The Home Stretch

 On Tuesday, I got to Cisco, Utah and my next Harvest Host several hours past my plan, due to the damn snowstorm, which set me back hours, plus some extra stops for viewing the landscape, lowering my shoulders from my ears, stretching my fingers, and shaking off the damn snowstorm. 

Cisco wasn't too far from the border with Colorado. A little high-desert action made me think of my NM home.

Buzzards Belly General Store was a funky stop. It is in a ghost town, which was founded in the 1880s but became ghosty in the late 20th century. It was bought by an individual in 2015, and even then was a heyday compared to now.  Here's more about Cisco. 

In any case, the parking spot was out of the way and felt safe and quiet, except for the wind. But I was so tired I didn't even notice it, nor the supposed trains that were to rumble by during the night. 

Cute little barking prairie dog!

I woke up the next morning and was the first of the four RVs that stayed at Buzzards Belly to hit the road. 

Not much to say about my drive through Utah and some of Nevada, except to say that Utah is freakin' beautiful. 

I have already started planning a trip back that way. I'd love to visit Zion and Bryce National Parks, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It's a trip we did as a family when the kids were tots. It is such a beautiful part of the planet. Plus, there are other national parks up there too to explore! I gotta go back. 

While I was pondering that road trip, I suddenly reached Moapa, Nevada. I met the kind host, who brought a fire ring to my spot, along with firewood and starters. So nice!

I popped a beer and read outside and blogged inside when I finally got wise to ask about wifi. 

This spot was a Boondockers Welcome, just another dirt lot at someone's house, and you can't beat free-fifty-free as the price. In the end, I just wasn't up to making a fire. So I stayed in and tapped on my computer and let the wind blow outside. 

I slept pretty well until about 1:30am, when the wind really started whipping up. Poppy was a-rockin'. I suddenly realized that I had left my camp chair outside and jumped up, hoping that it had not blown across the high desert. It was just toppled over, thank goodness. 

And then, the next day: the actual home stretch! It was to be one of my longest (planned) driving days, about 6.5 hours home, but half of that was on a familiar route. Not much to talk about except traffic through Las Vegas and cheap gas at Costco in Santa Clarita. No snow. No wind. Just road. 

A few hours and a few hundred miles brought me home. Hugs and kitty cuddles greeted me.

The Statistics

Leg Three Stats:

• 3106 miles
• 57 hours of driving
• Avg. 16.2 mpg (according to Poppy)

Leg Two Stats:

• 2891 miles
• 62 hours of driving
• Avg. 15.9 mpg (according to Poppy)

Leg One Stats:

• 3,566 miles
• ~ 74 hours of driving
• 15.7 miles per gallon (according to Poppy)

Total Stats:

• 46 days
• 9,563 miles
• 193 hours of driving
• 15.9 mpg (according to Poppy)
• 15.486 mpg (according to my handwritten documentation)

45 nights

• 12 - Harvest Hosts
• 9 -  Friends' and family's beds (inside)
• 8 -  "Moochdocking" at friends (outside)
• 7 -  Boondockers Welcome
• 2 -  Meetup location
• 2 -  National Park
• 1 -  State Park
• 1 -  Walmart
• 1 -  Cracker Barrel
• 1 -  Hotel (parking lot)
• 1 -  Hotel (inside)

States traveled

26

Let's Do Weather!

Now that we were west of the Mississippi, there were a couple of harrowing days on the road. Not terribly dangerous, don’t fret. But wheel-gripping, what-am-I-doing-here days.

Wind-blown Kansas

Claudia and I had a restful Sunday night in Dorothy's Backyard – a literal backyard driveway, off an alley in Hays, Kansas.

I woke up and checked the news and found this in the News top headlines:

Headline: “Severe storms, including ‘intense tornadoes’ threaten 40 million this week.”

Ummmm….. I didn’t want us to be two of the 40 million, and as those tornadoes were possible in Kansas in the afternoon, I thought it prudent to get out of Dodge – errrrr, Hays – posthaste.

