We ventured from the high ground of Leadville and Buena Vista CO to the relative low altitude of Cheyenne WY (6,000 feet) where we spent 4 days at AB Camp Ground and did a daily trip to see the town. We added another state capitol to our list and really enjoyed the tour. The best museum was the Cow Girl Museum. It seemed like a small store front, but there was so much there that we had to tear ourselves away after 2 hours. 

We finally set out for Rock Springs and the Escapade. This is a gathering of Escapees members which has of course been put off for a year. Attendance was limited because in the preparations no one knew what kind of requirements for distancing might be required. As it was over 700 units were there and I think Carol and I got to talk to well over half of the attendees. It is a great joy to be in a gathering of people who share a major lifestyle in common. Even if we all do it our own way. Carol and I worked with the other Jojobians to pull together a presence on “The Row” an area set aside for Escapees organizations to present themselves to the membership and maybe entice them to join. It is the biggest sales event we have. During the days it was HOT and even windy. The evenings did cool off some and it was dry. 

After the Escapade we arranged to visit cousin Mimi in Madison WI. The only place to stay is a lovely county park and I was able to book 2 nights there when Mimi has time to get together. since making that plan we have been trekking 4 hours a day. This is our new limit to keep us fresh and safe. I have really been working our multiple camping resources to find places to stop. As I am writing we are in a Boondockers Welcome location. In this instance a local business in Raymond IA that has some land near the parking lot that is relatively level and on the other side of the building from the train tracks. They offer yet another way of camping. Here is a link to their website

We finally got to lower altitude, 2,000 feet, in Nebraska and we will continue to lose altitude as we head further East.

We also stayed in a way overpriced KOA that was only 60 from Cheyenne and the Rodeo that was happening there and using daysenddirectory.com we located a small town fairground that had a campground in Pottawattamie County IA.  When we leave Madison we are looking at no less than 3 nights on the road before parking the coach in Victor NY for a couple of months. I have no idea where we will land, but I do want a full hookup campground for our last night to clear the holding tanks and do some other cleaning. 

It has been a week since our one night stop in Utah. We traversed  the beauty of Utah and then Colorado on I 70.  This may be the most beautiful piece of interstate in the entire country, some drivers might not agree as it is also the steepest and curviest interstate we can remember. The coach caused a few heart stopping moments as it downshifted and complained about working so hard in such high temperatures, but it climbed every mountain. 

We setup at the Grand Junction Elks Lodge with 50 amp power and no water or sewer available. We planned ahead for 5 nights and water conservation left us with a surplus even after cooking dinner for four onboard the last night. We go together with Simonne and Steve each day we were there. Simonne is our son Dan’s sister-in-law. They were in the midst of selling there house and moving into another house they own so the daytimes were mostly devoted to letting them work and then gathering for dinner and celebration after the closing. It was thrilling for us to be able to be there as family to offer support and even to carry a few things. Although we have known them for over 20 years and have visited in past years this was the first time we got to spend real time together. Carol and I cherish the time, the visit and seeing them move onto another stage of their lives.

We moved on to Buena Vista at over 8,000 feet to visit with our friends the Kelenbachs from our trip to Thailand and Vietnam in 2013. We have visited them most every year as we cross though Tucson, Arizona where they winter. Upon arrival the water heater decided to take a vacation. We had dinner at their fifth wheel which is their summer home, the first night. It was a lovely afternoon of conversation and then dinner. I awoke determined to fix the water heater, a call to Girard support yielded little help. Clearly we were not getting sufficient water through the heater to turn it on. It dawned on me that the filter might be a problem even though it was just 2 months old. When I pulled it I could see it had been used. Replacing it did not help. After dinner in town with our friends at a fun restaurant we setout in the morning for a 2 hour drive to Florence CO, only Google knows where it is. We are in a lovely new campground – it opened January 2021! They are still building it. Our site is huge 40×70 with brand new utilities and high quality plastic turf.  Our view out the windshield is Pikes Peak in the middle distance. 

