June 2, 2006 (Day 9)

For the first time, we awoke to clouds; not the bright sunshine we have been used to. But throughout the day, some blue appeared through the clouds and by late afternoon, we had sunshine again. Of course, we had also traveled about 300 more miles northwest. Temps today have been in the upper 80’s with some humidity we have not experienced except when leaving Wentzville a week ago.

I was quite stiff and sore from all the walking yesterday, so Tylenol is my friend today!

We departed at 8:30 a.m. from SLC (actually Ogden, UT) in a pleasant 63 degrees. The scenery wasn’t as breath-taking today as yesterday, but still a big difference from what we are used to in the Midwest. I think my favorite state for beauty so far has been Utah. Here in Idaho, there were miles and miles of nothing; yet as we traveled farther west, we began to see ranches (elk, goats) and crops in the fields. Most fascinating were the potato fields where they grow those Idaho potatoes we all enjoy so much. The ranchers rely a great deal on the large sprinkler systems they have in the fields.

We got into our campground here in Mountain Home, Utah, around 2 p.m. We plan to get gas and maybe visit our first Wal-Mart since gone. (Do we need a fix, or what?!) There are no special plans for tonight. Everyone will probably go out to find a place to eat supper. We want to clean up the trailer a little and vacuum. Tomorrow we will leave for our last overnight on this trip until we get to Salem on Sunday. Tomorrow night’s campground is in Stanfield, Oregon.

To all of you who are emailing, thank you. That helps us feel “in touch”. For those of you who gave gifts in our “travel bags”, thanks for everything. We are having fun with it all. I have to admit, I haven’t had much time to watch DVD’s. The secenery is too fantastic to miss.

To our family who created the special memory box, we thank you. We pull a slip and read one every morning. These are certainly special memories.

We’ve had trouble connecting to wifi to enable us to send the last three days of the blog. We hope to get a connection tonight, so we can send and you can read our updates. Thanks for your patience.

When more miles have passed, we will write again…..



June 1, 2006 (Day 8)

Wow! The first of June already. We’ve been on the road a full week now, and yet it seems we have been traveling a long, long time. Temp this morning was a pleasant 63 degrees. It is to get warm, into the upper 80’s.

Today was the first day we have not traveled. Some of us got together and fixed breakfast, since we didn’t have to leave. Charlie prepared sausage gravy, I baked 30 biscuits, Teressa fixed a fruit salad, and we shared juice; the coffee drinkers brought their own java. Our sites were all close, so we pushed three picnic tables together and enjoyed a good breakfast and fellowship together.

We paired up with Marcia and Ben and with Glen, then left for the Great Salt Lake. We drove out onto Antelope Island and toured the Visitor Center. Antelope Island is the largest of ten islands in the Salt Lake. It was a pretty drive, but everything is so barren and desolate. We learned that there were herds of buffalo and antelope on the island, but we didn’t see any. There are a lot of seagulls, which we learned later were God’s answer to the Mormons’ prayers many years ago to help control the plaque of crickets which was devastating their crops. The seagulls came, ate the crickets, then flew to the Salt Lake and regurgitated them into the water. Gross, but fascinating.

We then drove to the “beach” of the Salt Lake and walked through sand for almost ½ mile to reach the water. We all waded out ankle deep and took pictures of each other. After getting back to the parking lot, we were thankful to Marcia for bringing a jug of drinking water, ice and towels for wiping our feet.

We stopped back at the campsite, then went downtown Salt Lake City. We walked around Temple Square and toured several buildings. We were disappointed that we were unable to see the Tabernacle, as it is under renovation. The grounds are just beautiful with colorful flowers and water fountains. We found a restaurant and had a light supper.

After walking a bit more and touring Brigham Young’s, house, we went to the convention center to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice. That is their temporary headquarters until the Tabernacle is finished with renovation. This building is equally beautiful and hearing the choir and orchestra practice was a special treat. It had been a long day, and we were glad to get back to the campground by 9 p.m. (still light outside), then got showers and got ready for bed.

It’s “on the road again” tomorrow, so until then….


May 31, 2006 (Day 7)

We awoke today to bright blue skies and white fluffy clouds, no wind. Yeh! It got cold in the night, low 40’s. When we left the campground in Green River, WY, this morning, it was 46 degrees. We left at 8:40 a.m. We anticipated a short day, 160 miles, but we didn’t anticipate the most beautiful drive of the trip so far. We are definitely in the mountains now. We drove long grades up and coasted long grades down. We were in valleys, on the sides of mountains, over the tops of mountains and at the bottoms of mountains. There were a lot of mesas. They are fascinating. They are a range of mountains that are absolutely flat on the top for miles. It appears as if something came along and cut the tops off! There are snow-capped mountains on all sides of us. Beautiful! We were amazed with the thousands and thousands of wooden snow fences that are placed along I-80. These are to help control the snows that drift so bad in the plains.

The roads are good. They go on and on forever passing by acres and acres of scrub land. You see nothing but that. There are very few towns and almost no services along the way. We see very few billboards. There are no visible industries or businesses; no crops, just sage brush and dirt and sand. We saw herds of horses and cattle and goats. We once saw a cowboy and his horse looking over a herd of goats, as if he was counting them.

We were at over 7300 ft. elevation at one point. Black bear does very well pulling the silver tent. A chant on the CB today was:
“Uphill slow.
Downhill fast.
You pray and pray
Your brakes will last!”
Our group gets a little stir-crazy while driving!

We arrived at the campground, Cherry Hill Resort in Ogden, Utah, around 2 p.m. Temps were in the high 70’s. Got set up, then took our chairs, a bowl of peanuts, a drink, and had happy hour a short time later. Three other Airstreams pulled in during that time, and we invited them to join us for happy hour. Then another couple went with us to find a sandwich to eat for supper. We will be here all day tomorrow and plan to go into Salt Lake City to see the tabernacle and hear the organist practice at 2:30 p.m. Tomorrow night the choir will be practicing and we plan to go to that. It will be nice to have a day off driving.

Till then…….