Tag: North Platte

Finally made it to Death Valley

We left North Platte on Friday,29 October. We stayed at the KOA in Rawlins, a nice spot, then got to the Salt Lake City KOA late morning on Saturday. We were able to meet up with friends, ate well, but only had the two little kids camped next to us a Trick or Treaters. I gave an entire bag of candy to one of my friends to take into work! We stayed until Tuesday morning, the headed on our way. We spent the night at the Eureka Casino in Mesquite, NV. Very quiet, but we sure had to pull out the leveling blocks!

After we left Mesquite, we started getting check engine lights on the motorhome. The error was low manifold pressure, so we called to Freightliner in Las Vegas to check it out. Turns out a hose had developed a crack and needed replaced. Since it was a formed hose, it had to be ordered from the warehouse in Phoenix. They let us stay overnight next to their lot, and then replaced the hose the next morning. $45 hose, $40 shipping, and the rest of the $600+ bill was labor. Sigh. This is the first non-routine issue we have had in 3 1/2 years and almost 40,000 miles, so I won’t complain too much. Still, it was too bad this didn’t happen at home with $95/hour labor rates instead of the $175/hour in Vegas.

We finally got set up at Death Valley, and we lucked into our favorite site! It is on the east side of the lot with nothing between us and the mountains except a small road. My camera was dead, so I hope you can stand these iPhone photos.

Timbisha Shoshone settlement and headquarters on the left and part of the staff housing for Furnace Creek on the right.
Rather flat light, but the color contrast is still interesting
The mountains at sunset looking a bit south
Mountains at sunset looking a bit north

I can look at those mountains all day! We haven’t had a lot of chance though because Kevin discovered the base plate on the Jeep was loose. This is what attached to the tow bars to tow the Jeep, so loose is a danger! The closest place was Vegas again, this time Indoor RV Center. They came recommended, and so far is seems valid. They saw us on Friday to evaluate and quote the repairs, then on Monday Kevin drove back to get the repair completed. It would have been completed then, but we have discovered the idiots who originally installed it didn’t follow the directions or use the right parts! I am livid. We had to have a complete new baseplate installed plus extra labor to drill out or cut off a bunch of bolts put in wrong. It was so much work that we had to come back today too! Since northern Vegas is a bit over 2 hours from Death Valley, that is an awful lot of driving. We don’t know the final bill, but it will be north of $1500. The shop rate here is even worse than the Freightliner dealer – $189. They do seem to know what they are doing though, and a base plate is a critical piece of safety equipment. We just can’t stand to have an issue with it, and better here than Canada or Alaska next summer!

We have yet to attend a single 49ers activity, but we will start this evening if we get back in time. And we have the funds to pay the bills since we knew this day would come. Hopefully my next post will be much more positive.

On the road again!

Finally! I had my last PT on Monday morning followed by my last orthopedist appointment. I am officially released. I am still not recuperated completely though, and I will need to work on strengthening the unused muscles a lot more. I still get store and stiff, and I have trouble sleeping in the bed, but we are out traveling!

We left on Tuesday afternoon, hoping to beat the “Bomb Cyclone” leftovers headed for the Midwest. We made it to the Cabela’s just south of Omaha Monday night and stayed in their parking lot. A bit noisy, but better than a Walmart. We left early, still trying to get as far ahead of the forecast winds as we could manage. We only made it to North Platte, NE where we have been stuck for 3 nights. Luckily the campground, Holiday RV Park is a reasonable place to stay. They still have water on, and it is nice to have access to electric heat. We had lunch one day at a great place downtown – Good Life on the Bricks. It was mostly a BBQ place, and we both enjoyed it. We also ate at Sonic one night – green chili hamburger!

