Category: Traveling the hiways and byways

As I woke up on Monday morning and I heard the wind blowing outside, I knew we would be in for an interesting ride that day.   We had been in Torrey, Ut, four nights and were setting out early for Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado.   It was pretty windy every afternoon while we were there, but the mornings and evenings were calm, so the wind at 6 am was not welcome.

We buttoned up the coach for the ride.   It was going to be a longer day than most.  I am trying to keep the moving day rides to three hours or less if it’s not freeway,  and we hadn’t been on a freeway since the South Rim of the GC.   Today’s ride would take us on I-70 for only 40 miles of the 255-mile move.

The first 90 or so miles on US 24 were pretty windy, but we were protected to some extent by the canyon walls for the first 30 or so.   And then after a northbound turn at Hanksville, the wind was mostly at our backs.  But once on I-70 eastbound, the crosswind had me white knuckling the wheel to keep it going straight.   And the gusts were lane changers.    Kathy’s hand was firmly attached to the hold-on bar next to her seat.   Once I saw the exit sign for        US 191 south, I felt a bit of relief.  But it was premature,  the hurricane winds were about to begin.

They really picked up as we headed toward Moab, which is on the Colorado River.  The canyons I was now driving thru made the wind come from all directions and at velocities I had yet to experience, ever!    As we approached our intended stopping point for lunch, a sign on the road said the rest area was closed.   We were hungry and tired and hadn’t planned a different place and were pleasantly surprised to see the road to it wasn’t blocked, and so we headed in.  They didn’t want people coming in to picnic because of the dangerous wind conditions and closed the buildings, but we could eat and rest up in the coach.

The wind was howling thru the trees and lots of branches were blowing off into the parking area and the grassy area under those same trees.   It would have been a beautiful oasis on a normal day.   We both assumed they put out the closed sign due to all the branches blowing around.   While standing under the trees walking the pups, I was wondering if I was going to get beaned by a large one.  The dogs hunkered down so they didn’t get blown away!!

After cooking some lunch, we headed back onto the highway for the next 100 or so miles of the windy hell.   Luckily as we were leaving the rest area, a poor soul towing a large trailer with a pickup truck was just in front of me.  I followed him for at least 60 miles till he turned off for gas.   He was like an early warning system.    I kept about 300 feet behind him and watched the bigger gusts  blow that trailer around like a bobbin on a windy lake, and that allowed me to know when to  grip the wheel tighter so I’d be ready for them.

The rest was relatively uneventful for the occasional gust, and the wind kept blowing all the way till just before Cortez, Colorado, where it slowed way down,  maybe because it was getting near 4pm Mountain time.   Whew!  It took us a couple hours longer than planned, but we arrived safe and sound.

 

 

The day starts out as a usual travel day.   Pack everything,  hook up the TOAD,  bring in the slides and dump the leveling jacks.   Turn on the TPMS and the VmSpc monitor.   Start the motor to air up the brakes and suspension.

Then head out on the hiway!     We travel up 89 to Highway 12, and about 5 miles in there are two tunnels carved out of the red rock just past Red Canyon.   The height says 13’4″ so we should be good.   They are round-topped, short tunnels, so it’s anyone’s guess which part is 13’4″   I tend to move over to the middle on those type of tunnels, but today there was a large semi  truck coming the other way, so I gulped and stayed to the right.  Got thru both without a scratch,  not even the antennas scraped.

We passed by the turnoff to Bryce and motored on.    The scenery on that road is second to none.  We passed thru the Grand Staircase and a few very small towns on the 120-mile drive.    Then just as you think you’ve seen it all, we come into a huge gorge with steep windy switchbacks.   The view was incredible, but not really for me.   Going down I had the Jake and the brakes on maybe doing 25 mph and it seemed like it was too fast.   It was right near Calf Creek.   Going out the other side the views were even more spectacular, but again I couldn’t look around and also had to man the tranny to keep the engine in its prime RPM’s so we don’t overheat in those 10 percent steep uphill grades.   [The spectacular thing about the views is it changed from the incredible red hills like in Kanab, to whitish versions of that with rounded hoodoos, then valley views, and then when we climbed into the mountains up to 9,800 feet, it was like you were in the forest with all the pines and birch trees!]