Gripping the wheel, with dark clouds on the western horizon, we set out. I was hoping we wouldn’t be flying from Dorothy’s backyard to Denver. I definitely didn't want to meet any evil witches on bicycles.

It was windy. Very windy. 

When I came back from the restroom at a rest area, Claudia told me the case for my reading glasses was somewhere on the plains of Kansas. It had flown out and was gone forever. Poppy was shuddering in the wind as we sat there, and the signs were shaking like crazy. 

I didn’t want to look at the windspeed numbers because I thought I’d be a-scared to keep going. 

So we kept going.

I stayed relaxed and confident, though. I just slowed Poppy down, kept a firm grip, and stayed relaxed. We made minimal stops, and soon enough the sky was clearing to blue and the wind eased up a little. We made it to Denver in very good time. And we didn’t fly!

Despite the wind, we enjoyed the Kansas landscape. It wasn’t quite as flat and boring as I had imagined – and remembered. But maybe it's cuz we were jibber-jabbering the whole way. We had lots of time to chat. 

Perfect place for a wind farm! And there were plenty.

Blue skies! No tornadoes! 

After I dropped Claudia at the Denver airport, I found a McDonald’s and sat in their parking lot with their wi-fi. I blogged and got nearly caught up!

Ready to blog with a Dr. Pepper float.

I made the short rest of the way to my next spot, a Boondockers Welcome in Lakewood, CO. It was just a driveway at a nice someone’s house, but it was quiet and safe. And free! 

It was a restful night. I'm slapping myself for not getting a pic of Poppy there. Imagine Poppy here:

Springtime in the Rockies

When I had set out Tuesday morning, I thought my biggest challenge of the day would be Poppy having to rev up those big hills. In my mind’s eye, the sky was clear and the road was dry.

But then it started snowing.

A smarter traveler may have checked the weather forecast before setting out from Denver. A wiser traveler may have pulled off at the earliest opportunity (but there weren’t many) and formulated Plan B. 

This traveler, however, forged ahead.

“Just keep it slow,” she said.

“I’ve driven in worse,” she said.

"Poppy is a heavy, trusty beast," she said.


“Keep breathing,” she said.

“Don’t brake suddenly,” she said.

“Remember to turn into the slide,” she said. 

“Hold her steady!” she said.

And she did.

The Vail Pass is over 10,000 feet in elevation. And snow is not fun up and down those grades. I just kept Poppy in low gear and tried to stay “sandwiched” between friends. Following in another slow RV’s footsteps, ...errrr wheel tracks, comforted me. And having another slow vehicle behind me, I knew I had help if something happened.

The snow accumulated to mostly just slushy mush, and it was very slow going. Poppy was one of the slowest vehicles on the road, and that was mighty fine with me. 

Indeed I had driven in worse, though it had been decades since I had driven in snow. I remained calm and steady, and we only slip-slid one brief time. And yes, I remembered to steer into the slide. 

Many times, I asked myself, “What the hell are you doing here?” Yet there I was. There was no turning back.

I didn't see any wrecks, and many vehicles were driving confidently and quicker than me and Poppy for much of the time. So that also comforted me. I only saw one vehicle off the road, on the other side, that was getting picked up by a tow truck. 

I didn't watch the time or my speed, but I think I drove about 85 miles in about 3 hours.

I did keep my eye on the temperature, and sure enough when we started descending, the temp started climbing, and the snow stopped sticking to the road. Whew! Made it!

When I reached the bottom, I noticed the eastbound lanes were closed. Traffic was at a standstill. “Thank goodness that’s not me!” That night, I saw the news that the pass was closed, first for the eastbound lanes, and later, in both directions. I guess I was lucky that I got on the road as early as I did. 

Once I reached the non-sticking part of the road, I was able to take my eye off the tracks in front of me and enjoy the beauty of the mountains in snow. As soon as I could, I stopped at a rest area to unclench my shoulders. 

