Looping the USA

[DonnaR57]

DAY 26:

Another day at Wright-Patterson's National Museum of the Air Force. The place is immense! It's listed as 17 acres of museum on the brochure. There are about 7 inside galleries, plus the Presidential Aircraft hangars (separate tour) and the restoration hangars described in a previous post. If I were to give someone advice about how much time to allot: a full day if you are just a little bit interested in aviation history, two to three days if you are more than a little bit interested, and a full week if you are a thick fan of military aircraft! My husband falls in the middle category, while I fall in the initial one.

We started in the World War II gallery, on this second day of our visit. Hubby needed to finish it. As for me, being in the "only a little interested" category, I roamed the gift shop/bookstore, then watched the Bob Hope tribute videos at least once each, before hubby was done.

After an early but quick lunch in the Cafe, we walked out to the farthest gallery, Space and Missiles. After NASA's Kennedy, I think I was expecting more in the NMUSAF museum than I got, for space, but I was treated to Apollo 15's actual splashdown capsule, a Mercury and a Gemini capsule.

Hubby loved the Cold War and Present Day Aircraft galleries, which were next on our agenda. I admit to looking around for a little, viewing a few little videos, and then finding a quiet chair in a corner where I dozed off. A docent woke me to ask if I was okay, and I was trying to be polite and not say, "I'm fine, just bored!" Not my cup of tea, I guess. When hubby was ready, we moved into Korean War and Vietnam War era galleries, where I got engrossed in one display about POW/MIA's. Somewhere in the displays was one about the Air Force equivalent of NCIS -- OSI, I believe it's called.

Finally we called it quits and tried to find the Presidential Aircraft hangars. Since we have military ID's, we would be allowed to drive over there ourselves. Well, I guess we went too late as the gate was closed. Disappointing! On the way to Huffman Field (Wright Bros test field), our truck began to act up, so we headed back to the motel instead. The truck settled back down, so we went back to Huffman a little later and did the 1-mile trek around the field.


Donna

[DonnaR57]

DAY 27:

We reluctantly left the Dayton area in the morning, but looking forward to seeing our family in Central Missouri that day. The truck, which had been acting up the day previous, decided to continue to do so. But only for the first 150 miles! Periodically, the battery icon would flicker a little bit and the battery gauge would jump between 12 and 15 amps. Then it would settle down, only to repeat the same thing about 10 miles later. We were getting concerned that we could have a battery problem, an alternator problem, or just an issue with the wiring. (Ford.) After 150 miles, everything settled and we drove on, hoping that we weren't causing a bigger problem.

This day's trip was all interstate. We had a nice breakfast at an IHOP in Terre Haute, IN (western side of IN), and then stopped in Warrenton MO for ice cream.

Fuel prices ... for diesel ... we had paid $3.49 in Fairborn, OH. We knew better than to fuel up in Illinois, so we picked up a load at the same price in Terre Haute. (Gasbuddy helped there!) Then we didn't get any until Kingdom City, MO, where the price was $3.35, which I believe is the cheapest on the trip so far!

Family was glad to see us, and vice versa. My granddaughter is getting so big, and almost crawling! This was a fairly long stop, allowing us time to get the truck serviced and that "oopsy" repaired, while I attended a professional conference and then babysit the granddaughter while daughter worked at a summer camp.

Something in my wireless settings has not allowed me to share photos for the last few weeks. Since I am now at a hard-wired situation, I was able to add more photos to the Eastbound! album. I will be uploading more as the time goes on. Here is the link to the start of the album (I hope).


Donna

(MS edit: When I get some time, I'll drop in some of your images into the previous posts - but probably not until Wed or Thurs)

[DonnaR57]

I got emailed, "what happened with your truck?"

In regards to the little incident in Philadelphia back a few weeks ago, we decided to file a claim with our insurance company and get it fixed while we were in Missouri. It now looks as good as new.

As far as the electrical problem is concerned: the alternator was showing signs of "being out of whack". Ford dealer determined that replacement was necessary, especially since we still had another few thousand miles of our trip before we got home. So the alternator was replaced. An oil change took place at the same time, and as long as it was in, we had the power lock on the passenger side door fixed. IT needed a new actuator (it would lock but not unlock with the power fob).

Thanks for asking!

Donna

[Kinless]

I had a free hour (for once) and decided to hop on RTA and check out some reports tonight. Of course I gravitate to yours since you're A) also from SoCal, B) doing quite a bit of a speed-run, C) getting highly annoyed at all the construction and traffic (hehe) and D) taking the exact same counter-clockwise routes around the U.S. that I would normally take. The same wavelength we're on is astounding.