Not long after that we were on the top o’ the world on a narrow ridge… did i say narrow…  maybe 3 feet on each side of the road to an amazing dropoff.   Being up high in an RV and trying not to see what was right next to me was a white-knuckle experience for both of us.   No room for error on that road.  [It was extra scary to have Bill driving when he is afraid of heights.  Most of the shear dropoffs during the drive were on my side, which made me nervous, but this was on both!]

After that the rest of the ride into Torrey seemed uneventful.  But there were plenty more 10% j grades ahead both up and down to go.

Our next stop was about 50′ before the end of Route 12 and a very nice campground.   Nice view of a large meadow with cows and horses.  The boys are loving it here.  Not sure how they have so much lush grass.   Crazy windy though!!  [Baxter and Dusty love seeing the cows.   Baxter barks at them just like when he sees them on TV :)]

We got on the road around 9 am on Thursday heading for Kanab UT.  Driving back eastward on I-40 toward Flagstaff on a gloriously blue sky morning.   As the exit for highway 89 north toward Page approached, I noticed some dark clouds off in the distance.   In a little while we could see rain squalls under those clouds not far north of us and it appeared we were heading right at them.  And of course, we were.  It was a real gully washer as they say in the desert.   It was really great at washing all the smashed bugs off that large windshield.   That heavy rain only lasted about 5 or so miles, then it cleared right up and it was a beautiful and sunny day again.

Route 89 is an incredibly scenic road all  the way from Flagstaff to Kanab.   I had planned to stop for fuel at Mile Marker 498 (the only way to locate the Sinclair station)  Since we are pulling a different car, I had no idea what type of mileage we might get, and I didn’t want to run it all the way down by waiting till Kanab.   I pull into the station.   It has a 15′ clearance so we are all good.  There are 3 pump islands and at the last second I notice diesel is only on the first island.  I stop quickly and get out, only to find I am a foot too far for the hose to reach.   Backing up with a 4-wheel-down towed car (aka a  “toad”) you cannot back up.  I did back up for the foot I needed, and afterward had to go back and straighten out the steering wheels to put them straight again.  The gas pumps were the slowest I have ever experienced.  Even the dollar amount crawled.  When you have 100 gallons to put in, it really makes a difference!

There is a short stretch of “wonderment” a few miles before you get to Page Az where you go up into a tight mountain pass.   The road is carved out of the brightest reds, pinks and white rocks I have ever seen.  Unfortunately we didn’t know it was coming up or we would have been ready with the camera, all we could get was one final cut prior to reaching the summit and its all one color and Kathy’s iPhone camera didn’t do that photo justice.  (there was no where to pull over,  it was a very narrow passage with a sheer drop on one side and towering walls on the other.

Just prior to that spectacular section of road, we saw a McDonald’s sign saying RV parking.   Well,  Kathy decided we were stopping at a McDonald’s.. why, because they have RV parking.   Nuff Said.   Turns out the RV parking was one way in and out and not enough room for our size rig to get out.    I had to disconnect the toad, do a K turn, and then Kathy had to drive it till we found a wide spot in the road, which turned out to be our next stop.

My favorite part was going right past Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon dam and stopping by the visitor center… err, at least the parking lot for RV’s..   As soon as I fired the parking brake, it started to rain again, so I snapped a few pics and quickly reattached the car and got back inside to head for Kanab.

 

 

 

 

The road from Page to Kanab is more great scenery.

