Strolling Amok

Overton, NV to Quartzsite, AZ

Passing “Snowbird Mesa” just south of Overton. See the camper up there?

I began the trip toward Quartzsite with an “oopsie!”  The GPS wanted me to continue south through some beautiful, winding terrain. I passed a mesa clogged with boondocking campers, and then came up to the Lake Mead entrance, which was blockaded due to the shutdown. The GPS showed no interest in the single road going to the right, so I doubled back and lost three gallons of fuel in getting to I-15 heading for Las Vegas. I did put Lake Mead on my list of places to camp in, however. With Overton so close, that mesa would be a fab place to boondock.

Still near Lake Mead, the landscape is right there near you.

US 95, running along California’s border with Arizona, is a throwback to the days of what highway travel used to be like 50 years ago. Unlike more modern roadways that are carved into Read more…

Wendover to Overton, NV

Heading out from Wendover along 93 Alt was the only part of the day’s trip that met expectations. After some 30 miles, it was all new territory in some way or other.

It was starting to get a little nippily at the Bonneville Salt Flats, so to avoid burning through a lot more propane, I decided to head southward. It was rain off and on all day. Turns out that the day’s climb in altitude put me up into the snowline! The rain turned to snow, and it stuck on everything but the pavement. I haven’t driven this rig on ice to this point, and there were small patches of it here and there. Now I’ve certainly driven on ice  in my lifetime, and plenty of it. In a car, it can be fun. A loaded 3/4-ton truck has great stability, but can be clumsy and hard to predict on slippery surfaces once its limit is reached. Add a heavy trailer with a weight distributing hitch, and ice is no longer your plaything. Everything went okay, though I was eager to get through Ely and get to lower elevations and higher temps. Ely’s forecast for the day was snow with a current temp of 33, then a high of 50 before it hit the low 20’s that night. Unappealing. My 8,000 BTU Mr. Heater will handle the trailer down to about 30, and that’s it. Without heat, the trailer will settle in at 5-10 degrees over whatever is going on outside, making for an interesting early morning routine.

Alone in the paved universe, I am master of all I survey.

Despite many hills, the combination of overall descent and a brisk tailwind pumped fuel mileage up to a solid 14 MPG, something I may not see again in my lifetime with this rig. I did have to climb from Wendover’s 4,200′ to Ely’s 6,400′, but from there on in, Read more…

Bonneville Salt Flats Marina!

Uhhh, isn’t this supposed to be dry about now?

What you’re looking at in the photo above is the famed Bonneville Salt Flats under several inches of water! It seems that several heavy rainstorms hit last week, wiping out the fabled Bonneville Speed Week that I was lamenting that I couldn’t get to in time. Next up: the Top Speed Shootout, which is a separate club event, by invitation only, for the heavy hitters that go for international records. These are the guys that get the press coverage when a land speed record is broken.

Considering that rain was possible late today, I decided to combine drive times for the last two legs (5 hours total) and get to the salt flats a day early to set up camp before it could hit. There are acres and acres of dirt that turn to mud, some of it state-owned and some BLM, and I wanted to scout the location to see if there was a legal camping location that had a chance of drainage on a relatively firm surface. I arrived at the final speedway entry point, some 5 miles from I-80, with some dismay. Nothing but water as far as the eye could see! It was a lake!

There was one canopy and a few campers at the salt surface entry, and it turned out to be Read more…

Stromsburg Heaven

The entrance to Buckley Park, Stromsburg, Nebraska.

“Town park campgrounds are like a box of choc-lits…”, and Mr. Gump would have been impressed with this one. Stromsburg, Nebraska is about 20 miles north of I-80, which violates my fuel usage rule for distance out of the way. “Don’t save $5 on fees by burning $10 worth of fuel to get there.” But the call of this one was irresistable: Free for up to 7 days, with an electrical hookup included in that price. Yes, you read that right. With the office battery pack down 25% and the ability to run A/C, I can stay cool and recharge whatever I like with my 8-amp plug-in charger. This camp is especially good because a heat wave is moving in, and my next stop, North Platte, is supposed to hit 100 degrees tomorrow, with 99 to follow. My next stop, Buford, Wyoming, is at 8,000′ elevation and will be in the 70s. Stops after that are warmer because Read more…

Problems! …Resolved Nicely

How do they transport those huge wind turbine blades? Very carefully.

I snapped the above photo at the I-80 Truck Stop in Iowa, minutes before I left. I’ve seen several, and am always amazed at the sheer size of them. Wow.

About an hour after starting out for a town park in Casey, Iowa my Garmin Nuvi started throwing alarms about stopped traffic ahead and rerouted me onto old U.S. highways. Then it complained about severe traffic backups and closed roads, and routed me tens of miles perpendicular to where I was wanting to go. That costs serious money in fuel. I turned around and headed back to I-80, finding that, in the end, it was all bogus. I ignored its dire predictions of closed roads, and barreled westward. Everything was fine, and I’d lost maybe 20 miles and $8 in wasted fuel on the multiple detours.

I pulled in to Casey and found their town park, and was not impressed. The $5 boondocking fee had changed to $10 and said to check in with the nonexistent attendant. I felt uncomfortable there, and decided to press on toward tomorrow’s stop, some 200+ miles away. It would mean an arrival time of 7 PM, which I was okay with. Lo and behold, there was a rest stop a few miles down on I-80, complete with washrooms, and Wi-Fi, which is what I’m posting this with. I suspect there’s enough signal strength and bandwidth that I’ll be able to enjoy my repast while watching Netflix this evening! Is this awesome or what?

Maybe this is a defective turbine blade here at the rest stop. I can’t figure out how such a costly item wound up here.

So, I’m enjoying my afternoon drinky-poo while typing this at the desktop computer, and am looking forward to an evening’s entertainment perusing the atlases and watching a movie or documentary. Maybe something esoteric and intellectual, like Larry the Cable Guy. Iowa’s rest areas are awesome!