Travel Tuesday

Got up early and showered and then started on the last minute things.   It is amazing how many things have to be left for the last minute, but then again -- nothing makes a person more productive than the last minute!
  We had a few visitors at the early hour wishing us farewell and a few last minute hugs.  Got the pest baits all put out, the vents all covered, the drains covered, cling wrap on the toilet bowl and tank.  Toilet probably has more and varied names than anything I am aware of.  Some that come to mind:  Loo, commode, stool, can, crapper, water closet, etc.
  We got it all together and loaded by a few minutes prior to 8.  That is the time Mediacom opens their door and we were there waiting at about 5 minutes to the hour.  There was already a guy from Ontario there ahead of me.  Got the gear all returned and headed over to the golden arches for a breakfast item and coffee. 
  We were on the road by 8:30AM and traffic was light.  We made it through Phoenix in good time as we were pretty much 60-65 mph all the way.  The temp was already getting warm by the time we got through and stayed that way all of the morning.  The wind was blowing hard and that was pretty much the case all day.  We took the #17 highway north and got the cut-across that comes out just south of Wickenburg.  This is the same route we took with the Smith's to Vegas last week.  Stopped in Kingman for fuel and a bite to eat.  It was a nice break and gave us the capacity to get through Lads Vegas without stopping.  There were dust storms along the highway and around Kingman we saw several dust devils.  Traffic in Vegas was very heavy and aside from the close calls we got through in pretty good time.  The temps were still very warm and we had the AC running all the way up from AJ.  The temp stayed that way until we got to St George, Utah.  We encountered a lot of tumbleweeds today, but in this area, they covered the highway and we all over the place.  North of there around Cedar City, the temp started to drop gradually.  By the time we were an hour north of Cedar City it was noticeably cooler.  We only had the fan on blowing in the outside air, but by the time we got to Beaver, we had the heat on as the temp had dropped to about 4Cor 40F.  When we got to the area north of Beaver around Fillmore, the rains started.  Apparently it had been blowing a dust storm, so when it rained, the rain was like mud.  I have never seen anything like it.  The wipers wouldn't take it away without the washer spray.  Further north the rain had snow in it and there was white stuff along the highway.  It rained hard and we could hardly see the lines on the road at times.    Made it all the way to Provo where we took a hotel room.  We pulled in to the hotel at 8:30 PM. so that makes 12 1/2 hours on the road and about 1100 kms. 
  A long first day, but we are well positioned to make it through Salt Lake City and we hopefully have driven through enough of the storm area to make it to good weather tomorrow.