Crossing the country in 5.5 days.
Dear Family and Friends,
Yes, we’ve returned to our travel adventures. This past year was an adventure in itself as we built out the capabilities and features of RV Weather, and began showing it off at RV rallies and tradeshows on the east coast. As a matter of fact, we had a one-week turnaround to get ready for this trip after completing a couple of shows in Georgia and South Carolina.
It was very hard to leave the early Spring flowers just beginning to peep out! We took an afternoon garden walk with good friends the night before we left.
Now we are headed to Grand Teton National Park. This little note is just to share our version of business travel.
Naturally we had RV Weather look at the weather conditions 8 days out and suggest the best route to miss storms and winds. Luckily, the shortest route taking I-80 would keep us north of big storms if we drove some long days over 300 miles. It also helped with timing, so we could leave early enough to beat the winds building in Rawlins WY and finish the day ahead of the storm bringing 4-6 inches of snow to the passes around Jackson.
Since we were traveling from Point A to Point B, overnight stops were for convenience and not sightseeing. We’d skip the campgrounds this trip across. With one exception.
Our first travel day, by tradition, takes us just a few hours from home to visit Dave’s brother’s campground in Knox, PA. Aside from the fun of visiting with family, it lets us make sure everything works. And if we forgot anything, we won’t waste two days going back to retrieve whatever was left behind. My brother Jeff, pointed out that this style of embarking on a new journey is called the “Hudson Bay Start.” Even Lewis and Clark did the same thing when they set out on their explorations. I love learning stuff like that!
On the drive I thought I’d get a little work done. I decided to ask ChatGPT for “some alliterative phrases centered around avoiding bad weather” that might inspire the next round of advertising. One thing led to another and for the next hour Dave and I were howling. In the back and forth with Chat, we had created the “Clear Skies Radio Network: the only RV radio network dedicated to weather-savvy wanderers, storm-dodging road warriors, and anyone whose home has a horn and a hitch”, complete with Host line up, time slots, tag lines, and sponsors!
Oh, I forgot a USB lamp. We did *not* go back for that!
The next day was Golidlocks weather. Sunny, dry, no winds — perfect towing weather. We made it just shy of Chicago. Rather than leave the toll road, we took advantage of one of their ‘RV Only’ parking spots for the night. Of course that means you also have the diesel lullaby of idling commercial truck engines swirling around your sleepy head. It does let you get an early start!
We made it past Chicago and through the seemingly endless construction zones to reach the Living History Farms, a 500-acre open-air museum in Urbandale, Iowa. Unfortunately they were not open, so we could not explore their displays. But I did wander around the ornamental pond of the restaurant next door and take a few photos of the nesting Canada Geese and one pair’s rambunctious goslings. Gotta get those picture-taking-reflexes back in shape!
Someone on this trip asked what I cooked while on the road. On trips like this without stops with dump stations, gray water tank management is key. So no pasta, nothing very greasy. Anything that minimizes washing dishes! So my go to is a grilled cheese of apple, cheddar, and bacon, served on paper plates, alternated with frozen dinners. All of which was dutifully stocked in the Airstream.
But so far, I haven’t worked in the kitchen! The first night was dinner out with Pete. The second night we did something rare — succumb to the the irresistible aroma of fresh pizza from a rest stop vendor. And on our third night, we could continue to save gray tank space (wink, wink) by availing ourselves of the popular restaurant next to the museum. The leftovers from that meal took care of the next night too!
Our fourth day had a bit of on and off drizzle for the day. Lots of trucks and navigating narrow construction zone lanes. We had our first road mishap when Dave could not steer around a recently thrown piece of retread. We heard the scary thump, but it wasn’t until we stopped that we saw that our rock guards had done their duty and one of them sacrificed itself for the good of the Airstream. We’ll need to get it replaced. Apparently the multiple curves make traditional dent pulling impossible. Always fixing things in beautiful places as they say!
Tonight we leave paved roads to get to our central Nebraska overnight stop, The Milk House at Smilin’ Ranch. The other rock guard collected an impressive mud sculpture on the way! It turns out this is a raw milk dairy, something I did not remember hearing about as being a thing before. We learned a lot from the farmer’s daughter, a very poised eighth grader who did an excellent job of (patiently) educating us as she expertly milked eight cows in just over her personal best of 45 minutes. Her public speaking skills are top notch! She was a great saleswoman too — we walked out with farm eggs, and raw milk products of coffee creamer, butter, and a first for us, curds.
The next day the farm was holding a round-up and branding session. Friends of their son had come home from school with him to stay in the bunk house and lend a hand. We had to get underway before they started the round up, unfortunately. It looked to be a wet and raw day to be outside.
Leaving the dairy farm we finally crossed into Wyoming and started seeing small herds of Pronghorn in the grass and sage hills. The excitement was building — we were clearly getting closer to ‘home!’
For our last night on the road, Dave picked The Historic Elk Mountain Inn. Elk Mountain has a population of 109. And we were told by several folks that they “like it that way.” Arriving in good time, meaning before the winds came up. We walked down town, past the Senior Center, the Post Office, the Library, a couple homes, the welcoming 4-H club sign, and the old mercantile building that is now a cafe. We popped in, thinking we’d treat ourselves to an ice cream soda to hold us over until the dinner reservation we had at the Inn. All to support a local business of course! Hahahahaha!
Nancy, the 72 year old cook and owner of the cafe was too sweet to turn down. So, despite echos of Rom-Coms with friends agreeing to three Thanksgiving dinners in one night we sat down and enjoyed marvelous cooked-to-perfection burgers and heavenly, just-cut, homemade fries. And then waddled over to the Inn to beg a later dinner reservation!
Our final day on the road and we needed to start early before the winds turned dangerous the closer we got to Rawlins WY. We could hear and feel the gusts building in the last 20 miles, but luckily turned north, thus escaping the winds. We wanted to make camp by 2 pm, because snow would be in the passes at higher elevations, and the rain would arrive in the valley around 3. No fun setting up camp in the rain!
We had a little drama after arriving, as the park has not completed de-winterizing for the season, and our site didn’t have water. But we have a great boss, which means the problem was solved quickly. Our home for the season is at the north end of the park where there is more snow. We should be able to move soon.
It may have been a fast (by RV standards) trip across the country, but we still had some fun side adventures and met some interesting folks. And beat the bad weather!
