Utah, Nevada dessert,and FINALLY California!

The desert has its own beauty, so dry and barren, quite unlike the lush, green of PA. 

Driving across I-80 through the salt lakes always amaze me, no matter how often we’ve done it. 

Notice there are salt flats on both sides of the road. 


Guess what this is ... a satellite tower. 


No trip through Nevada is complete without seeing casinos. Towns are few and far between but you can be sure to find a casino in them when you drive through. 


Nevada really cares about their wildlife. Below is a wildlife bridge. Whenever we drive through one in Nevada, I always wonder how many human and/or animal lives are saved by this concept. 





Even though the mountains don’t have green trees, they are beautiful and remind me of the term purple mountains majesty. 




How quickly the landscape changes. We just came across the  CA border and low and behold, we have trees, lots and lots. 


A few pics at Shan and Carl’s house. 

Bandit, Jax (their new dog) and Lenny. 

Carl and Bill working in their yard. Getting it ready to seed. This area was filled with trees when they bought the house. They had most of them cut for fire prevention. 

Bandit and Lenny renewing their friendship. 

Fort Bridger, Wyo, next stop and a break.

On the way to Wyoming, we stopped at  a rest stop with a monument of Lincoln. The monument commemorates the Lincoln Highway, America’s first transcontinental highway. 

Some pictures as we continue west on I-80. 

The yellow is a form of clover, I think. Brightened up the roadside. 

Lots of rock bluffs along the way. 

Finally made it to Fort Bridger. We’ve stayed here at Fort Bridger several other times. They have large sites, very clean restrooms and laundry and friendly, helpful owners. 

This town boasts 345 residents, with mostly dirt (gravel) roads through the small town. 

Here’s their shopping plaza. 

To stretch our legs, we took a walk to their reservoir. The mountains in the distance (pic below) are the Uintas (pronounced (Yintas) the only east/west mountain range in the US. 

We decided to take a break and stay another night here in Fort Bridger so we could take a drive through the Flaming Gorge Canyon in Utah. Beautiful drive and we got in a couple hikes, one along the Sheep Creek and one along the rim of the Canyon. 

One of the views from the rim. 







Dinner tonight was Jambalaya foul packets. We eat quite well at the camper. 

Tomorrow we hope to get to Battle Mountain, Nevada. 

Keep on rolling through Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska

Across two states, Indiana and Illinois, we stayed in Mark Twain’s Campground, cave. and Winery. We’ve stayed here before we really like the park, lots of space and very well maintained. Unfortunately, the winery nor the cave were open due to the Covid, so we just relaxed around the camper.

Out of Hannibal, MO, we took Route 36, a four lane, non Interstate highway with very little traffic. Not many big towns either. What flabbergasted me was that we were about 5 miles from the Missouri Star Quilt Company. It’s in the middle of nowhere. Decided not to stop because we didn’t have the time to do it justice. I think they have 13 stores!  Road trip for Linda and me!  

From Route 36, we took I-29 along the Missouri River. When we did this last year, we encountered major flooding. For the most part, things were cleaned up except for some of the fields that were lying fallow and some of the road had closed lanes. 

These fields were all under water last year in March. 

This gas station was closed because of water over the pumps and up to the door of the store. 

Next place we camped is near Lincoln, Nebraska, at the WindCrest Winery. This is our second Harvest Host. Great experience with a very nice welcome. 

Time zone changes going west are really tough or maybe we’re getting old and don’t adjust like we used to!

Left early since we were up. Made it across Nebraska and into eastern Wyoming, near Cheyenne to WYO Campground. 

The sky seems so wide and is usually blue so these clouds took my eye. 

Even though it was warm, there was a nice breeze blowing that kept it comfortable. 

A typical countryside in eastern Wyoming. 

Here’s dinner tonight ... pizza in the cast iron using tortilla shells. 

Guess what this is. 

A grill. If Covid hadn’t hit, we would have been able to have some good BBQ. 

Finally a beautiful sunset. 

Headed to Fort Bridger in western Wyoming tomorrow. 

Richmond, Indiana - border of Ohio and Indiana

Today’s travels took us through Ohio to the border of Indiana,  we had a reservation at Grandpa’s Farm RV Park. This was a new stop for us.  Deer Ridge is the usual stop for us in Raymond but that campground isn’t open due to the Covid.  Most times we make good decisions on campgrounds, a couple have been questionable.  Grandpa’s Farm was definitely a good stop. The site we had was large and lots of space and since it was a pull-through, we didn’t

need to unhook our trailer. 

A wood carving of a farmer, very apropos for this campground. They had antique implements around the campground that made walking around the campground interesting. 

A cute camper we saw, but glad we have a little more room!!

We also came upon a suspension bridge and a hiking trail at the edge of the campground. Lenny and Banjo were very happy to sniff their way around the trail. 

Yes, Linda Zubler, the bridge did sway as we crossed, but it was very well constructed. This was our second suspended bridge in two days ... who would have thought. Denise Shuffstall, make sure you show Lou. This was probably twice the size of his. 

As we continued on the trail, it seemed as though we were in  a jungle, very cool. 

Definitely a good stop for us and will go on our list of campgrounds to stop again!  

Tomorrow we’re on to Hannibal, MO, where Tom Sawyer lived. 

June 19, 2020 - Westward Ho AGAIN!

Some of you may remember that we were packed up and attempted to head West in March ... then the THE COVID hit. We had to turn around and head home. 

Almost four months later, we are once again packed and ready to roll. How far will we get?  We don’t know but we do know so we told Drew and Erin that if we don’t make it to Cali, they have to rent a Uhaul and meet us wherever we are!  

With positive thoughts that we’ll make it, we left Friday with a stop at Conneaut Lake to see family. Brother Lou took us on a hike through his woods to show us where he’s working on the new trail. The trail begins out of Lou’s campground with a swinging bridge. Pretty cool.  

Lenny and Banjo had to fight with some low lying brush and trees part way but most of it was a super highway. They had a good time with the new smells. 

There’s always a good fire going so we had dinner over the fire and the very import part ... S’mores!  Thanks Matt for coming to my rescue with the chocolate. Can’t believe I forgot that important food!  

Tomorrow we plan to make it to Richmond, Indiana. Till then ...