2018 Fall Western Trip: Colorado to Oregon

Monday, 9/24:  278 miles and parked at the KOA in Rock Springs, Wyoming

50 degrees when we left Fort Collins this morning at 9:30.  There were high winds forecasted, and sure enough, they showed up.  Warning signs along Interstate broadcasted possible gusts to 45 miles per hour.  Fortunately, they were head winds, and not broadside, so other than decreasing the fuel efficiency, travel was not bad.  The southern Wyoming landscape was arid, treeless and covered in sagebrush.   There was the occasional beef cattle herd grazing, but not many.

You can't appreciate how windy it was from this photo.

Note the 80 MPH speed limit sign.  :-)

We arrived at Rock Springs about 2:00 to sunny, but terribly windy conditions.  We didn't dare put the awning out, not even just a few feet.  The park is all gravel with few trees, and no mature trees.  But that's what it is like out here.  Dry, dry, dry.  My lips are dried up, and Judy has to put eye drops in her eyes every couple hours.  Makes sense when the relative humid is only 12%,  We opened our growler of Left Hand Brewing IPA and had a glass.  Since we have been eating out so much lately, dinner was a huge salad.  About 9:00 PM the winds suddenly died down, and life was quiet agin.

On to Utah tomorrow.

Tuesday, 9/25:  186 miles and parked at Willard Bay State Park, near Ogden, Utah

Site 69 at Willard Bay SP

It was 35 degrees this morning in Rock Springs when we woke.  We were on the road just about 10:00.  The drive today was short, 3 hours, and pleasant.  It was I-80 to Salt Lake City and then I-84 northwest to Willard Bay.  This is a wonderful campground and we have stayed here before.  The sites are HUGE and private, and on top of that, they have electric, water, and sewer.  There are two negatives to an otherwise excellent campground.  One is the highway noise as it is located right next to Interstate 84. We don't mind the road noise.  After a while, we become immune to it.  The second is the customer service.  We arrived early and were denied entry, even though our site was empty.  We were told to to go to the day use area and wait, but there was a $15.00 charge for that.  That other choice was to go to the truck stop down the street and chill, which we chose to do.  While at the truck stop, we met another couple waiting for the same thing we were.  We started to compare notes.  They have been on the road for 4 months, and have never been denied early entry anywhere.  We have camped in every state in all of the lower 48 in the US, and we have never been denied early entry at any campground.  Oh well, we finally checked in at the appropriate time and enjoyed the rest of afternoon and the very nice weather.

Couple of lazy dogs.

Tomorrow we off to Boise, Idaho.

Wednesday, 9/26:  297 miles and parked at the Boise/Meridian KOA in Meridian, Idaho

Site 7

We were on the road about 9:30 and arrived at the Boise/Meridian KOA just about 2:30.  It was a nice drive over Interstate 84 the entire way.  The speed limit on I-84 is 75 or 80, depending on local.  I plugged along at 70 all day.  There was some very nice farmlands coming into Idaho, including potatoes, corn, alfalfa, beef, and dairy.  But that ended and we soon saw the lava fields of southern Idaho.  This KOA is very full, with 75% long term residents, but it is probably the most immaculate campground we have ever stayed at.  After a beer in the sun and some dog walking, we adjourned to the camper for dinner and reading and TV.  Tomorrow is a free day, so we can catch up on shopping, and just maybe find a craft brewery to visit for lunch.

Thursday, 9/27

Today was a down day, so to speak.  That means we are not on the road.  We need these kind if days every so often.  We did a Walmart shopping run in the morning, followed by a couple of long afternoon naps and some reading in the afternoon.  We never found a craft brewery for lunch because they all didn't open until 3:00 or 4:00 on  Thursdays.  Oh well, we'll plan on craft beer for dinner.  At 6:30, we met friends Mike and Lyndsay for dinner at Sockeye Brewing.  Lyndsay was a former student of mine and a graduate of Potsdam High School.  She and her husband are involved in wildfire work for the US Forest Service.  They arrived first and scored an outside table.  Judy and I both had trout dinners, and they were phenomenal.  It was a wonderful evening of catching up and sharing travel stories.  What a treat it is to stay in touch with them.  We were home in time to catch the end of the new Murphy Brown series on CBS.

On Friday we are off to Joseph, a small town in northeast Oregon for several days for some mountain scenery and relaxation.

