through Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and into Missouri. The highway and landscape were beautiful most of the way. US78 is about to become I-22 - it's hard to determine why it's not already unless it's the traffic lights now and then in or near the "cities" - and US63 was divided 4 lanes most of the way.
Off in the distance we could see what was either a bird or an airplane (we were pretty sure it wasn't Superman) doing some kind of acrobatics. As we got closer, we could see that it was a bright yellow crop duster. We saw several of these. It made us wonder how much of that poison was making it to our bloodstreams.
Walmarts are usually very accommodating to us weary travelers. Unless local officials enact ordinances forbidding it, they allow overnight RV parking. Here they even provide hookups. Actually we disagree on what they are for but there is a water spigot and 3 120v receptacles in the grass island beside where we are parked.
Q064548 Camp Walmart Springfield, MO
