West Coast to East Coast, July 2011

[DonnaR57]

DAY 34 - BURLINGTON CO to RICHFIELD UT - 630 miles, 10 hrs 24 min

I found myself moving from song to song over the past two days. Yesterday it was "Kansas City" (from the musical OKLAHOMA) and then John Denver's "Matthew" ("gold is just a windy Kansas wheat field....blue is just a Kansas summer sky"). Today, it was John Denver's "Rocky Mountain High" and "Eagle and the Hawk", and then "I went through the desert on a horse with no name" while driving through eastern Utah.

We were up pretty early and out the door again before 6. We'd both been awakened by a noisy air conditioner in the room, making us upset that we hadn't asked for a room change earlier. (Note to self: if A/C makes noise BEFORE bedtime, it will sound 3x as loud when you are trying to sleep through it!)

Breakfast was at Denny's in Aurora. The traffic was still a bit congested with rush hour at 7:50 am when we pulled in, so we decided to eat. This is one that took the place of a Country Market Restaurant inside Flying J at Airport Blvd, when Flying J decided to get out of the restaurant business. When we pulled back out onto I-70 west, traffic had eased up quite a bit!

That climb out of Denver could be pretty steep. We noticed a lot of laboring trucks and vehicles pulling trailers, though we could smell brakes because the eastbounders were heading down a 6% grade. One is rewarded with a new view at every curve of the Interstate - my camera was working overtime! First thing one comes into are the old mining towns like Idaho Springs, Dillon. Then one has to climb a pass and pass through a couple of tunnels before hitting all the ski-resort towns.

A few miles down the road is Glenwood Canyon. That's another favorite part of this drive. Over the years I think we've stopped at a different rest area each time while in the Canyon, and today was no exception. Loved this one as you could walk right down to the Colorado River. Like normal, hubby had to stick his hand in it!

At Grand Junction, the picture taking ended: I took the wheel and drove. Hubby isn't too thrilled with taking pictures while riding in the car, which is his prerogative! As we left Colorado, my head started singing "Horse With No Name" for two reasons, probably: the high desert scenery for one, and the way the highway was bouncing us up and down like we were on horseback.

All day we were in cooler weather, which after 3 weeks of Midwest scorchers, was very appreciated. We had the windows up at times. However, once into Utah, the sun was out and beating on my left leg, so I broke down and turned on the A/C. It didn't stay on very long, though, as patchy rainy was bringing temperatures back down.

We are situated at the Quality Inn in Richfield, UT, which is a motel we've stayed at many times before. The weather was nice enough to enjoy their outdoor pool and their indoor hot tub. A little later, we're going over to dinner at JB's (a chain we don't have in our area). When we come back from dinner, I'll upload some of today's photos to the Views from the Passenger Seat album.


Donna

[DonnaR57]

DAY 35 - RICHFIELD UT to Home, Sweet Home, CA - 600.8 miles, 9 hrs 14 min.

We got in at home about 2 hours ago - at just after 1 pm here. We unloaded and then I ran over to the Post Office to pick up our 35 days of accumulated mail. Basically, we're almost unpacked - just a few things to unpack left (like the tour books). I sent out a few text messages that said we arrived, but then my phone died so it's charging.

Today's trip seemed fast yet at times it seemed slow. We were up at 4 am Mountain time, determined to get on the road early and try to avoid being in anybody's rush hour (LA, Riverside, and San Diego's). I was checking us out of the hotel at 4:45 and then we had to get gasoline. Contrary to some people's reports, gas IS easy to get in Richfield before 6am - at least one "cheap station" was open, as was the expensive Texaco next door. So we were on the road at 4:59 am, in St George by 7:30 am, and having breakfast 45 minutes later in Mesquite, NV. McDonald's beckoned to us as a fast and easy meal. We were in Las Vegas NV by 9:30 am and at the NV/CA border by 10:15. Our brains and our cell phones changed time zones, but the car's clock stayed on Mountain time - I think it's still on Mt Time. Neither of us ever remember how to change it!

Traffic out of Las Vegas was AWFUL all the way down to San Diego! Guess those Vegas-residents have had enough of the heat and want to escape to California. Going the other way, the traffic appeared to be not much better - - guess all the Californians want to go gamble or be dazzled by the Vegas lights. Hubby was trying to get out of one traffic pocket after another, all the way down!!! The express lanes in Vegas helped us ... for a few miles ... as did the express lanes in San Diego County.

