mohaus: travel days

Showing posts with label travel days. Show all posts

Friday, April 16, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 29 (Back to Tennessee)

Day 29 on the road (yesterday), we had breakfast with my parents and said goodbyes and then drove on to Tennessee. This is a drive Daniel and I have done a thousand times. Through farm country, over the Mighty Mississippi, and back into the state we currently call home. We stopped 1.5 hours shy of our home to meet up with friends for the weekend. We have amazing sites on the lake and enjoyed a campfire until late in the night while the kids played joyfully with their friends. Camping season with our crew has officially started.

Thursday, April 15, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 28 (Henryetta, OK and Crater of Diamonds)

Last night we were able to snag a nearly new bike rack off Marketplace in Oklahoma City. We woke up this morning by a small lake in Henryetta. When we arrived late last night the gate was open but a large sign said gates closed at 10pm. It was 10:30. We rolled the dice and stayed anyway. This morning we drove through the Choctaw Nation area of Oklahoma before crossing into Arkansas. The kids have been dreaming of being miners for the last year. They have a group of friends that they have formed a mining club with. They all have pickaxes and like to dig big holes in our back yard. When they heard there was a real diamond mine that was open to the public, they wanted to go, so it went on our list of place to stop at on this trip. I visited Crater of Diamonds with my family when I was a teenager and had told them about it. Today we made the stop as we crossed Arkansas to see my parents. The boys learned that mining is hard work and it doesn’t always net a profit. But they still had fun. We arrived later than we hope to my parents, but were able to enjoy a home cooked meal — my mom’s amazing roast with mashed potatoes and carrots dripping in butter, all topped off with gravy. After dinner we visited and then my mom got out the pistachio cake she made for Isaac because his birthday is on Sunday. It’s a family tradition and I’m so glad we got to share it with with my parents. I hate that we only have time for one night with them, but we are already planning a summer gathering.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 27 (Travel Day)

I was driving along and passed a semi who flashed his lights at me as I passed. Normally that means “it’s safe to get back over.” But then I noticed the semi slowed down and scooted to the middle lane and flashed his lights again several times. I think this is universal language for, “something is wrong, you need to stop.” So I stopped and checked things out and our bike rack had collapsed. Isaac’s bike was dragging but still attached with the cable. Now to figure out how to reconfigure our bikes.

Day 27: we knocked out another 450 miles, crossing the panhandle of Texas and over half of Oklahoma. We are in Central Time, one time zone left to go. We also almost lost our bikes when our bike rack malfunctioned (see last post). And it’s cold and rained most of the day (only rain of our entire trip). We ended our day in Henryetta, OK. This is relevant because it’s where my dad grew up. He was born in California but lived here most of his life. His family history is tied to the Oklahoma Land Rush, the Okies fleeing to California during the Dust Bowl, and so much other history. It’s been cool to share with our kids. And as a bonus, we will see my parents tomorrow. So full disclosure, I know our trip has probably looked amazing and maybe made you feel a lot of things (hopefully inspired, but maybe some other feelings too). It has been amazing, but it has also been normal life. But stuck altogether in a camper and truck for a month. With a dog. And two whiny kids. And parents who sometimes argue. Today we found ourselves having a heated argument in a Starbucks parking lot in Amarillo while the kids sat in the truck. A man stopped and asked us (mid argument) if we wanted to buy hot tamales from the back seat of his car. Umm... don’t you see we are having a moment?! And when you are arguing in a parking lot, a long way from home, all you can do is try to figure it out and get back in the truck and keep driving. We aren’t perfect. We don’t see eye to eye. Sometimes we have temper tantrums. But we keep trying. We model arguing (sometimes poorly) for our kids, but we are still a team. A tired, road weary team. But a team none the less. Just wanted to keep it real.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 26 (Travel Day)

Yesterday was a big travel day for us. It was our 26th day on the road and it was our longest driving day with almost 800 miles covered. We drove across two states, an entire time zone and the Continental Divide. When we started planning this trip, it was supposed to be to the southwest and I had a long list of places to go. Then we changed plans and it became a Pacific Northwest and west coast trip. I still held on to the hope of making a few southwest stops. Then we stopped in Vegas (not on the list at all). Instead of pushing on to see more cool places on my list, we realized we all needed some rest. Those two unexpected nights were what we needed to recharge and feel like we were on vacation, not just traveling. The sacrifice was having to drive through Arizona and New Mexico and know there were lots of places we are missing. But we will be back to do a southwest trip some day. The end of a trip is always bittersweet for me. I could keep traveling forever, but I also miss a lot of people. Notes on roads in NW Arizona: high winds, lots of pot holes, and you can go 75mph. That was fun.

