September 13 to September 20, 2002

Note that with slow dial up connections this long page with many pictures may not finish loading before timing out; just hit the "Refresh" button on your browser to finish downloading the full page.

Friday Sept 13:

Departure day at last;  millions of little details (well, at least it seems that way) all taken care of or deliberately ignored or (horrors) forgotten in the rush.  We finally do get off by 2 PM, only a bit later than our LATEST noon departure goal.  We divert what we expect to be a few miles to load up on gas in Maynard, MA, only to find every way we tried to leave Maynard westbound blocked by 3 ton weight limit signs;  these are not man made laws that can be ignored, so we turn around and obey the laws of physics repeatedly...and lose another 30 minutes finding the right way out of town for heavy vehicles.  It is surprising what you do not notice when driving these roads in a car.  :-)  We head out the MA turnpike, following the computer planned route to the NY thruway, going west through NY state.  Claire noticed a route on the map, I-88/I-86, that appeared about the same distance and toll free;  A quick call on the CB radio had truckers volunteering it was a good road, so we diverted onto it at Albany.  We found a Walmart in Oneonta NY for the night.  Since we were driving late, I quickly noticed out first "forgotcha"; our treasured LED flashlight that made it easy for the navigator to read maps and GPS without blinding the driver.  I had been using it at home in the house and it had never returned to the RV.  The Walmart was a good opportunity to buy a replacement, and I noticed a new edition of the Rand McNally Walmart road atlas as I checked out;  how fortunate, as the one we had used to find this place had been worn almost to unusability.  Well worth $5 to get a new up to date version.  :-)  

Saturday September 14:

In the morning we started our new exercise regimen; 2 mile or more walks every day.  We had noticed signs that we had entered the Chesapeake Bay watershed before we stopped for the day; today on our walk we dipped our hands in the headwaters of the Susquehanna river.  I really had no idea the Susquehanna started way up here in New York state.  Here is a "flyby" picture of the waters that end up in the Chesapeake Bay....

We continued west on I-88, and briefly passed into PA before joining I-86 near Elmira NY.  We reentered PA again near Erie, and joined I-90 for the short trip to Ohio.  We needed fuel and a Flying J Truck stop off I-90 in Austinburg looked right; they are reputed to have RV dumps and water, as well as offering free overnight parking.  We are surprised at how hard Flying J signs are to recognize, and at how many RVs line up to fuel and dump; we wait, and watch some pretty strange maneuvers in the crowded lot to get the correct side of the RV next to the pumps and dumps, but make a note for the future to use the car gas pumps, and dump and fill water in the morning after a NICE HOT shower...  :-)  The sleeping here is somewhat noisy due to vehicles moving and PA system, but it is safe and well lighted.  We will use them again!  The cell connection is strong digital, and being Saturday, I tried the net; The Verizon Quick Net Connection (QNC) did not work, but I  was able to connect by dialing into my ISP directly.  We did not spend a lot of time on line; chicken dinner left over from home, showers and sleep seemed more important.

Sunday Sept 15:

We departed rather late this day after taking on water and dumping; we soon noticed the passenger side mirror drifting out of alignment repeatedly after stopping to adjust it.  We pulled into a rest stop, and used a trash can as a ladder to reach the mirror; apparently an Allen set screw needed tightening, but none of our allen wrenches fit.  :-(  I used duct tape to try and prevent the mirror from moving; it sort of worked, with one readjustment needed during the day.  Our route took us close to lake Erie, seen here....

Shortly beyond lay Cleveland, a busy major city with MAJOR traffic; turns out we passed close by Jacobs Field, the Cleveland Indian's stadium, and there was a game today....good reason for the traffic.

We drove across Indiana, passing by Notre Dame in South Bend without stopping (something for the NEXT trip), and pushing toward Chicago. We intended to stay at the Lake Station IN Flying J, but missed the correct exit, so stayed on I-90 to the Gary IN Flying J 8 miles further on;  major interchanges can be confusing, even with maps, driving directions, and GPS.  :-)  Claire prepare a delicious eggplant spaghetti sauce for dinner, and since we found good cellphone service here, used the net with our weekend minutes.  

