Out West Journal

7-8-2000 Saturday (day 1) Elaine and I had originally planned to go to Nova Scotia to see the Tall Sailing Ships but then while surfing on the web, Elaine finds a cabin for sale on the internet that sounds just perfect to me so we both decide we'd rather go to Colorado instead. This way she can visit her brother and family and I can go see this ideal cabin. I have talked with the owners of the cabin and it sounds almost too good to not go look at. They even emailed some photos of the cabin that look really great! We have planned to leave today but the camper tie downs that I have ordered for our new truck have not yet arrived. They were due in on Friday but got delayed in shipping. The UPS people tell me that the parts will be in on Monday morning, so I have no choice but to wait.

7-9-2000 Sunday (day 2) While waiting for the tie downs to arrive, I have installed the dually extension brackets onto the front legs of the camper, washed the camper and truck and loaded the camper onto the truck. Loading the camper is a real adventure as the dual tires on the new truck are the exact same width as the feet on the front camper legs and just 2 inches narrower then the legs themselves. There is no margin for error when backing under the camper, but we got it loaded without a problem. Dang, I'm good! Finish loading the food into the fridge and make sure everything is ready to go so that we can take off as soon as I get the new tie downs installed.

7-10-2000 Monday (day 3) First thing this morning I call the UPS office and tell them to pull the package and I will be there at 8:30 AM when they open to pick it up. This they do and I am able to get the tie downs and head for home to install them. I open the box to find the parts are for a Ford truck not a Dodge as I had ordered. I am getting just a little upset by now as these parts are already a week late. The factory that I ordered from is in Washington state and opens at 8:30 AM out there, which is 11:30 AM east coast time so I'll have to wait until then to call. I explain the problem and the factory says that there is only four parts different between the Ford and the Dodge systems and that they will send them out overnight air delivery and I should receive them at 8:30 AM on Tuesday. We're getting pretty good at waiting on parts so we adjust our departure date one more time and wait some more. We are definitely getting out of Delaware by tomorrow if I have to take the camper off the truck and drive it out empty and stay in motels.

7-11-2000 Tuesday (day 4) Get up early and install the parts that I already have and am waiting at 8:30 for the other four parts to arrive. By 8:45 AM, we're getting a little concerned and call UPS to see where the package is. They inform us that it has already been delivered at 7:20 AM and was left on the front porch. I inform them that it is not here and ask to have it tracked down. Just on the chance that they may have delivered it to the wrong house, I go to all the neighbors and check. I find the package lying on a lawn chair in the back yard of one of our neighbors . Bring it home and call UPS to give them a piece of my mind about how they handle their deliveries. Open the box to find not four but only two parts. I'm now just about ready to drive out to Washington state to grab someone at the Tork Lift Co. by the neck and choke them! Decide to install the two parts and just maybe the other two parts will be the same as the ones I already have. Luckily for the people at Tork Lift, they do fit and everything is installed and ready to go by 1:30 PM. The cloud cover that had been hanging around all morning has finally broken and the sun is coming out. The temperature is 82 degrees as we head out of the lane. Feels really great to finally be going somewhere! Take I-95 south to Baltimore then pick up I-895, which I thought would take us around the east side of Baltimore and over a bridge. Instead we end up going right through the Harbor Tunnel which I did not want to do with the camper and the propane bottles. We make it through just fine but do let out a sigh of relief as we come out the other side. Continue on I-95 south to DC where we take the I-495 beltway around the west side of DC to route #66. By 3:32 PM we enter Virginia and am relieved to be through DC before the rush hour traffic starts. Route #66 is fairly smooth 4 lane blacktop road and becomes scenic as it heads west. This route takes us across to I-81 which heads south down through Virginia. I-81 is a good smooth 4 lane divided highway that makes for pleasant driving. This is the first trip for our new truck with the camper on it and it is handling beautifully. The longer wheelbase and heavier weight of the one ton truck makes for a smoother and more comfortable ride. The diesel seems to be taking all the hills so far in 6th gear with no problem. By 7:25 PM we have 395 miles on this tank of fuel so we pull into a Citgo truck stop for 25.4 gallons at $1.37 in Cloverdale, VA. At 8:30 PM we stop at another rest stop to fix a sandwich and drink for a late evening dinner. Other than a small half hour rain shower around 7:30 PM, the rest of the drive has been dry and rather scenic for an interstate. Cross over the Tennessee border at 10:15 PM and continue on I-81 south till it runs into I-40 about 60 miles east of Knoxville, then follow that south through Knoxville where we pull into a Flying "J" travel plaza at mile post #369. Find us a parking spot among the 20 or so RVs already parked there and climb into the camper to get some sleep, or so we thought. The gas flame on the fridge has gotten blown out as it often does while on the road ... no problem, just turn it off and restart it, right? Not to be... nothing happened, so I hit it again but still nothing. It has just started raining as I slip outside to see what is ailing this dang fridge. Open the outside panel and can see nothing wrong so decide to light it manually with a match. It fires right up and seems to burn steady so I close it up and head back inside out of the rain. It runs fine while we're getting ready for bed so we goon to bed at 1:30 AM. We have driven 608 miles our first day on the road which is great since we didn't get started till 1:30 PM.