2018 Fall Western Trip: Fort Collins, Colorado

Wednesday, 9/19:  180 miles and parked at the Lakeside KOA in Fort Collins, Colorado

Site 32.

We arrived at the KOA right at 1:30 after a pleasant and uneventful drive.  We will park here for 5 nights, with lots of friends and family to visit.   It was sunny and 80 degrees and after set up we sat on the paved patio and had a drink.  The weather forecast was calling for late afternoon thunderstorms.  So I decided to walk the dogs early.  This campground has a gorgeous private lake with about a 3/4 mile walking path that is perfect for dog walking.

At the end of dog walking, I heard thunder rumbling.  I got back just in time!!  About 15 minutes later, all Hell broke loose with a hail storm.  It didn't last long, but it sure was a doozy.

Fortunately, there was no serious damage.  We had shrimp and pasta for dinner, then an evening of TV and reading.

Thursday, 9/20:

After a rainy night, it turned out to be another sunny and 80 degree day today.  This is going to be our slow down day and do a few chores.  First we paid a few bills online, or over the phone.
then we went shopping for supplies.  Groceries, beer and wine were on the list.  After shopping, we we went to the Red Truck Brewery for lunch and a brew.  Red Truck is a new, yet old brewery.  Red Truck bought the former Fort Collins Brewery.  We were at FCB a few years ago, and were not terribly impressed.  Anyway, Red Truck has completely turned the place around.  We had lunch about 1:30 and there was a small crowd there.  The staff is super friendly.  We had a nice time.  Later in the day, after we were home and settled in, Judy discovered she was missing her credit card.  She called Red Truck, and sure enough, they had it.  She had left it in the processing machine when she purchased a T-shirt.  So back we went at about 4:30 to pick it up.  Holy cow!!  There was a huge after work crowd there having a great time.  It looks like Red Truck will make a go of it.

After hitting the Red Truck today, dinner was snacks and popcorn.  We ended the night reading and watching TV

Friday, 9/21:

It was a brisk 52 degrees and sunny this morning.  We decided to do laundry this morning.  The KOA has a great laundromat and not many were using it, so we did three loads in a little over an hour.  For lunch we decided to go to Odells Brewery.  Odells has been one of our regular stops when in Fort Collins.  It was a warm and sunny afternoon, and the place was packed.  They have a gorgeous outdoor patio area, along with a couple of food trucks, and we spent a pleasant couple of hours there. It seems that food trucks are very popular in Fort Collins and almost every brewery has them, usually several different ones during the week.

Then back to the camper for naps.  About 5:30 we headed over to good friends, Tanya and Dean for dinner.  Tanya is the daughter of our Wisconsin friends, Dave and Ann Wright.  We have known her since birth.  In fact, she has the rare distinction of having Gouverneur listed as her birth place on her birth certificate. Years ago, I attended their wedding and made the champagne for the reception.  We spent a wonderful couple of hours catching up with them.  We had so much fun chatting,  I forgot to take a group photo.  Damn!!

I forgot to take a group photo.  :-(  This is from October of 2015.
We're now all a little older and hopefully, little wiser.  :-)

We were back home by 8:00 for some TV and bed.

Saturday, 9/22:

Yep, another crisp and sunny morning.  50 degrees when I woke.   Over the last several days, I discovered some "dead tree art" on the dog walking trail around the lake.  What a cool idea.  Here are just a few of the more than 15 examples I found.

After some dog walking, paying bills online, and reading time, we were off to meet Judy's cousin, Denise, for lunch at the Blue Agave in the Old Town section of Fort Collins.  The lunch was amazing, and we had a wonderful time catching up with Denise.

Judy and Denise

After our 2 hour lunch, we parted ways with promises to meet again.  On the way home, we made a brewery stop at New Belgium.   New Belgium is famous for their Fat Tire beer, but they make dozens of other varities as well.  Our friend Tanya works for New Belgium.  This brewery is one of our regular stops when in Fort Collins.  New Belgium is unique in that it is 100% employee owned.  It was a warm and sunny afternoon and the place was mobbed.  The crowd was young, hip, and everyone had dogs.   We were also the oldest couple there.  :-)

Then it was back to the camper for a campfire and some reading.  Today was another fun day.

