Salt Lake City – Colorado – Nebraska – Illinois

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I got a not-too-early start out of Salt Lake. It was so great to visit with Art and Lisa – I’m already looking forward to visiting them in their AZ home this winter! I was able to fill up one tank with water before rolling on out of there.

It was to be a fairly short drive to my overnight at Dinosaur National Monument. I didn’t even know about it before, but I saw it on the map when looking at my route and it seemed like a place I HAD to see. Thanks to Art, I now have the Gas Buddy app, and it shows me the cheapest places to get gas. They are always just a tiny bit off the beaten path – so worth it. I discovered I actually have a 55-gallon tank, so saving 20 cents or more/gallon is a big deal! Still, after nearly $6/gallon in CA, everything feels like a deal.

One of my biggest fears, and the reason Jonny put the extra latch on my door, was that the door would fly open while I was driving. Even though we reasoned that, when driving forward the wind/pressure would likely make it impossible for the door to open. Well…that myth has been busted. The extreme vibrations of driving rattled the latch up and out and the door actually opened WHILE I WAS DRIVING 65 MPH down the highway. I looked over and it was open about 10-12 inches and just flapping lazily. I kind of freaked out. I managed to find a not-so-great place to pull over and shut it. Put the latch back in and added a clip magnet to add some resistance (later I put a bungy cord on the handle to the frame). That rattled me a bit, but not TOO bad, I was glad I mostly kept my head – and now I have survived one of my biggest fears and nothing catastrophic came of it! One of the things I realized is that the hole in the frame that the latch bolt goes into is not all that deep – so later on I took a screwdriver to it and dug out all the wood down to the metal of the frame. It was only maybe 5mm more, but it seems to have helped a bit.

As I am learning, the amount of time it takes to go places listed on the map is not at all accurate for me. I still don’t have a very accurate idea of how much longer it takes me, but I’m getting there. If it says 3.5 hours, I can count on maybe 5-6 hours for me. Not only do I go so much slower, but sometimes I stop to take a nap, or make a sandwich. Wherever I stop, I am home, it’s so convenient! I kinda love it.

It was after 2pm by the time I got to Dinosaur. I had NO idea where I was spending the night yet, or what to expect about the park. As usual, I did minimal research. They had me at Dinosaur. I decided to buy an America the Beautiful pass – it lets you in to a number of national level parks and areas – and if I only go 4-5 places it will pay for itself. I asked the gate guy about camping – there were a number of formal campgrounds in the park and just outside park land was Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land – which is always free and open to camping. I figured I would head out and find something out in the wild after seeing the park.

I had a snack and rested a bit before heading into the visitor’s center to see what to see. There was a tram to take people up to the viewing center – where there is a huge rock wall full of dinosaur bones. When it was discovered, they decided just to put a building around it and make it an educational viewing center. It was very cool to see, as was the surrounding landscape. I hopped the tram back down. The tram driver asked us all “Who planned to come here and who just saw the sign and stopped in?” I guessed I was somewhere in the middle.

Back at the main visitor center, I asked for advice on what I should do, since it was already late and I wanted to see as much as possible. The main draw, aside from the dinosaurs, was petroglyphs. I LOVE LOVE LOVE petroglyphs, so I was super excited to see them ALL. I got a booklet explaining all the areas and it was a self drive-and-stop kind of deal. I had been hoping NOT to be driving more, but it was what it was. I drove all the way to the end of the park and saw all the petroglyphs along the way. Halfway through I saw the Green River campground, I was high above and saw all the campsites along the river. The idea of a campsite where I could go swimming was a much bigger draw than a free place in the wild. I drove in to have a look. It was $18/night, which seemed reasonable enough (most campsites I see these days are $50 or more – no thanks!). I found a spot with a path to its own private beach on the river. I was sold. I filled out the self pay envelope and marked my spot. It was nice to have that to look forward to for the rest of the sweltering tour. My IcyBreeze provided a little relief, but so very little. I was not super impressed with it so far, it was kind of nice, but I was still very hot and sweating.

The final stop had the longest, steepest hike and the coolest petroglyphs. I got a great view looking down on Rita also, nice bonus. A man who is apparently a docent or some kind of volunteer happened to be on the trail and he gave me, and another woman I ran into, some great information and history about the site we were on. He showed us where the Kokopelli was and said it was the northern-most Kokopelli known. Apparently, this flute player guy went all over the place – all the way down to South America. He is known for bringing fertility to areas that were struggling. I said “Rather than being some magical god-like bestower of fertility, he was probably just really hot and smooth with all the ladies…”. The docent guy laughed pretty hard and said “well, I have never been able to say that to visitors, but I’m glad you said it!”

