The Trip Home

We left Vegas Thursday at 9:00 and headed for Salina, Ut. which was a 300 mile drive.  The scenery was gorgeous and the traffic, once we got out of Vegas, was light.  We thought getting out of Vegas would be simple.  Just head north on I 15 which was located right next to our campground.  We soon discovered that their freeway system is under serious reconstruction which added to the morning rush hour traffic and turned the first hour of our trip in chaos.  Our GPS and some lucky guesses on off-ramps got us out of town without any unplanned detours.

Utah does have some of the best scenery to be found anywhere.  It would be nice to stop and explore some of the scenic lookouts along the way but when we are headed home, even a short stop seems to be a delay we aren't willing to take.  We pulled into Butch Cassidy RV Park about 3:00 and paid $38. for our overnight stay.  I usually try to find a Passport America campground as I get a 50% discount with my membership but there weren't any in the area.  I hate shelling out 40 bucks when we are simply stopping for night and hardly using any of their services.  I see why some people take to Walmart parking lots.  Getting in at 3:00 left us a lot of time to kill and we decided that the next day we would get up early and make a full day of it all the way to Denver.  

Salina to Bar Lake Campground, just east of Denver, is 466 miles which is much longer than my usual 300 mile daily limit.   Took us 9 hours including some rather inclement weather.  Looking at the forecast we thought we could beat a spring storm heading for Vail if we left early.  Up at 5:00 and on the road by 6:30 but the weather still got to Vail before us.  While it was warm enough for the roads to remain wet we did have to drive through a blizzard for about 3 hours right into Denver.   We made this trek 3 years ago and I don't remember the roads being this rough.  We may well cross this route off our list and look for other alternatives in future years.  Saturday we drive to Nebraska on I76 and from what I remember its a very bumpy ride.  Oh by the way.  Bar Lake Campground is one to avoid.  Another $38. for a very run down campground, with old unkept RVs in very tight quarters.  Should have kept driving.   

We had originally planned to head straight north from Vegas and on up to Lethbridge to see Jeff, Carrie and the boys however the weather looked worse through Idaho and Montana although after our drive to Denver I'm not so sure.  

I have been quite pleased with how new truck has handled the mountain passes.  The ride is a bit better and the additional power does make a difference on the mountain grades.  The main benefit has been the integration of the transmission with the engine brake and cruise control.  For the most part I set the cruise and the truck downshifts when additional power is needed to handle the climbs and when descending the truck again downshifts and with the help of the engine break keeps the speed in check.  When the grades get to 6% or higher I usually reduce my cruise control setting to about 55 just to keep the RPMs under 3000 but otherwise the system works without any input from myself.   

Saturday will be another long day, about 420 miles as we try to make it to York, NE.  That will leave us a short 240 mile drive to Sioux Falls on Sunday.  Monday morning its up early to winterize the RV and then we drive 320 miles to Grand Forks where we will hotel it for the night.  Tuesday its an easy 160 mile drive home.  Easy as long as the border crossing goes well but so far we haven't had any problems with the custom dudes and dudettes.  

Lori has been snapping a few pics on her phone but our internet connections haven't been good enough for me to download to my Mac from the Cloud so I may post them later or you can see the on her Facebook page.  

Oh by the way.  Its cold here.  Brrrrr.  The truck and the RV are covered in mud and ice from our trip through the mountains.  I'm going to have to take them both through the big truck wash in Birds Hill when I get home.  We really need to find a place to hang out for a few weeks north of the Phoenix heat but south of the still winter spring weather.