Thursday, April 08, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 21 (Travel Day)

Day 21 was mostly a travel day. Daniel got up early and worked at the Lodge down the road where there was WiFi. We rolled out of camp a little late and then had a delay from a landslide. We watched excavators work precariously high on a dirt slope above the gorge. We wondered how the men got up there and then passed a helicopter in the work zone. We drove through Fresno where we stopped for fuel. They only had bio diesel in the truckers bays and Daniel didn’t think our engine could run on it. We had a few errands in town which put us later than anticipated for Sequoia National Park. We decided to camp at the last campground outside the park and enjoyed a hot meal at a normal time of day, then a campfire and s’mores and a gorgeous night sky. Tomorrow we will see General Sherman and then we are debating our next stop. Pretty sure there are cows across the road from us that are going into labor.

Saturday, April 03, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 16 (Northern California)

The Good: our check engine light went off and truck seems to be ok again. We plan to drive south to more populated areas to get it checked out. The Bad: We had an incident with another dog in the campground. A muzzled dog with no owner came out of nowhere and started attacking Sophie. The kids got out of the way, Daniel came out of the camper and was able to get ahold of the muzzled dog. Another man came over and said this same muzzled dog had been attacking his dogs and kids. Daniel and the other guy (also named Daniel) got the crazy dog under control and leashed with two leashes to our truck. Then Daniel found the owner (the manager of the campground as it turned out 🤯). It was crazy. Thankfully no one got really hurt, but we are all shaken up. The other Daniel brought us fresh cooked rock crab and told us that not all Californians were bad. We are headed to the beach for a bit then will hit the road again. Lord willing we will have no more problems with the truck.

We went and walked the bluffs at Noyo Headlands State Park before moving on for the day.

Heading south we stopped at Van Damme State Park so the kids could wade in the ocean. It was chilly. It’s nice to travel with a camper and have fresh changes of clothes, towels, and an outdoor shower to hose dirty feet off with.

Today was mostly a Travel Day. After we did our two beach stops we started the drive through another really winding section of road next to the coast and then over to wine country (Navarro and Sonoma). We stopped to grab In-N-Out in Santa Rosa.... When in California. The boys were not big fans, but I enjoyed my cheeseburger and shake.

Our beach hike made our 27th hike of 2021 (27/52) and we walked 2.5 miles. This brings us to 76.5 miles hiked this year.

Thursday, October 04, 2018

Utah or Bust: Headed Home

Utah Road Trip Diaries: Day 19 we broke camp early because we had a big travel day ahead. First we made our way north to Colter Bay Village in the Tetons so the kids could finish their Jr. Ranger badges and Daniel could chase WiFi for work. After lunch we pressed on, driving diagonally across Wyoming from the NW to the SE corner of the state. Our original goal was to drive home through Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Cold temps and high elevations have us reevaluating this option. We feel like we have pressed our luck with cold temps the last couple of nights and are not confident the camper could withstand colder temps. We stopped in Rawlins, WY for dinner and WiFi and decided to call it a night. We will decide in the morning how we shall proceed. Wyoming’s landscape has really surprised me. We started in mountains and meadows then drove through red canyons and deserts reminiscent of Utah’s landscape. We drove across the Wind River Reservation next to a river with the most oxbows I have ever seen. We have seen tons of horses, cows, and antelope. Mostly it is desolate with the occasional mountain or canyon. I keep thinking about the song “O give me a home where the Buffalo roam. And the deer and the antelope play...” The wind is something else tonight. I hope we don’t blow away!

Utah Road Trip Diaries: Day 20 was a long travel day for us that had a late start. We had made it the night before to Rawlins, WY and the temps dipped to 26F with 20-30mph wind gusts that made it feel 10 degrees colder. I put the kids to bed while Daniel ran clothes to the on-site laundry mat, flushed our black and gray water tanks then proceeded to drain all of our water tanks after we all had showers. It was a late, cold night so a slow start was appropriate. We were on the road just before noon and made the decision to try to see the high point in Kansas. Mount Sunflower is at the Colorado/Kansas border. It is the highest hill (barely discernible) in Kansas and possibly the lowest spot in Colorado. As we drove south toward Denver with the Rocky Mountains to our west, we felt like we had made the right decision to skip Rocky Mtn National Park. Smoke from current forest fires made the mountain range look more like the Smokies than the Rockies. At dinner we decided to stop at a Rest Area to let everyone run around. The kids kicked the soccer ball while I cooked supper. After we ate we decided to press on as far as I felt like driving. Kansas is flat with straight roads. I think we will be on I-70 indefinitely. We made it to the Walmart in Hays, KS just before midnight. We skipped on stopping at Mount Sunflower — we would have had to drive on a private ranch and didn’t want to haul the camper or have to park it somewhere. We did look out into the darkness and acknowledge that we were passing the spot though. Boondocking at the Hays WM is the place to be. We were the 7th camper to set up for the night.