Sounds like an amazing trip, minus the vehicle snafu(s). But it's kinda bound to happen on a trip of that magnitude. Sounds like you're keeping on top things in that arena.

Since I'm just catching up, I take it you're in Missouri with family right now, and plan to come home through Colorado, yes?

[DonnaR57]

Thanks for the kudos. Counterclockwise made sense for us, because of where we wanted to go and the need to be in central Missouri by a specific time frame for my conference. It's been an amazing trip.

So far, we're under budget for fuel -- big time. For overnights, we are slightly over budget, but not by very much. For food, we're right on, but only because I've chosen to cook in the motels more often this trip.

My conference was fabulous -- well worth going to! Besides the professional development, I ran into some old friends from college and got to catch up. Babysitting the granddaughter, another reason for the mid-Missouri stop, has been fun!

We'll be driving through Colorado, but not stopping. I finally talked hubby into seeing Arches, Capitol Reef and Canyonlands. Our first stop will be in western Kansas overnight, but then in Moab and perhaps in Escalante. Then on the way home, either in St George or at Mesquite (I've passed the Virgin River Resort and Casino many times since it was built, but we've never stayed there).


Donna

[shirohniichan]

I hope you're enjoying your trip through Utah. UT 12 is a beautiful drive.

If I were to give someone advice about how much time to allot: a full day if you are just a little bit interested in aviation history, two to three days if you are more than a little bit interested, and a full week if you are a thick fan of military aircraft!

I reckon I'd best plan for a full week!

[DonnaR57]

It occurred to me that I hadn't finished writing up our trip yet. During the final week on the road, our laptop decided IT wanted a vacation too and slowed down so much that I stopped using it. We've yet to get it looked at -- in good time.

Our first day departing Columbia, MO, was a full day of driving, about 569 miles. We didn't stop much except for breakfast at IHOP/Blue Springs MO, for fuel, and for restroom facilities. At the end of the day we found ourselves at our usual motel in Burlington, CO. That evening, we watched a severe thunderstorm hit eastern Colorado with a vengeance. Lightning lit up the sky, thunder crashed, the winds were so bad that they shook power lines and made the motel's electricity flicker, but no tornado was even threatened. Within 45 minutes, the rain continued but the winds were down and there was no more thunder or lightning.

The next day was our favorite drive -- I-70 between Denver CO and the time we left the freeway. We stopped a lot in the mountains, but not so much in the Glenwood Canyon area. We had made the decision to take UT-128 down to Moab. Leaving the freeway at exit 214, we found ourselves on a BLM road (we think) to the "townsite" of Cisco. What we saw of Cisco indicated that it was mostly deserted. We turned south on UT-128 and soon found ourselves following the Colorado River. This is not a road for the faint-hearted, especially if driving south towards Moab. The road is narrow and occasionally southbound travelers find themselves on the edge of the road, no guardrail, looking several hundred feet DOWN towards the Colorado River. Breathtakingly gorgeous, we loved the drive!

We stayed at the Apache Motel in Moab. It was reported to be the place where many actors such as John Wayne have stayed, while filming in the area. The motel has been renovated. It is clean, the folks that run it were friendly, there were amenities in the room such as refrigerators and microwave, our room had plenty of space, and the price was right. The pool was comfortable as well. I didn't test the wi-fi, since our laptop was dead, but it was available.

On the third day, we were up early and over at Arches to start the day. We drove, hiked, drove, and hiked some more. Since my laptop was down, I had not noted that there was no restaurant or cafe in the park, so we had to drive out and back to Moab for lunch. Then we were back in the park to do more driving and hiking. The camera was going all day.

When we felt we had seen enough of Arches, we moved on and drove over to Dead Horse Point State Park. At first, hubby was annoyed that we had to pay $10 to go to one view point: until he took at the Canyon. He made the comment that it was like looking at the Grand Canyon (which he'd been to), but it wasn't. He now understood why I wanted us to go to both Arches and DHP. (I had been to both, 30+ years ago.) Once again, the camera was going like gangbusters.

On the 4th day, we knew it was time to head home. We had decided, a few days earlier, to save Capitol Reef and UT-24/12 for another trip. (After all, we go down I-70 quite often.) We enjoyed driving through the San Rafael Swell and into St. George. Our original intention was to overnight in St George, then changed our plans and decided on Mesquite NV. However, it turned out that we would be arriving so early in the day, that we decided to push on to Primm, NV. One reason for that was to avoid Las Vegas rush hour on the following morning and still avoid Riverside/San Bernardino rush hour in the afternoon.

