The Journey Begins

I got back to the house on Wednesday, September 1st and heard from the realtor there are now 7 offers 5 over asking and within 2 days we had locked in and accepted an offer and they want to close by Mid September. After a few quick days of final cleans and loading in the last items and draining my battery bank in the 95 degree heat I pulled out at 8 am Saturday morning the house now in escrow.

The metal art hanging on my spare tire hung on my parents house for many years before they both passed away. My rig is loaded with memories and being pulled by my Dad's 2017 Dodge Durango Blacktop Edition, his last Michigan license plate hangs where I can see it when I wake up and the trailer is loaded with pictures, gifts from family and friends and things to keep me grounded and not feeling alone.

Any driving directions you use add 25-33% time to. 1. I can't drive 65-70-80 mph hauling a trailer. In California it is 55mph and the wind is a major factor. California didn't do too bad but once I got into the low hills of Nevada the wind seemed to come around from all directions and now semis could drive 70-80 mph and each time one passes it sucks me towards it when it starts past the trailer and pushes me away from it as it goes past the truck. It's not a ton but enough to have your wheel gripping.

I had a goal of staying on BLM land near Carlin Canyon and thought it would take 6-7 hours to drive there and it took closer to 8.5. I arrived at 4:30 quickly semi levelled the trailer and went to check in with family and no (or almost no) cell signal. It was hot I walked around I tried to find a signal and finally got a new text messages out. The trailer was low on power it only gained 5% while driving (the top solar panels are still not working right) so even though I only had an hour or two of late afternoon sun I put them out and boosted it to closer to 13%. The wind was picking up so I decided to rough it and eat cold pizza and hope to find a starbucks in the morning for coffee and a sandwich.

---

Day two

It got cold overnight much colder than the 49 it said it was going to. I woke up to 35 degrees, no hot coffee and a cold slice of pizza for breakfast. Oh well, Elko is 25 minutes away just get the solar suitcases loaded girl and get moving. This was a morning I was very glad to have a heated steering wheel and heated seats as was Ava. I made it to Elko got parked, calmed Ava down walked over to Starbucks and drive through only. No way my rig was getting through their drive thru but I find another in an Albertson's 2 miles away. Finally some hot coffee and a breakfast sandwich (of course Ava got a bite she is a greedy bitch).

I considered overnighting in the Bonneville Salt Flats but with low power that means no AC and I couldn't judge the weather it seemed to be getting warmer today. I had previously planned to make Fort Bridger RV Camp (FBRC) my night two and stay a week to work stop but when I called for a spot over a week ago they were having the annual Montain Man Rendezvous and were booked up til Tuesday. After web searching and trying to find spots at Salt Lake City and Park City area spots I was facing a WalkIn which means you go and hope they have an opening which did not seem promising and I did not want to parking lot surf for the night with limited power. I called FBRC and they had someone pull out early so off I went. Again this should of been about 6ish hours driving and I cross a time zone so I think I may get there by 130-2pm but was closer to 4pm and this was no small little festival I had to drive through hundreds of cars parked everywhere. And no one is wearing masks like the last time I saw someone masked was the gas station clerk 30 miles back.

So far they have been an okay bunch. A bit of canyon fire to start the morning and various shooting muskets and such but no wild partying in fact they all buttoned up about 8pm like me for the night. I had a hot shower after waking up to another under 50 degree night and tunred on the hokey little fireplace which raised the trailer 10 degrees in about 15 minutes. 'll be staying here through Saturday morning before I go to boondock on BLM land over night in eastern Wyoming and then I am already booked into a nice RV Park in middle Nebraska for next week.