We're home! Pretty much blasted the 383 miles from Nebraska City to Springfield with one gas stop and a stop for a quick sandwich. Got home about 4:15. Car Miles: 10, 381
Camper Miles: 9,958
Train, bus, boat miles: 442No problems except for the cracked windshield from a rock thrown by an RV on the Alaska Highway. It was a great trip. I'd recommend it to anyone. After Alaska, the drive through the northwestern lower 48, although beautiful, was anticlimactic.
It's good to be home.
Another day spent on the road. We traveled 346 miles with a stop in Gothenburg, NE to check out an old Pony Express depot. A few miles after that, we stopped along I-80 to eat lunch in a rest area. Lucy (the GPS) took us off of I-80 just before it curves north toward Lincoln, NE. We were on Nebraska Rt. 2 and went into Nebraska City for gas. After we left the station, we asked Lucy to find us a campground. She found one just outside Nebraska City. Even more amazing, she guided us right to it. Nice little place. So here we are at Victorian Acres RV Park and Campground. According to Lucy, we're just about 400 miles from home, so we could do it all tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. In any event, we'll surely be home by Saturday.
We left Rawlins in search of a "resort" type campground in which to spent a couple of nights. Stayed on I-80 all day except for a 40 mile cruise on Wyoming route 210. We stopped at a rest area/information center and, as it turned out, it included a monument to Abe Lincoln for his idea to build a trans american highway. It was originally called the Lincoln Highway, but numbered U.S. 30. As you can tell, the monument is pretty impressive. At the rest stop, the attendant suggested we take route 210 and stop at Curt Goudy State Park. We did. See picture. We jumped back on I-80 a couple of miles west of Cheyenne and found a rest stop just across the Nebraska border where we ate lunch. One of the POI records I had downloaded into the GPS said there was a Corps. of Engineers campground on Lake McConaughy, so we set the course and arrived at the lake at about 4:00. It took us until about 4:40 to figure out that Lucy (our GPS) was lost! A stop at the visitor center revealed that there is no Corps. of Engineers campground here. So we bought a day pass for $4.00 and found an electric site at Little Thunder, one of the many campgrounds around the lake. Nice site but it ain't no resort! When we bought groceries in Rexburg, we bought a couple of Flat Iron steaks at the recommendation of one of the meat cutters. He said it was probably the best steak for the money. We grilled the steaks and had potatoes and salad for dinner. The meat cutter was right. Flat Iron steaks will be on our shopping list from now on! We took a short walk along the lake shore after dinner. The water is pretty high, as you can see in the pictures. The guy at the visitor center said most of the water in the lake is snow melt from Wyoming. No Internet here, so I'll post this when I can. Later.
Well, I think we're in the "I'm ready to be home" mode now. This morning after leaving Beaver Dick Park (love that name), we drove into Rexburg, did laundry and got groceries. The laundry was a WiFi HotSpot, so I posted the last four days' activities on the blog. We left Rexburg and drove about 2 hours to Jackson/Jackson Hole. We spent about 30 minutes in the visitor center and after driving thru the town to get to it, we were ready to hit the road. What a zoo! We headed east. By 7:30, we had driven 374 miles, not because we wanted to, but because we couldn't find a campground anywhere. So we finally landed at Western Hills Campground (parking lot) in Rawlins, WY. I'm guessing it's a campground that was specifically designed for the one-nighters traveling I-80. It's a big gravel parking lot with picnic tables and hook-ups. The showers and restrooms are very nice and clean. We'll pretty much be buzzing on home unless we find a real nice camping resort where we can spend a coupe of days soaking in a pool. We'll keep you posted until the bitter end.
