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.