2 RVs, heading to Reno NV

... spending the night at Rock Springs WY

Short day - Part II

Not sure how long the snow squall lasted, but there were only a couple of cars in the lot with snow on them. Nothing left on our RV's, it must have all blown away.

Hot breakfast. I wasn't sure I wanted to dish up my own hot breakfast, when I am not willing to buy roller food at a truck stop. Not an issue. This is a full service breakfast. This is a list of our choices, we tell one of two staff what we want and they bring it to us. Otherwise we can grab a to-go bag. That is what BB did. I asked for juice, croissant to nuke and fruit. I didn't see until later that they also had yogurt and hard boiled eggs. I did see they had Pop-Tarts, but they were out.

No road closures AM. Weather says high winds west of Laramie ending by 11 AM.

We have a few miles of good road before the road got worse and we got behind a truck going 35-45 mph and we stayed behind him. I got over to pass once and fell right back in behind him. Right by 'Tree in the Rock' the road was really bad, I felt me slipping a little. The snow was blowing across the road, the road was hard packed and there was a truck in the ditch with a cop on the shoulder. Most are doing 35-45 mph. Some are still doing 70 mph and the variable is set to 55 mph.

By the 'Tree in the Rock' is where it was snowing so bad on a prior trip that BB lost me for a while.

It is 50 miles from Cheyenne to Laramie. The first and last 10 were OK, the rest was white knuckle slow and go.

In the last mile before we fuel there is an overhead sign that says 'Road closed to high profile vehicles.'

1st stop is the Pilot for fuel. We check the web and yes, the road is closed to us. So we decide to go across the freeway and park behind a Comfort Inn we stay at often and 'use' there WiFi. It is now 9 AM, so we hope that the road closure is lifted when the winds die down at 11 AM.

BB goes for a short walk, I keep watching the WY 511 page on the web.

About 10:30 we go to the Petro truckstop to get some food. Very limited shelf food right now. I end up with a chicken salad sandwich with an expiration date of 1/26 ??? BB gets a tuna salad sandwich and some fruit. We will be ready to roll at 11 AM.

And we are ready at 12 PM, and 1 PM, and 2 PM.

Finally at 2 PM the restrictions are lifted on I-25. Then at 2:30 they are lifted on I-80. As fast as BB can get out of my RV and do her log, we are rolling. By now there is one other RV in this lot, plus 12 travel trailers all waiting for the road to open. I had thought that as soon as it was open all would be pulling out at the same time. No one else moved.

The 1st two hours we sat by the Comfort Inn and were on the web. The 2nd two hours we mostly hit refresh on the WY 511 page. At one point I was so bored that I went back to scrapping off Scotch tape off of last years placards.

Road is mostly dry. We see two more semi's in the ditch. Other than that this leg is un-eventful. We even pass two other RV's that are doing about 60 mph.

Lots of sand on the road and hitting the windshield. But so far no cracks that I can see. And our wrap is staying on so far.

2nd stop is at the Flying J in Rawlins. While we are there, BB makes reservations for our hotel. We should get there right about sun set. I was hoping we didn't have to do any after dark miles to make it to our drop Friday. Forecast was for the winds to die down tonight by 5 PM / sunset and pick up again tomorrow AM.

While we are here we see the 1st of the travel trailers pass. I had expected all 12 to pass us in the first 100 miles.

A 'shop truck' in transit passes us, this one is made in Garner IA. But I do not get a look at the name of the company moving it. A ways down the road, both the shop truck and the two RV's are at the Loves in Wamsutter. Before too long I see the shop truck coming up behind us. Opps, I miss the name again.

3rd and final stop is the Clarion in Rock Springs. (again we should have fueled before we shut down, it would have been cheaper) Once we are checked in, we walk over to the in-house Mexican place and order our food. 10-15 minutes it should be ready. We come back in 10 and it is sitting there, waiting.

I used a few minutes of that time to walk around the outside of the building. Dark, lots of ice so I just did it once, but it is something other than sitting and walking the stairs a few times.

Not sure how far we will get tomorrow. But close enough to make our drop on Friday. Depending on the weather. A couple of storms will be hitting NV on Friday. I will wait and call the bus dispatcher until we know more.

Load board

US - 342

IA - 175 (over half the board)

MN - 2

WI - 21