We arrived in Kanab late afternoon and found our campground.   It’s right smack in the middle of downtown, a very small downtown.  Two traffic lights was all I could see.    It looked nice, but there were a line of rental class C motor homes all the way out into the street.  I proceeded to follow them in and to my surprise right out the other side.   Turns out they didn’t have reservations and the place was full.    So I go back in,  this time noticing the office and checked in.   The owner told me those folks thought they had reservations for that night, but they were actually for the next night.

Turns out the owner of the campground is an IT nerd who had just installed Gigabit fiber and brand new Ubiquity meshed AC Picostations.   Man, is it blazingly fast, and he is very proud of that system.     Most of the parks we have visited have very poor WiFi.  Some places it didn’t work at all.

So this place let me download all my recorded shows from the home SageTV server in a few hours.   It was truly amazing after all the other experiences.

Long day of driving, glad to get settled in here.  Beautiful view of the red hills of Kanab!

We took to the highway around 9am to beat the heat in Camp Verde.  It was supposed to be a really warm one there today.     It was a short trip up I-17 and over on I-40 to Williams,  just about an hour.   It was the low 70’s when we arrived.   Our campsite is at 6942 feet above sea level.   The highest summit on this leg was 7144 feet.   Lots of slow trucks along the way.   Williams was on the original route 66 and I-40 bypassed it about 2 or 3 miles north of downtown.   Lots of bars and gas stations, and believe it or not, there was a Safeway.    But only one barber shop and it was closed till June 1, the day we head for Kanab UT.

We are staying in a KOA,  lots of pine trees for shade,  pretty much all gravel driveways and campsites.   The most astonishing thing to me is they truck in all their water.  There is no well and they are outside of the city.    I found that out as i was checking in and there was a large round PSI gauge behind the counter.   When asked she told me about trucking in the water.  That must be expensive.   It seems like everyone out here trucks in their water.   We have this gorgeous view of the freeway out our front window if you have checked out the camera link.   But this place is really nice looking.   If only we were in the site reversed.

Thankfully we were able to get out of Yuma before it got up to 100,  guess it was about 9:30 am as we trekked over to the CAT scales to get the coach weighed prior to hitting the freeway.   We were under the limits, a hair over 6 tons on the front axle and just a bit less than the 10 tons the rear axles are rated for.    

The TOAD weighed in at 3900 lbs,  probably 500 lbs more than the Jeep.

We jumped on I-8 east toward Gila Bend, then up to I-10 and over to I- 17,  it was a fairly uneventful trip all the way to  the Distant Drum RV resort on the outskirts of Camp Verde.

What we did figure out is we need to map out where we can stop half way to our destinations.   I have found a pretty good resource listing most rest stops since getting to Camp Verde.

RVParky is my new favorite tool!  http://www.rvparky.com/

We started heading out interstate 8 east into the mountains with Yuma as the destination.   It was warm and as this was the first time for pulling Kathy’s equinox, I kept one eye on the rear camera hoping it was still there each time i looked.   After about 60 miles we topped the highest pass for this part of the trip at  4120 feet,   And then there is a long steep grade heading down to the desert floor that gets to about 50 below sea level.   I got to use my Jake on  the way down to keep the speed below 55, only had to set it to stage 1 compression which uses just 3 of the 6 cylinders to slow the coach down without using the brakes.   I am starting to wonder if I will ever need to use the 2nd stage for anything I will drive on.

As we got a few miles into the desert we noticed it was about 110 degrees outside.   Just then the tire pressure monitoring system started alarming.   After my initial “oh crap” moment i realized it was an over pressure, not an under pressure situation.   Turns out I had set the upper threshold too low.  Live and learn…. err, every day is a learning experience.   No harm, no foul and we kept trucking to Yuma.

We arrived at our destination just at 5pm, were checked in within a couple of minutes and a guy in a golf cart escorted us to the site.   Fairly uneventful except it was extremely hot,  so hot I had to turn the fridge down a few points to keep it cold.  But that’s a story i will write up later.

JFYI.  Both A/C units were on all night while in Shangri La.