Day 26 - Columbia MO to Salina KS
Day 26 - Columbia MO to Salina KS - 305 miles, about 7 hours
We took our time this morning, readying for departure heading west. After a number of days of not doing much except visiting, reading, playing KodyKross, and shopping (usually sewing/crafting stores or the grocery store), we were ready to move on.
We took off after a teary goodbye with the Columbia AND Lake of the Ozarks families (except son-in-law, who was still down at the Lake working). After getting ice at QuikTrip, we went across the way to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. All of Columbia was practicing mask-wearing and social distancing, so wearing a mask as we went in was not unusual.
After breakfast, we drove. We stopped for fuel in Grain Valley (east of KC), then at rest areas before pulling into Salina's Comfort Inn North. We also stopped at the Russell Stover candy place – always a fun stop!
We were initially assigned to a room on the third floor. We moved in, including putting stuff in the refrigerator, then just relaxed before heading across the freeway to pick up dinner at Popeye's. Hubby had to wait for mild chicken in dark meat, so they gave him a free apple pie as a consolation. We took dinner back to our room, ate it, then discovered that the sink in the room had the sink stopper stuck in the down position.
Management came up, tried to fix it, then offered us another room, directly below the one we were on. So we had to pack up and move down one floor, including the refrigerator. The manager had to place 309 on the “inoperative” status until they can get the maintenance guy to come and fix it.
We headed out for a grocery store – Dillon's – to buy some Ziploc bags. Found the HUGE kind, 2.5 gallons, which would be perfect to place all the boxes of candy that we bought at the Russell Stover store. Then headed over to the Salina family's home, which we found right away this time.
We arrived right at 7, visited for an hour and three-quarters, then departed for the room.
Donna
Day 27 - Salina, KS to Aurora, CO
Day 27 - Salina KS to Aurora, CO - 427 mi, about 8 hrs
We got up, got ready, and got on the road by 7:45 this morning. Our first stop after check-out, was about 58 miles down the road at Bunker Hill, KS, for fuel at $1.97. Our next stop was for breakfast at a very good place, Pheasant Run Pancakes in Hays, KS. The food was tasty, and just the right amount. They weren't really practicing social distancing or wearing masks, but I never felt uncomfortable.
We only really stopped for rest areas after that, until Limon, CO. The tranny seemed to be running hot, and we just needed to get out of the truck and walk a little. We also prepared our soft drinks while in a parking lot.
Trying to get fuel before getting off I-70 was a trial. We went to the same place in Watkins that we'd used a couple of weeks ago, but the price had gone up 10c a gallon from the price we'd seen on Gas Buddy that morning. They also had a couple of broken diesel pumps. We got back on I-70, heading east and went back to the Diamond Shamrock we'd seen 3 miles before, advertising $2.09. I had to report the new (better) price on Gas Buddy, for that one.
Got into our daughter's just before 3, using the “back roads” of as we did (in reverse) a couple of weeks before. Our other daughter is traveling to see her sister later in July, and she will want that better route.
Spent the evening visiting. Son-in-law grilled out for dinner!
Donna
Day 29 - Aurora, CO to Cedar City, UT
Day 29 - Aurora, CO to Cedar City, UT - 615 mi, about 11 hrs
This was a very long driving day, 615 miles. We left our daughter's at 5:15 am, taking I-25 to I-70. We couldn't stop at Marion's of the Rockies Restaurant in Idaho Springs since they weren't going to be open until 7. Instead, we got to the Sunshine Cafe' in Silverthorne at 6:55 and just waited for them to open. The service was excellent and the food quick. Including the 5 minute wait for them to open, we only stopped 45 minutes!
We utilized the same fuel station in Grand Junction that we had on the way out. We stopped at the first rest area in the San Rafael Swell and hiked up a hill. But only after I discovered that the porta-potty chemical bottle in our camper shell had leaked and the smell permeated everything in the back. The chemical burned my eyes and made my throat raw! Later in the evening, after dinner, we opened up the back windows on the camper shell in hopes that would air things out back there.