7-12-2000 Wednesday (day 5) Awake at 5:30 AM to 73 degrees outside and decide to get back on the road. The fridge has run fine all night long. Fill up on fuel here with 19.56 gallons at $1.32 and head out by 6:15 AM. It appears as though we're getting 14.5 MPG from the last two tanks of fuel with this new diesel which beats the 9 or 10 MPG that I had been getting with the V-10 in my last truck. Route I-40 through Tennessee is smooth blacktop with many sections newly paved. At mile post #330 we pass an overturned tractor trailer on the side of the road. It looks as though they may have tried to take a curve too fast. The sky is overcast with a few light sprinkles coming down this morning. Pull into a Mickey "D" at 7:30 AM for a couple of egg McMuffins to eat on the run and jump back on I-40 west. Starting this trip 3 days late, we need to make up some time and get some miles behind us. Around 8:30 AM, the clouds clear out and the sun comes shinning through, so maybe we'll have a nice day after all. Come up on Nashville at what we think to be 8:50 AM and am hoping to miss most of the morning rush hour traffic, but hear on the radio that it is only 7:50 AM. We suddenly realize that we forgot about the time zones and check to find that there was one back in Knoxville. We are just outside of Nashville at a crawl with rush hour traffic when Elaine checks the map and finds a #440 Parkway that runs south of town. This Parkway has lighter traffic and thankfully takes us to the other side of town where we pick up I-40 again. Thank you Elaine! Have one 12 mile stretch of road where there is only one lane each way but other than that I-40 through Tennessee is great. At 10:30 AM, we pull in for a pit stop and find that the fridge has gone out again. New truck with camper on it

