Day Two: Elko, NV to Laramie, WY

Whew, yesterday was a long day! We started driving at about 5 am from Elko, NV and arrived in Laramie, WY at about 7:30 pm last night. That was a long day! But we put 650 miles behind us and were over the halfway point to Kentucky. Which means we can take it a little easier, since we don't need to be in KY until Thursday. I have to say, Nevada is a nice state to drive through. Beautiful mountains and some variety. And Utah is nice too because of the variety and the smallness of the state compared to NV and WY. But I don't care for the Great Salt Lake. We stopped for a break and ran the dogs out to the water's edge. Yuck! Mud and dead birds the whole way out there. It made for a nice break but it is gross. Salt Lake City looks nice from I-80 though and the climb out of the city is beautiful. It was so funny because we stopped to fuel up about 20 miles outside of the city and as we were pulling out a European flagged us down for a picture. He was so mind-boggled by the size of our rig, he had never seen anything like it and compared it to a dormitory!
And then we drove on into Wyoming. I thought of certain old cowboys when we crossed the border and the first twenty miles or so were pretty decent. But then we got into central WY and I was suddenly able to understand why it is the least populated state. Rolling, sage brush covered hills. No mountains, no trees, no livestock. Only the occasional antelope, prairie dog, or an itty-bitty trailer town to break up the monotany until we got about 80 miles outside of Laramie. Then we went above 7,000 feet and were in mountains again. Not many trees, but no more sage brush either! It felt good to stop for the night at a campground with full hookups so that we could shower and run the heaters.
Today, we left Laramie mid-morningish to head into Nebraska. The climb out of Laramie is beautiful for about 30 miles. The mountains are over 8,000 feet and there are trees and everything! A very nice change from the rest of Wyoming. We hit the plains about 45 minutes ago. Nice and green but Joe had a difficult time reconciling himself to the lack of trees. Oh well, the Platte River can't be that far away...:)

On the Road Again!

Well, summer is officially here for Joe and I! I had my last final Friday morning and am very excited to have a couple of months to relax! In fact, we are on the road again! Except this time instead of making our way through California we are heading to Kentucky and back! We left Redding at 10:00 this morning and made it to Elko, Nevada at 8:30 this evening. I never thought I would say it, but Nevada is a beautiful state when you are driving down the highway at 70 mph! I'm usually not one for big, open, never changing vistas, but I have enjoyed going through Nevada. Of course we've also seen things like white pelicans and I think pronghorn antelope, although I'm not sure if there are actually pronghorns out here. Also, I am very proud that I drove our 40 ft fifth-wheel today for an hour and half or so at high speeds without having any problems. I even pulled into a truck stop! The mountains are beautiful here with quite a bit of snow on them still. Joe and I thought it was cool that we went through the Humboldt Range and drove along the Humboldt River for several hours since we will be going to Humboldt State in the fall...I forgot what it is like to share the road with big rigs that can go faster than 55 mph. The first one that passed us practically gave me a heart attack! We've seen quite a few rigs with three trailers, something we don't see in Redding too often. The dogs are traveling well, although it took Max most of the day to settle down. I don't think he has ever been on a long trip before, but he actually slept for the last couple hours of the day. I think I will follow his lead! G'night!