One unusual stop was at the Quality Inn at Richfield. For some reason, our overnight payment never went through from our stay almost 4 weeks before, and had been showing up on our account as unpaid. So we paid via a check. The gal was floored.
We tried to get ice cream at Ideal Dairy in Richfield....closed....it's Sunday! Tried to call some places in Beaver for ice cream, same issue. We ran into that later for dinner, too. Most of the family-owned-and-operated restaurants were closed because it was Sunday.
Pulled into the Comfort Inn and Suites in Cedar City just before 4 pm. We checked in to our first floor room, then got to go for a swim in their indoor pool! As is usual, we were the only ones in the pool, though a dad brought his little son in as we were leaving. After a swim, we readied ourselves to go to dinner, finally deciding on Chili's. I'd been eyeing a couple of other places there in Cedar City, but both were closed because it was Sunday.
Hubby had the ribeye steak, which he said was tasty, while I had the Margarita Chicken Grill plate. Chili's was open for dine-in, but half the tables/booths were closed off.
After dinner, we drove first to a Shell station and filled up, then a little further up the street to a DQ for dessert.
Donna
Day 30 - Cedar City UT to home, CA
Day 30 - Cedar City UT to Home, CA - 490 miles, 9 hours
We rolled out of bed at 5 am local time. Both of us were awake anyway. That leaky chemical smell was bothering my husband mentally, trying to figure out how the bottle had leaked. I just woke up at 4:45 and didn't go back to sleep because I knew the alarm would buzz on me.
We took our time departing, as we didn't know whether to stop for breakfast or not, and we didn't want to roll through Las Vegas at “Rush Hour”. So it was 6:45 before we were loaded and started to roll out of the hotel. Finally decided that a light breakfast was in order, so a quick call was made to the Cracker Barrel in St George to see if they were open for dine-in. Yes. We had a little trouble locating it, though we had been to that location a couple of years ago. Both of us ordered a kids' menu order of pancakes and that was it. After the previous night's dinner, neither of us was super hungry, but we knew we didn't want to arrive in LV too early!
The construction that had plagued us 4 weeks ago, through Virgin River Gorge, was non-existent. Our next stop was at the Moapa Chevron, off of Valley of Fire Rd. This was the most we paid on the entire trip, $2.49, but as we'd filled up in Cedar City last night, we didn't need a lot.
Stopped after that at Primm's Flying J. No fuel, just needed a short break. It was starting to get hot. The clouds had been over us until we got just past Moapa, but then the sun started to appear.
Surprise, surprise (to us!). California had moved the inspection station from its former location near Yermo, to a spot about a mile or two into California coming southbound on I-15. We were just waved through. Some boaters who had not heeded the signs to go through with the truckers, had to be pulled aside for a quick check.
Just past that, the traffic came to an extreme crawl. It seemed that a couple of huge pieces of mining equipment were struggling to make it up the hill, and every one of us behind them were also very slow. A little later, just past the spot where the old inspection station used to be at Yermo, we came to a stop again. We were stuck crawling along for at least a half hour. Finally got on the CB, channel 19, and asked what the problem was. A southbound'er replied, there were some military trucks in a convoy and one had a breakdown, and the rest stopped with them. In the meantime, everyone had to move over and go slow up that hill. We were concerned that this type of thing would continue all the way home, like it did on our 2018 trip, but it was not at issue.
Traffic was very heavy, that's for sure, all the way down Cajon Pass, but not stopped. The traffic was actually pretty thick all the way to San Diego, but it didn't do a slow-and-go or a stop-and-go.
We pulled into the house at 2:45, about 490 miles in just short of 9 clock hours. We unloaded quickly and tried to assess the chemical damage situation. Opening the windows of the camper shell had helped it tremendously, both overnight and with the wind blowing through it all the way home.
I will post photos from our last two days, and a video or two, over the next few days.
Donna