Monday September 16:

We took advantage of the free water and dump to shower freely. The Gary Flying J had an 802.11 Wireless LAN visible, not encrypted, but not open without a password.  We asked at Flying J, but they did not offer net access via 802.11.  This is a heavy industrial area, so some nearby business must be using a wireless network.  We walked in the early morning; Gary is a heavily black city, but there is obvious pride in their bustling community, the city parks are well maintained, and the streets clean. This area is BUSY,  trucks hustling everywhere.  In this central region of the country, it's vital  heartbeat can be felt....   I bought an allen wrench set that would fit the mirror at flying J, opened it, then looked for the mirror manual to see if there were any unusual instructions for adjustment; first thing out of the manual's envelope was the correct allen wrench for tightening the mirror....just one minute too late.  :-(  A quick climb to the roof, a wet prone position in the rooftop dew, and the mirror is as good as new.  Clothes do dry.....  We pressed on across Illinois on I-80 and crossed the mighty Mississippi into Iowa at Davenport ....

Even up here this river bustles with commerce.  We continue on to stop in the Walmart in Ankeny, IA near Des Moines.  340 miles traveled today.

Tuesday September 17:

In the morning we walked in the industrial park, and on the way back we cruised through the Walmart and found kiddie latches to keep some drawers from vibrating open annoyingly as we drive, and a much needed soft bristle brush with telescoping long handle that accepts a hose attachment; this will make RV washing MUCH easier. :-)  Iowa is a land of corn and fertile farms; unfortunately a heavy drought grips the state, and the crops are obviously suffering.  This farm is typical except for the really BIG sheep... :-)

We crossed into Nebraska and stopped in Omaha at a Sams for gas;  the exit was very confusing, but we found Sams right where it was expected, fueled at the best price we've seen in a long time, and continued our journey toward our planned overnight at the Flying J in North Platte NE.  At 416 miles, this is the longest days run to date, and we are ready to stop.  Fuel is two cents higher than posted on Sunday's flying J website too...  :-(  Oh, well, free dump and water, and still the lowest price available within range of our gas.  :-)  Claire prepares pork and kale from the garden at home.  While relaxing with the screen door open, we notice a young lady and tiny baby pull in next to us in a pickup truck; she smiles and explains she is borrowing our shade for the baby who is hot; the baby is 3.5 months old, and she is travelling from Boise ID to Oklahoma. She reports that Wyoming was freezing in the morning, and now it is 88 here.  They will go on tonight for another 150 miles to a town we had come through earlier in the day.  Claire invites her to join us for pork and kale;  she declines, saying her Dad is in another vehicle pulling a trailer, and just walking his dogs before they leave again. Shortly, her dad Bobbie joins us and explains they are moving the family from Boise to take over a barbecue business in Oklahoma.  It is dry hickory smoked barbecue, prepared in a smoker that cooks the meat until it is juicy and succulent on the inside; it kinda made our mouths water, and reminded me we had seen smokers in Brownsville TX at Charro days that were smoking meat with mesquite wood.  We had not tried it, but we're going to have to rectify that error given another opportunity.  :-)  They depart for their evening's drive and we wish them luck in their new venture. We ate and I walked the cats in the deepening dusk; two other RVers spending the night join me and talk of their work connected to their mobile lifestyle.  One is a professional RV hauler headed for CT delivering a travel trailer to it's owner; the other has just finished working for a rodeo in the northwest, and is wandering until he finds another temporary job.  The hauler said all the signs point to an early winter; animals are down from the hills already, and the Indians in the area are predicting a hard winter.  We vow to keep a more careful watch on the weather than we have been; with the heat in the days nearing 90, it is hard to focus on snow & ice avoidance.  We turn in  early anticipating filling water and dumping in the morning before departure;  we could see another long days run putting us over the high passes of the great divide tomorrow, and an early start would help.

Wednesday September 18:

We did not sacrifice our morning walk for the day's run however, and set out on the local road for our 3 miles; I-80 had been playing tag with the South Platte river all day yesterday, crossing and recrossing it as we drove across Nebraska, and we had both tried for pictures of this unusual dry bar filled river, and the delay of the digital camera had defeated us both as we sped across the bridges.  We were surprised to find our walk crossing the river, and finally imaged this shallow meandering stream....

