Thursday, June 22, 2017

Home Again.

We left Moab, UT on Sunday morning heading north on I-70 toward Denver. The plan was to hitch up with I-76 and then I-80 east bound to home. No major touristy stops in our near future.

The ride was spectacular. The scenery changed from desert to Rocky Mountain forest with some snow actually below the road as we passed through Vail. Surprisingly heavy traffic east of Vail to Denver for an early Sunday afternoon (it was just 1 o'clock), I guess everyone who had been spending the weekend in the resorts decided to beat the traffic and only created more.

The only real problems encountered were a couple of accidents that closed one lane of the highway and created backups from rubber-neckers. Those bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-gos managed to add 30-45 minutes each to our travel time.

We stopped at Sidney, NE late Sunday afternoon and did some shopping at Cabela's.Then set out Monday morning heading east on I-80.

Except for a few construction zones where the speed limit was reduced due to one lane being closed and workers being present, things went smoothly until lunch.

Then there was the keys-locked-in-the-truck incident in York, NE. Luckily, it was in York, a fairly large town and AAA sent a locksmith who was prompt and knowledgeable enough so we lost only half an hour. (Terry will now carry a spare key at all times and I will lock the doors using the key fob instead of the on-the-door button.)

After that little bit of excitement, the rest of the ride was pretty dull. Stopped at Williamsburg, Iowa for the night and then drove all the way home on Tuesday (just about 900 miles and 16+ hours).

All in all a very enjoyable two weeks on the road.

The new Tundra behaved superbly. It averaged 18-19 mpg on the highway at speeds up to 80 mph. (Yeah, there are places out west where that is the speed limit.) And the large gas tank (38 gallons!) meant I didn't have to stop nearly as frequently as I would have with the 2007 Tundra with its 25 gallon tank and 16-17 mpgs. I LIKE that! Now I have to see how it handles the travel trailer.

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