The water heater has returned to working, Carol is finding more O2 in the air at this lower altitude and it is back to HOT!. We went into town to find a new filter and bread. Got the filter. Tomorrow we will drive around the Royal Gorge area. Carol wants to find a zip line she can ride since the one she looked at has a 100 pound minimum. I will report on the outcome in another post. It is cooling off, down to 88 so I can get the grill out soon. 

In the midst of all this goldberg-online.net was hacked, it became the source of a phishing operation.  This lead Blue Host to shut it down. I called Dan in some panic and within a couple of days, between his horseback riding, celebrating with friends and work got it restored, which is how come you can read this. Carol’s site http://cgstudio.net was collateral damage and it too is restored. Next we will secure them.

No destination for Saturday, yet

We stopped in a small campground behind a Subway in a commercial district of Salina Creek Utah, this is the outskirts of Salina Utah which extends about 4 block North, South, East and West of the intersection of US 50 and 89. Using our internet resources we determined that unless we were into offroading in a quad or fishing there was not much to do. The campground itself offers next to nothing other than good water pressure and a sewer connection as well as 50 amp electrical service. This was all we wanted as our next stop will be 5 days with no water or sewer (dry camping) and it is nice to have laundry done and tanks empty and full as appropriate for the stay. We will visit with Simonne and Steve while in Grand Junction . We are staying at the local Elks Lodge. 

With nothing particular to do after finishing the laundry and cleaning we decided to take a tour. Main St reached an end at the edge of town – four blocks East of the intersection. There, after noting the rodeo stands and atv track we saw this sign

We are familiar with Civilian Conservation Corp sites and have stayed at a couple that are now active campgrounds. We decided to explore further and found

and

The white notice on the door has a phone number to call for a tour, instead I resorted to the internet and found https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/53 and https://w.indows atlasobscura.com/places/ccc-pow-camp

So here we have a CCC site and a POW site and a mass murder all in one place. In brief  July 8 1945 a guard who had a lengthy discipline history decided to kill some Germans, he did, 9 in all and 20 injured. Note the date, the war was over. The following pictures were taken through windows that have not seen any cleaning in some time and the sun is over my shoulder to prevent photography, however:

This is the camp layout and below is a WWII Jeep.

We did return when the museum was scheduled to be open but nobody showed and we went on our way.

Please read Carol’s post at http://cgstudio.net/ for story of the day’s travel. We have set out in the past to drive The Lincoln Highway It is part of our personal collection of highways. Many RVers will have a map on their coach showing the states they have been in on their travels. There are many different “rules” that people use to consider a state for inclusion on the map. Some consider a drive through a corner as sufficient others have requirements of various lengths of stay or activity to include a state on the map. We filled our state map many years ago. It turned out the toughest to get was Connecticut. It is small, not as small as RI, but it has a limited number of campgrounds we would stay in and few places we wanted to see. 

But I digress. Once the map was full we didn’t even bother putting it up on GeeWhiz. We tripped into a new collection, highways. Many people start the collection with Route 66 because of its fame from the song and the TV show. We have driven parts of it, but it isn’t exciting for us since it no longer exists as an official US or state route. It is a collection of pieces from various alignments with no way to drive it as a unit. Our first collected highway was US 1  from Calais Maine to Key West FL. We have driven all of it over a period of decades starting from Providence RI when I was an undergraduate at Brown. The next highway we sought to collect was US 20 Newport OR to the Boston Commons, we will not drive the section in Chicago that is a surface street. US 90 runs from Jacksonville Florida to Van Horn Texas where it merges on to I 10. 

I included the map of US 50 the Lincoln Highway to show what a challenge it can be as alignments shift over time. We have driven it from Sacramento to Pueblo on I 25. We diverted there to visit friends in Kansas and never got back to it. This trip we will divert in Grand Junction and will continue north. I guess we will have to pick it up another time.

Two of the best Parkways in the country are Blue Ridge and Natchez Trace. Both are worth the drive. Even a car trip with motels would be well worth it. Our first time on the Blue Ridge we were in a car with a tent. great fun.