I hiked way up and around to get a view of the whole valley that the docent mentioned. It was pretty amazing with the rock formations and the green and red colors. I was tired, hot, sweaty and really looking forward to a swim. I scrambled my way back down (somehow on the wrong/steeper path) and headed back to the campground. Not having to set up camp was pretty awesome. I had an ice cold coconut water and dug out my bathing suit. The river was beautiful, but the rocky bottom was super slimy and slippery. I had to make my way out pretty far to get to something deeper. There was a spot between the shallow rocks and the faster moving current, where I was able to get down up to my neck. The water was super cold and SO refreshing. I was a happy camper. I had planned to get some work done that evening – that is until I realized there was ZERO cell signal in this low-down spot. Where the bars usually show on my phone, it just said SOS. I did a little walkabout around the campground and didn’t discover any signal anywhere. I talked to a nice couple from Alabama who just retired and are wandering around in their big RV. They had some $900 signal booster thing and were barely able to get a signal either. So, I resigned myself to not letting anyone know where I was, that I was OK and not getting any work done. Oh well! I found a beer out of the bottom of my fridge and went and sat on my private beach till it got dark. Life is hard! I watched a movie that I sort of wished I hadn’t, but it seemed like a good time to get that one out of the way. I woke up super early and decided to clear out and head to the visitor’s center to catch up on my messages and a quick spot of work.

Soon enough I was on the road to Lakewood, CO (just west of Denver), to see my friend Jess, who I know from Zihua. I was excited, since she was on the aborted trip of last year, so we were overdue.

She lives in a great, chill neighborhood, and I was able to park Rita half on the sidewalk in front of her house – so she was nice and level. I was happy to be hunkering down for 4 nights in Rita – with a friend and a shower, too!

Jess was the best hostess ever. We had great Vietnamese food, some tasty (some not tasty) craft beers and caught up till 1am the first night.

 

The next day we set off for some adventures. The fun began at a mall…I needed a new cell phone battery pretty desperately. I haven’t wandered in a mall in ages, but that’s just what we did while waiting for my phone. With that out of the way, we got some food/snacks at Whole Foods and were on our way to get real high. Mount Blue Sky only allows a certain number of cars up per day – Jess was able to snag us a ticket for the afternoon. It was another drive all the way with several stops/mini hikes along the route. It was amazing and beautiful and full of wildlife. We saw marmots and goats and sheep. I even got to touch snow! Snow is very exciting when you can go find it where you don’t expect it. Snow is not at all exciting to me when it just dumps where you live…

The higher we went, the colder it got. Luckily, Jess had thought to pack jackets for us. It was super cold, and raining a bit at the top. We wandered around the broken down castle up there and did not do the final hike up to the tippy top.

 

 

 

On the way back, we still had some daylight and decided to stop and check out Red Rocks. I have never been to a show there and would love to see the venue. While we could hear the start of a show that night, there was not a way to see into the venue. I was a little disappointed, but the hiking around the outskirts was spectacular, especially as the sun was going down.
It was getting late and we’d had a big day – we decided to pick up a pizza and head back home.

Jess just got licensed as a massage therapist and has a new gig – so she had work half days on the weekend. It was a perfect time for me to catch up on work as well and some little projects with Rita (this is when I dug out the door latch hole). The hot water heater stopped working for some reason. This is when I discovered that it is not an electric starter that lights it up, but it actually has batteries (I went to look for the fuse and there was none, so I was baffled for a minute on how the damn thing lights itself?). It turns out it wasn’t the batteries. I was stumped as to why it wouldn’t light anymore. I ended up finding the company’s website and sent them a message, not really expecting much. To my surprise, a rep from Colombia replied, asked for a video of what happens when I try to turn it on. She then proceeded to send me a video of how to take it down, take it apart and clean some floating magnet thing in it. I will absolutely do this…but probably not until I get to Maine. So, I will be without hot water for a while. Having lived in Mexico without ever having hot water in a sink, this is not a huge deal for me. Plus, it still hot as hell out, I will survive.

Saturday night Jess took me to run around in Denver for the evening. We started out by directly going for ice cream. Who needs dinner? We walked all over and finally ended up at the oldest bar in Denver (it was the only thing open by then!). We had a beer and split a burger and fries.

On my last night, Jess and I cooked dinner (for old time’s sake. And because we were hungry) and then I finally got to experience her newly acquired massage skills. She has a brand new table and I got to break it. It was an AMAZING deep tissue massage. I was complete mush by the end. If you are ever in the Denver area, definitely book an appointment!

