Relaxing Day 4 in Wyoming

What a breath of fresh air, literally, to stay put today. We had a relaxing, long morning walking around the Star Valley Ranch RV park. Steve and Carolyn's spot is on the back outside row so the view of the mountains is breathtaking and 'right there' in front of us. It's a bit hotter than we expected, in the upper 80's, but with full hook-ups the AC is keeping us cool and comfortable.

We took the car to Jackson today and walked the shops for a couple hours. Fun place and on a Sunday it was hopping, but we managed a parking spot right on the main 8-block area and acquired our requisite T-shirts and refrigerator magnet souvenirs before getting a Huckleberry ice cream shake and heading back 'home'.

We'll be driving through Jackson tomorrow too when we leave so we scoped out the refueling station today and know what to expect when we drive it in the RV tomorrow.  Our destination tomorrow is Douglas, WY...another 6.5 hour drive, but it should be a very scenic drive.

At last: scenery! Maybe it has something to do with getting off the interstate? We rolled north out of Wells NV into Idaho and contemplated which route to take to Steve and Carolyn's spot at. Star Valley Ranch RV Resort. Some road reports said chip sealing so we avoided those.

Speed limits are 70 and 80 out here so the pace was sweet. We topped off at a level gas station and determined 6.6 mpg which was nice to see for the first 600 miles of passes and hills with the AC on.

Lyn drove about 100 miles giving me a little time to explore and stretch my legs. I deployed some instrumentation which revealed it gets pretty warm in the bedroom when it's 93 outside and the motor has been pushing for a couple hours. I will have to look over the engine compartment insulation (reflective foil) around the 2 hatches. We started the generator and ran both roof ACs which cooled things down, and had the bonus effect of having these ACs at peak when we finally parked.

Their spot is on the outside row facing east to the mountains. Oh what a view!

Day 2: Ho-Hum Day across Nevada

Today's blog is penned by Lyn.

As every Central Californian who has taken a road trip East knows, the second day of the trip is usually spent driving across Nevada. That's how we spent our day. Left Cisco Grove at 10am, arrived Elko 4pm.

But first a few words about Cisco Grove Campground. Very very shady...that part was nice. And it was cool. But being a campground in the high Sierras, the sites were dirt so it was very dusty. Thankfully, we didn't have anyone beside or across from us or it would have been much dustier and their campfire could have been our campfire too since the sites were quite close together. The site was long enough that we didn't have to unhook the Outback. And we had a natural sound machine to sleep by due to the highway noise from I-80. I actually enjoyed that noise...I think it helped Rich sleep good too. Just had one challenging turn getting out of our row of sites...Rich masterfully maneuvered the turn just barely missing a pole on the front left which allowed the right rear wheel of the rig to slip past a 2' granite rock.

Prior to our trip, we've had intermittent whistling noises from our windshield which is caused by the seal having slipped off the windshield for a space of about 6". It was quiet on our first day, but leaving Cisco it started whistling. So we contacted a glass repair shop in Sparks and they said they could look at it and hopefully fix it. Well, their location wasn't conducive to a 40' RV + tow car, so we  kept on going and got back onto I-80. About 30 minutes lost. The windshield Gods shone down on us though and we had a whistle-free 5-hour drive to Elko, with 1 stop at a rest stop and 1 for gas.
Here's a pic of the windshield seal gap.

We're still learning our gas gauge, trying to get a feel for what 1/4 tank really means. Since we've run out of gas in our previous motor homes, I don't want a repeat of that so I'm going to be a gas-nag until we know our gas gauge better. I have 2 gas apps on my phone: Gas Buddy and Trucker Path. Gas Buddy is great for mapping all the gas stations that have diesel and their prices, but it's geared for cars. Trucker Path is geared for trucks....so any locations it maps are big enough for us. Since the gas gauge was at 1/4, I 'convinced' Rich to stop before Elko and pay $20 more. But, it wasn't a flat area, so it didn't fill completely. Now that we're in Elko and have seen a couple other stations, we'll fill it completely to see what kind of mileage we're getting. On one previous round trip to Fresno, we got 7.2 mpg, so hopefully we won't be too far below that on this trip. Tune in tomorrow for results for this trip.

In Elko, we stayed at the Iron Horse RV park...another long pull-thru so no disconnecting needed. However, very very close to the neighbor. In fact, if we had our front left slide out, we could probably  offer them some coffee this morning. But it's a concrete pad with grass in between, so that was nice. Fairly quiet if you don't mind train whistles every few hours.

Rich spent many hours last night researching the route we'll be taking to Thayne, WY today. The first 2/3 of the trip is pretty straightforward: when we get to Wells, NV, we'll head north on 93 to Twin Falls ID and get on the main freeway to Pocatello. But at that point, there are 2 ways to get to Thayne. Google maps indicated road construction so Rich went on Idaho's equivalent of Cal-Trans to get details to help us make that decision when we get there. We're looking forward to staying a couple nights at Thayne (thank you Steve and Carolyn) where we'll make a day trip in the car to Jackson.

You can probably plan to see our latest blog in the mornings. So far we've found that after a long day of driving, and after some wine for me and a beer for Rich, vegging on our couches fits the bill.

Well, it's 8:15 and want to be rolling by 9, so will sign off now. You should be able to now add a comment without having a Google account. Please try it and if you can't comment yet, send us an email or text.

Until tomorrow......

'Twas the night before....

Twelve years ago we sorta settled on moving to Fresno as we retired. Lyn's entire family is in Fresno and you know how important it is to be near lots of family as you 'age'.
Ten years ago we went looking for another house to buy as that seemed cheaper than remodeling the kitchen. We never planned on staying in that house but that decision got harder to stick with as we found Folsom and the house and especially the neighbors were truly very special.
Six years ago Lyn applied for a job at the UCD Med Center and six months later was hired. 
She (finally) retired at the end of June and we left a lot of good friends and neighbors and a wonderful home. The things you do to be nearer to your grandkids!
Last year we were wondering what we were actually gonna do when we did retire, and decided to get a motor home. We found a 06 Monaco Camelot in November and spent a lot of time and a little more money getting it ready for an extended tour.

This is our third motor home, though we have been (motor)homeless the last 16 years. We have already been down to Quartzsite AZ in January and a few shorter trips to get refamiliarized with the lifestyle and procedures.

Today we rolled off for a long loop back to Michigan with stops in Wyoming, South Dakota, and (colder) places in between.

We made it 270 miles in temperatures up to 100 and climbed to 5600 feet at Cisco Grove where it was cool and shady albeit without concrete, so the wash and wax from last Monday is slightly less sparkly. We never fell below 45 mph, but tomorrow we have to go over Echo Summit at 7382 feet. Won't have the AC on for that climb!