The Travel Out Days

To be honest, I've had a hard time getting back into the swing of things around home after getting back from that trip.  Everything just feels out of place, and I just want to go back out and get on the road again. I suppose the regrets of getting both vehicles damaged in a hail storm have something to do with that, but I think it has more to do with just how perfect everything felt on the journey.  From getting closer to my wife, to seeing new and amazing places.  It was exactly what I bought the thing for.
That said, I want to get started rehashing some of the journey.  I'll start with the travel days.
I was having a heck of a time trying to figure out which way to go. I-70 had days it was open and days it was closed and had traction laws in effect.  I-80 had terrible winds and was closed because of blow over laws.  Going the safest rout via I-40/44 would add another whole day to the travel and go from 3 days on the road to 4 days.  I really wanted to avoid this.  So I set out west heading to Kearney, Nebraska and figured I could decide the next day depending on conditions which route I would have to take.  I-70 was still open, but I-80 was closed because of winds.  620 miles later we were in Kearney staying at a Cabela's on the Lincoln Highway.  This was our best freebie place of the trip.  There were about 6 other RV's there that night.  Most even had their slides out, which surprised me.  But it was away from everything, safe, and quiet.  Having been my first time staying in a store parking lot, I felt better about the situation after this night, though I did have my pistol ready for defense if need be.
By the next morning the situation had changed and the winds calmed down in Wyoming, and it had snowed up west of Denver and they had closures and traction laws in effect.  So we went north on I-80 and headed toward Salt Lake City.  It was windy, but manageable and we went 680 miles and got to the very end of the state and stayed in the town of Evanston, WY at a Walmart.  This was completely different than Cabela's with about 15-20 semi's ending up in the lot overnight.  Manageable if you have to I guess, and in our case we had to because I needed to go a little further that day to make the last day of travel again doable.  During the day, we crossed over the Sherman Summit in WY, at an elevation of 8640 and they had gotten a little snow there.  It was windy and cold. There is a rest area right at the top and we had pulled in for a short break, and I got a valuable lesson.  I am very aware pulling the TOAD you cannot back up, but I was a little stupid recognizing the ground conditions.  I came to a stop on a slight incline and there was a little packed snow underneath the tires.  Without the TOAD I'm sure the RV would have just walked away, but trying to move the powerless 5,000lb Bronco, the RV surprised me by having a hard time getting going. Lesson: keep moving on snow conditions and always stop going downhill! I'm sure I could have applied the old slight break pedal trick to get it to stop the differential from spinning, but it eventually hooked up and I didn't have to unhook the TOAD to get out of there.  Once we got down to Evanston, I was very relieved having gotten through the worst of the mountain passes.  I knew I would have to address the same weather question on the return journey.
Both of the first two nights were cold and well below freezing, with it getting down to 20F for the night in Evanston.  The anti-freeze kit I installed for the Truma on demand water heater worked perfectly during the day, and the furnace keep things toasty enough to sleep without the pipes freezing up, and I switched the Truma to ECO mode each night and used propane to keep it from freezing at the unit on the outside panel. I was unsure if I would have enough DC to run things all night, or if I would have to run the generator, but I still had 12.4 volts in the morning.  That pleased me greatly as I knew it could do at least the whole night without worrying.  Even through the mountains and with the wind hitting us head on, we got over 12MPG pulling the TOAD.  I can live with that.  The view is a little uncomfortable in winds above 20 MPH, but slowing down helps.  When it got bad, I stayed below 65 MPH. Without winds it cruises along at 70 or more quite easily.
The last day we started going through Salt Lake City, and it was much warmer, around 60F, and it was a gorgeous day and pleasant drive.  The entire state of Utah is like one big park, with cows.  My kind of place.   Very beautiful and it has a welcoming feel to it.  People were all very nice everywhere we stopped.  I could live in that state.  Rolled into the campground after a leisurely 350 miles at around 3PM and just relaxed for the rest of the day.
more to come...
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Better Days Ahead!
Darwinism Is Junk Science!!