Yesterday Miss Terry finished installing the last of the new Levolor window blinds in our motorhome, and this last one came out just as beautifully as the others did! I am so lucky to be married to such a talented woman.
A few readers have written to ask if the blinds rattle going down the road. Since we haven’t been anywhere since Terry installed them, I can’t tell you for sure. But since they have attachments that are screwed to the wall that the bottom of the blinds slide into, they can’t move, so I don’t anticipate any noise from them.
It has gotten very warm here in Show Low, with temperatures in the low 90s predicted for the next few days. It’s even hotter down in the desert, where Phoenix is supposed to hit 110 on Sunday. Now that’s hot! People who live in the desert always say, “Yes, but it’s a dry heat.” Hey, it’s dry inside of an oven too, but I don’t want to live there either! I am a wimp when it comes to weather. I don’t like it too hot or too cold. Somewhere about 72 to 75 degrees is perfect for me.
We can tell its getting hot down in the desert, because the Elks campground is starting to fill up. There are a few RV sites left, and I hope there is at least one still available when our friends Greg and Jan White come through early next week. Greg called to tell me they want to stop and see us as they head south to Texas for their daughter’s wedding later in the month, and we’re really looking forward to seeing them again.
I have been studying my mapping programs, trying to decide which route we will take from the Thousand Trails preserve in Morgan Hill, California to Vail, Colorado in mid-July for Terry’s son’s wedding. Morgan Hill is just south of San Jose, and I don’t see any good direct route to Colorado. It looks like we will either have to go north to Interstate 80 and take it east to Utah, then drop down to Interstate 70, or else south to Interstate 15, by way of Bakersfield and Barstow, and then Interstate 15 northeast through Nevada and Utah to pick up Interstate 70. This won’t be a sightseeing trip, we just need to get from Point A to Point B, so if anybody is familiar with that part of the country, I’m open to suggestions.
I got a lot of positive responses to Thursday’s blog on Canyon de Chelly, and I wanted to share one more photo from our trip to the canyon. I showed you a close up view of Spider Rock in that blog, but here is a wide shot of that part of the canyon, with Spider Rock near the center. This place took my breath away.
Terry’s folks, Pete and Bess Weber, are going to be up here spending the weekend in their motorhome at the Hon-Dah RV Park, so between visiting with them and working on the new issue of the Gypsy Journal, I’ll be pretty busy. We only have a little over a week left here in Show Low before we hit the road, and a lot to get done before we leave.
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Nick Russell
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Nick, another possible way to get from Morgan Hill, CA to Vail, CO is to go up and catch I-80 east to Fernley, NV (just east of Reno). Then hop onto US-50 (“The Loneliest Road in America”) and take it east through Nevada and western Utah, before running into I-70 near Salina, UT. It’s a good 2-lane road, which I’ve taken a number of times when I had a motorhome I needed to get west over to Northern California.
True, there are some hills to climb, but nothing that your Winnie couldn’t handle. And at the higher elevations across there it wouldn’t be nearly as hot as going down to Bakersfield and back up through Las Vegas. I realize that you said this is going to be just a “Point A-to-Point B” trip with no lollygagging along the way, but at least you’d have more interesting scenery to look at, rather than the monotony of the Mojave Desert, and you do go through some interesting old West towns.
Wikipedia has an interesting article about Highway 50:
http://tinyurl.com/yobmp7
along with some links to other websites.
Rick
Nick, Rick’s suggestions are good. I lived in the Bay Area for over a decade and am familiar with most of the roads in that part of California. If you want to avoid Bay Area traffic, take US-101 south from Morgan Hill to Gilroy, then SR-152 over Pacheco Pass to I-5 north to US-50 in the Sacramento area. It’s a little bit farther, but a much more pleasant drive than fighting traffic, which can delay you for hours, not minutes. It’s almost always rush hour there now. You’ll also see a lot nicer scenery.
That’s the way we go also; we would never go through the Bay Area on purpose. We will miss you coming through Fresno though. We could show you a real ‘up front’ 4th of July experience at our daughters’ pyro event. Jell-O anyone?
We’re back!
Sharon’s route is the one to take for sure. Good climb over those hills, but easy enough for our old MH, a snap for you!
If I was doing that drive, and it was just an A to B, Sharon’s route, or I80 to Fernley, NV., are the ones to take. Patty and I just traveled over I80 from west to east, and it’s probably the fastest over the mountains, but, near the Nevada line, there are several miles of construction, and the E/B lanes are separated into individual lanes that are only 10-11 feet in width, with guardrail or concrete barriers on either side. Not a huge deal, but the lanes are so narrow, wide loads are prohibited. I wrote about the narrow lanes in my blog post on May 29th. Hwy 50 over the Sierra’s will be a little slower, but the scenery, particularly around Lake Tahoe will be awesome. Another possibility is Hwy 88, another all weather road with awesome scenery. The other mountain passes, highways 4, 108, and 120 through Yosemite are not year round roads, and definitely not suitable for a big motor home. Sharon’s advice about Bay Area traffic is also spot on.
Nick I agree the the trip on 15 thru lost wages and up to 70 is last choice – it is the way I trucked from Tehachapi when I brought the museum collection back and it was crazy hot and not that exciting. The trip from UT into CO and on to Vail on 70, while some steep grades, is one I want to go back and do as a tourist not just as a get from A to B sometime. If I remember right, there are a few tunnels that require that your LP be shut off at the tank. Al
I assume you’ve stayed at Morgan Hill before Nick and know what you are getting into. Disregard the rest of this rant if you know the place. We generally love TT Preserves but M.Hill is our least favorite. Their maintenance is abysmal and their power is at best flaky. About the only good thing we can say about the place is that it is reasonably close to San Francisco.
Hey Nick, I saw where you mentioned “mapping software” & was wondering if you had found one that was RV/High Profile specific? Streets & Trips works pretty well for us but a truckers atlas has been invaluable to us especially in New England. The roads are older, mountainous, & have numerous tunnels & train trestles. So fra no problems but a few scares. Keep writing & rolling & keep the dirty side down.
Frank & Mary M