Travel Log Catch-Up: Part 1

Westward HO!  I have been putting lots of miles behind me and seeing beautiful parts of the country.  Unfortunately, many of my campsites have been without internet access so I haven't been able to post along the way.  Once again, I have had to dodge nasty wintry weather, thus changing my plans of where to explore.  I had hoped to spend some time in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, but the forecast for that whole area of Wyoming (and a good part of the state) had snow and ice hitting for most of the time I would have been there.  NOT dealing with that.  I guess I'm still a bit early in the season for exploring the mountainous states.  I'll hit them another summer, when I have the time to really explore and enjoy their beauty.  

After a visit to my tearbaby's builder in eastern Nebraska, I continued my way west.  My goal was to drive shorter days (no more 8 - 10 hours), and get to campsites well before dark so I could relax and actually enjoy them.  Of course, the trick with that is to find free campsites within a 5 - 6 hour max drive that met my needs.  I use freecampsites.net as my main resource for finding free or very inexpensive campsites.  This is a user submission type resource that is wonderful and I highly recommend it.  It has been invaluable to me.  Thanks to it, I have only paid for 2 nights camping in 9 nights for a total of $15.  Not too bad. 

Here is a catch-up of where I've been.  

After a late start from Egon's Wednesday afternoon, I headed to North Platte, NE and stayed at Cody Municipal Park, a huge city park that has a small campground, playgrounds, zoo, kiddie rides, food stand, athletic fields and more.  At $5.00 a night camping, it was a good deal.  The weather was lovely and lots of people were enjoying the park on that spring evening.  

View from my campsite of the South Platte River.

   

                                                                 Some of my neighbors

As I drove through western Nebraska, the landscape looked the same as the buffalo hunt scene in "Dancing with Wolves".  I could just picture what it must have been like 150 years ago when the buffalo roamed in vast numbers across the plains.  It made me sad to think we will never see such a site again.  It must have been amazing.

Where the buffalo roamed

The weather was warm, in the upper 70's, which made me VERY  happy!  Though I hated being stuck in the car instead of outside enjoying it.  As I got a little further into Wyoming, I started to notice these strange white blobs on the hillsides.  At first I was confused because my car's thermometer said it was in the mid 70's, but as I started to climb in elevation, I noticed more and more of them and they were getting larger!  SNOW!!!  NO!!  Yep, they were great patches of snow left over from the recent snow storms, which must have been pretty good storms because these patches were very deep.  Eventually I came to a Rest Area just north of Medicine Bow National Forest and stopped.  Snow patches were everywhere, and the temp was still in the high 60's - low 70's.  I was in a short sleeved shirt and was pleasantly comfortable.  Now THAT is how I like snow! 

Warm snow! The Best kind!

From snowy mountains to dry desert in just a couple of hours, I found my way to my next campsite in Sinclair, WY.  You might recognize that name - Sinclair gas stations - the one with the dinosaur on their sign.  Never put it together before now - refinery in Wyoming, dinosaur country.  

Zelda and Grania back in the desert.

View from my campsite of the North Platte River

Before leaving Wyoming, I came to the town of Kemmerer.  Now, I'm not sure what kemmer is or why Kemmerer thought it needed to be more "kemmer" then Kemmer, but obviously they did.  That is one of my favorite things about traveling across the coutry, seeing the names given to places and things.  Keeps me very entertained.

Along the way somewhere around the Wyoming / Idaho border, I saw a sheep shearing "factory" on a ridge along the road.  It was just a couple of pick-up trucks and a small hut type thing.  Sheep were walking up to the hut in a line and then out the other side.  I didn't realize what it was at first until I saw the sheep coming out the other side all sheared.  It was like something out of a cartoon.  Hours later in Idaho, I saw a sign on the road saying "Sheep on roadway".  I of course slowed down, but no sheep.  Many miles later I finally came upon the sheep being driven along by cowboys (or would that be sheepboys?) on horseback and herding dogs.  Again, it was such a novel sight to me, and very "western".