Sunday, 9/23:

Yep, this morning was yet agin, another crips and sunny morning.  We met my niece, Jen, and her soon to be husband, Dave at Left Hand Brewing in Longmont.  Longmont is about an hour derive south of Fort Collins.  They live in the Denver area, and are brew pub fans.  Judy and I like craft breweries as well, so it was a great meeting place.  Left Hand turned out to be a fun stop, and it's always great to connect with Jen and Dave.

Judy and I with Jen, Dave and their daughter, Annika.

We were back home by 3:00.  At 6:00 we met Judy's cousin Denise again.  This time for pizzas, and she brought her kids and grandkids for us to meet.  It was a fun gathering.

Tomorrow we leave Fort Collins and toward Boise, Idaho.

Fall 2018 Western Trip: Across America's Heartland

Saturday, 9/15:  267 miles and camped at Oakwood Trail Campground, Austin, Minnesota

Site 10

We were on the road about 9:30 this morning.  We crossed the Mississippi River and camped at the most unique place we have ever stayed at.  Oakwood Trails is a small 25 site park located in a hillside  oak grove on a working 440 acre crop and beef farm.  We saw lots and lots of corn and soybean fields on our route today.

Dinner was leftovers.  Tomorrow we are off to Anita, Iowa.


Saturday, 9/16:  233 miles and camped at Lake Anita State Park, Anita, Iowa

Along the shore of Lake Anita.

Site 130

We were on the road about 10:30 today.  It was another day of corn and soybeans and wind turbines.  And then, even more corn and soybeans and wind turbines.  We arrived at the campground about 2:30 to sunny and 90 degree weather.  Fortunately, there was a nice breeze blowing in off the lake that made sitting outside pleasant.  Lake Anita is a really nice park.  The park was probably only a third full.  We had an electric only site right on the water.

Lower level electric only with lake views.

Full hookup sites on the second level.

View from the second level.

Tomorrow we head for Kearny, Nebraska.


Monday, 9/17:  258 miles and camped at Fort Kearny State Recreation Area, Kearney, NE

Site 10

Gorgeous lake view from our campsite.

We were on the road about 9:30 today.  It is turning out to be another hot and sunny day. 70 degrees when we woke this morning.  In fact, when we pulled in to the campground in Kearney, it was a blistering 93.  More corn and soybeans and wind turbines today across western Iowa and eastern Nebraska.  The soybean combines and the tractor trailer grain trucks were out in full force finishing up the harvest.  There is still a lot of standing corn to be harvested.  We tried sitting outside at the camper, but it was just too hot.  Dinner was leftovers in the air conditioned camper.

Tomorrow, we are off to Chimney Rock.

Tuesday, 9/18:  261 miles and camped at Pioneer Crossing Campground, Chimney Rock, NE

Site 12 at Pioneer Crossing Campground.

We left Fort Kearny SRA right at 10:00 and we arrived at Pioneer Crossing just about 1:00.  But remember, the four trip was only three hours on the clock because we went from Central Time to Mountain Time.  The countryside changes today.  Fewer corn and soybeans, and beef cattle grazing lands instead.  There is still corn, but nowhere as much.  About 3:00 we drove down to the Chimney Rock Interpretive Center which is just a mile away.  The center is small, but we learned a lot.  Chimney Rock is the most commented on feature in all of the writings and diaries from the Oregon Trail era.  It was a major landmark on the strenuous trek west.  Secondly, Chimney Rock is not a rock.  It is the eroded remains of volcanic ash and clay sediment over millions of years.  That is why it is eroding so fast.  Photographs and paintings show it quite a bit shorter than it was during the mid and late 1800's.

Wow.  They light Chimney Rock up at night.

Tomorrow we head to Fort Collins, Colorado for a 5 night layover.  It will be nice to settle down for a few days.

Wednesday, 9/19:

This morning we left the campground about 9:15 and stopped at Scott's Bluff National Monument in nearby Gering.  Scotts Bluff was an interesting visit.  We  stayed about an hour.  The bluff was a noted landmark rising over 800 feet and marks Mitchell Pass, through which the Oregon Trail emigrants were able to travel cross.  Present day Nebraska Route 92 follows the old Oregon Trail through Mitchell Pass now.

Mitchell Pass, with Scotts Bluff on the right.

Scotts Bluff, standing 800 feet tall.

Typical 6 oxen team used on the Oregon Trail

Typical wagon.  Most people had to walk
because the wagons were so heavy with supplies.

At 10:30 we pulled out of the monument parking lot and headed south to Fort Collins.