Our Travel Blog

A sub-zero start to the day! We left Casper WY heading towards Salt Lake City UT. The first 120 miles were on the back roads (with a 70MPH limit and no traffic!). Again there was very little in the way of civilisation, but the scenery was quite rugged and interesting. We climbed up to around 7500 ft, into cloud and more snow. Luckily the temperature is not cold enough to allow the snow to settle on the road surface.

We picked up the I-80 and headed west into UT. There were a lot of interesting rock formations along the Interstate which gave us something new to look at.

The temperature was bouncing all over the place, from -2°C – +9°C. We slowly started our descent into Salt Lake City, and we got to a balmy 11°C! After a slight disagreement with the GPS we managed to find our motel! As usual we headed out for a walk and a spot of geocaching, 1.6 miles and 2 caches. Two more full days of driving and we should be in California.

After yesterdays high of 5°C, it was a shock to walk out to the truck at 0°C in the snow this morning! When we awoke the visibility was poor with snow, this did not bode well for seeing Mt. Rushmore. After breakfast I took a look at the weather radar to see whether we could expect an improvement as the day progressed. Amazingly the weather system causing all the problems was to the east of us, and although fairly stationary, Mt. Rushmore was on the edge of the disturbance, but could be affected at any time. Instead of hanging around the hotel waiting for the weather to clear (about 3 days!!) we decided to get moving before the weather moved further west. As we drove the 20 odd miles, it seemed as though we had made the wrong decision as the visibility decreased further as we climbed up to 5500ft. As we reached the area, things started to improve a little

Wooden Bridge at Entrance to Mt. Rushmore

“Miners Tunnel”

The closer we got, the better the visibility, so we headed into the park area to be met by the camouflaged park security.

Next are a few pictures of the carvings, the last one taken in return for me taking photos for a Chinese group!

On the way out of the park we were able to get a profile view of one of the carvings.

The weather deteriorated once we left the park, so although conditions were far from ideal, we at least got to see something!

We next traveled cross country out of South Dakota, into Wyoming. Again there were miles of nothingness.

But occasionally bizarre things turned up.

We finally got onto the I-25 for the final run into Casper. We braved the 1C temperature and went off for a 1.6 mile walk to claim another geocache. Now it’s back to the hotel, which seems to be packed with high school kids on some sort of trip…. could be a noisy night.

After yesterdays high of 24°C, it was a shock to walk out to the truck at 5°C. It was a damp misty morning with nothing to look forward too other than 500 miles of interstate.

The weather did clear for a while, but then it took a turn for the worse with heavier rain, falling temperatures, then ice pellets and a little snow as we climbed up to 3300ft. The scenery was pretty much the same for the whole trip, fields, fields and more fields. At times we could see no signs of human civilisation around us, including vehicles on the Interstate! The only saving grace was an 80MPH / 130KM/H speed limit. Problem was my fuel consumption increased by about 50% going from 65 to 80MPH.

Given the boring trip, I was convinced my choice of a $38 HoJo motel would haunt me. Wrong!!! This hotel is fantastic, even at double the price, King bed, sofa, superfast internet, pool, hot tubs, FREE beer and wine between 6 and 8PM and free breakfast. By far the best of the cheap hotels we have stayed in on all our travels.

I needed some exercise and fresh air so, despite the weather, I risked a walk to get a local geocache, although Lyn felt her time would be better spent staying in the room.

Time to go find the booze!

No great rush to get going today as the place that Lyn wanted to go did not open until 10AM. The place in question was a store called “Nancy’s Notions”, which is run by a person who has her own TV sewing show. Lyn has been a fan of this show for many years, and when I suggested she may want to take a more scenic route to California via Beaver Dam, she jumped at the chance (I figured a few brownie points may come my way as well!!)

While Lyn was doing her thing I was off on an errand of mercy (hopefully collecting even more brownie points). Just before we left Lyn’s long arm quilting machine decided to die! She switched it on one morning and there was nothing; absolutely nothing lit up moved or beeped. After checking the obvious like was it plugged in, had the fuse blown etc, it was time to call the professionals. I called the dealer who sold and installed it, who in turn put me in contact with a factory technician who coincidentally lived near Beaver Dam where we were staying. We arranged to meet in a small town about 10 miles away, I would give him some parts from the dead machine and he would have them checked and fixed. Once fixed, the parts would be sent to our final destination in Alabama. This will save us a lot of aggro with mailing and Canada Customs!

Once all this was done I headed back to town to extricate Lyn from the store, seems my timing was perfect as she was ready to leave…. but not empty handed!!

We traveled about 40 miles to pick up the interstate, then just headed west for 300 miles, climbing slowly up to 1400 feet. As we went west we got into more fertile country, we also saw more herds of cattle which supported Wisconsin’s slogan of Americas Dairy LandRandom View on the Interstate

We then passed through some rocky hill areas and into Minnesota, where the earth was a rich black colour, with plenty of farms all over the countryside.

The road was pretty well deserted, both in terms of traffic and civilisation. At one point there was no MacDonald’s (or any other coffee stop for close to 100 miles!) .

We arrived in Blue Earth Minnesota around 5:40, checked into the hotel then went walking and geocaching. We found three caches close by, including this well hidden, micro cache!!

The town of Blue Earth is closely associated with the Green Giant food company, and the local area supplies much of its produce. The giant is 58.5 ft tall and weighs in at 8,000 lbs.

The last cache of the day took us 8 miles south to the Minnesota – Iowa State line, where there was meant to be a cache right on the border, that one escaped us, but we did get to briefly visit a new State.

Nothing very exciting today, we headed out after breakfast on a cool and wet morning. We followed the north shore of Lake Michigan heading west before turning south west and heading into Wisconsin (a new State for us), and the Central Time Zone. It was mostly two lane roads, but very little traffic. The rain eased up for a couple of hours, but then returned with a bit more force. We by-passed the largest city on out trip to date, Green Bay, before heading past the famed airfield at Oshkosh. One year we’ll get there for the fly-in.

We arrived at the hotel around 3:45, and headed out for a combination walk, geo-cache hunt, somewhere to eat tonight trip. We found a restaurant about 50 yards form the hotel! We also got in a mile of walking hunting down a couple of caches. I am not sure whether the exercise was to burn off last nights french-fries, or to create an allowance for further “sinful” food tonight. Traveling to the trailer always seems to involve poor eating choices!!