Milepost 9256: Home!

The trip home continued quite uneventfully, and, like finishing a good novel, reality has set in: I am now faced with the chores of unpacking and returning to every day life… Laundry, cleaning, paying bills, etc. It sure was a fun trip while it lasted, though! John has already planned for the next one!

 

Above: Dawn in Tonopah       Tonopah

 

Above: Entering California on Rt. 6

Mt. Whitney, near Lone Pine, CA

We arrived home at 7 pm.

Actually, I think I’ll let the chores slide until Monday… I’m going to the church festival (#25) with Tom and Vickie to play Bingo tomorrow!

Milepost 8771: Got Gas?

This morning, after checking the weather report and seeing the possibility of snow on the 15 south from Brigham City, we decided to cut diagonally across Nevada on Hwy 6, where the sun is expected to shine.

 

Above… Snowy Utah.

It’s snowing in Salt Lake City

So… Off we went, after gassing up in Brigham City. When we reached Ely, Nevada, the sign said, “Next gas 196 miles.” John decided we were doing pretty well, so he didn’t stop…

 

Above… From Utah to Nevada on US 80, then Rte 6.

Nevada on Rte. 6

Well, as night approached, we had gone another 100 miles or so, he turned to me and said, “Do you want the Good news or the Bad news first?”

I replied, “The good news!”

He said, “We’ve gone 400 miles so far today.”

I asked, not really wanting to know, “So,what’s the bad news, then?”

He said, “I really, really need a gas station!”

Boy, was that ever a long evening!!!! We finally pulled into a gas station on the far side of Tonopah, Nevada, at 8 pm, after having travelled 470 miles. We’d had exceptional mileage on that gas tank, reaching over 11 mpg! In years past, we did about 8, then, after repairs before this trip, we averaged 9-10 mpg.

After breathing a sigh of relief, we spent the night in Tonopah, NV.

Milepost 8298: Cookies and Snow!

 

Above, a first glimpse of Utah.        There’s snow ahead!

 

Above, fall colors!

This morning we entered Utah and made a slight detour for the Pepperidge Farm factory and thrift store in Richmond. We’d been there years ago, and to our delight, found them again! Our last attempt failed miserably.

                 sign in WY

We also had snow flurries and rain most of the day. John saw a temperature sign in Ogden that said it was 38 degrees!

Below, tonight’s sunset as we travelled to our campground.

 

 

We are spending the night near Brigham City, Utah.

Milepost 8015: John Goes to Jail!

 

The weather here is getting a bit chilly. I understand the elk and deer are currently migrating from the mountains. No elk spotted, but, John found 2 mule deer. Here’s one of them:

 

Another pronghorn antelope       A mule deer

 

The prison…

Today we stopped at the old Wyoming State Penitentiary for a tour. We arrived too early, so we took a walk around the outside and found the deer. One didn’t seem to be afraid of us at all. John asked inside, and was told that the herd of deer know they’re protected there and love to munch the lawn. The penitentiary tour itself is great! The tour guide told lots of stories from its 80-year history. It closed in 1981.

 

More Wyoming sights

We spent the night in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

Milepost 7768: Where the Antelope Play

We crossed into Wyoming today and discovered pronghorn antelope! They are as plentiful here as bunnies and squirrels are in Chino Hills!

 

Above left, Bison family in park this morning, not antelope.

Above right, Herd of antelope in Wyoming helps farmer

 

Above, Wyoming scenery. Just like in western movies.

Unfortunately, here we were, in the middle of nowhere yesterday, miles from big cities and freeways… And we developed a loud, low “hummmmm” from the front of the motorhome. This was BAD news, indeed! So, we made tracks to where we thought the nearest repair facility would be – and drove, and drove, on and on, finally ending up in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Turns out it was a front wheel bearing. We had it repaired and are spending the night in Cheyenne.

When not worrying about the noise, we saw lots of antelope on the prairies, and then, after dark, we saw one only 15 feet from the motorhome! Unfortunately, we couldn’t take its picture… It was too dark.

            

Milepost 7475: Critters!

What a busy day! 2 National Parks!

Do wasps count? We had at least 2 wasps inside the motorhome and on at least 4 separate occasions, in 4 different places, John was bothered by them! So, tonight we checked as many places as we could that they could be nesting on the motorhome. Haven’t found any.

In Badlands National Park this morning, we saw a prairie dog town. We pulled over and watched them forage in the prairie grasses for food. They make interesting churps and jump up and scream when there’s danger.

      

More of Badlands                     Prairie Dog

Continuing on our journey, we admired Mount Rushmore and saw a couple of mountain goats on the side of the road. I photographed as John drove cautiously by.

 

      Mountain Goats                    Presidents

From Mount Rushmore, we continued on to Wind Cave National Park. Here we saw Bison!

Bison crossing highway             Pheasant?

We are spending the night at Wind Cave National Park. It is good we’re here, now. The park, actually ALL National Parks are closing at midnight tonight due to governmental woes (budget, etc). Everyone has 48 hours to leave. That should be fine for us!

Views from our campsite:

 

Milepost 7277: The Badlands

            

After Mass at Our Lady of Victory in Kadoka, we continued on to the Badlands National Park. If you don’t stop, the drive takes about an hour… BUT…

There was some excitement in the park today at the second lookout. A photographer was doing a photo shoot of three girls in rather precarious poses atop a cliff…

                 

Meanwhile, there was a rescue going on. It was very windy today, and it appears a man lost his hat and decided to go after it. He simply walked down a canyon… Well, all the canyons here look somewhat alike… And got lost at the bottom of a deep one and couldn’t climb out. The rangers rappelled down to get him.

  

We spent the night in the park and enjoyed a spectacular sunset.

Here are some pictures from our campground and the sunset…