Utah – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Today we were on the road by 6:30 AM. to leave Moab and head to Chapman, Kansas. This is the first of our two days to get back home. The skies were beautiful as we headed out of town.

Our drive has been uneventful today. We didn’t have any traffic delays, issues on the road or with the RV! Whew!

When we hit the mountains of Colorado the temperature fell from 90 degrees to 54 degrees! Our gas mileage wasn’t very good when we were driving in the mountains.

Our route took us through Fruita, Colorado which had several roundabouts. The town has added sculptures to the roundabouts that we drove through.

For awhile I-70 was parallel to the Colorado River.

We passed several ski resorts. One was Vail.

We also drove by Copper Mountain Ski Resort.

Bridal Veil Falls is near downtown Idaho Springs, Colorado. The falls spills out of Soda Creek and then flows into Clear Creek.

Our granddaughter did a FaceTime call with us! That was the highlight of the day!

Near Evergreen, Colorado we saw rafters on Clear Creek which runs along the freeway!

Our overnight was at Chapman Creek RV Park in Kansas and was located just off of I-70 which was perfect for us.

Day 26

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

We left Chapman, Kansas a little after 7:00 AM and our destination is home! The last day of our trip and it was raining. This was the only day where we had to drive through rain.

Late morning we got ahead of the rain and the sun was shining!

Our drive was going smoothly until a car motioned for Dave to pull over. Our tow dolly was smoking near the tires. Thank goodness a driver let us know before we had a fire! We sat for a little over an hour to let the wheel bearings cool down. But it turns out the issue wasn’t with the bearings but with the emergency brake that got triggered. We believe that happened because of all the bouncing on the freeway. Every time we stopped for gas, we checked the emergency brake on the tow dolly.

The rest of our drive was uneventful and there wasn’t much to see in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio. Our travels for the last 26 days have taken us to places in the United States that we have never visited and were overwhelmed by the beauty of our country. We put over 2,000 miles on the Prius, and over 9,000 miles on the RV. It was a trip to remember!

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” -Oliver Wendell Holmes

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

We were on the road by 6:30 AM and Chris and Skyah got up to see us off. It was so good to visit with him and see the area.

We needed to be on the road early because of that complete closure on route 50. It was only going to be open to one-way traffic from 6:30 to 8:30 AM. It takes about 30 minutes to get to that route from Chris’ home. Thank goodness we made it in time because it won’t open again to one-way traffic at 12:30 PM-1:30 PM. The workers are fixing rock slides and improving the road.

We lost about 45 minutes because of the slow traffic and narrow lanes. Of course this was so much better than taking the detour which was narrow and full of switchbacks!

Some of the scenery as we drove along Rte. 50 toward Grand Junction, Colorado.

We left Colorado and entered Utah. The speed limit jumped to 80 mph and almost all of the vehicles were going that speed or even faster!

Our next stop was at the Ghost Rock view area. It was a chance to stretch, use the restroom, check the car, and look at the view! We have better pictures from our camera but we left the adapter at home to download from the camera so it will be a real treat to see all of those pictures when we get home again. So all of the pictures on this trip are from our phones. It’s great that the cameras in the phone very good except for zooming in close!

We continue to drive along I-70 W and the scenery was changing as we drove along.

We drove by the San Rafael Reef View Area. The harsh elements from eons ago created this “swell” in the surface of the earth. It has been eroded and the sandstone shows different colors. The wind and water created these incredible formations! You see buttes, canyons, pinnacles and mesas! Wow!

This is like a broken record but we were in awe of the beauty of our country. It was good for our souls after a year of being home, except for our RV adventure up into Michigan in the fall. The wide-open spaces here we come!

Along I-70, near Orangeville, UT and the stupendous rock formations!

We passed Butch Cassidy’s boyhood home off of US-89. It was comparable in size to the “tiny homes” or “she shed”! He was raised in this remote cabin in Utah. Butch Cassidy, was born as Robert Leroy Parker in 1866 and he was the oldest of 13 children. You can read more about his life online.

We were so excited when our granddaughter did a FaceTime call (well, actually, her dad made the call). It was perfect because we had the chance to talk with her before we got to our campground and we didn’t have cell service. We know it’s great to disconnect, but when it’s your grandkids calling, you are thrilled to take the call!

Around 5:00 PM we made it to our campground, set up camp and walked around the area. The view from our RV was magnificent and there were some friendly horses on the site.