Sheep Drive

So that brings me to Friday.  I camped along the Snake River that night in southern Idaho where a mini squadron of White Pelicans flew in for a swim.  That was a treat!

Snake River, southern Idaho

After 5 days of going from one place to the next, I was getting weary from all the driving and was ready to find a nice, quiet place to stop and stay for a couple of days.  I headed to Oregon.  

To be continued . . .   

And we're driving, and we're driving and we're driving, and we're stopping.

Well the last three days have been a whirlwind to say the least!  I had so wanted to just take my time and explore as I made my way to SW Arizona.  But NO, the Weather Goddess, though very gracious and giving of lovely weather for the first 2 weeks of November, decided that she had held back winter long enough.  So I had to hightail it across Kansas, the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas, across New Mexico and Arizona in 3 days!  We are all exhausted - Grania especially!

On Friday, November 13, I cut diagonally across Kansas - driving directly into the wind the whole way.  I stopped for a break at the Kansas Wetlands Education Center and Cheyenne Bottoms Refuge just north of Great Bend, KS.  If you are in that area be sure to stop by - especially in the spring and fall.  It is one of the main stopping places for migrating birds - shore birds, song birds, waterfowl, you name it, they probably stop there.  Give yourself most of the day if you want to go out and explore the areas of the refuge - you will need a car to do it or I believe they do offer tours.

View of the refuge from the Education Center

After stopping to explore, I made my way to another free campsite in Meade, KS at their city park.  It was a very nice park with playground, pavilions, open green space and an area for RV's.  No hook-ups, but it did have a bathroom with heat and running water.  Unfortunately, someone came and locked them in the evening, so when I got up in the morning I was met with the dreadful surprise.  But, not to worry, I used my secret agent skill I learned in college and got in.  No, I didn't pick the lock or crawl through a window.  I never actually unlocked the door at all, but I did open it.  Potential unpleasantness averted.  Phew!

Evening Sky at my campsite in Meade, KS

On Saturday, I continued through the last little bit of Kansas into the Oklahoma and Texas Panhandles "Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain" and right smack into me.  I checked my gas mileage for this leg of the trip and it was about 14 miles per gallon!  Ouch!  There were Kamikaze Tumbleweeds shooting out across the road.  I admit, I did hit a couple of them, but not to worry, they all miraculously survived and continued tumbling onward.  I have been having lots of laughs along the way with the names people give their businesses.  There was the "Kum & Go" gas station chain in Iowa, the "Toot 'n Totem" gas station chain in Texas, and then the best one so far, the "Hooker Inn" in Hooker, Oklahoma.  Maybe it's a Hollywood thing, like stars giving their kids names like Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen, Jermajesty and Zuma Nesta Rock.  Com'on people, think before you name, don't drink before you name.  

I had scouted out another free campsite just west of Albuquerque in the parking lot of a casino.  Hey, it was free and ya gotta try things sometimes.  It was a COLD night in Zelda.  I even sprang for a cup of hot chocolate this morning to warm up - not something I ever do.  From Albuquerque I was going to only go to Winslow, AZ, cuz hey, there's a song about it so that's a good reason to stop in my book; but the weather forecast for Flagstaff called for snow tonight.  I didn't want to take the chance of having to drive through that tomorrow so I changed my mind and decided to push through to Kingman, AZ.  I did however get to drive through snow showers around Flagstaff.  I guess since I'll be in SW Arizona for the winter, that was my winter snow for this year.  I can handle that, especially after the past 2 horrible winters in Ohio.

A dear friend of mine, who happens to be from Arizona, recommended The Pine Country Restaurant in Williams, AZ, about 30 miles west of Flagstaff, so I thought I'd treat myself to something hot to eat for a change.  The food was delicious and the pies are amazing!  

 

Williams is a lovely, quaint mountain town and is the gateway to the Grand Canyon.  I wish I had had more time to spend there and explore.  Definitely a place I will have to go back to when the weather is nicer.  It is right on Historic Route 66 and was the last section that was decommissioned in I believe 1984 it said.

