Now for the drive home

            We sped our way, at 60 MPH, to Minnesota’s Myre/Big Lake state campground in Albert Lea, our first night heading home. Our site, a gravel back-in, across the gravel road from the lake had electrical hook-up. The site was $29 a night plus a Minnesota campground license fee of $7. The dump station and potable water was located in a different area of the campground.

We broke camp and headed to our first stop in Papillion Nebraska at Walnut Creek campground. After a couple of hours, I was glad the sites were concrete slaps with electrical hook-up. The reason I was happy came with the severe thunderstorms and hail that pelted us for several hours, fortunately the hail was no larger than quarters, some areas around us received 2 ½ to 3” size hailstones. For $15 a night this was a great place to stay with a dump station on the way out.  Next stop, North Platte Nebraska.

Lake Maloney was our stop in North Platte. Lake Maloney was a state campground, only $15 a night. Following GPS didn’t put us in the section of the campground. The original coordinates put us at the dry camping/tent camping area. We drove the road around the lake to the other side, what a difference, sites with electrical. Most of the sites had shade in some form, and there was potable water available in a couple of locations throughout the campground, the dump station was located on the dry camp side. From here it was time to head for Colorado.

First stop in Colorado was the ELKS lodge in Northglenn. The lodge has six electrical hook-ups. The best time to show up is after 5 pm, the lodge rents the parking lot out to an auto repair shop who fills the spaces in front of the RV spaces. We pulled in around 2 pm while the cars were still parked there, and it was a bear to get settled into our space. We had a couple of drinks and socialized for a little while before we retired to the 5^th wheel, mainly because I was fighting a terrific cold since Minnesota.

Our second stop in Colorado was at the Grand Junction ELKS lodge. This lodge is located in the original building built in 1912. They have six electrical hook-ups, all on one power pole. We were one of three rigs circled around the pole, looked something like wagons circled up to protect against Indian attacks. One of the lodge members was kind enough to take us on a tour of the lodge, their meeting room was spectacular. We broke the circle in the morning on our way to Utah.

Sculpture in front of a Wells Fargo Bank

The drive into Utah was tough, the cross/head winds stayed constant 20+ MPH with gusts to 30 MPH the entire drive to our next stop at Beaver Campland in Beaver Utah. Beaver Campland was a little more expensive at $39. A night for full hook-up. Still fight my cold, we stayed in and ate leftovers. Next stop here we come.

We continued to fight winds, but, made it to Nellis AFB in Las Vegas area. Nellis was a nice campground with full hook-ups, unfortunately we could not use the 50-amp circuit, no power. There were a lot of shade trees for most of the sites. I think my hacking and coughing is driving Carol nuts, I know it is for me. Tomorrow we leave on the last stretch to home.

The wind on this leg was the worst yet, 25+ MPH crosswinds with gusts to 38 MPH until we reached Victorville/Hesperia. It was great to back into our driveway, now the real work began, taking everything from the trailer and putting in the house. We’re home, and I am still fighting my cold. Now to rest for the next journey.

We learned alot on this journey, one being we do not want to have a deadline on when to arrive at our next location. The drive, eat, sleep and repeat was very tiring. We did see alot of beautiful scenery and we have a wide variety of places to go back and visit when the FT RVing begins.