WOW!!
Day 18 – Nice quiet night at Diamond Lake RV Park; we all slept well. The campground is more empty this morning; several RV’s have left. We got up at 6:50 a.m. & 7:20 a.m. The kids were feeling their oats this morning, racing thru the RV on a mission to get us up. 41 degrees & sunny, clear. It’s nice to be spending another night here & not rushing to get back on the road.
A CHANGE OF SCENERY.
Day 17 – Last night we heard one or two coyotes outside, howling a little bit, not making a ruckus like they do when chasing prey. Early this morning some Canada Geese flew overhead, and it was definitely NOT the same noise we heard last night. We’ve officially left the big Interstate Highways behind us, We’re getting to the area where we vowed we’d slow down & stop staying just one night as we hurry across the country to the west coast. We’re looking forward to spending more time in each destination, beginning with a couple of nights near Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. We’d spend more time but a group of wildfires caused by lightning strikes late last July has caused the Park to close a big section of the West Rim. So there’s less for us to see.
193 miles
MANY NEW EXPERIENCES.
Day 16 – We were up at 7:30 a.m., 44 degrees & sunny. Rob took a couple of morning pics of the River. We like it at this campground & so do the cats who posed nicely for pictures.
199 miles
BEST LAID PLANS.
Day 15 – Beginning of Week 3. Last week we put 1,245 miles on the RV and travelled from eastern Iowa, through the rest of IA, NE, WY, UT & some of ID, visiting 5 states & staying at 6 different campgrounds. We saw lots of farmlands, went to a National Wildlife Refuge & a Migratory Bird Sanctuary, camped at 8,500 breathless ft. in the Medicine Bow National Forest among the Vedauwoo rock formations, saw an exhibition on the artifacts found in the sunken Bertrand (a circa 1864 steam/paddlewheeler), got waylaid by high winds the day after nearly being blown over during a strange wind storm at Lake Ogallala, saw the Great Salt Lake & the Snake River, got kicked off the Interstate due to a wildfire, and drove through scenery that knocked our socks off. Snow-capped mountains, rolling hills, trees, lakes, flatlands, farms, antelope, cows, horses, & many birds. After the scenery we saw this past week, we can’t wait to see what is in our future. Can it live up to this?
130 miles
SNOWY MOUNTAIN PEAKS, RIVER GORGES, AND A WILDFIRE.
Day 14 – It rained most of the night. When we got up at 7:30 a.m. it was cloudy, 44 degrees, and a light wind. We were not in a big hurry to leave this morning; our drive shouldn’t be too long today. Rob put the Utah sticker on the travel map. We will definitely explore Utah more at another time; the northern part was just incredibly beautiful.
255 miles
Day 13 – The traffic noise from I-84 is really loud; otherwise this is a good campground. It’s by the beautiful Great Salt Lake with the mountains behind it on one side, and close-by mountains on the other side. It was not crowded last night, but tonight they were fully booked up. It was 38 degrees this morning when we got up.
THE PROMISED LAND.
Day 12 – We were going to name today’s post, “Home on the Range”, but two things happened to change this: we haven’t yet seen any buffalo (although we have seen antelope playing), and the scenery changed from range-like to shock & awe-like. We spent most of today driving with our mouths open; the scenery was magnificent.
297 miles
MORE BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND.
Day 11 – Rob got up at 6:30 and I got up at 7 a.m. It got down in the 40’s last night, the girls didn’t have their heated pads because we had no electricity, so we had many visits during the night, with Luna eventually joining us under the covers. When we got up, it was 52 degrees with some mild wind gusts and sunny outside. Pixie helped with breakfast this morning by sitting in the sink while Rob cooked his eggs, observing his every move.
Pixie helping to make breakfast
124 miles. Dang wind!
BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND.
Day 10 – It was still windy at 2 a.m. when I got up to check on the girls. They were sleeping on their heating pads, oblivious to the pandemonium outside. Still clear out; I could see plenty of stars in the sky. Gracie came in later & joined us in bed, the three of us cuddling in the blankets where it felt safe.
218 miles
TRUCKIN’.
Day 9 – We figured we’d be putting some extra miles on the RV today, and we did. What was totally cool was that we crossed into Mountain Time & gained an hour towards the end of today’s trip – we didn’t know that was happening yet so that was a nice surprise. It was nice to have an extra hour after a long day of driving thru Nebraska. We’ve gotta admit, the idea of driving for hours through NE had been daunting. Like Kansas, we thought it was going to be miles & miles of nothing; yawn, boring (no offense intended to people living in the midwest). But it turned out to be more interesting than we’d expected.
373 miles