A pretty casual start to the day. We had the hotel breakfast and got on the road at about 9:00. The weather was great, clear blue sky and warm with dry roads. We got to go through the Virgin River gorge, always a highlight of the trip. Traffic was light until we got close to Las Vegas. On the way, going through Mesquite we were surprised to see a new hotel opened up, a sure sign that the economy is improving here.
Got to Las Vegas in good time, arriving here just before lunch. The traffic was hellacious here at the turn-off. The area around the turn-off is locally referred to as the spaghetti bowl; I assume referring to the looping overpass bridges to several routes. We spent a well over a half hour sometimes not moving at all. When we finally got through it was nothing other than the 3 highways merging at that point. Within a mile after the merge we were moving like nothing happened. This was a first for us and anytime someone complained about the traffic here, I had difficulty believing it, having driven through here a couple dozen times. Well I am now a believer.
We got to Sam's Town just before noon only to be reminded it was only 11 here. We went for a nice lunch in the hotel and then went to check in. There is a surcharge if you check in early. When we did register we were surprised to learn that we booked through a travel wholesaler when we had gone directly to what we thought was the Sam's Town site. We were complaining that our credit card was hacked just after we booked and paid and the hotel of course said there was nothing they could do as it was not through them. Lesson learned here, the SOB's just led us on to believe we were dealing with the hotel. The hotel room is nice as always, we have never had a bad experience here with the rooms they have.
We stopped in at the local Walmart for a few things we needed, our first time in one here. Then we spent some time in the casino and managed to play a for a while until we donated. By then it was supper time and we went to the buffet. Friday is always a great one in this hotel. It seems being the New Years weekend things were a little more, but it was well worth it. The feature on Friday is seafood and they had lots. Alaska King crab, Dungeness crab, calamari, steamed clams, oysters on the half shell, several kinds of fish, mussels plus all the other regular stuff. The prime rib and turkey, Italian, salad bar, Chinese, Mexican plus amazing desert bar. It was all very good, however there was no bread pudding [usually my favourite]. After supper we played a bit more and managed to top up our earlier donation.
Distance travelled today about 300 km's or 200 miles and the weather was in the low teens [Celsius].
Friday 29 December 2017
Thursday 28 December 2017
Thursday, Dec 28th
A great start to the day with a hot breakfast in the hotel. Scrambled eggs, bacon and the usual stuff; well biscuits and gravy as well that we did not partake of. The breakfast room was pretty empty as most of the hotel guests must have been travelling south and the parking lot was close to empty. Seniors are not known for sleeping in, rather they are generally early risers and almost compete to be first on the road. Anyway it worked well for us and the weather was a balmy minus 4C and the roads mostly bare & dry.
As most of you know, Dillon is at the north end of the dreaded Monida pass. With the weather, this was one of our best crossings of this pass, so things are starting to go well. We never fueled last night knowing a pit stop was in our future, so left with 3/4 of a tank. Stopped in Pocatello, Idaho for fuel just before noon and our timing was perfect. The weather in Pocatello was very pleasant, it was our first time in the positive temps, i.e.: above freezing. It was a brief stop and then we pressed on to the south under a clear blue sky.
Stopped for lunch in Ogden, Utah and managed to find a Taco Bell, one of Marg's favourites in the fast food arena. We are reasonably familiar with the area as it has a nice RV park that we have used frequently in past years. I like it too, but it is always a challenge to decide as we don't eat a lot of Mexican food in GP. We both selected well and were satisfied with our choice. When it came to a drink, I tried the sweetened ice tea, but it was too much of a departure from what we have back home so had pink lemonade. I know, but it was good. Having the half day advantage from an early departure we decided the luxury of an eat-in for lunch was our best option.
By the time we got back on the road the lunch hour traffic had died down and we made good time. We also used the HOV lane through Salt Lake City, which worked really well for us. It takes over an hour at 70 mph to get through the metropolitan area even in the fast lane, but it was uneventful. Again roads were in perfect winter driving conditions and they had almost no snow in the area around SLC and even less as we progressed south. We stopped for a break in Beaver, Utah for a rest stop and Marg got a watermelon Slurpee. If you see her FB site, she likely posted a picture of it. Traffic was a bit heavier by Beaver and noticeably so by the time we got to Cedar City. Probably all the Mormons going to Las Vegas as there are no casino's in Utah.