Utah Road Trip Diaries: Day 21, we are inching our way closer to Tennessee and my cousin’s wedding this weekend. We have now driven over 4,400 miles. It should be right around 5,000 when we finally arrive home! We boondocked at a Walmart in Hays, KS last night before pressing on across the state and into Missouri. Tonight’s campground is a little off the beaten path just outside of Columbia, MO. We have now been to 12 states during this trip. Daniel joked that even though it’s rural, it’s the best internet speed we’ve had in weeks! I guess that is what happens when you aren’t constantly surrounded by mountains, canyons and deserts. We tried to have a campfire tonight, but the wood we purchased was too damp. So we made popcorn instead. Looking forward to seeing some of my extended fam tomorrow. On a side note, it’s been flooding where we live, which is kind of weird to read about online because we have only seen rain once in the last three weeks.

Utah Road Trip Diaries: Day 22 finds us back in Tennessee. We have now driven over 5,000 miles across 14 states. With kids, we find slow starts to be the norm. Last night we camped next to a military family with boys the same age as our boys. They are making their way to Washington state while we were heading east. The boys had a blast playing together all morning, even though that meant a later start for us. We rolled into my aunts house about 8pm tonight and the boys were thrilled to see their cousins. We enjoyed visiting, a campfire, and Isaac even helped my cousin Andrew make bon bons for his wedding on Saturday. Isaac wanted to know if he could have a bon bon and I said he had to wait until the day Andrew got married. Isaac promptly said that he didn’t want to get married, and left. We are looking forward to spending the weekend with our extended family before heading on home and completing our trip on Sunday.

Trip Stats
Camping Locations:

Pickwick Landing State Park in Tenn.

Gore Landing City Park in Okla.

Wallydocking in Guymon, OK (FREE)

Family Base Camp in Alamosa, Colo.

Mesa Verde RV Resort in Mancos, Colo.

Sand Flats Recreation Area outside of Moab, Utah

Upper Big Bed Overflow on the Colorado River outside of Moab, Utah (FREE)

Boondocking on BLM land outside of Goblin Valley State Park, Utah (FREE)

Singletree Campground in Dixie National Forest in Utah

Hyrum Lake State Park outside of Logan, Utah

Big Creek Campground in Bear Lake State Park, Utah

Gros Ventre National Park Campground, Grand Tetons, Wyoming

Western Hills Campground and RV Park in Rawlins, WY

Wallydocking in Hays, KS (FREE)

Hanson Hills Campground just past Columbia, MO

Moochdocking in my Aunt and Uncle's front yard (FREE), Ashland City, TN

States Covered:
TN > GA > AL > MS > TN > MS > TN > AR > OK > NM > CO > UT > WY > CO > KS > MO > TN

Significant Stops:

Black Mesa in OK (highest point)

Mesa Verde National Park in CO

Wilson Arch in UT

Sand Flats Recreation Area and the West Rim of the Porcupine Trail in UT

Arches National Park in UT

Goblin Valley State Park in UT

Capitol Reef National Park in UT

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in UT

Bryce Canyon National Park in UT

Hyrum Lake State Park in UT

Ogden Dinosaur Park in UT

Logan Canyon in UT

Canyon Trail in Logan, UT

Bear Lake State Park, UT

Grand Tetons, WY

Yellowstone National Park, WY (The Grand Loop including Old Faithful, Hayden Valley, Grand Prismatic Springs and Artist Point in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone)

Rendezvous Mountain, Jackson Hole, WY

Jenny Lake, Grand Tetons National Park, WY

Daily Miles Traveled:
227 miles ⎮ 445 miles ⎮ 403 miles ⎮ 325 miles ⎮ 191 miles ⎮ 125 miles ⎮ 14 miles ⎮ 106 miles ⎮ 88 miles ⎮ 101 miles ⎮ 345 miles ⎮ 50 miles ⎮ 160 miles ⎮ 142 miles ⎮ 283 miles ⎮ 556 miles ⎮ 390 miles ⎮ 415 miles

TOTAL Miles Traveled: 4,366 miles (I have missed mileage somewhere since it doesn't coincide with my notes above of 5,000+)

Days on the Road: 22

Previous Trip Posts:

Preparing to Head West

Utah or Bust, the First Leg

College Friends and Wallydocking

Utah or Bust: Black Mesa to the San Luis Valley
Utah or Bust: Wolf Creek Pass

Utah or Bust: Mesa Verde
Utah or Bust: Moab Part 1 (Sand Flats Recreation Area and Mountain Biking the West Rim of the Porcupine Trail)
Utah or Bust: Moab Part 2 (Arches National Park)
Utah or Bust: Goblin Valley
Utah or Bust: Capitol Reef

Utah or Bust: Grand Staircase and Bryce Canyon

Utah or Bust: Hyrum Lake near Logan, Utah

Utah or Bust: Chilling at Hyrum Lake

Utah or Bust: Ogden Dinosaur Park