We left on July 3rd and took the northern route using I-15 and I-80. We have taken this route a few times already so I decided not to blog about each place we stayed at. Instead I am doing this one post which will capture our adventures from Long Beach to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Then, since we will be taking some new paths after Sioux Falls, I will return to my original posting model.
The weather was extremely hot, but clear for the most part. Fortunately, the truck has a great air conditioning system and the trailer keeps us comfortable. This is the first long trip with this new trailer and we are finding it to be comfortable and a lot more sturdy than our previous Rockwood. Our new hitch system is proving to live up to its hype. We have experienced no sway on the road when trucks roar by us and that makes the traveling days a lot more pleasant.
While in Nebraska, we had two nights of thunderstorms. Loud thunder and almost continuous lightning strikes made for restless nights. There wasn't a lot of rain but the following days were a bit more comfortable with temps dropping 10 to 15 degrees. As we travel further east, the weather is getting more comfortable, although the forecast is calling for another heat wave while we are at Oshkosh for the EAA airshow.
Since we wanted to get to Wisconsin as quickly as possible, most of the places we stayed at were one-night stands. We did spend a extra rest day in Heber Valley and another in Grand Island, NE. Went to a highly rated Mexican restaurant in Grand Island. I had a chili relleno which after the 3rd bite, caused me to embark on a coughing spasm that kind of panicked me out. I felt like my throat was being burned out. Eating chips helped a little but it took several minutes for me to recover. Figured out that the cook had not cleaned out the seeds from the poblano chili. Also discovered that eating sugar eliminates the pain in the throat. So I am off of chili rellenos for a while.
Other than the adventure at the Mexican restaurant, I would say we have had a great start to what we hope will be a wonderful summer in the Midwest!
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| Our new travel trailer is designed to go off-road, so it has heavier axles and chassis and the interior is made with stronger materials. |
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| Passing through the Cajon pass, I spotted this serpentine train making its way to the summit. It must be at least 100 cars long! |
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| Heading down the summit into Primm Valley. We always look forward to a break at Stateline. |
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| After a night spent at the Oasis RV Resort in Vegas, we headed north through the Virgin River Gorge. I always have trouble spotting the narrow entrance into the mountains. |
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| The Gorge has lots of interesting geological features which always causes me to ponder the length of time the gorge took to form and the changes that the Earth went through during that time. |
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| My chauffer is doing a good job! |
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| Russ calls these FedEx trains. We saw several 3 container truck trailers on I-15 and I-80. They are banned in California. |
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| We spent the night of the 4th of July in a KOA in Beaver, Utah, watched the Capitol fireworks celebration and went to bed early. The next day took us through a beautiful canyon near Provo into Heber Valley, bypassing all the traffic of Salt Lake City. Saw this construction shovel sitting at a very steep angle on the side of the canyon. They don't pay those guys near enough money! |
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| So interesting to see the way the earth surface moved through the eons. |
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| The canyon was full of wildflowers, the river was full and there were lots of waterfalls. We saw several groups tubing down the river. That would be a very cool thing to do on such a hot day. We are still seeing temps in the 100s. |
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| Heber Valley contains a large reservoir which provides lot of water fun activities. |
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| We spent two nights in Heber Valley at a beautiful, brand new RV resort. In the afternoon, we took a drive to nearby Park City. Thought this fences of old skis was pretty creative. |
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| The road through Heber Valley connects up with I-80 and took us into Wyoming. We will be on I-80 until Omaha, Nebraska where we will turn north up to Sioux Falls. This road will climb up to the Continental Divide which will be somewhere around 8,000 feet. The land is sparsely populated with people, but we saw lots of grazing cattle and antelopes, along with coal mining operations and windmills |
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| The interesting geology continues. I think the white band indicates that the area was once a part of a large lake. |
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| I-80 is a major west-east thoroughfare for travelers. We saw a huge number of RVs and travel trailers on the road in addition to tractor trailers. Next to the interstate were several sets of railroad tracks and we must have seen 30 different trains in one day, each one with way over 100 cars. The train companies got ride of cabooses many years ago, so I was surprised to see one hooked onto the backend of this train. |
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| Our trip along the I-80 consisted of one-night stays at Rock Springs and Laramie, WY as well as Ogalla, NE. It was fun to see how the scenes changed as we climbed up and over the Continental Divide. |
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| This robin kept us company for a short while in Ogallala, NE. |
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| We visited this museum in the past and enjoyed its exhibits depicting the westward migration. |
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| Entering Nebraska, we found corn country! |
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| We definitely in John Deer country. Not a lot of work out in the fields though. Mostly irrigation in those areas that do that kind of thing. |
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| As soon as we left Omaha and headed north to Sioux Falls, we started seeing the Wall Drug signs. |
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| The farms we saw from the interstates were a mixture of well-kept, prosperous farms and poor struggling farms. Enjoyed seeing the old, old barns and homes that were left to deteriorate next to their modern replacements. Gave a sense of how long some of the farms have existed. |
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We are well prepared for this trip with GPS, a dashcam and a rear camera on the trailer which helps with putting the trailer into a backup camping site.
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