So we checked into Whiskey Pete's Casino Resort at Primm (State line between NV/CA) that day. It was amazing we were able to find our room, as we'd only been given rudimentary directions. The hallways in the north wing smelled like stale smoke, but our room was fresh and clean and didn't have that smell, so we were okay. No refrigerator, no microwave, but we figured we were almost home and the price of the room was "right". Then things started to go downhill.

The pool, which we'd been looking forward to swimming, was CLOSED. Nothing was said at check-in, we had to find out by ourselves. Then we found out that the only on-site restaurant was MC DONALD'S. The pool was a disappointment, but at least for food, the casino provides a free shuttle over to the other 2 casinos at Primm, and food was plenty to choose from over there. We ended up at the Primm Valley Buffet. Food was just okay. We walked the Primm Valley Outlet Center, where hubby bought me a fun tool at the Williams-Sonoma shop there. Went back, hubby did a little gambling, didn't win anything and didn't lose much.

We were both sound asleep at 1:40 am when there was an AWFUL, LOUD noise that woke us. Both of us tried to shut off the alarm clock, our cell phones, banged on the phone keys -- well, the noise was out in the hallway. Come to find out that the fire alarm was going off! NO ONE was running up and down the hallways yelling, there were no Security guards anywhere, and no smell of smoke (other than the stale smell in the hallways). Several of us walked down to the Registration Desk. They had NO idea that the alarms were going off. Security finally alerted them, but didn't find a cause, nor did the "engineers" that were supposedly checking it out. (I do not think there were such people checking it.) Come to find out that the stair well doors LOCKED automatically and some folks had trouble getting down from the 3rd floor, and the elevators stopped as well. UNSAFE! UNSAFE! UNSAFE! This hotel needs some serious work!

Neither of us really fell back into a deep sleep, so by 5:30 we were back up, by 7 we were on the road, and by noon we were home. And very happy to be home. Hubby took a two hour nap that day, and the day after we arrived home!

I still haven't figured statistics, but will post them when I do.

Donna

[DonnaR57]

It's taken me a few months to reckon with the expenses of the trip. With others planning long trips, though, and my husband bugging me to figure it out (so we can calculate WHEN we can take another long trip), I finally got around to completing the statistics!

Total miles added to our pickup truck = 8971.

Overnights = $1852.26. (Average=$84.19 for paid nights; highest was $104.85 in Portland, ME, and lowest was $43.51 in Dayton, OH. Oh, WDW's Pop Century was around $130/night.)

Fuel = $1808.88. This did not include fuel for the rental while in MO. Our lowest price per gallon was $3.35 in Kingdom City, MO, where our highest (other than home in CA at initial fill-up) was $3.89 in Primm, NV. This was for diesel. Our MPG was between 14 and 16, usually.

Restaurants = $1120.80. Does not include 4 meals at WDW (I can't find the bill right now)

Other food/snacks/drinks = $73.29.

Sightseeing =- $632.00. This includes 2 people for 4-day-park-hopper tickets at WDW (military special rate), 2 people at Universal 1 day-1 park, 2 people at Kennedy Space Center, National Park admissions, and 2 tickets to Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty. We prepaid some of these online or at our local base to get a better price.

Ice = $55.15. This surprised me. The price of keeping our stuff cold, I guess.

Tolls = $45.30, despite attempting to avoid tolls wherever possible.

Parking = UGH = $47.00 (Universal, Philadelphia, other)

Misc = $22.00 (laundry, etc)

Souvenirs = $218.60

Total normal expenses = $5875.28

Repairs = $1300.12 (included alternator, actuator, oil change, and the deductible to repair the broken headlamp and crunched corner of the truck from Philadelphia)

Total expenses = $7175.40


Trip reflections (written down several weeks after we got home):

* Good trip!
* Enjoyed Maine the best, would love to retire there but it's too far from our family.
* Liked the Florida parks, but we still are mad about the rain!
* Don't take the campstove and pots next time unless we really intend to camp out. Stick to the electric fry pan.
* Don't haul a lot of food stuff. Stick to the simple, it will lighten loads and keep us from the need to supply TWO coolers with ice.
* Plan around family and friends as it really gives us a nice break from sightseeing and the road, and allows us to keep in touch with those around. We really enjoyed this!


Donna

[Dave&Andria]

Thanks so much Donna. We have family living on Cape Cod and more in Florida. Our daughter and her family live in Queen Creek, AZ so we wanted to hit them up on the way back.

Dave