Our drive today should have been about 5 hours, one of our longest. We should have arrived around 3PM but we had two mishaps and didn't arrive until around 7:45PM. Right after we left New Frontier RV Park in Winnemucca and got down the freeway about 3 miles Barry said something felt wrong with towing the jeep. We pulled over on the freeway (not fun) and he went to check the Brake Buddy in the jeep. Everytime a big mac truck went by, the RV shook like crazy. Barry messed with the Brake Buddy for about 30 minutes trying to get it to work. The problem was the jeep was braking on her own so causing drag on the RV. Not something you want while towing a vehicle….imagine that!
He ended up removing the brake buddy and decided to put a call into Uncle Richard and see if he had similar trouble in the past. No answer so Barry left a message. We purchased our RV and jeep from Uncle Richard which has been great because we have been able to consult with him many times. We ended up stopping at a rest stop not too far down the freeway. Barry messed with the brake buddy for about another 30 minutes and we tried all kinds of things but no luck. He ended up calling Brake Buddy’s tech support and after about 30 minutes the result was, wait for it - GET A NEW BRAKE BUDDY. After all, the one we have is 20 years old and the parts are becoming obsolete. OK so much for the first mishap.
We got back on the road and headed for SLC. We hit numerous construction zone areas again like our drive to Winnemucca. Thank goodness these orange cones were not 2 feet into our lane. We had a lot more room but it still stressed Barry out and me too. This road from Winnemucca to SLC is all semi trucks. There are about 10 semis to every car. It’s crazy and these trucks can haul 3 trailers, not like California where only 2 trailers are allowed.
It’s crazy to think all this work is going on to improve the I-80 across the country and we can’t even get I-580 repaved in California. I think I’m going to contact one of our Senators about this. Wish me luck.
The I-80 goes along the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and you could see cars out there messing around and people standing about. It is totally white. The salt flats go on for miles. I think that was the highlight of this drive. It really is a site to see.
I bet by now you're wondering what happened to the second mishap? Well...we ended up getting lost when we took the off ramp to head to the KOA campground in Salt Lake City. We ended up by the airport. We pulled off the side of a road and remapped our GPS. We needed to go down the road about a half mile so we could turn around and head back the opposite direction. Instead of doing that, Barry decided to do a MAJOR ILLEGAL U TURN! I was totally shocked. If you know my husband this is not like him. I think my jaw dropped to the floor. Anyway it worked and we finally made it to the KOA.
Barry took our bikes off the bike rack and we put them in the motor home. We headed to Wasatch Brewery in the Sugar House area of Salt Lake City. Apparently it’s a new up and coming trendy area. A recommendation by one of the KOA attendants. We were seated and I ordered a pilsner but of course they were out. We ordered food a little later and I asked if the flautas I ordered had iceberg lettuce. If you know me well you know I’m allergic to it. The waiter said he wasn’t sure and I asked him to make sure there was not any on it. I also let him know I was allergic to it. You know what’s coming next right…..my flautas were covered in iceberg lettuce. The waiter was very apologetic and took it away and said he would remove it from our bill. No hesitation at all. That was nice but when he finally brought it back it wasn’t even warm but I was so hungry I ate some of it. We took the rest home.
On the way back we both agreed that we would MAKE the next day a better one. Due to us getting into SLC really late and not eating until after 9PM we didn’t get to walk the camp ground and count jeeps. I do know there were 4 in our street. Kinda missed doing that.
Our next leg is from SLC to Rawlins, Wyoming. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Oh, what a crazy first few days but you have seen some beautiful country!
ReplyDelete