Marg phoned and got a hotel reservation at a Howard Johnson in St. George. I thought the exit #6 sounded familiar and it turned out to be across the road from our old RV park [Temple View], where we used to store the motorhome from the fall until we got down in the winter. Went out and washed the truck, it was pretty much covered in road grit, fueled it and went out for supper. I was looking for one of Marg's fav's Jakers, but it was not to be. We instead happened on an Appleby's luckily another of her favourites. We usually have our first meal if in St George at Crackerbarrel but if in Pocatello at Appleby's. But to show we are not set in our ways really mixed it up tonight. The weather, oh yeh, plus 13C here, shirt sleeve weather. That makes 1,100 km's today and we are well positioned to arrive at our scheduled time in Apache Junction as we will spend the night in Las Vegas tomorrow. Things are definitely looking very positive here, particularly when I looked at the weather in GP.
As most of you know, Dillon is at the north end of the dreaded Monida pass. With the weather, this was one of our best crossings of this pass, so things are starting to go well. We never fueled last night knowing a pit stop was in our future, so left with 3/4 of a tank. Stopped in Pocatello, Idaho for fuel just before noon and our timing was perfect. The weather in Pocatello was very pleasant, it was our first time in the positive temps, i.e.: above freezing. It was a brief stop and then we pressed on to the south under a clear blue sky.
Stopped for lunch in Ogden, Utah and managed to find a Taco Bell, one of Marg's favourites in the fast food arena. We are reasonably familiar with the area as it has a nice RV park that we have used frequently in past years. I like it too, but it is always a challenge to decide as we don't eat a lot of Mexican food in GP. We both selected well and were satisfied with our choice. When it came to a drink, I tried the sweetened ice tea, but it was too much of a departure from what we have back home so had pink lemonade. I know, but it was good. Having the half day advantage from an early departure we decided the luxury of an eat-in for lunch was our best option.
By the time we got back on the road the lunch hour traffic had died down and we made good time. We also used the HOV lane through Salt Lake City, which worked really well for us. It takes over an hour at 70 mph to get through the metropolitan area even in the fast lane, but it was uneventful. Again roads were in perfect winter driving conditions and they had almost no snow in the area around SLC and even less as we progressed south. We stopped for a break in Beaver, Utah for a rest stop and Marg got a watermelon Slurpee. If you see her FB site, she likely posted a picture of it. Traffic was a bit heavier by Beaver and noticeably so by the time we got to Cedar City. Probably all the Mormons going to Las Vegas as there are no casino's in Utah.
Marg phoned and got a hotel reservation at a Howard Johnson in St. George. I thought the exit #6 sounded familiar and it turned out to be across the road from our old RV park [Temple View], where we used to store the motorhome from the fall until we got down in the winter. Went out and washed the truck, it was pretty much covered in road grit, fueled it and went out for supper. I was looking for one of Marg's fav's Jakers, but it was not to be. We instead happened on an Appleby's luckily another of her favourites. We usually have our first meal if in St George at Crackerbarrel but if in Pocatello at Appleby's. But to show we are not set in our ways really mixed it up tonight. The weather, oh yeh, plus 13C here, shirt sleeve weather. That makes 1,100 km's today and we are well positioned to arrive at our scheduled time in Apache Junction as we will spend the night in Las Vegas tomorrow. Things are definitely looking very positive here, particularly when I looked at the weather in GP.
Wednesday 27 December 2017
Day 1 & 2 - December 27/28 2017
Well the disadvantage of having 3 computers not on the same version, it has taken a bit of time to re-acquaint myself with how this works on the laptop & the laptop itself and the way our virus software handles new locations. I think I have it now!
So our Boxing Day [Dec 27, 2017] started out with cleaning up and putting things away. I put the date in because many of our friends live in places where they don't call it Boxing Day. Marg doing laundry while packing our clothes for the journey while the doing all the other stuff and me winterizing the house and loading the truck. We had a bit of a head start over the Christmas season, packing everything we could think of or that was on our list when the opportunity arose. At just around noon Marg said, well if you like I can be ready to go in about 2 hours. After about 30 seconds of consideration, my reply was now that is spontaneous and we have no other commitments so can do what seems like the best plan, let's do it. Just about then Haylee & Paige stopped in, how opportune as we wanted to see them one last time and had a nice visit. Roger had stopped by earlier and dropped off some stuff and had his final farewell. Even though the truck had not been started for several weeks and it was not plugged in, it fired right up. Seeing that we had to step it up a notch and just shortly before 2:00 PM we set the alarm system and pulled out of the driveway.
It was bitterly cold, about minus 25C with a minus 30 windchill factor. The highway was amazing, dry and bare, so we set the cruise control and made good time, there was hardly any traffic. First stop was for supper in Leduc and then on to Red Deer for the night. We had a very nice room at the Western Budget. One of the only drawbacks was the heat for the room was provided by a gas fireplace and Marg woke up when it came on. The temperatures in Red Deer were even colder than GP, it was about minus 26, but the windchill was down around minus 39. We made about 600 km's, pretty good for a late start.