We passed a doe deer killed by a vehicle lying along the road; a bit too sad to picture here...  :-(  We returned to dump and fill and return to the road.  WE soon passed into Mountain Time, adding an hour to our driving day.  We looked forward to crossing the mountains today, and had picked a Walmart in Avon near Vail for the night.  Keeping in mind the conversation of the night before, I turned on the weather radio;  there wetre high wind alerts for high profile vehicles, and indeed the driving required considerably more attention today.  WOW, possible snow predicted for the afternoon and evening in the high passes, just where we intended to go.  We stopped at the Colorado welcome station, and found a weather forecast also mentioning snow in the mountains; we climbed along Colorado's I-76 toward Denver, noticing how the roads all had gates to close access to them here.  These ominous signs all pointed to an early stop today before the mountains.  As we entered Denver, the flashing sign over the highway warning truckers that they would need chains in winter going west on I-70 did nothing to ease our concern;  we have neither chains, nor the desire to drive in conditions that require them.  We picked a Walmart in Evergreen CO as the stopping point, from the Next Exit book, and headed there, only to start a steep climb to over 7000 ft in rain.  The RV would go 36 miles an hour in second gear at 3200 rpm, and sounded comfortable doing it; we passed a few heavy trucks, but many more passed us.  The clouds were getting greyer and gloomier as we drove toward the exit.

We happily found the Walmart right there at the end of the ramp;  there were numerous RV's already sheltering here, and we pulled between two of them in a cozy arrangement we might have shunned under more pleasant conditions.  Tonight we did not wish to risk clogging the parking lot further with RV's and incur management's wrath...  we were HERE for the night...whew! :-)   The TV showed pictures of traffic jams leaving Denver as the rain worsened, and Copper mountain reported 2 inches of snow and still falling.  The rain fell heavily on the rooftop, and we felt thankful for our now cozy warm safe shelter;  it brought to mind some of our boating arrivals in a quiet harbor after sailing in stormy conditions.  Only 281 miles today, but it somehow did not seem like a short day to us...  :-)  The weather forecast is for clearing tomorrow, so we plan to continue with a relaxed start, to make sure roads are cleared.  We used our rain jackets for the first time this trip to walk to Walmarts; the cold driven drops made the jackets most welcome.  We stocked up on a few things, and returned to the RV in a bit less rain.  Claire tried for the second time to do Pilates exercises to a videotape on the floor of the RV...SUCH motivation!  For me it was sleep time!   At the end of long driving days I am ready only for bed...guess I'll just go to 'pot'....belly I mean, of course!  :-).  I heard Claire puffing in the thin 7000 foot air, and she said she did not finish.  At 2AM I awoke and started the furnace;  it was in the 40's outside and 50's in; the front had passed.

Thursday September 19:

We arose to a clear chilly day, and walked our two miles; the thin air was quite noticeable, and the hilly terrain only made it more so.  We did try to walk up hill first, so returning would be possible.  :-)  Evergreen is a scenic tourist town, with evidence of wealth abounding; snow is visible on the mountain tops...

 Even the Walmart architecture is special and fitting to such an alpine refuge...

Gas is $1.39 in Evergreen, we think that may be the best price we see for a while, then forget to check the prices in our data... DUHH.  We pass on it on the way out....   There are picture opportunities galore along the Great Divide;  the cats do not like the 8 mile long 8% downgrade we do at 50 mph in second gear, engine screaming at 4800 rpm.  Purry quickly joins Pookie under the couch;  we do not like the noise but are thankful SOMETHING limits our speed, as the brakes surely would not.  We hear several calls on the CB trucker channel warning other drivers that their brakes are smoking.  We are thankful we have selected an appropriate gear at the top of the hill; as speed builds, down shift is not possible.  The speed limit for us is 60, but for heavier trucks it is 35;  we must be sure we have an open lane to enter as we overtake the heavies in the right hand lane; stopping is NOT an option...  :-(

We snap pictures freely of the breathtaking scenery we pass.

Imagine, if you can, the forces required to do THIS to the earth's crust.....

The camera card soon filled up in the beautiful mountain scenery....

