We ran away from home on Memorial Day afternoon so we could be first in line at the motorhome service facility at Sacramento Truck Center on Tuesday morning. Lawrence (the motorhome guru) kindly allows us to "camp" in his service area driveway, and we were up at 5:30 on Tuesday so we could check in at 6:30.
We're runnin'....
We went to breakfast while Nessie was being serviced with our long-time friends, Jo and Larry. They have a very nice, large, motorhome that they travel the country in, and just happened to be in the Sacramento area. About 2:00, Lawrence called and told us that we were ready to go, so back to the shop, hook up the tow car, and hit the road..... We made it to Verdi, Nevada, about 120 miles into our journey, and spent the night in a parking lot (thank you, Cabela's!)
Wednesday was a long(ish) day, some 360 miles to Elko, Nevada. If you've ever traveled Interstate 80, eastbound, through Reno, Lovelock, Winnemucca, Battle Mountain, and Carlin, you know that this stretch is high on the "loneliest road in America" list! The road is well maintained, fairly straight, with few mountains to cross. At a rest stop, Donna wanted to practice driving the motorhome, so she climbed onto the drivers throne and went to work. And she did very well! After a few miles of lip-chewing and wheel-gripping she settled down and focused on driving. So many things to pay attention to! Somewhere along in here I also settled down and passed the time (read....staying distracted) messaging with a friend. All was well until we got to a 15 mile stretch of one-lane construction highway through Winnemucca! Back to the white knuckles! But again she did well and, frankly, surprised me with her grasp of driving a house down the road!
We had anticipated warm weather and made reservations at Ironhorse RV Resort in Elko. What we got for weather was wind, heavy rain, and mud! Nevertheless, Ironhorse is a nice little park, with lots of grass for Sasha, and wide, paved roads. The rv sites are DG gravel, a finely ground material that sticks to everything when it's wet. A mess for sure!
We're beginning to see a pattern here....Up early on Thursday morning, with 250 miles to Park City, Utah in the crosshairs and the Park City RV Resort. It was a reasonably short day of driving, but the loss of an hour moving into Mountain Time put us into downtown Salt Lake City right in the middle of commute time! Working together, Donna and I were able to navigate the highways just fine, and soon popped out on the east side of town. Park City is a few miles east of SLC, in an area known for its outdoor activities. The park is small, but well kept, and has concrete pads to park on. The highlight, though, is the location. From the office, you can see the famous ski areas, and a short walk gets you to a cute creek with mountain biking trails leading up into the hills (mountains?). Great place!
Ok, here we go again. Friday morning we're up again, missing an hour of sleep (!) and hitting the road toward Rawlins, Wyoming. Another 200-odd mile day, with high wind warnings regularly posted along the highway. We've been through Rawlins in the past (everyone seems to go through Rawlins) but we had to stop again. This time we're staying two nights to catch up on sleep, laundry, and Mountain time. Rawlings is a railroad town, thoroughly dominated by the Union Pacific, and was once a stop for wood, coal, and steam locomotives, Now, diesel fuel is required; 1,470,000 gallons of it in each of two tanks! The fueling stations were awesome to see! Too bad the hoses and nozzles wouldn't fit Nessie!
We hadn't noticed the high wind blowing as we drove yesterday, probably because it was a tail-wind, and also because Nessie has Newmar's proprietary Comfort Drive system, which is a computer aided system designed to take the moment-by-moment stress out of driving. But when we pulled into our assigned site and opened the door, the wind just about took it off! Local news said that the wind had been blowing 25 to 35 mph all day, with gusts to 70! Needless to say, we stayed indoors as much as possible! Sasha and I took a couple of walks, but she had trouble standing upright when the wind picked up, and the blowing sand quickly became my worst enemy, so we kept the walking to a minimum.
Sasha and I did find this interesting anemometer:
So now it's Saturday, and we're sitting in Huckleberries Expresso shop on Cedar St in old town Rawlins. The wifi/cell reception is so crummy at the park that we decided to come into town. Huckleberries is a great little shop, and the wifi seems to be great, so, with a cup of coffee and a small table, we're good to go. Earlier today we stopped by the Wyoming Prison Museum to join the festivities at a fundraiser for the prison museum group. A quick tour gave us a great appreciation for having missed a stay at the prison when it was in use!
The wind has diminished a bit today, so we stopped at the Carbon County Courthouse to let Sasha play on the grass and work off a little of the energy she has been storing up the last few days! We will shortly return to the (mimalistic) rv park for the evening. I hope we have a good book to read! Rawlins is definitely not a destination!
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