Day 57 August 24, End of Trail

This was another fantastic journey as we traveled across the USA for 57 days and 7,500 miles. As you have seen and read we stopped at several interesting places that we had not been to before. The highlight of this trip was the time we spent in the Redwood National and State Parks in northern California. We were there 30 years ago for one day and this time we had the opportunity to really explore the area. Our trek across Oregon was another highlight with unique landscape and great state roads to travel on. It was very remote with small towns and very friendly people. Each of the sites we wanted to visit were long distances from where we camped and well worth the visit. We attended four Cardinal RV Club rallies along the way and thoroughly enjoyed the friendship, sharing of each other’s travels and of course the pot luck dinners. Our last stop and Rally was Frankenmuth, MI, we have been there a few other time and enjoy the small German town and shopping especially Bronners Christmas Store which is billed as the largest Christmas store in the world.  On this journey we were blessed with safe travels good weather and wonderful memories. We are also happy to be home with our friends, church and family and on August 26, 2015 Karen and I will celebrate our 50^th anniversary. 

Day 47

Our rally ended today and what a great week. Included was a breakfast every day and dinners Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There were vendors selling items at great prices and daily drawings at several of the booths. Karen and I won a rear camera system for the 5^th wheel valued at $500.00 and a 30’ 50 amp power cord valued at $150.00. We were to provide a list of five items we would like to have done on our 5^th wheel, these were done at no cost to the owner.  We had some welding of frame supports, new suspension springs, entrance grab bar, entrance light fixture and a replacement spring door handle, the estimated savings to us was about $800.00. In addition to that we had a week of meeting new people and enjoying wonderful fellowship with our friends. 

Day 36 & 37

Yesterday we traveled a long 424 miles to Utica, IL.

No travel today, just slept in a bit and relaxed. We had the truck oil changed. That’s it for today and tomorrow we travel about 180 miles to Goshen, IN to a Forest River international rally. We have some work that needs done on the camper and during the rally Forest River brings in hundreds of technicians to do free repairs on their products. There are about 750 campers registered. We will be there until Wed Aug 18 then move to Frankenmuth, MI for another rally. We should be home late afternoon on Aug 24.

Day 35

Well we are now 295 miles closer to home and after a good travel day we had this sunset to complete another day.

Day 34

Drive, drive, drive 319 miles to Ogallala, NE. Nice day but temps got to 97. We set up then headed for diesel and of course Walmart. We will be driving two straight days to Greenwood, NE then Utica, IL for two days and visit Starved Rock State Park.

Day 33

We had another nice travel day as we headed north out of Utah to Rawlins, WY. We traveled on HWY 191 for about 100 miles on a fairly good road and beautiful country from desert to green forest to the high planes of Wyoming. Along the way we went through the Flaming Gorge area and across the dam. The first wildlife we have seen were Prong Horn Sheep in the meadow then at the campground two deer were hanging out under a shade tree next to the playground and on the Put-Put course. They did not mind us being here.

Day 32

Dinosaur National Monument was the plan for today. The park is in both Utah and Colorado and we chose Utah to visit the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall which we enjoyed seeing the dinosaur bones in the positions they were found. The more you looked the more you discovered and enclosed in an exhibit hall to protect them from vandals. Then we took the 12 mile Auto Tour of the Tilted Rocks road. We were out about 2 ½ hours stopping, reading and enjoying this diverse landscape. Near the end of the paved road it turned to a one mile gravel road ending at the Josie Morris Cabin where we took a short hike into a box canyon. Josie’s story is fascinating and Karen will include it in her scrap book.

Turtle Rock

More Petroglyphs

Box Canyon

Did not see much wildlife so we included this one

Josie Morris Cabin

Tilted Rocks

Green River

Fascinating Rock!

Day 31

What a perfect day with cooler temps, sun and beautiful Utah. The journey went from little vegetation to a valley and canyon full of green trees and rivers then to orange/tan rocks. After setting up camp we took a short excursion to Native American Petroglyphs in Dry Fork Canyon. We took a rugged hike up to the trail along the petroglyphs from about 1 – 1200 A.D.

From a rest area

The original painting was done in 1898 in memory of  the blowing up of The American battleship The Maine in the Havana Harbor

This is the wall the flag is on in the center of the picture

Registering and donation for the petroglyphs 

No petroglyphs just like the view! 

Love this series of Karen climbing up! 

Day 30

We went for a long walk after breakfast and Wal-Mart just happened to be part of the walk. Resting and enjoying the comfortable 70s weather was the schedule for today. Our friends Mike and Susanna pulled in next to us and we had a great visit then went out for dinner with them.

Day 29

When we got up this morning it was 75° and clear skies and we headed for Promontory Summit, Utah and The golden Spike National Historic Site. We drove in very high winds and the sky turned gray and it was 53° and rain. Oh well, we watched each of the trains move into place. They only have one engineer so he brought in the first train then went back to the engine house brought the other one to the site. It was still raining when we got back to camp so we did laundry, well I helped carry it. The skies cleared and temps went back into the 70s so we took a drive into Brigham.

Our Campsite

Brigham Courthouse