We had a slow morning and I had a final shower before heading out to my stopover in Wellfleet, Nebraska. It was supposed to be a shorter day, but of course it took me longer than expected to get there- about 6 hours. I arrived to this rancher’s field around 6pm. I had not gotten any ice and was pretty hot. I hopped out and sat in the shade, in the middle of nowhere – it was great! Howard, the retired rancher, drove up from his house, which was hidden down below somewhere, I never saw it – and said hi and made sure I had everything I needed. Super sweet. Then I was just left to my own devices for the night. I did got all my screens up, not knowing the bug situation there. And I did go out after dark to check out the stars. There was zero light pollution there, and the stars were amazing! Supposedly meteor showers were on, but I only saw a couple shooting stars.

I was secured and ready to take off pretty early. A bit longer day to get to my next stopover in Lincoln, NE. I didn’t make as many stops – once to pull in a curtain that got away and was flapping out the window. Once more to get fuel – both for me and Rita. The gas station had a huge lot off of it, so I just pulled up and made a sandwich and had a rest. One other stop to get some fuel and oil additives – just for fun…and because there were some noises I was worried about and didn’t know what else to do. I’m afraid some of Rita’s other ailments might be worsening and I am just hoping I can get to Maine with no issues.

I had estimate I would arrive at the Olde Farm around 3pm, but it ended up being closer to 5pm. Even when the posted speed limit is 75, we don’t go past 65 max…60 is much more comfortable though. I feel bad for people behind me, but there’s 2 lanes, so they can all go around!

I HAD to stop in Funk on the way...

When I arrived at the farm, no one was home, but they had told me where to park. I got a little creative with the spot and managed to get super level. It was a beautiful little farm, right across from a huge cornfield. Steve and Colleen and their son, arrived home shortly after I got settled in. I really hoped they would be OK with how I parked, and thankfully, they were. They had been out to a cousin’s farm and picked up a load of sweet corn. They said they were going to shuck and process it, to have bags for the winter. I was welcome to have some! I went and helped them shuck it all (it wasn’t a truckload, otherwise, I might’ve not…). Then they started cooking it up to process it. I ate 2 freshly cooked ears – they were delicious! It was fun to hang out and get to know the family – their son was helping, too and Steve’s mother lives with them as well. She came out to enjoy some fresh corn, too. I hung out for a bit and then figured I should not bug them too much, and have a look at my online situation, what work was on for the next day and do some catching up. I was happy not to be traveling the next day! I didn’t have a ton of work, so it was nice to just get some down time. The property had a wonderful gazebo made of an old grain silo, it was cool and breezy and a great spot to work for a bit.

They said it was fine for me to fill a water tank – so in the late afternoon I lugged their huge hose out across the garden area and it made it all the way to Rita! I filled the one empty tank with their delicious well water. I may have hosed myself down in the process, too…very refreshing, almost a shower.

They gave me a bag of the processed corn, an extra ear, and also a bunch of delicious orange cherry tomatoes from the garden. I am just blown away by their generosity – and people in general – who are all part of this Boondockers Welcome community – people open up their properties to RV’ers and share their abundance. It is amazing and I am so grateful it exists. While I am still very much looking forward to getting out into more wild areas and hunkering down far from anyone for weeks on end, I am so happy to have these safe and friendly places to stopover as a newbie on this cross-country mission.

I felt like I could’ve stay much longer at the Olde Farm, but I must keep pressing Eastward.

I was awoken in the middle of the night to a heavy rainstorm. It sounded nice on the roof and made me happy to think Rita was getting cleaned off a bit. Her whole frontside is like a bug killing field. I hit the road around 7:30 am, it was chilly and rained a on and off. I was kind of dreading the long day I had planned. The map app said it was over 6 hours – but from leaving to arriving, I was at 10 hours. Between stopping and slower-than-speed-limit speeds, it just takes me forever!

The first leg of this quest I went for nearly 3 hours. I hit Omaha at rush hour and that wasn’t super fun, but I’ve seen worse. I could hardly wait to stop at one of Iowa’s “Modern Rest Stops” that boast wifi and vending machines. I forced myself to wait until I was past Des Moines. Rita has been making a noise I’ve been concerned about, but not sure if it’s anything serious or if I just have too much time to think about it. I recorded the noise and sent it to Jonny, as well as posted on my Skoolie Facebook group. When I finally stopped at the rest area, I decided I would take the engine cover off (that is the hump in the middle right next to me) and see if anything looked amiss. I hadn’t really been in there anyway, so I didn’t remember what-all I was going to be looking at.

