Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Back Home in Indiana

Well – it’s Wednesday the last day of September – where has this year gone?
We are home, got here late yesterday afternoon after a marathon drive of 450 miles. NEVER AGAIN!!! Of course that’s what we say every time we do that.
Haven’t written much about the last three days of travel after leaving Golden, Co. through Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois and into Indiana and that’s because there really isn’t too much to write about. Well I take that back…corn, beans, cows, corn, corn, wind, corn, beans, cows, corn. That’s about it. Well guess I can elaborate on it a little.
After spending a very cold night in Golden, Co we got an early start north towards Nebraska. We decided to go through Nebraska on the I-80 ‘cause we already knew that the I-70 through Kansas was a boring drive. Little did we know. The drive north/east on the 76 was a hint of what to expect. The road itself was the type of concrete road that is done in sections, almost like riding on a train track. Click, click, click. One thing I know for sure the glass tiles are on really good, not even one popped off. And that road was enough to shake one’s fillings loose. On the eastern side of the road was prairie with some cattle off and on. The western side was corn, beans and some dairy farms. Every time we passed a dairy farm we knew which way the wind was blowing. We’d get about ¼ mile up the highway and the smell would hit us. It would just go away and then we’d pass another farm.
Lovely. But we did get a little variation. We passed a sugar processing place. Mill? Plant? Anyway it was spewing brown stuff out of a big pipe onto the ground. There was a big pile of it getting bigger all the time. Kind of interesting – until the smell hit us. How could anything to do with sugar smell so bad. But then we passed another dairy so……
Also passed a little town named Lliff – that’s right Lliff – wonder how you pronounce it? Wonder why they named it that? Stopped for gas in a very old Flying J in Julesburg, CO. One of the first ones I guess. Then into Nebraska. Stayed the night in North Platte.
Another pretty cold night. About an hour into the day the WINDS started to blow. And blow they did for two days. I thought we’d get a respite from the weather by stopping in Fort Kearny to go to the museum about the area. Bad idea. I asked Gypsy to take us there. Off the highway we go – turn right, turn left…..oh, oh there was nothing there. Then we saw the museum, it was closed. Luckily there was a place we could turn around without problems. Back onto the highway with the winds. We did go under the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument that is 30 feet high over I-80. I think I remember seeing it in a Jack Nicholson movie. Meanwhile, Jennie was shaking and bouncing from side to side. Bill was hanging on with both hands. Check out the flag from the wind
Only did 140 miles that day before we stopped just outside of Grand Island, NE. Had to laugh there was a sign in the campground office that said, “If the winds ever stops blowing in Nebraska every one will fall down.” Kind of a neat campground – they make and deliver to your rig good pizza. Guess what we had for dinner?
Wind blew all night, really kept the temps down. According to weather channel it was blowing between 25-40 with gusts up to 50. Yep!
Next day was the same. More wind. Bill made the comment he knew why Nebraska was so flat. I asked why. He said, “The wind had blown all the hills away.” Makes sense to me. As for scenery – corn, corn, sorghum, corn, corn, beans, corn – well you get the picture. Finally turned south and still had wind into Iowa and then into Missouri. Got as far as Kansas City and stopped.
Next morning the wind had let up – or stayed in Nebraska and Iowa so off we went again. The only thing that broke up the day were all the NASCAR trucks we saw – they were heading towards Kansas City for this weekends race. Tried taking pictures of some of them as they roared past but usually just got blurs. That's the #29 not one of my favorite drivers. Oh well.
Didn’t see the #18 hauler but did see quite a few of the others.
The day turned into a marathon run as I mentioned before. We just kept driving and driving. Into Illinois then into Indiana – no point stopping there. The little road leading towards Nashville.
So soon we were home. We were on the road for 24 days and traveled 3900 miles in Jennie. And even more in the Jeep. Jennie was getting around 7.6mpg – the Alfa get around 8.5. Some places gasoline was cheaper than diesel, others it was more expensive. We paid lowest $2.14 per gallon all the way up to $2.99 a gallon.
We know a couple more things that we have to do in Jennie, but just minor things. We managed not to get in each others way too much. I only cooked three meals in her – so didn’t really give that a good test. Worked out okay though. Except every time we open the refrig something wants to come out. Missed my washer/dryer. But all in all it worked out okay. Bill says she is a dream to drive. No problems at all and we went up to 11,000 feet crossing the Rockies. No over heating. No problems towing Willie.
Today we’ve spent cleaning and doing laundry and catching this up. Tomorrow we take Jennie in to get the solar panels installed and hopefully get the satellite stuff fixed.

Monday, September 28, 2009

Snow in the Rockies

Friday a.m. we hit the road again. These are just a couple of pictures from the campground where we stayed - Arch View. The schoolhouse was used in the TV movie “Riders of the Purple Sage.”
The teepees are just for fun.
Back north from Moab to the I-70 and then east. Again some strange moonscape scenery.
All the folds on this rock make it look like drapery –
and when seeing this one it almost gives the appearance of being made of velvet.
Then out of the rocks into agricultural land. Lots of farms. This one though is a vineyard. Lots of wineries up here. Didn’t know they grew grapes in Colorado.
All this time we have been climbing higher and higher. Heading up to almost 11,000 feet.
Got lucky with this shot – doesn’t it look like a chess piece?
Stopped and had a leisurely lunch by the river.
There was a guy there fishing when we first got there. Guess he didn’t like our company as he picked up his stuff and split. Or maybe the fishing wasn't any good.
This road is really interesting. Not enough room in places to build the east and west roads side by side so the westerly road is built above and to the side of the east bound road.