Williams, AZ

As I headed to Kingsman, I hadn't found any good free campsites that met my needs.  The weather was supposed to get icky so I decided to splurge ($30!) and get a site in an RV park with electric and . . . SHOWERS!!   As I got out of the car to check in I was just about blown away!  I thought the wind in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas was bad, but this was hurricane force wind!  I am NOT exaggerating.  It pushed me along faster than I wanted to walk.  The storm was upon me and I did get set up before the thunder, rain and sleet started, but the wind was rockin 'n' rollin Zelda with me in it.  Within a little over an hour after I could feel the drop in temperature.  It is cold again.  I can still hear the wind, though it has settled down to blustery and I am wondering if I will wake up to the snow they forecasted for here as well.  I hope not.  My hot shower will be for naught as soon as I start walking back to my site.

Tomorrow I will head south to the Lake Havasu area and start looking for a good boondock.  The  forecast says once I get down that way the weather will be warm and stay that way for the next couple of weeks.  YIPPIE!  I so want to find a warm place where I can stay for a little while, get myself organized and just savor the realization that this adventure has finally begun.  Is that too much to ask Weather Goddess??

Could it be TRUE? Hitting the road - FINALLY!

T minus 2 (maybe 3) days!!  IF and that's a BIG IF things will stop happening to delay me longer.  I am feeling rushed because I have to head to Minnesota first to visit relatives, then to Nebraska to visit Egon, the builder of my teardrop.  After that I can finally head south then west.  Just hoping I can keep away from the fluffy white stuff!

For the most part, in the last week a lot of things have come together.  I have made good progress on the packing of the car.  I continue to purge more things and I think it is working out.  I still have a huge list of things to get done in the next day and everything takes me 3x longer to do than I expect. I so wish my brother were still here to help.  I think he would have enjoyed helping with the projects I've been working on and he would have been a HUGE help in getting things organized and set up - especially all my new tech stuff.  I am now the proud owner of a new smart phone (which I'm still trying to finish setting up) and mobile hotspot -Verizon Jetpack (which I haven't even gotten out of it's box yet!).

Oh, the car.  I'm sad to say that Tawanda will NOT be joining me on the road.  She suffered from transmission issues and I knew she just couldn't make the journey with me.  She did her darnedest to hang in there but I had to let her go - for her sake.  She is and always will be missed - she was an awesome car!  I now have a much more fitting vehicle for my adventures.  Meet Grania.  She and Zelda and I are gonna have a great time!

Meet Grania - A 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan

I wanted a minivan for 2 reasons.  1) They have a greater tow capacity than most mid-size SUV's and 2) I needed some more indoor space to work.  With the middle seats stowed and the addition of a small table, I now have a very comfortable indoor work space if the outside weather isn't cooperating.  An SUV doesn't give me that.  I just have to figure out how to pack her!  I know I am still taking too much, but I just don't know what I will and won't need out there so I'm taking some extras just in case.  I will be like the early pioneers heading west on the wagon trains, leaving a trail of belongings behind me that are extraneous - only I will donate mine and not leave them on the side of the road or in someone's front yard.

Well, I found out this past Wednesday that Zelda is dyslexic.  Turns out the wiring on the car and the wiring on the trailer for the brake lights and turn signals don't match up.  So I am doing some rewiring to make them work.  So far I have the turn signals working.  Those were easy.  I still can't get the brake lights to work on their own without the car's headlights on.  Hmmm, perplexing. . . but I'm not giving up.  Gonna try again tomorrow when I have daylight.  If I can't figure it out, at least Zelda is towable now as long as I keep my headlights on.  When I stop to see Egon hopefully we can figure things out if I haven't by then.

I want to get this update posted so you know that I am on my way finally!  I have a lot more projects and happenings to share with everyone, but I have to get some sleep tonight so I can complete my "to-do" list tomorrow.  Once I get on the road I'll have more time to post updates.  If you live where it is already cold and possibly snowy, I would be most appreciative if you would keep it to yourself until I get well south of you.  Thank You!