My first order of business was to get some food. I ended up making a big salad and only eating part of it. I then discovered that the water pump inside the sink jug, was no longer pumping water. It made noise, but no water was being moved. I had just cleaned this out the day before, because it had stopped working. I took it all apart (it was slimy and gross and I realized I needed to clean this more often. I do have a strainer on the sink, but a lot of gunk ends up in the jug, which gets filtered again by the pump, leaving a lot of sludge in the bottom. I think some of this got into the pump. I took it apart, banged it a bit and got it working. It was again, not working, and I just couldn’t figure out why at the rest area, I would need to look into it when I was settled down at my next stop. I put all that back together and emptied the jug out on the grass at the rest area. I also emptied all my waste at the conveniently located trash bin in front of my parking spot. Now to try to remove the engine cover, by myself, for the first time. I’m not gonna lie, it was a bitch. But I figured it out. There really wasn’t much to see, definitely not any hoses in there. Getting it back on was also not very much fun. In the process I knocked off the panel below the steering wheel. I have no idea how it was attached in the first place because it was missing a lot of clips and ears and where it snaps into was missing a whole bracket on one side. I was not successful in getting it back in place. It looks hideous, but I can’t see it when I’m driving and it doesn’t seem to cause any other issues not being there. Add it to the list of not-super-important-but-probably-time-consuming and expensive projects. Yay.

I opened the hood and looked around; my untrained eye didn’t see anything too amiss. Maybe one cracked and awful looking hose, but I have no idea what it goes to. I closed her back up and decided just to get on my way. She runs great, has power, doesn’t heat up and feel solid. Apart from the ‘ringing’ sort of noise between 60-65, I didn’t have any issues. So, at some point you have to just turn the music up louder and stop worrying. After about 4 hours on the road, the noise seemed to go away and she seemed be happy to go even faster. We hit top speeds upwards of 70 today.

I drove from Nebraska to Iowa – across the entire state of Iowa – and into Illinois. I don’t have a lot of pictures because it was HELLA BORING. Farms, rolling green hills, all the same chain establishments at various exits. I did pass by the exit to John Wayne’s birthplace, and passed by the World’s Biggest Truck Stop and a number of places with funny names. That was about as exciting as it gets. I did get the requisite number of smiles and waves by those who passed me by (which is basically everyone). So many big semis on the road – I was boxed in, constantly being passed by them – and each time one comes up on me, the windage blows Rita and I have to do a little fight to keep her steady. Around 3pm each day, I get a little sleepy. Today was no different, and I noticed I was struggling to keep my eyes open, despite louder and more aggressive music. Rather than fight it, I pulled off at one of the “non-modern” rest stops (parking only, no facilities) and went and laid down for about 20 minutes and then had a snack. That was perfect to get me through my sleepy phase. I was back on the road with just 2 more hours to go. I had 2 nights booked at a free boondockers place called “Critter Ridge”. There were hints that animals might be present, but I didn’t know what kind or why.

 

 

I had no trouble finding it, thanks to the great directions from the host. It was far prettier than the pictures. I was told I could park anywhere I wanted but down by the pond seemed to be best. That sounded good to me! I drove out on the grass and turned around so I could back up to the pond – meaning a pond view from the ‘bedroom’ windows.

This place is a bird and wildlife rescue/sanctuary. For the past six years X and his wife have been taking in critters. They had a bunch of wallabies that some guy had been keeping illegally, parrots, turkeys, geese, goats, squirrels and more. As I was getting the lowdown, 2 giant turkeys came over to investigate. Apparently, they are ‘domestic’ turkeys, and while very large, not good eating. They were curious and somewhat friendly. Both were named Tom – Tom Grey and Tom Brown. Tom Brown seemed to like me quite a lot and trying to get closer to me. One of the geese came over as well and is very protective and I was warned it might try to hiss and snap at me. I managed not to get goosed.

 

 

 

I wanted to get the water pump situation sorted out before dinner/dark, so I went right to it. I took the pump off the lines and poured some vinegar in it, and filled a bin with water and tested it out. It was working FINE, sucking water in and spitting it out the top. I was stumped. When I hooked it up to the line to the grey water tank, no water was getting moved. I concluded the problem must lie in the line to the tank. There seemed to be only thing to do… I grabbed that hose and put my lips on it and blew as hard as I could. At first, nothing happened, but finally things moved and I guess I cleared a blockage. When I hooked the pump back up, it was all working fine! This system definitely needs to have regular maintenance. I’m going to need to make a whole calendar of things like this that I need to stay on top of.

With that settled, I went out to investigate my new surroundings. The pond I was on wraps around the whole property, it’s just beautiful and seems to be full of very large fish. I wandered back to see all the critters, there were a lot!! They are always looking for volunteers to help out with them all, so if you want to hang out with some exotic creatures in Illinois, this is your place.

I’m looking forward to not driving tomorrow, and spending the day on this beautiful property. Cell service seems to be terrible, so I’m not sure if I will be able to get any work done, or upload this blog…but I will give it a go. My cell phone signal booster immediately boost me up from 1 bar to 3, but it doesn’t appear to make anything work any better. I’m starting to suspect the whole thing was just a big scam…