Our Travel Blog

Well, we covered a fair few States on this trip, on the way south we went through:

NY, PA, MD, WV, VA, DC, TN, GA, AL with a side trip to FL

Then on the Way to California:

MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, NV, CA

and on the way home

NV, UT, WY, NE, IA, IL, IN, MI

So, 23 States and DC plus 3 countries, Canada, USA , Mexico, with a distance of 15,700 Kms or 9,755 miles.

It was different this trip as we were moving a lot more, I think both of us prefer being a little more settled, but we will continue the tour next April when we head out to California to pick up the trailer. After that I suspect the trailer will remain in Foley AL.

I think towards the end I used more pictures than words, was this a good thing?

So, the usual question, who has been reading this?

The next blog (if there are enough readers) will start at the end of May (WiFi permitting) as we cruise from Vancouver to Alaska, then meet up with UK friends in AK for 10 days.

Even though April Fools day is tomorrow, I’d like to thank all those who were involved in organising the 6″ of snow that fell overnight!

The snow wasn’t too bad on the roads, and we sailed through customs, didn’t even have to stop before getting to the booth! We had taken the northerly route through Port Huron and Sarnia rather than through Detroit. It was a good move. The snow stopped by London and we maintained 100kmh or greater right through Toronto. Back home by 4:15.

Made it Port Huron, Michigan, just across the river from Sarnia Ontario. Another long drive, but the end is nigh. Nothing really interesting to day, had to slow down a bit as the max speed lime was 70, with a few sprinklings of 65.

Time to sleep

A warm and cool morning, around 3°C. We headed out in the Interstate and immediately started climbing up to 8,640 ft. After spending about 10 or so miles above 8000 ft we started a gradual descent over the next few hundred miles down to about 900 ft. There was very little in the way of outstanding scenery, the further east we got, the more cows we saw! Given we had 660 miles to travel to day, the usual fuel consumption measures were thrown out of the window, and we cruised at 75 MPH for most of the day. Tomorrow is about the same distance but we seem to have said good by to the 75 and 80 MPH limits, and come down to 65 and 70 limits, so it will take a little longer.

A coupe of things I didn’t mention yesterday; one stretch of the I80 went 48 miles in a straight line both horizontally and vertically i.e. no bends and no hills…. very boring! The other occurred at check-in at the hotel, an elderly lady was complaining at the front desk, but all I heard was “I don’t want my body abused like that” and she was wanting to speak to the manager. Me being me said we’d like to check-in provided the hotel didn’t abuse my body. The clerk rolled his eyes, and when the lady was out of earshot, explained that she was complaining that the person in the next room was using a smart phone and the noises that it was making was causing bruising on her arm!

Time to sleep.

Up and away by 0830 this morning, heading out of Nevada into Utah and then Wyoming. We “lost” an hour as we crossed into Utah, and we will continue to lose an hour in each of the next two days. We saw a variety of scenery, including snow, salt flats and many rock formations. The high desert changed to high plains, to wooded mountains to grazing meadows and the altitude bounced between 4800 ft. and 7850 ft. with the average around 6500 ft. Quite a way up! Just checked Google and the two highest interstate elevations are in Colorado at 11,192 and 10,666. The third highest at 8,640 ft, is about 10 miles east of here on the I-80 so we will be there tomorrow. As it is getting late, here are a series of pictures taken out of truck window.

We passed a series of snow fences along the interstate that would put any in Ontario to shame. They were 8-10ft tall and solidly constructed of 1 x 6 wood, rather than the bright orange plastic or “roll up” fencing used at home. At one point about 80 miles of the I-80 were closed to lightly loaded high sided vehicles due to 65mph cross winds. We experienced the effect of those winds when a tractor trailer we were about to overtake got blown half way across our lane!

As it is getting late, here are a series of pictures taken out of truck window.

Snow or Salt?

We arrived in Laramie, WY. after 1060kms taking just over 9 hours of driving, we have about 30kms more tomorrow. Amazingly we both feel great, a testament to the comfort of the truck.

Damp and misty as we fell out of bed at the ridiculously early hour  of 0730! After breakfast I headed outside to connect up the trailer and disconnect the utilities while Lyn worked on the inside. We were on the road by 0845, and not too sure what to expect. We had about 100 kms. of cross country travelling to do to get tho the storage area, and the map suggested there were a number of windy mountain roads. There were a couple of spots where I was thankful there wasn’t too much traffic and was able to swing out into the oncoming lane to get around a couple of tight curves, but apart from that it was OK.

We got the trailer backed in and parked pretty quickly, filled in the paperwork and were back on the road again within 30 minutes. Again we had a few twists and turns to negotiate before hitting the I-80 about 75kms down the road. Without the trailer on the back we could travel fairly well at about 55 MPH for the trip. Once on the I-80 we cruised along just under 70 MPH, and will stay on this road until reaching Chicago on Monday.

Most of the trip was over the high desert, climbing up to 7200 ft at the highest point, average height was around 4500 ft. Now it’s time to get some shut eye and do it all over again tomorrow.