I knocked the ice off of dear Poppy and took some photos and video.

Once we were down to the high desert, it was again very windy, but by then I just didn’t give a sh*t. I had done it all. Bring it on!

Yes, Mom, I must remember that I have a cozy den, and pulling off for the night would not be the worst thing to happen. Next time, perhaps the traveler will be wiser. But at least now, she is more experienced. 

Adventure Day!

Claudia and I had a quiet and restful night at Aunt Jody's Farmhouse, and after a cuppa, a little breakfast, and some birdwatching, we set out again!

It was to be an easy drive to Hays, Kansas. We left about 9:40 a.m., and we figured it would be a quick five and a half hours’ drive, maybe seven hours with stops, to Dorothy’s Backyard in Hays. 

While looking at the route, however, I noticed that Concordia, where my dad was born and spent his youth, was right on I-70. I asked Claudia if it was ok to stop. Of course, what else do we have to do?

When we reached Concordia, though, it was Concordia, Missouri that was right on the freeway. Concordia, Kansas (named after Concordia, Missouri, we later learned), was several miles north of the freeway. Still, we decided to make the trek, because maybe I would never be through here again.  

As she looked at the route, she offhandedly said, “Not much else out there. Just the world’s largest ball of twine.”

Echos of my last conversation with Kevin!

****send me a picture of the biggest ball of string-string-string****



“WHAT DID YOU SAY?! We have to go!”

Claudia quickly added it to the GPS.

As we drove along, I got to thinking. 

“Isn’t the geographic center of the United States somewhere in Kansas?”



“Let me look it up,” the First Mate replied. “Yep, and it’s not too far from the biggest ball of twine.”

We must go. 

When I planned this leg, I figured I would just zoom "down the middle of the country" to make it home in good time. I must truly find the middle!

With three stops on the list, we pulled off I-70, which had been so good to us, and drove the country roads. A little north, a little west, and a little more north, and we were in Concordia!

First, a stop at DQ! 

Then a little internet sleuthing, and found the church.

It was a guess that this was my grandfather’s church for which he was pastor in the 1920s between the family's residence in Wagon Mound, New Mexico and Dayton, Ohio through the 1910s, '20s, and '30s. 

I learned that the United Brethren Church, Rev. Bernard Cleveland Eutsler's church, merged with the Methodist church at some point, and was after called Trinity Methodist Church. This church right on the main street and just a block from DQ, seemed like it must be it!

You can see older brick next to newer construction. 

The back of the church. Older construction vs. new is clearly delineated 

Standing in front of the newer portion of the building

Pretty stained glass

 

A later sleuthing session found this. It's definitely the same church!

From an ebay listing of a postcard.

Remodeled, but there it is!

We learned that Concordia is also home to the Orphan Train Museum. Did you know about the Orphan Train? We hadn’t. By the sound of it, it was a positive for many children, and also had a dark side. Being Sunday, the museum was closed. And it’s just as well, because we had more sights to see!

There were several statues of children who had ridden the Orphan Train.

Orphans from the train.

Concordia is also home to the Brown Grand Opera House, which we drove past. 

It is a cute town. Here are a few more sights:

Lovely Post Office

Sculpture outside the post office

Onward! To to the Center of the Universe Geographic Center of the United States. 

Feel the vibes!

Poppy made it to the middle!

We turned back down the lovely road:

And 10 minutes later, the Mother of all Roadside Attractions!  

It was reality! Kevin was surprised when I sent the pic!

Bucket List: ✅

Once again, down the beautiful country roads of Kansas! We zipped the last 90 minutes to Hays and hoped to catch some dinner before they rolled up the sidewalks.

We finally pulled into Hays over 10 hours after launch! It was quite the Adventure Day! We made it to Gella's in time for a good meal and a tasty brew! 

I loved the wall sculpture inside. Fitting for our day's journey.

Kansas is the Sunflower State!