The Road Goes On…

2014 Northern US

  • Penryn, CA to Truckee, CA

    Today was Martin’s day. We visited Morteza, Mandi and family at their gorgeous “cabin” on 40 acres in the Tahoe area mountains. We hitched up the Hobie 16 sailboat, put the paddle board in the RV and headed towards Donner lake for some sailing, swimming and paddle boarding and a picnic lunch.

     

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    It was already dark when we headed back to the cabin for dinner, wine and good conversation until 1AM.

    Note: No track data is available as the GPS needed a hard reset to get it working again. This lost all track data that had not already been downloaded.

     

     

  • Truckee, CA to Salt Lake City, UT

    After a lovely breakfast and a bit more conversation we set out towards Salt Lake City. It was a driving day and we were lucky that the speed limit allowed for up to 130km/h in places.

    We had a brief stop in half-forgotten Lovelock, NV for gas and lunch at a little pizzeria.

    Before leaving Nevada completely we stopped in West Wendover where a large sign above the casino suggested we try their penny slot machines. A quick check of our pockets revealed we had 4 pennies so we decided to take them up on their suggestion. Unfortunately, the penny slot machines only accepted bills so we had to insert the smallest one we had handy – a $5 bill. The two of us ganged up on the machine and alternately played our best but ultimately the machine won. So much for the hoped for early retirement.

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    As consolation we had a nice Mexican dinner at the casino restaurant.

    On approach to Salt Lake City we saw the Super Moon.

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    Note: No track data today either – also lost in the GPS hard reset.

  • Salt Lake City, UT to Cheyenne, WY

    The morning started with pancake breakfast at Denny’s followed by a short drive to Temple Square in Salt Lake City where we toured the visitors centre and learned about the construction of the temple. Next up was a fabulous 30 minute organ recital in the Tabernacle. The organ there is the 12th largest in the world with 206 ranks totalling 11,623 pipes.

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    The organist Richard L. Elliot showed the full range of this magnificent organ, playing pieces by Handel, Bach, Debussy and others. It was fascinating to see his footwork while playing but to hear the pieces played by this excellent organist was the real treat.

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    The rest of the day was mostly driving with only a quick stop for lunch and gas. Some of the landscape in Utah and Wyoming was very impressive but not as breathtaking as that in south-western Utah last year. The drive was a lot easier as the highway is straighter and the climbs and descents are less challenging than they are further south.

    We stopped at the A.B. Camping RV Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The internet connection here is great which makes updating the blog much easier.

  • Cheyenne, WY to Ashland, NE

     

     

     

    Today was a long highway driving day on I-80 which put even the dog to sleep.

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    We had a late lunch at Applebee’s where we each had a caesar salad, 7 oz steak with mashed potatoes and vegetables for a total of $25, including tip. Even at these prices, a table next to us was haggling for half-priced appetizers and drinks.

    We stopped at the lovely Mahoney State Park in Nebraska which has a water park, horseback riding, and convention centre amongst its facilities. There is an air and space museum next door as well. After a day of driving we were tired so we didn’t get to see any of these. We have a lakefront campsite.

  • Ashland, NE to Portage, IN

    After an 11 hour sleep, we departed for Des Moines, Iowa to visit Famous Dave’s for a rib lunch. We had visited this restaurant last year on our trip home and were looking forward to the best ribs anywhere.

    As soon as we walked in the door, the manager, Kevin, exclaimed “Hey, our Canadian friends are back!” and we knew we were in the right place. We had a three hour lunch with spare ribs and back ribs and lots of conversation.

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    We felt very welcome and took home some Famous Dave’s seasoning and received some Rich and Sassy BBQ sauce from Kevin. Around 3PM we departed and had a long way to go to make our 700-800km goal.

    Needless to say we were tired when we stopped at a Flying J truck stop in Gary, Indiana for the night.  This is a very large truck stop with 200-300 trucks and two parking spots for RVs. We got one of them next to the store. A speaker constantly announced “Shower customer number 201, your shower is now ready. Please proceed to shower number 6.”

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    There was no way we could sleep through this all night so we finished our last night of the trip as we began our first, at a Walmart parking lot. By now it was almost midnight.