Here’s a picture of winds that came through. See how narrow the frontal boundary is? And it was right on top of us. There was over an inch of rain dropped, but it was accompanied by hail, thunder, and lots of lightening in addition to 50+ mph gusts. The MH definitely rocked and rolled. The campground has been filling up the last 2 days with other work refugees. Luckily Friday is looking good, and we intend on heading out early in the morning,

Wind forecast. Gusts were much worse.
Rain forecast. The pink is for wind warnings.

While we are stuck in North Platte, we got groceries and wandered around some. There was one older house that had gone all out for Halloween.

Combo of plastic and carved pumpkins
Lots of inflatables

But the one that caught my eye is the house with tan siding next door. This was their sign:

Why compete?

The cats have adjusted pretty well. Luna is still her cuddly self. Minnie hides more so no picture. Minnie is actually on anti-anxiety meds, and they are helping. She probably will always be easy to spook, but it doesn’t seem like she lives in terror of everything. Poor baby!

Don’t leave me!

Kevin went to Golden Spike Tower, a railway museum. North Platte is home to a HUGE rail yard, and he said there were lots of various locomotives on view. I stayed back and got a bit of sewing done. I always like having some bowl cozies around as gifts, and I was completely out. I now have two available if I need them. I used my new edge stitch foot and my roller foot, two feet I bought this summer during Bernina’s 25% off sale. The vintage 830 Record machine I have in the MH doesn’t use the same feet the other Bernina does, so I have been adding to the nice selection that it came with.

Speaking of sewing machines, I almost forgot the lovely vintage 730 Record I picked up a month or so back. I wanted a backup machine, and this was sold by a Bernina store in Minnesota. We drove up, and it was in perfect shape. I should have gotten pictures, but I was so sore when we got back I forgot to take any. Lovely machine, heavy, perfect stitch, all the original accessories, all tucked into a cool green suitcase.

We are leaving here tomorrow morning heading to Rawlings, WY. Hopefully we will make it to Salt Lake on Saturday early enough to see some trick or treaters in the KOA campground. I was told the Mormon Church, pretty strong in the area obviously, had decreed Saturday was Trick or Treat Day so everyone can concentrate on church on Sunday. Sigh. I figure we will be ready both Saturday and Sunday. I am hoping to do some banking, connect with some friends, and do some shopping before we head to Death Valley on Tuesday.

ETA I fixed the typos! I have to improve my proof reading skills.

A change of plans

We headed out of Iowa a little after 9:00 am, planning on going to Oklahoma. Then we saw a huge flock of pelicans in Nebraska. When I say huge, it was at least 1000 birds, some wheeling in the air and even more on the ground. Amazing! I remembered how I had been in the middle of the great bird migration in early March almost 5 years ago while on I-80 in Nebraska. Ummm. It was almost March. Was it possible the migration was starting early? There is a bubble of deliciously warm air over the Great Plains, so we turned north to I-80 instead of Oklahoma. We aren’t in the middle of the main migration, but we did see a lot of birds. Take a look at this picture. All that almost solid white are birds completely covering a borrow pit along the side of the highway.

As usual, it isn’t the best of pictures, but it shows how thick the geese were. These were mostly Snow Geese with a few other geese and even some ducks stuck in the middle of them. During the main migration, this kind of scene occurs in fields and ponds for well over 100 miles. Sadly we only saw the geese and ducks, no sandhill cranes.

We are spending the night in North Platte, Nebraska at Holiday RV Park. Definitely some traffic noise, but it is convenient and pretty cheap for electric, wifi, and cable. Central water, and there is a sewer hookup we don’t need yet. Normally they are full hookups (we have stayed here a few times before), but they are leaving the water off for the season. Since today’s high temperature was in the 70’s, it doesn’t seem reasonable, but it is still February. From here we plan on heading to Colorado, probably Loveland. I’d like to see Rocky Mountain National Park in the winter, but I sure don’t want to camp there. Lowland camping with electricity and cable sounds a lot more enjoyable. Then again, we may change our minds!

Oh, and I have picked up a rotten head cold. I am coughing a lot, and I have a sore throats from the drainage. Ugh.