June 30-Home Again!

We got an early start out of Whiskey Pete’s, even at that it was in the mid 80’s by 8am. We are thankful our trip home was uneventful and we decided we probably won’t make in more cross country driving trips unless we have a lot of stops along the way. Driving everyday is not fun. We are blessed to be home even if we face a lot of yard work, unpacking, getting our trailer back in pristine condition, and generally playing catch-up on everything! Thank you LORD that we are home safe and sound.

Good-Bye Whiskey Pete’s

CA Desert

Almost Home! Orange Trees on Clovis Avenue

Almost Home! Grape Vines on Clovis Avenue

June 29-Primm, Nevada

Everything went along fine today other than the heat. I believe the highest registration of heat was 111 degrees on our thermometer. If it was hotter I didn’t see it. Our van did fine with no overheating at all. We are so thankful the guys at Big O in Evergreen, CO did an excellent job for us. We enjoyed a lot of conversation today about our lovely trip and future plans. We got to Las Vegas by early afternoon with the help of PDST (turning the time back another hour) and figured we could optimistically plan for a Barstow, CA stop tonight. However, as soon as we were on the S/W side of Vegas things changed radically. It took us approximately 2 hours to travel the additional 12 miles to Primm, NV where we planned to get fuel. About 1,000 other people decided to get fuel here as well so it was quite an experience. We learned from others that this is typical traffic back into CA on a Sunday afternoon. Unbelievable! It took us close to an hour to get fuel, then sizing up the circumstances we figured it would be at least an hour to make it back onto the freeway. There were lanes merging from multiple sources in the parking lot to the one little on ramp going our direction. We checked on RV parking, there was none, well none with hookups anyway. We could have parked in a parking lot behind a casino and baked in our trailer in the now 109 temperature. The a/c doesn’t work without at least a 30 amp plug in. We surmised that a night at Whiskey Pete's Casino and Resort might be the ticket. We called the hotel section while waiting in the on ramp line and YES they have a vacancy, and YES for a mere $20 extra we can even bring our little furry friend! YAY! We were quite relieved, well, until we go TO the room.  I don’t think I am really picky but having an empty beer bottle on the nightstand and a rumpled bed makes me think it is not really the room for us. John went to talk to the front desk while I fed Tony, and also discovered the sink doesn’t drain in the bathroom. We moved rooms walking through the casino laden with smoke, walking our dog, past a car I later found out was the automobile Bonnie and Clyde were killed in (eeewww) and secured a much nicer room. We can see the traffic from our window, it is still crawling along. Our trailer is parked right outside as well. We will make a real effort to get home tomorrow.

In case you wondered, our room does NOT look like this:

Tomorrow, LORD willing…

June 28-Richfield, Utah

Colorado is a lovely state, in a few ways it reminds me of California because of the diversity. There are farms and crops, yet mountains and evergreens, then the mesas and desert areas, just missing the ocean like California has! No traveling issues to day other than the place we paid over $5. per gallon for gas. Passing through Colorado we were up to 11K feet at one point, so lush, green and lovely. Into Utah it is so dry and different but has so many lovely things to see as well. We are bypassing all but the few overlooks and interesting sites on Hwy 70. The geology is fascinating. We are in a “hard to find” KOA tonight, but we found it! Nice little oasis in this “desert” area.

Rocky Mountain High, Colorado

Colorado

Utah, San Rafael Reef

Utah, Black Dragon Canyon

 

 

 

June 27-Evergreen, Colorado

We didn’t make our tentative schedule today. No sooner did we pass by Denver when we began to overheat. We stopped, cooled off, began again with the same results. Three more stops to cool off before we were able to limp into Big O in Evergreen. We did try AAA first and they were willing to tow us of course but it was less than 2 miles, we had cooled down so we felt we could make it. We used our phones to “Google” and call around and found out Big O did replace thermostats. We only drove around 160 miles today but it was pretty stressful. At one of our stops a nice young man and his girlfriend (and dog) stopped to see if we needed help. He agreed with our assumption that it was probably the thermostat. He really couldn’t help but it was sweet of him to stop and I told him so. He grinned and said he saw the Casita and knew he had to stop because his mom has a Casita. At another stop the Colorado Patrol stopped. They were very nice but of course they couldn’t really help either. They left a number and card with us that we could call if we couldn’t make it to the Big O. I did let them know later that we made it and we were fine. Each stop, except the one where the young man stopped, we were well off the road and safe. We were on a back road and safe enough when the young man stopped. There ARE still nice people in the world!  Big O was a delight for us. They were so nice, friendly, helped up unhook, found a place to park the trailer in their lot and invited us to spend the night. Yes, diagnostics showed the radiator cap is faulty and the thermostat is not working. Before the guy who help us left for the night he came to check on us to see if we needed anything. We can definitely state the people at Big O in Evergreen, Colorado are a friendly bunch of people. We will be writing to their corporate office to complement them when we get home.

The Culprit: A thermostat, without a good one you don’t get far!

June 26-Sterling, Colorado

We had some rain in the night but when we awoke it was sunny and warm. We had a simple day driving mostly on I-80 until we got to a cut off of Hwy 76 and slipped into Colorado. It is still a decent freeway and the miles ticked away. It was 80 degrees by the time we left Lincoln, NE. The highest temp of the day on the road was 90. A/C in the car and in the Casita, we are comfortable anyway. Thunder storm warnings here until 9pm CMT but I assume we are safe and sound where we are. This seems like a rather poor area here at Buffalo Bill’s trailer park where people are living in travel sized RVs. A few very small spaces are set aside for overnighters. 

The Archway

Pony Express Memorial at Julesville, CO visitor center

Inching our way home!

June 25-Lincoln, Nebraska

I am feeling much more positive tonight than I did last night. My brilliant husband got us a nice shady spot with trees, running water, electrical hookups, all the comforts of home and I am feeling MUCH happier tonight. I guess he was tired of hearing me whine last night! It was very hot and uncomfortable with with the high humidity last night. We never really used our A/C unit before but we found it works very well. We are quite comfortable. We traveled about 300 miles today but it was good weather even if it was warm with a lot of road work. A lovely day. I still feel it is MUCH more fun to stop, explore, and see what there is to see along the way, but our goal is to get home now.

Omaha, Nebraska

Camp A Way campsite

Tony always cheers me up! He is the outlook for a fluttering leaf or insect! John’s pillow is his favorite spot!

Home…24 driving hours (we always take longer) 1,632 miles

June 24-Davenport, Iowa

We woke to rain in South Haven, MI and figured if we were waiting for the rain to stop we might be there all day so we headed out. We had rain off and on, not really too hard, through most of Michigan and part of Indiana. Moving along toward the Mississippi River the clouds gave way to the sun and the humidity rose accordingly. Tonight we are parked at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant in Davenport, Iowa. It is 86 degrees, but the good news is, it is supposed to drop to 64 during the night. We can hope that is the case. In retrospect, Michigan was just too far to go in the length of time we had. There are so many things we would love to stop and see but we are just driving now to get back home. Driving and not exploring isn’t much fun. We shall have better planning if we come this way again. At least we made our goal of all 50 states.

Weird “selfie” – I was trying to show how frizzy my hair is in the humidity. How do people do those pictures of themselves?

Cracker Barrel Tonight

The best I could get of an Iowa Sunset