I swapped it for the spare;  alas, the card did not work.  I tried the other empty small card we have, and it also did not work;  this looks like possible camera damage.  :-((((  I do not try the original full card, fearful of losing all our cross country pictures.  No more pictures today!  We found a Sams with gas in Grand Junction CO, near the Utah line; members price $1.34.  For once we WIN.  We are within a couple gallons of full when the pump cuts us off at $75, we call it full.  Another RV driver asks if non members can buy...yes, but 5 cents more.  He says even that is good for the area.  He indicated he had been in Arches NP with an RV about our size, no problems.  :-)  We continue on toward Arches, across I-70's barren high desert in Utah, thinking we might make it by closing time. At a rest stop I check fluids, and notice the missing oil fill cap;  @#$%$%, I must have forgotten to replace it at that windy stop in NE when I added a quart...double DUHHH!!!  We plug the fill tube with a plastic bag over a foam pipe insulator, rubber banded in place.  It fits tightly and will do 'til we can find a replacement.  As we head South on 191 toward the park, I notice the cell service switch to analog;  :-(   I quickly call son Matt to warn him we might be going incommunicado for the next few days; the call went through easily with good quality. The Wilson Trucker dual band cellphone antenna on the side of the RV seems to have really improved our cellphone reliability.

The scenery is increasingly beautiful, but no working camera...  :-(   As we approach Arches NP, we realize there may be no chance of getting into the first come first served NP Campground this late in the day.  However, we also want to understand the road and campground limitations, so stop at the visitors center; 20 motorcycles and a truck are ahead of us, evidently a group with advance reservations.  We are told the campground is full, per the sign at the entrance, but the visitors center would help us arrange for tonight's camping elsewhere.  We ask and are directed to a B LM (Bureau of Land Management) primitive campground on the banks of the CO River, about 3 miles away.  It was also full, contrary to the guidance we received at the visitors center;  we decided to call a Passport America campground the same distance away as the next alternate BLM site, and found no answer.  Since the prices were the same, we opted to drive to the PA campground, since they had electricity, sewer and water while BLM is primitive. We were quite tired, but as Claire cooked lentil soup for dinner, I tried the only idea I had to restore the camera to working condition.  I cleaned the contacts of the cards in 99% pure isopropyl alcohol and inserted them into the camera wet to clean the internal contacts also.  When I allowed drying time and turned the camera on, IT WORKED!!!  JOY!!!   

Friday September 20:

We had found the campground office closed, with instructions to pick a site and pay in the AM; we intended to be at the Arches visitors center at 7:30 AM when they open to get a site.  The office here opened at 8AM....we left what we thought was the proper payment with a note, and departed.  We arrived at Arches at 7:32, and found a number of RV's and campers inside already, claiming their spots.  We hurriedly got in line and claimed the sixth last of 23 that were being vacated that day.  Whew, that was close, and I had thought there would be no problem before 9AM.  I'm glad Claire was insistent on early arrival.......  :-)  We drove the 18 miles to the campsite, and perused the available sites;  there were few open, and some in a gully had weak cellphone service.  We drove back toward the entrance looking harder, and found an RV on the very hilltop who was leaving in 45 minutes; we hurriedly claimed their site with incredible view and 5 bar cellphone service as our own for the next three days.

 After walking the fee check to the entrance, I found the need for a nap...DOWN TIME at last!!  :-)))))  Claire soon joined me and is snoozing still; this has been a grueling drive for the past week, and now we are in position to SLOW DOWN and enjoy.  We were not wrong to rush, as the first snow hit the high passes on the continental divide the day we expected to pass through; however, now we can relax and enjoy....mmm, mmmm, good!!  :-))  We refuse to waste (if sleep should be called that) the whole day; we decide on a short trail in back of the campground.  The scenery is breathtaking...

It really is difficult to choose from the beautiful scenes....but choose we must as the website has a 50 meg limit, and cellphones only upload at 14.4 kb/s :-)  Here we are looking down the road from the campsite.

 and each turn in the trail opens a new photo op...here is our first arch, aptly named Trailhead Arch.

These are most impressive wind eroded rock formations;  I was not aware of the potential for falling rock when this picture was taken.  :-)  These are not as permanent as they seem; however falling rock is probably much less dangerous than lightning here....  One last introductory Arches photo here, then we must upload this to the website....as Snuffy used to say, "Time's a'wastin".... :-)  Here is Sand Dune Arch; folks we met there said the sand has gotten lower in their memory, as their kids used to jump off the top of the arch into the sand.

As someone else used to say "That's all folk's..."  and until next time...perhaps from Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, or even the Grand Canyon or beyond, we'll keep you updated on our travels whenever we get weekend digital cellphone service.  This may NOT be next week, as usenet reports on cell coverage from Bryce, Zion and the Grand Canyon indicate weak analog only coverage there.  We will be here in Arches NP at least until Monday, and have the option to extend our stay up 'til Thursday, the seven day stay limit.  Until next time, ENJOY!  We are!!