Not expecting it to restart, I turn it off and restart it and to my surprise it starts up okay, but then it isn't 1:30 in the morning and raining outside! Cross the Arkansas border in the middle of the Mississippi River at 12:02 PM. Stop at a Flying "J" travel plaza for some lunch and fuel. Take on 26 gallons at $1.34 and head out across Arkansas on the much talked about I-40. Everyone says that this road is very bumpy concrete. We'll see! The lunch buffet at the Flying "J" was not really all that great as the only meat they had were some skinny little fried chicken legs. The temperature is 96 degrees and the sun is shinning brightly. Stop at a rest stop / information center and pick up a new Arkansas map, not that we need it for this trip as I don't think we can get lost driving across the state on I-40. We had really gotten spoiled on the Virginia and Tennessee roads as they were smooth driving. This road through "Arkanthaw" on the other hand is very, very b...b...b...bumpy for the first 15 miles then it does smooth out a little for about 30 miles before it turns bumpy again for the rest of the ride across the state! By 3:30 PM we're just outside of Little Rock and the temperature has climbed to a very warm 99 degrees. For the first 180 miles across "Arkanthaw" we suffer the bumps in the right lane then discover that the left lane is much smoother so we drive in the left lane whenever possible for the remaining 102 miles. At 6:13 PM we reach the Oklahoma state line and I am never so glad to get out of a state in my life. The road turns to fairly new blacktop... YAY!!! This smooth ride is short lived as after 5 miles the road is back to concrete but no where near as bumpy as "Arkanthaw". At 6:45 PM we make our first rest stop in Oklahoma and I take the first photo of this trip... a picture of the camper on our new truck. I hadn't even thought about photos coming across Arkansas as all I could think of was getting out of the state and off the bumpy road. Get off at exit 264B for a Flying "J" to take on 26.9 gallons of fuel at $1.32. I call Shelly who runs the "FOTR" (families on the road) online RV group which I belong to and inquire about a quick visit as we pass through Oklahoma City. She says she would like to meet us and gives me directions to the RV park where they are staying. It is only 8 miles off of route I-40 but due to major construction around the city we get detoured and have to go an extra 10 miles. Good thing it is around 10:00 PM as traffic through the city is fairly light. Find the RV park and have a very enjoyable visit with Shelly. It is nice to be able to put faces to the people that I talk with on the internet. Sorry we did not get to meet her husband but he was sleeping as he had to get up at 4:00 AM for work. Next thing we know, it is after midnight so we call it a night and get ready for bed. Spend the night parked next to their trailer as the lot next to them is empty. We drove 858 miles today.

7-13-2000 Thursday (day 6) I wake up about 6:00 AM and Elaine had been up a half hour and is already showered and dressed so I quickly get a shower and dress. We stop at the corner store to pick up a couple of cold drinks and are on the road by 6:35 AM. I don't take time to top off the fuel tank as I'm hoping to get out of Oklahoma City before the rush hour traffic starts. Both gasoline and Diesel fuel are $1.31 at the local Flying "J" which is considerably cheaper than back east. The morning temperature is a cool 80 degrees compared to the 95 degrees that it was last night when we went to bed. We were really tired after our long drive yesterday and slept fairly well even though it was a little warm in the trailer. Most people in this part of the country use air conditioning but our small camper has no such luxury. Route #35 south through the city is a bumpy concrete road and traffic is already on the increase. It seems as though all the major roads in Oklahoma City are under construction and we have to take detours to get out of town. Finally get on I-40 west and the road gets a little smoother but does alternate from blacktop to concrete. The sky is overcast this morning. We get off at the Elk City exit to fill up with 17.9 gallons of fuel at $1.39 then go across the street and get us a good breakfast at a Denny's restaurant. Back on the road at 9:30 AM, the clouds are breaking up and the sun is starting to peek through. Looks like it's going to be another nice day. Cross the Texas state line at 10:18 AM. This is my first time in the state of Texas which now leaves North Dakota as the only state I've never been to. I-40 through Texas alternates from blacktop to concrete but is not bad driving at all. Stop just outside of Amarillo at a Flying "J" and take on 10.4 gallons of fuel at $1.35 as we're leaving the interstates now and don't know what the availability of diesel fuel will be like on the back roads. Make a phone call home to let people know that we're fine and doing well then head north on route #287 towards the town of Dumas. This road is a 4 lane divided highway with smooth blacktop, better than some of the interstates we've been on lately. Real nice driving! Go through Dumas (population 12,000) at 12:20 PM and it appears to be a fairly good sized town with numerous RV dealers, auto and truck dealerships and some interesting looking little shops that have a western look about them. Looks like the sort of town that would be fun to check out had we had more time and not been on a mission to get to Colorado. Take a left onto route #87 in Dumas, which is a 2 lane fairly smooth road. Speed limits here in Texas are 70 MPH by day and 65 MPH at night, even on 2 lane roads such as this. The sky is party cloudy today and the afternoon temperature is 88 degrees here in Texas. Pull into a roadside picnic area at 12:45 PM to fix a sandwich and grab an apple and a cold drink for lunch that we eat while driving. Drive through Dalhart and continue west on route #87. The majority of the RVs going the other direction seem to be rather short fifth wheel trailers, in the 25 to 30 foot range. That must be the RV of choice in this area. We pass by a lot of ranch land and corn fields as route #87 goes up and down the rolling hills. At 1:30 PM, we realize that it has been 48 hours since we left home and we've covered about 1800 miles already. We're now about 210 miles out of Alamosa, Colorado, our destination for this evening. We're making really good time considering our late start to this trip! The radio stations have been fading out and we have to keep finding new ones, but we just scanned the whole dial and there are none to be found. You are really out in the wide open spaces when you can't get radio! Pass through the "has been" town of Perico which consists of a deserted train station, a couple of dilapidated old buildings and an old trailer. At 2:50 PM we cross the New Mexico border and another time zone and we set the clock back to 1:50 PM. This makes 2 hours that we've picked up on our way across country, but we'll loose them again when we head back east. The road in New Mexico becomes fairly new blacktop and continues to be good driving. Speed limit in New Mexico is 65 MPH. We pass through the little town of Clayton which appears to be a nice south western style town with a KOA campground, a texaco service station and a Dairy Queen. A place to camp, a fuel stop and a ice cream store... all the essentials... what else could a person ask for? A sign says Clayton Lake is 12 miles out of town and I believe I also saw a sign for a state park down near the lake. Looks like it would be an interesting place to spend some time if you were fulltiming. Route #87 through New Mwxico