I had no idea where this post was headed when I started. Do read Carol’s post about our arrival in rain and hail.  http://cgstudio.net/2021/06/25/message-in-a-minute-the-loneliest-hwy-route-50-adventures/

Years ago I learned to never chose shortest route unless I was prepared for an “interesting” drive. Today I forgot that lesson. As we were leaving Desert Rose RV Park in Fernley NV to go to Virginia City NV in the Jeep, I was not happy with the fastest route which was largely Interstates. I chose “Shortest” and within a couple of miles I was taking a turn on to a nice gravel road which shortly joined a paved residential road. I looked at the overall route and it seemed we were cutting a corner from 95A to 50A saving several miles so we continued, on gravel. 

I became a bit disconcerted when one of the “turns” was on to a not yet existent road. The GPS gamely recalculated and the next turn took us up and over the  hill ( I use that word rather than mountain because out here it was a hill, in the East it would be a mountain) to US 50A eventually to US 50 eventually to “No Name Road” which ultimately became 6 Mile Canyon Road which ends in Virginia City after 6 miles. 6 Mile Canyon Road is clearly marked “Steep, Narrow, Tight Turns NO TRUCKS” It was just fine in the Jeep. 

Virginia City sits on top of hundreds of miles of mining tunnels driven in search of silver and gold which was found in large quantities. If any city in the US can claim to have roads paved with silver and gold it is this one since the miners were busy discarding blue muck to get to the ore, they even used it to build roads until it was pointed out that the assay on the material was as high as on the ore.

We took a tour of one of the mines, that started by walking through an early bank building through the space where the vault was originally situated  directly into the mountain behind the building about 300 feet. After that tour we had lunch in a deli behind an ice cream and candy store just down the street from the mine tour. We took a trolley tour of the town that provided much more history. Much is closed in particular the Mark Twain Museum and the Silver Queen Hotel. We did enjoy one further stop back at the place we had lunch to buy some peanut brittle and a single ice cream scoop for each of us. 

To return to the coach I let the GPS choose the fastest route which had us swing through the edge of Reno on two Interstates.  It was fast, it was boring.

As planned we drove to Redlands Truck and RV early on the 10th, arriving before lunch. We met the Hazeltons who are stranded for an unknown length of time due to a fire in a rats nest on top of their engine. We enjoyed lunch at The Corner Deli and chatted for a couple of hours. Later in the day I noted a circle of chairs in front of another rig in “The Grove” and brought a chair over to sit with Pat and Pete Benoy also from Jojoba Hills and company. We had a lovely Happy Hour before dinner. Then an early dinner and preparation for departure. 

The 11th found us halfway to Sacramento in an Elks Lodge parking lot in Wasco CA. it is Central Valley between I5 and US 99.  They had water and 30 amp electric.  I added a small amount of water to the radiator tank since it seemed a bit low and we had had a STOP ENGINE light with Low Coolant warning during a long climb. Upon restart after a few minutes on the shoulder the warnings had cleared and we continued on.

We continued on to Sacramento where we stayed in Sac West RV park. Nice park, I’ve posted a review. I will refrain from describing the traffic in detail. Suffice it to say that US 99 is a major route in the area and they closed it entirely for 5 days! All of the traffic was rerouted onto I 5. Oy! We had a lovely visit with the Braunsteins that evening and the next morning they picked us up for brunch at Shady Lady in Old Town Sac and we found our way into G Willikers Toy store, you really need to see it to believe it. Then we went wine tasting and late afternoon we collapsed in the coach to prepare to get back on the road. 

We had a brief under two hour drive to Olema CA where it turns out the campground pretty much is the town. It is right on CA 1. It is a nice campground, not a five star, too expensive for limited amenities (30 amp that produced only 100 volts in the heat of the day, no sewer). We drove out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse which not only was closed, but so fogged in we couldn’t see it. Then the reason for this trip to the coast we got to get together with Minda Will, Oscar and Leo. It was delightful visit, Carol got pictures, I didn’t. The boys are definitely young boys, I am glad I can’t remember living through the endless tumult of two boys. 

