Back to Texas for a month!

Its going to be a different kind of trip for us this next week as Uhaul has decided that trailoring our BMW X4 was going to cost 4 times what it was coming up here. I refuse to pay that, especially since I can buy a new trailer for not much more! Sooo…. Smokin Hot is going to drive the car behind me as we travel the 1900 miles.

We are planning to go a different route this time which gives me some angst as the only real snowfall of the year has decided to show up in mid April. I don’t expect to have any issues, but it’s just the newness of it I guess. We have made the trip between Texas and the West coast many, many times over the years, but we have never been this route through Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado.

I’m up and writing this on Sunday morning at 3:30 am because my mind won’t stop working. We have been here in Nevada for almost 40 days and it’s all new all over again. Go through the checklist, make sure everything is done. We have over 50 items on our checklist that have to be addressed before wheels roll 12:30 pm today we will be on the road headed towards Salt Lake City.

Its Monday morning April 20th at 5:30 am. We finalized our check list before rolling yesterday and Jilly stopped to look under the rig on her way to the car just to check and make sure the jacks were up as the system said they were. (VERY IMPORTANT TO DO) And they were NOT up all the way. UGH! We had just had an issue with the hydraulic system a few weeks before and spent 200.00 to have them fixed. There goes that money. Anyway, they were up high enough for the trip and I asked Jill to keep an eye on them from behind just in case they decide to go crazy on us while driving down the road. We will have to take care of this issue once we get to Texas.

The day was fun actually. I was dreading driving with just Lucy beside me, and I was worried about Smokin Hot driving by herself, but our incredible friends the Johnson’s, gave us a pair of Walkie Talkies to use and it actually made the first day fun. We acted like truckers for the first few hours, 10/4 good buddy and hey baby, wanna meet me at the next exit? LOL I’m glad I am not using my laptop as I just spilled coffee all over my desk and key board.   My depth perception is not good this morning as I started to get an infection in one of my eyes due to not changing my contact often enough, and I am wearing two pair of glasses in order to see.

Anyway, ultimately we drove about 385 miles before stopping in Wells Nevada, just outside the Utah border. We only have 770 miles to go to get to our dinner in Boulder on Tuesday evening, so we have time to write blogs, have several cups of coffee, leisurely take Lucy potty etc etc etc.

We stopped at this quaint but very loud RV park just off the interstate called Angel Lake RV Park. Evidently this is a big fishing attraction. We will have to check it out next time through. As long as we had our fan on in the bedroom, we couldn’t hear the trucks or trains all night long. 😉 We slept well, and we will be on our way after we go through the 50 or so items on the check list.

We were about 180 miles from SaltLake city and our goal was to get at least half way to Cheyenne Wyoming which was another 400 miles . If we accomplished that, we would essentially only have 6 hours to Boulder. Anyway, that was the goal. 😉

As we got closer to SaltLake, the beautiful terrain began to become more and more flat and the roadside was changing to what appeared to be a dried up lake. Still muddy, but no standing water. And, it was white like snow? Jilly and I were going back and forth on the Walkie Talkie as to whether is was dried up like everything else had been on our trip or whether it was a salt flat. Then we came down off of this seeming plateau, and as far as we could see was flat white terrain. For miles and miles. The Great Salt Lake Desert.In many ways is was quite beautiful, but then, it’s just dead out there. Any water grew nothing, just flat white salt for 50 miles in every direction. I kept thinking what would have happened if we broke down. Long walk!! 😉

Next up was SaltLake City!! We decided just before town we would stop check the map and figure out our plan through town. Jill had asked me to put Boulder in her navigation in the car so  she could more easily follow the direction, but it was quite clear on the map, Interstate 80 straight through to Cheyenne! We jumped back out on the road and I got a phone call. Fortunately I had my blue tooth on so I didn’t have to pick it up. While I am talking, and within 3 minutes I hear this “WHERE ARE YOU?” on the Walkie Talkie. I said, no, where are you? “I was following the Nav and it said to take another direction so I did”. At this point, I was deep into traffic and there was no turning around, so we agreed to meet when the two routes came together on the other side of town. Smokin Hot was lost and on her own!! 😉

I was frustrated anyway because Lucy does not like to ride in any vehicle unless both of us are with her. Especially Jill. However the car is just not the best place for her to ride, so she gets to be with me. She was whining, pacing, jumping into her chair and back out, looking out the window for Jill etc and it was getting annoying. Second, the phone call that I had to take, was taking up some of my attention which was causing me more frustration, AND, nothing sits still in the home while driving, and notoriously my glasses, cell phone, keys, wallet, you name it is constantly sliding around or off the dash and onto the floor. Jill is always there to pick things up for me while I am driving, but if you can imagine in this instance, phone call, Lucy, traffic, no Jill, anything flying off the dashboard was useless and lost until I can pull over and pick it up.

I made it through town and for some reason didn’t think about the fact that the only way totally out was to climb a mountain pass. Motorhomes are not the best mountain pass driving machines. Especially when you are on the phone, dealing with a dog, losing your cell phone and Walkie Talkie. It’s just down right annoying! Switching back, speeding up, slowing down, sharp curves!! Then it happened, the sharpest curve of them all and I was coming in too hot, instantly using my air brake and applying the foot brake at the same time, I took the curve and felt the rig sway, everything not nailed down was in flight and crashing against the opposite wall. Lucy was not happy.

I made my way over to the side of the road, picked everything up, checked on Lucy, picked up all my “stuff”, arranged it properly, and then called Jill. “where are you?” Boy was I glad to hear she was just 5 exits ahead of me. We had successfully made it through SaltLake City.

I kept seeing signs saying Interstate 80 closed if lights are flashing. Well they weren’t flashing, so when Jill said to me there was no way to get to Cheyenne that 80 was closed ahead, it just didn’t compute. Why would they close the only route to Cheyenne? Why weren’t the lights flashing on the signs?

We were only 150 miles away. The weather where we were was beautiful, it was almost 70 degrees, no snow on the ground. Just 150 miles ahead…well the picture speaks for itself. We had a big decision to make. We were 400 miles from Denver. We could take the detour north and circle bag to Cheyenne on the other side, (about 3 hours), or we could head south towards Vernal Utah. I know we just left Utah and it seemed like we were going backwards, but we could possibly save that 3 hours if and ONLY if the roads were clear through the passes.

To be continued