By 2:15 PM we are still on route #87 west but starting to see some good sized hills off in the distance, our first sign that we are getting close to Colorado. Pass through Des Moines and Capulin where we see a sign for Capulin Volcano National Monument which we'll have to see some other time... no time to stop now! Gotta get to Colorado to see a cabin! Capulin is very small with a cafe, an RV park and a couple dozen other buildings. Doesn't take long to drive through at all! We drive the 27 miles to Raton by 3:24 PM and pick up I-25 north over Raton Pass (elevation 7800 feet). This is our first major climb with the new diesel truck and it starts out fine in sixth gear at 60 MPH and does well till we get near the summit where we slow down to 55 MPH and finally have to down shift to fifth gear. Cross over the Colorado border at the top of the pass at 3:45 PM. The view from the top is not as spectacular as I had remembered it being the last time I came through here, but that time it had been December and the mountain peaks were all snow covered. The outside temperature up here is a cool 77 degrees. Now we start down the 6% grade and will find out how this diesel does on down grades. Fifth gear at 2100 RPM holds us back to about 55 MPH and as we get into some turns we slow down and downshift to fourth gear which seems to hold us to 45 MPH at 2500 RPM. Not bad at all! But then we are only hauling about a 3,000 pound load. Someone with a much heavier fifth wheel would probably want to have an exhaust brake for mountain driving. Stop in Trinidad at the Colorado welcome center to get a new Colorado map and some local information on south central Colorado.

At 4:15 PM we're back on I-25 north headed for Walsenburg. Speed limit on interstates here in Colorado is 75 MPH. This I-25 is a 4 lane, fairly smooth blacktop divided highway. Get off at exit #49 for Walsenburg and take route #160 west toward Alamosa. Route #160 is a 2 lane, fairly smooth blacktop road that quickly starts climbing up into the mountains and over La Veta Pass at 9,413 feet. Pass by a sign for Lathrop State Park on our right. Climb most of the way up to the summit in sixth gear but have to downshift to fifth as we get near the top. The outside temperature drops to 68 degrees at the top of the pass. We take some photos coming up the pass through the windshield. Coming down from the pass we go through the little town of Fort Garland. The mountain views are really breathtaking as we drive down into the San Luis Valley. Pass through a small town which we at first think to be Alamosa but are relieved to find that it is Blanca. Thought it looked kind of small to be Alamosa! If this was Alamosa, the owners of the cabin really lied to us as they had said Alamosa was a good sized town.