We drove 498 miles today, including the 28 mile round trip from the campground back to Coeur d'Alene to the Discount Tire store. My car tires were way past due for a rotation and balance. While we were there, I took a closer look at the trailer tires. I knew they were "cupping" on the insides, but upon closer inspection, I could see cracks between the tread rows. They were Duro bias ply tires which have a reputation for poor service, so I had a pair of Carlisle radials mounted. The old tires had 16,551 miles on them. I could tell within a block after leaving the store (at 9:30) that the trailer rolled easier. We stopped for lunch at the Side Track Cafe (as in railroad) in Alberton, MT for lunch, since it's our anniversary. I told the waitress that we were there for the Anniversary Special. I had her stuttering for a moment until Marsha told her it was our anniversary. After lunch, we pretty much hot-footed it on down toward Rexburg because I wanted to camp at Beaver Dick Park. Marsha and I passed by here in 1998 on the motorcycle, but didn't have time to stay. Again, it's a good thing we're carrying water. There's no drinking water here. We arrived at 7:30. The car has been running great, but about ten miles after stopping in Dillon, MT for gas, the "Service Engine Soon" light came on. I pulled over and looked around, but everything looked normal. What do I know? We were about 120 miles from Rexburg, where the GPS says, there's a Ford dealer, so we just kept on coming. Marsha started reading the owners manual and found out that using the 85.5 octane gas found in high altitude areas is not recommended as it could cause the "Service Engine Soon" light to display. Guess what kind of gas I put in in Dillon. Right! So all I have to do is fill up with regular next time and the light should go out. Not too many pictures today. I took most of them after arriving at Beaver Dick Park. The name has such a ring to it, don't you think?
We're back in the lower 48! We pulled the camper 243 miles today, but traveled 250 miles. Seven miles was on the Ferry crossing Kootenay Lake! It was a very enjoyable 35 minute ride. The ferry had a lounge, coffee shop, and observation decks. The best part is, it was free! We're staying at Lake Coeur d'Alene Camping Resort. They have a pool, two hot tubs, a sauna and lousy Internet. I can send/receive email, but there's not enough band width to get on the web and post this to my blog, so I guess I'll have to post it and the past two days when I can get a decent connection. It says "Beautiful British Columbia on their licence plates and they aren't exaggerating. The northern part has beautiful snow-capped mountains and deep valleys. Then, rather suddenly, as we drove south, the mountains were tree-covered with broad valleys in between where livestock is raised and squillions of LARGE bales of hay are produced. The trees go all the way to the water's edge of the many lakes that dot the landscape. Kootenay Lake must be 150 miles, or so, long. Big Water!
We left the Birch Island campground this morning at the crack of 9:30. I just couldn't get my butt out of the sack! We made it 289 miles to just east of Nakusp today (Sat., July 24), but no Internet here in Summit Lake Provincial Park either. Didn't make it to the second ferry at Balfour, but we'll do that tomorrow. Should be in Idaho by tomorrow (Sunday) night. You might notice all the motorcycles in the picture I took while we were waiting for the ferry. Turns out that highway we were on was, according to one of the riders, one of the best biking roads in Canada. I couldn't help thinking of all the times I got stuck behind a camper on a curvy road when I was on my motorcycle, so every time one of them came up behind me, I moved over to the shoulder and let them pass. One of the guys grabbed my hand, shook it, and thanked me while we were waiting for the ferry. Not much to report about today's drive, so I'll just let you look at the pictures. We did, however, eat the chili that Jim and Bonnie gave us for our anniversary. It was good with a brat and a beer!
We followed Jim & Bonnie to the Canadian Tire dealer in Prince George. We bid them farewell with promises all around to meet in Chicago for a weekend sometime soon. The plan was for them to have two new tires mounted on the camper and use the one good one they had left for a spare. They'll let me know how things go, but I don't have Internet here, so I'll let you know when I hear from them. After we left Jim & Bonnie, we went to a nearby WalMart for groceries, then down the street for gas. We left Prince George on Hwy. 16 and turned onto Hwy 5 at Tete Juane Cache which is where 16 goes over to Jasper, AB. Since Marsha and I have already done that road from Jasper to Banf, we decided to tour BC a bit, so we turned onto Hwy 5 and got as far as Birch Island before we decided to camp for the night. It was 86 degrees at 4:30 when we got here. That's definitely a record high for the trip. Not many pictures today. Didn't see any wildlife. Evidently they don't know about all the "Moose Crossing" signs, etc. that we passed. Tomorrow, we'll go to Kamloops, then east to catch the ferry from Shelter Bay to Galena Bay. We'll have to look at the map again after that and decide which way we're going in order to get to the Idaho border. We think we'll make our way to Balfour and take the 40 minute ferry ride across Kootenay Lake to Kootenay Bay, but we'll see what the schedule is. Due to excessive rainfall, and the fact that they're on a well, there's a boil order here in the campground. Luckily, we have been carrying water from the previous night's campground, just in case we had to camp somewhere that has no water. So we're all set for water without having to boil it. Like I said above, no Internet here, so I'll post this and a few pictures from today when I can. Later! |
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