Day 2 we stopped in at Costco for gas and were on the road by 8. Traffic was light going into Calgary and again the highway dry and bare. The Stoney Trail bypass in Cowtown was pretty good too and we were through the city in good time. We stopped for lunch & fuel in Lethbridge to travel ideal winter driving highways with the next stop at Duty Free where 2 bottles of single malt were acquired. It was pretty fortunate as the line up to get through U.S. border control was the longest we have seen, but when exiting Duty Free you get well ahead of the majority Even with that we were the better part of an hour in the line so the guy could ask us our names, where are you going, anything to declare then have fun. Nice young guy.
The roads in Montana, not so good, no cruise control here. The driving lane was mostly clear, but the passing lane for much of it was solid ice, with blowing snow over it all the way. Stopped in Helena for fuel and it was snowing quite a bit there, with a forecast of a storm front moving in and up to 6 inches. We took the I-15 through the mountain passes and again the roads were poor, often neither lane being very good to drive on. Even though it was light, at one point I was down to about 45 mph following traffic. The highway between Helena and Butte is very mountainous, so lots of curves and grades. When we got to Butte, it had stopped snowing, but was getting dark by then. The roads were again clear, the highway in very good winter driving condition. We continued on to Dillon where we opted to spend the night. We got a nice room in the Comfort Inn along the highway and then went for a nice dinner in town. We made about 1,000 km's today. We discovered a missing bag when moving in to the new motel, fortunately it was the lunch bag, so more annoying than problematic. With any luck the storm will move in as forecast tomorrow afternoon and we will be long gone by then.
So our Boxing Day [Dec 27, 2017] started out with cleaning up and putting things away. I put the date in because many of our friends live in places where they don't call it Boxing Day. Marg doing laundry while packing our clothes for the journey while the doing all the other stuff and me winterizing the house and loading the truck. We had a bit of a head start over the Christmas season, packing everything we could think of or that was on our list when the opportunity arose. At just around noon Marg said, well if you like I can be ready to go in about 2 hours. After about 30 seconds of consideration, my reply was now that is spontaneous and we have no other commitments so can do what seems like the best plan, let's do it. Just about then Haylee & Paige stopped in, how opportune as we wanted to see them one last time and had a nice visit. Roger had stopped by earlier and dropped off some stuff and had his final farewell. Even though the truck had not been started for several weeks and it was not plugged in, it fired right up. Seeing that we had to step it up a notch and just shortly before 2:00 PM we set the alarm system and pulled out of the driveway.
It was bitterly cold, about minus 25C with a minus 30 windchill factor. The highway was amazing, dry and bare, so we set the cruise control and made good time, there was hardly any traffic. First stop was for supper in Leduc and then on to Red Deer for the night. We had a very nice room at the Western Budget. One of the only drawbacks was the heat for the room was provided by a gas fireplace and Marg woke up when it came on. The temperatures in Red Deer were even colder than GP, it was about minus 26, but the windchill was down around minus 39. We made about 600 km's, pretty good for a late start.
Day 2 we stopped in at Costco for gas and were on the road by 8. Traffic was light going into Calgary and again the highway dry and bare. The Stoney Trail bypass in Cowtown was pretty good too and we were through the city in good time. We stopped for lunch & fuel in Lethbridge to travel ideal winter driving highways with the next stop at Duty Free where 2 bottles of single malt were acquired. It was pretty fortunate as the line up to get through U.S. border control was the longest we have seen, but when exiting Duty Free you get well ahead of the majority Even with that we were the better part of an hour in the line so the guy could ask us our names, where are you going, anything to declare then have fun. Nice young guy.
The roads in Montana, not so good, no cruise control here. The driving lane was mostly clear, but the passing lane for much of it was solid ice, with blowing snow over it all the way. Stopped in Helena for fuel and it was snowing quite a bit there, with a forecast of a storm front moving in and up to 6 inches. We took the I-15 through the mountain passes and again the roads were poor, often neither lane being very good to drive on. Even though it was light, at one point I was down to about 45 mph following traffic. The highway between Helena and Butte is very mountainous, so lots of curves and grades. When we got to Butte, it had stopped snowing, but was getting dark by then. The roads were again clear, the highway in very good winter driving condition. We continued on to Dillon where we opted to spend the night. We got a nice room in the Comfort Inn along the highway and then went for a nice dinner in town. We made about 1,000 km's today. We discovered a missing bag when moving in to the new motel, fortunately it was the lunch bag, so more annoying than problematic. With any luck the storm will move in as forecast tomorrow afternoon and we will be long gone by then.
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