July 17, 2020 Heading Home

Wyoming

 7/17 With Covid closing down so many summer entertainment venues, RVing has become an even bigger rage and after being on I-84 through Washington, Oregon and Idaho for 8 hours and calling almost a dozen campgrounds around Boise, we find nothing available.  At 97 degrees we need electricity for AC so dry camping on BLM land or a Walmart parking lot (few and far between in these parts) is an unacceptable option.  John remembers Mountain Home AFB in Idaho is about 90 minutes ahead.  It's after 6 p.m., the office is closed but we press on. Rolling in around 8 p.m the camp host greets us with one open overflow spot with electric - YEAHHHHHH.  The base is in the middle of nowhere and we enjoy the desert sage smell.  Around 2:30 a.m. Debra awakes to extremely loud sounds something like a massive plane trying to take off.  It lasts several seconds.  A few minutes later it comes again.  She looks outside and sees nothing.  After all we are on an Air Force Base but really.....they have to do this in the middle of the night.  She puts earplugs in after the third wave.  Of course John never even stirs!!!  On the road the next morning Deb looks up UFOs near Mountain Home and guess what....in February 2020 there were several sightings!!!  I KNEW IT........

7/18 An hour on the road we blow a tire on the RV, we slow down trying to find safe place to pull off but the tire starts smoking so we pull over the best we can to change it, then find a tire store for a replacement.  Continuing across Idaho, Utah and Wyoming along I84 is a beautiful and relatively flat drive through rocky outcrops, sage and pronghorn (deer like animal).     Its another 97 degree scorcher so we start looking earlier for a campground with electricity and get the last spot at a KOA in Lyman,Wyoming.

7/19 Sunday is another long hot day.  In Wyoming we cross the continental divide which actually splits in two here and in between forms the continental basin where there is no outflow of water to either coast, it only evaporates.  Few campgrounds on this stretch of Wyoming and Nebraska but we find a nice RV park at a  Cabela's store in Sidney, Wyoming.   For a while now every time we open the parlor slide it sticks, this time it really stuck and caused a loud bang when opened.   We are exhausted and this is the straw that broke the camels back, we've got to stop and get it repaired. John comes up with the brilliant idea of bringing the RV back to where it was build in Smith Center, Kansas only 4 1/2 hours away and 50 miles out of our way.  

Excel in Smith Center Kansas

 Heading to Smith Center, we are on the road for about an hour when we blew another RV tire.  John knows which one as soon as we hear the POP; it is the 3rd blow out of the three crappy tires we just put on last October while visiting Joan in Rapid City.  John is wayyyy to good at this tire changing process but it takes its toll physically and emotionally on both of us. We arrive at Smith Center at the end of yet another long day and camp in their parking lot.

7/21  After determining that the back of the RV dropping is just sheared off lag bolts and not a structural issue, we go over our extensive list of repairs and maintenance overhaul as it has close to 90,000 miles on it.  We leave at 11 a.m. with the truck loaded to the hilt and praying for the rest of the trip to be drama free.  A few miles from Smith Center we visit the geographic center of the continental United States.  So cool that on this trip we visit both the continental center and geographic center!  Decide to travel due East on Rt 36 which has little traffic and lovely small town views.  Stay at a Comfort Inn in Missouri and disinfect every surface and bring our own pillows.  

7/22  Okay, finally a normal day, no drama, just relax...wrong!!  Now on Rt 80 we get a DEF warning light saying in 50 miles our truck speed will be limited to 50 mph because we almost out of DEF (cleaning fluid for diesel system). Makes no sense, the tank is more than half full and adding more DEF didn't turn off the warning.  For 50 miles it counts down a warning every 5 miles.  Our nerves are shot.  About 2 miles before we get to the Ford dealer, our 50 miles count down is up and the warning light goes off.  What the hay!!!!! 

John at Fraternity Scene of the Crime

 In the middle of this little drama we pass through Champaign, Illinois where John lived at age 10 when his father was getting his PhD in Civil Engineering at University of Illinois and his mother was getting her Masters Degree in Library Science.  Ah, who was taking care of their 5 kids????  John and a buddy bought some water balloons with money from scavenging bottles from the bushes around the fraternity houses.  Some frat boys gave them 25 cents (a huge amount of money in those days) to throw balloons at another fraternity causing a 3 day campus wide water war resulting in John getting grounded for a week.

Get a text from cousin Kevin who is now in Attic, Illinois visiting his son and realize we will be within 45 minutes of there when we stop for the night tonight!!!  We have an enjoyable dinner with Kevin. 

Kevin and John