Quite an engineering feat. Then we went through the first set of tunnels.
Inside the tunnel.
And down off the east bound road between it and the river is a bike path. These people were going down hill but saw lots of them pedaling up hill.
At 9000 feet yet. Must have good legs and lungs. The scenery was really beautiful. Saw one person in a canoe or kayak in the river heading for some rapids. He was out of sight too fast to take a picture. We were also seeing lots of aspens that had turned yellow. The hills looked like patch work quilts – the greens and yellows. So pretty.
Since we’d been in Colorado we’d been seeing signs that said all truckers had to carry chains from Sept 1 to May 31st.
Chains? In September? Then we went around a corner and these beautiful snow capped mountains came in view. We both said WOW – then started to discus the snow. “Was it there all year?” or “Was it fresh snow?” If it was that meant that it had snowed recently – in September! Wow!
We were steadily climbing up towards Vail Summit which is 10,666 feet. Jennie was performing like a champ. Just chugging along, not getting hot, not complaining.
We kept climbing. The snow level kept getting closer and closer to us.
Lots of snow on the ground below us.

Soon it was right next to us. Snow on the ground just off the highway.
Soon snow was all around us and we headed towards a tunnel. After we came out of the tunnel we could see a storm over the mountains in the distance. Hoped we weren’t headed that way.
As we neared the Eisenhower Tunnel the mountains were covered with snow.

The Eisenhower – Johnson tunnel was built under the Continental Divide and at an elevation of 11,158 ft above sea level, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels built. And it’s pretty long too. That answers the question of why I didn’t see a sign announcing we were crossing the Continental Divide.

Going down the eastern side of I-70 were some pretty sharp grades. One section is a 6% grade for five miles, and CDOT (Colorado Dept of Transportation) goes to great lengths to make sure truckers know this. There are signs all along this stretch that say things like "6% Grade / Truckers Stay in Low Gear", and after a brief flat section there is sign that says "Don't Be Fooled / Still Another Four Miles of 6% Grade / Truckers Stay in Low Gear." There is one runaway ramp.
I’ve always wondered how it feels to be in a truck that has lost it brakes, going down a curvy 6% grade and the sign says the runaway ramp is ONE MILE away. Got to be an awfully long mile. Brings to mind all kinds of trucking songs.
Anyway we ended up spending the night at the bottom of the grade in Golden, Colorado. Just stayed in the campground – someday will have to go back and nose around that area some.
I asked about the snow and the campground lady said they had snow on the ground in the campground a week ago. It got cold enough at night but glad the weather was clear.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Island in the Sky Canyonlands

More of our drive through Canyonlands National Park. This part of it was all on paved road. Again there are no words to describe it adequately.
We drove through the “Island in the Sky” portion of the park.It's called that because it is isolated from the surrounding land by steep canyons formed by the Green and Colorado Rivers.
Here is a view of the Green River
Different layers of rocks.
This big rock is called the Whale Rock. Kind of looks like a whale the way it raises out of the brush.
Another view of the river way down there.
Some of the varied vegetation
Different colored rocks and bushes.
The mountains in the background are 35 miles away.
This area is called Grand View – not hard to tell why.
A picture of some of the fences that are all over the park. They are made from the dead trees.
Some more scenery – no explanation necessary – from the Grand View area.






Leaving the Park

End of a wonderful day and drive. Even the weather was perfect. Only in the high 70s.

This part of Utah is so interesting. Something for every one. From boat rides on the Colorando River, to Sky Diving and lots of hiking trails.

4-wheel driving in Willie

Thursday morning we drove into Moab and put gas in the Jeep and had a good breakfast. We had plans for the day – or any way I had plans for the day that I managed to convince The Driver he wanted to do too. We were going to take Willie on a 4-Wheel Drive Trail! I had picked up a list of some of the drives around here when we were in the Visitor’s Center the day before.
There was Chicken Corners Trail – it gets it name because the area guides are reputed to allow “chicken” passengers to walk, rather than ride, past the narrow, sloping section of the trail. Hum – nope don’t think so.
Next was Poison Spider Mesa Trail – don’t even like the name.
Then there was Moab Rim Trail – sounded interesting. Till I read on “this is not a sneaky trail; you know what you are in for in the first hundred yards, as it starts up a steep rock slope with a harrowing drop off to the left. Watch for black spots (tire rubber) and gouges in the rock (made by trailer hitches or underbelly parts) to follow the trail. Again not for me. Getting too old for that foolishness.
Next was The Gemini Bridges Trail – remember to click on pictures to enlarge
I read about it – sounded good – also said “easy”. Now that’s for me. So off we went.
Up the side of the cliff .
There goes the road in front of us.
And I mean literally on the side of the cliff.
Yep that's a drop off in front - better make that curve.
Over rocks, through loose dirt up and up. I was hanging on to the “Oh Shit” bar and The Driver was enjoying himself.
See the highway below (way below) us?
Just rough enough to make it interesting but not dangerous unless you do something really stupid.
There is a valley between the road and the other cliff you can see.
Willie was in 4x4 drive and seemed to be enjoying it too.
Been a long time since he got to play in the dirt. Soon we were up the cliff and the road leveled out quite a bit. Was not a drive on the highway though still pretty rough as you can see from some of the pictures.

Here is more of the road after it leveled out a bit. Still rough but no drop offs.

That isn't brick it is groved rock.

And the views – magnificent, beautiful, wondrous – need to check the Thesaurus to find more descriptive words. Lets see “mind blowing”, “amazing”, “incredible” still doesn’t do it justice. The sky was a brilliant blue and the rocks red, red. On a photo it would look retouched – no I didn’t retouch anything. So here are the pictures.
There's Willie
The mountains in the left corner of the photo are 35 miles away


Wish you could have been there - something to add to every body's "bucket list."