Home, sweet, home. It was definitely good to be home. However, we had one major problem that resulted in our front lawn being almost dead. It looks awful and may have to be completely replaced. (sigh). Someone taking care of our cat, shut a switch off at our front door which resulted in the electricity going out in the garage. That meant the sprinkler system shut down. Thank goodness that the freezer is on a separate circuit and we didn't have a bunch of stinky thawed out meat. We've got to get that wiring changed so that flipping the outside light switch won't mean shutting down the garage too.

I tried to give the almost dead grass some extra water which had disastrous results - just about didn't get the sprinkler main valve turned off! Grrrrr!!!!

Tomorrow, we have to deal with the bank about that cancellation of the card - - they had called the house, evidently, and had not paid attention to the Vacation report filed with them on 7/5. Why bother to fill out a report like that if nobody is going to pay it any mind?!?!

Then we really need to go to the commissary (military grocery store). I've got some frozen fish fillets which we will have tonight, but we have nothing fresh in the larder. But both of us have had our fill of restaurants for awhile.

I'll wrap up this trip report later with an expense and mileage report. Right now, I haven't added it all up. I'll also be adding to the "Views from the Passenger Seat" album, as I took photos through the Virgin River Gorge in Arizona today, as well as Las Vegas.


Donna

[Lifemagician]

That for me, is always the best leg of the trip. No matter how great the trip was, there is nothing like arriving home. Glad you made it safely.

Lifey

[DonnaR57]

Here are the statistics for the trip:

MILEAGE - 6498. total miles added to our car.
2568.3 from our house in CA to my brother's in NJ
1051.8 from brother's house in NJ to SIL's house in MO
1797.6 from SIL's house in MO to our house in CA
we kept no mileage with all the running around we did in MO in what is now
my husband's and SIL's car (MIL's car)

OVERNIGHTS - $424.42 total (7 nights, about $60 per night)
Highest lodging=$78.87 Springfield OH
Lowest lodging=40.46 Cookeville, TN

FUEL - $879.81 on our car, which takes Premium.
Lowest premium paid=3.49/gal (Tempe, AZ)
Highest premium paid=3.89/gal (Home, of course!)
Always got 25.0 mpg or higher.

FOOD = $426.54 total on the road.
Highest breakfast=$30.86 for 2; Lowest=7.55 at McDonald's
Highest dinner=$60.11 for 2; Lowest=9.67 at Rally's

We had to eat out a lot while in Missouri dealing with funerals and estate issues.
$541.18 - however, we were often also paying for our daughters' meals, and that of their husband's. One meal was $145 alone, for the 4 of us, because we celebrated being together again by a meal at Joe's Crab Shack in St Peters, MO.

TEMPERATURES -
Highest temperature noted on car's temperature gauge = 124 (Gila Bend, AZ)
Lowest temperature noted on car's temperature gauge = 46 (between Richfield
and Cove Fort, UT. However, this was at 5:20 am)


Other notes:
* We used coupons almost all the time for lodging. We discovered, too late, that one cannot use a coupon AND get Choice Hotel points. Oh well.

* For food, we tried various things. We often asked at the motel, what was good that was nearby. Sometimes (like Rally's) we happened across one by accident. I also carried a few coupons for chain restaurants, which we were able to use.

* For fuel, each night I checked online for the best fuel prices along our route. Pilot and Flying J are usually competitive with local fuel rates, so we stopped at those a lot, as well as Love's.

* Each night I would also try to check for construction zones, online. To put it mildly, that turned out to be a big joke. Often, the state DOT sites were out of date.

* Many states have a 511 system for cell phones. Calling this number usually resulted in much more timely information about construction and traffic issues.

* We tried to time our departures to avoid driving into a metropolitan area during Rush Hour. Positioning oneself on the opposite side of the city helps (if it's possible); otherwise, a carefully timed breakfast stop improved the situation!

* Weather Channel's website has Interstate Forecasts available, which I bookmarked. It was helpful to brace ourselves for rain, and then thankful when it didn't show up!

* I really want a new camera. My poor little 6megapixel point-and-shoot does not do justice to the beauty of this country. Maybe for the next trip, we can upgrade.

All in all - the first 11 days of the vacation were wonderful. Things changed when we lost my MIL, and we know that couldn't be helped. We tried to make the best of things, though, taking off for sightseeing in my husband's home state (MO) whenever we could, just for the change. The trips to Hermann, Hannibal, and Jefferson City were all fun for us, and took my husband's mind off all the estate-settling business he and his sister had to do. The trip home was gorgeous.


Donna

[DonnaR57]

In combing my photo gallery on the computer, I realized that I'd never uploaded photos of the winery tour we took with our adult daughters. So there they are
in the Missouri Album.