When we left the coast we had no plan beyond a specific fuel stop where the outrageous price of diesel was somewhat less than other nearby truck stops. It does get old buying 60 gallons plus for about $4/gallon. Even if that takes us 550 miles, it still is a reminder of how bad it is in other countries that would consider it a bargain. As we pulled out of the stop heading east on US 50 that was all we knew. I figured in two hours we should be able to find a place to spend the night. I was at the wheel and Carol tried a couple of places on the route to see if they had room. I don’t think they laughed, but the answer was no. Just about two hours into the drive with Lake Tahoe about 30 minutes ahead I spotted a Federal campground sign on the side of the road. I slowed to take a look and noticed what appeared to be a motorhome so I turned 120 degrees down a very steep narrow entry road. Another guest and the camp host greeted us and assured me that if we disconnected the car we could indeed drive through and find a suitable place to spend the night, away from the road and backed up to The American River. We immediately booked two nights and are  now talking about making it four. It is a lovely place and our neighbor and camp host are lovely people and we really are not in a hurry. Our only limit is water and grey tank capacity. There is a dump and fresh water available so we may stay a while.

This is looking up from the river. Two more pictures will follow when I can get them to upload. and HERE THEY ARE!

Our picnic table overlooking the “river” In Rochester we would call that a creek.

The line up!

The reason for our return to jojoba Hills was a call Carol had with a doctor, strongly suggesting she return for a test. It has been done and nothing was found so we are heading back out to play. Joy and happiness here! 

It looks like a replay with a preliminary stop at Redlands Truck and RV to be sure our new brake system for the Jeep is working as designed. Then because Anna Lee and Jerry had to return to Sacramento early, we plan to visit with them after all and maybe even seen niece Minda and family as well. Then the crystal ball is blank. We do not have a distinct plan other than Escapade in WY in late July. 

I suspect we will know what we have done when I post it here. We have done this in the past, but I can’t remember the last time we just took off with no firm plan, or even a semblance of an idea of a plan. With all the warnings about over crowded campgrounds it could be interesting. We will stay away from most major destinations and out of the Pacific North West (PNW) since the combination of drought and overcrowding are not enticing.

 We decided to take CA 395 from LA to Lake Tahoe. It was a neat idea, if slightly out of the way for heading to Albuquerque. It was not to be. As soon as I started looking for a week end place, Mothers Day no less, in Lake Tahoe it became clear I needed to have booked way back before I knew we would head this way. As we set about driving  north on 395 it seemed clear that a stop in Lone Pine was a necessity and we got a spot in Boulder Creek RV Park just south of town. 

I’m not sure I can adequately describe Lone Pine. It lies in a plain between two mountain ranges on the edge of what was once a very large lake which has gone to feed ever thirsty Los Angeles County.  In the 1930s some movie producers found Lone Pine and decided it was a wonderful location for almost anything they could imagine. In addition to many major productions, Gunga Din, the original Lone Ranger movie, it became the location for every western cowboy B  movie made in the 40’s through the 60’s later it also became the location for Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Hop-along (choose your own spelling)  Cassidy Tom Mix, Lone Ranger, and I had better stop there. TV Westerns were also shot there.

We explored the height of the mountain and came down to Movie Drive where we proceeded to the trailhead for Mobius Arch 

where Carol and I took the short but strenuous hike to see the Arch.

We stopped by the rock call Shark and saw this speck up near the top

We stopped in town to have lunch at The Bakery Cafe which is in the throws of reopening and adding staff so they can open 7 days a week. Service was a bit chaotic, but the food was fine and the staff were trying real hard between training new staff and getting meals out.

We hated to leave,  but we had a sort of a plan and we stayed for the time we had booked. The short term plan was to crossover into Nevada to fuel the coach in Tonopah and stay nearby on some BLM land. {Life has taken us into strange places, in this instance we have referred to BLM Land since we started RVing 20 years ago, It is Bureau of Land Management Dept. of the Interior) We missed the turn. Eventually we found Pit 12 at the intersection of US 95 and NV 266 next to the Lida airstrip. It was quiet and unpopulated other than by a wandering herd of cattle. The next day brought us to Boulder City NV. More on that in another post.