Go West Ol' Man, Day 8, August 11

 Before leaving home, purchased a timed entry to Rocky Mountain National Park.  If you ever go, i would recommend you do that. makes it so much easy.  I also purchased an audio tour for this park and the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  I highly recommend you do that as well. Plan on spending a whole day and enjoy the wonders.  

That said dumping some photos here as many as the blogger will allow.  Since I drove, some of the pictures are from the driver's viewpoint so you might see the dash and / or the steering wheel.  

Drove a total of 150 mile but took all day as the speed limit is 35 mostly 

Go West Ol' Man - Day 17, August 22

We are home!  

Rolled out of Decatur, Iowa this morning from Ted's RV Park around 8:30 AM and pulled into the driveway right at 3:00 PM.  Picked up couple of breakfast sandwiches from Barnyard Restaurant and two slices of pie -one each of peanut butter and chocolate peanut butter pie (which is also called boil weevil pie down in Enterprise AL by the way)

I know we have driven up from Kansas to Minneapols via Iowa before, but really never noticed all the rolling hills that are in Iowa.  Maybe because I'm pulling the camper, but there are some pretty nice hills coming up I-35.

We carried a 4000 watt dual fuel Champion generator and run it on propane. Refilled the two tanks twice as it was so hot we had to run it overnight and it takes 2 tanks from the time we arrive to the time we leave.

I used the RV Trip planner and Harvest Hosts to help plan the trip.  Try to limit my driving to 300 miles a day and found the RV trip planner a good tool in helping me plan. 

Here is summary of what we did by the numbers:

States traveled in  - 10 total states - South Dakota, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri (we only drove through it while getting around Kansas City), Iowa, and Minnesota.

National Parks visited - 3  Badlands National Park, Rocky Moutain National Park,  Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Park

State Parks styas - 1 St. Vrain State Park in Colorado (2 nights)

Private Campgrounds - 3

Harvest Hosts - 7

Days of rain - had 4 miles of rain while driving in Oklahoma, 2 hours of overnight rain in Kansas.  20 minutes of rain while at RMNP, otherwise was very dry!

Days of heat over 100 degrees - 3 and hottest was 110 degrees in Oklahoma!

Highest elevation - 12,919 feet above sea level - Rocky Mountain National Park drive

Total Miles driven - 4105.5 miles 

Total Gallons of Gas - 336.02 gallons

Average Cost of Gas - $3.94 - we paid as high as $4.24 / gallon but did see it for over $5.00 gallon in Colorado.  Didn't buy it there for sure as Walmart down the road had it for $3.85.

Total Cost of Gas - $1324.28

Average mpg - 12.21 mpg

Last stop

Sunrise in Iowa

Breakfast with the boys 

HOME!

Go West Ol' Man - Day 16, August 21

 Last night on the road.  We are in Decatur Iowa tonight at Ted's RV Park just off I-35.  Little longer drive tomorrow, about 5 hours.  Had some rain last night around 3 AM for about 30 minutes and that has been the extent of the rain on the trip. 

The drive today was interesting  - going from very dry, almost desert, to dry prairie grass to green fields with crops.   We drove through three states today - Kansas, Missouri, and Iowa.

Not many pictures today just some of the RV park.  

I'll post a follow-up on the trip in a couple days.  

Ted's RV park!

Our campsite for the night - full hookup

Said bye to Llewellyn Distillery

Sunrise at the distillery

Go West Ol' Man - Day 15, August 20

After a couple quick stops to refill propane and pick up some crosants, we head north-east toward Kansas.  Actually saw some rain for about a 4 mile stretch but that's been it so far.

Tonight we are at another Harvest Host in the town of El Dorado, Kansas.  We are staying at the Llewellyn Distillery.  Did a tasting of different small batch burbon and whiskey with some tequila tossed in. 

The sampling table

the distillery

very smooth 

Herb giving us the low-down 

Riveted Rover

Former school now a distillery

Out door seating

Go West Ol' Man, Day 14, August 19

 And i thought yesterday was hot!   We hit 110 today here in Elgin OK.  We stopped at Mama Joe's bakery this morning before leaving and picked up some goodies. Couple of personal cherry pies, some frizeb soup (ahh too hot to cook in the camper and will have it later).  

Staying at Rising Eagle Brewery here in Elgin.  they have 21 beers and root beer on tap.  Their blonde, wit, bock, and pils were great (flight).  Dinner was salad for Deb and i got their smash burger.  Gus got a plain burger (two patties) with fries (for me and deb). He thought it was very tasty.

Go West Ol' Man - Day 13, August 18

 Whoooo baby it's hot out!  We are at Vega, Texas tonight staying at the Milburn Price Cultural Museum. It's a local museum that has artifacts from all the different folks that show the history of this community.  They had all kinds of things - everything from WW1 and WW2 uniforms and some  equipment.  When the fellow that purchased the building and started remodeling, he collected the dust that fell and after sifting it many times, has the dust that was here in this area.  He even has made dust globes, much like our snow globes. If he makes them again, we are going to order one.

That turbine blade weighs 26,000 pounds!  It's 125' long and cost $225,000! 

We are running on generator power this evening till it cools down some and then will switch to battery power.  Here are some pics from the museum and local soda shoppe. 

Gus and his buddy

A "wing" form a wind turbine

Spices at the local shoppe

Local soda shoppe and bakery

a kaleidoscope of me 

Inside the museum

Owner still drives the old ford

Home for the night

 

Go West Ol' Man - Day 12, August 17

 Said good bye to the land of enchantment - Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.  Most of the day was spent driving back east on I-40.  Got gas at one station that also had strangest sign in the restroom - "Do Not Wash Feet In Sink"   Never seen that before.  

We are staying at a place we stayed at in April 2023 on the trip out to Monument Valley.  Has not changed much.  Did a walk through the Wildlife park and then supper.  Storms were in the area and with the thunder, Gus was a bit nervous.  Didn't get much if any rain, but had some pretty rainbows.

We are boon-docking the next 4 nights (no hookups, all on our own power and water).  The Riveted Rover has enough power via solar and battery that we can watch TV, run the fans, cook and clean up.  

Tomorrow we head out to Vega, TX.  Weather shows it to be a warmer than here, will fire up the generator to enable the AC.

That's about it for the day.  Some pics from the road and the rainbow.

Home for the night

Wildlife Rescue Park

Rainbow during area storms

old school playground at Sun Valley