Sunday...April 3

Saturday and Sunday, April 02&03, 2005

Note…I am going to try to transmit Sunday…see below for Sunday’s comments.
Saturday
Morning in the High Desert was cold. There was frost in the doggie walk this morning. Not to fear, Rose knows the drill and frost or not she was ready when we pulled out at 7:30 MST. My biggest concern was the journey represented by today’s trail.

When you leave Boise you go up…slowly. Our highest elevation was when we were at the summit of the Blue Mountains on I-84…that was 4195 feet and we had snow on the ground…not on the road. Today we soared with the eagles through southern Idaho and northern Utah. The mountain peaks are 9,000 plus and covered with snow. Even though you are in the valley you are at between 3500 and 4000 feet. The weather was bright sun and 60 degrees in some spots (as seen on a bank.) We crossed the Snake river several times…which has a story of its own. Figure it out some time: the Snake starts in Yellowstone and winds its way south then north until it flows into the Columbia. It is aptly named.

Through Utah, even at the edge of the Great Salt Lake, you feel that you are at the top of the world even though you are bounded by mountains on two sides. Then all at once you are going through those mountains that you had been following…up and through passes and on to I-80 climbing into Wyoming. Forgive me Wyoming fans, it is easy to tell why the US government owns most of the state…there is nothing here, but earthen formations that have been in the making for eons.

We arrived at Rock Springs with snow visible all around…not right here, but everywhere you look. And why not? RS elevation is 6200. Talk about high desert! One local, who heard our tale of travel the past five weeks, said simply, “when you get through Cheyenne, you got it made.”

So our plan for Sunday is Rock Springs, WY to somewhere deep in the heart of Nebraska.

The vehicle is performing well, we are enjoying the scenery in early April, and we know how lucky we are to be making his trip without any weather problems.

The only station we get on the TV is CBS…so we are watching the MS/NC game as it starts…then, spring ahead…whew, these short nights are killers.

Sunday…Apr 3
Changing the clocks this morning slowed us down…you know what I mean. We got off at 8:30. Sun and cool at the start and sun and warm at the finish.

We continued climbing most of the day and crossed the Continental Divide twice…once on each side of the basin. The signs said 6900 and 7000 feet respectively…this is high desert if there ever was one. The wind pick up as we got close to Laramie…but that did not deter us. We thought of Jan and Gary as they spent a year there in about 1980 at the University of Wyoming where Gary got his Master’s degree. There was still snow on the ground.

As we left Laramie we climbed a mountain and the summit was 8600 feet…the highest that we are aware of on this trip. We cruised on through rather stiff wind (the outside weather was still sunny and warm) to Cheyenne. We decided to keep pressing for as much distance as we could get so we would be home on Tuesday, not Wednesday.

We stopped for gas and some treats…Aleene’s ice cream tooth kicked in…and kept going until seven (now Central Time) which was not that great seeing as how we turned the clocks ahead twice in 24 hours. But we found a delightful KOA in Gothenburg, NE which was nice, quiet and had passable TV and a modem to transmit on the net…I hope.

I grilled outside and we ate at sunset (7:45) and decided that camping is good if the sun is shining and the temps are above 60.

Tomorrow (Monday) we hope to make it into IL so we can finish up on Tuesday….More later…