Road Trip 2010: Day 65 Brigham City to Rawlins, WY

We hit the road early leaving Brigham City at 7 AM and headed south on I-84/I-15 and then southeast on I-84 when it branched off in Ogden. The first 30 or so miles were through the narrow winding canyons of the Wasatch Range and they were beautiful. Once again, however, there were no pull outs or rest areas until we were through the best parts!

We did stop at the Echo Canyon Rest Area and snapped a few pictures of the sunlit, red rock, northern walls of the canyon.

Echo Canyon Utah on I-80

Echo Canyon Utah on I-80

Then it was out into the desert-like plains of southern Wyoming. The Road Warrior movies starring Mel Gibson as Mad Max could have been filmed here. Gas and oil wells easily outnumbered the pronghorn antelope even though the latter were plentiful. A few spots where rivers still flowed carried enough grass to graze cattle.

You'd be driving along looking at miles and miles of what appeared to be flat land and suddenly the bottom would drop out and you'd be entering a wide river valley where water long, long ago carved out steep cliffs and then left them alone for eons to be battered by the wind. The Badlands National Monument may be up in the Dakotas, but it could as well be here in southern Wyoming.

We needed gas and pulled off onto "Business I-80" as it ran through Fort Bridger. Never having stopped here before (mostly because it wasn't here not too long ago!) we pulled in to play the tourist.

Boy! Am I glad that we did. This is a state historic site and they've done one whale of a job. The actual Fort that they've been recreating from old buildings once moved away or from scratch, is from the 1840s through the 1890s when the military abandoned Fort Bridger. It served as a stop along the Mormon Trail heading to Salt Lake City as well as a stop for the Oregon Trail. The original Fort was built as a trading post by Jim Bridger along the banks of the Green River and there's a reconstruction of that, too.

In addition, the place served as a way station for the Pony Express in 1860-61 and, in the early 1900s was included along the route of the Lincoln Highway, the first transcontinental automobile route.

I've plenty of pictures of Fort Bridger as well as the rock formations heading to Rawlins, Wyoming to share, but that will have to wait until later.

[BTW "Business I-80" was a bit of a joke. The loop was 20 miles or so and there were two almost towns on it: Ft. Bridger on the west and Lyman on the east. Lyman was much bigger, being that much closer to some large gas/oil/energy/chemical companies located out in the great unseen, and seemed to be doing much better economically. Still, it only had one gas station which was the same as Ft. Bridger. Thankfully, it was a larger gas station and I could actually get my truck and trailer to a pump.]


*****

Bad news:

The electric motor on my slide out died this afternoon. It has been giving us some trouble for awhile. I thought it might have simply been because the slide out was not aligned properly, but that may not have been the case. This morning the motor was reluctant to pull the slide out in. I could hear a click-click sound as I pushed the button inside, the slide out would lurch and inch or two and then nothing. It did, however, finally do the job for which it was intended and the slide out retracted completely. This evening it lurched out two or three inches and stopped. Then I got nothing. No movement. No click-click. I crawled underneath and let Terry push the button. Nothing. I could feel some little vibration in the motor but no much. I couldn't even move the slide out manually using a wrench. Something was seriously wrong.

I called a mechanic recommended by the campground and he came out an hour later. I told him of my experiences and then we went through all the motions again. He unbolted the motor and disconnected it from the drive shaft. Terry punched the indoor button and no rotation of the motor took place despite absolutely no pressure on it. The mechanic pronounced it officially dead. Not mostly dead but completely dead. I would need a replacement. he didn't have one. I want to be in Colorado Springs tomorrow. Hew would have to order a motor from down that way anyway so I will try my luck in the morning as we drive on. Meanwhile, the slide out has been manually retracted (easy enough to do when the dead as a doornail motor hasn't locked it in place) and will have to be manually slid out if a motor can not be found.

Good News:
1) The mechanic did not charge me a dime for his house call.
2) If I have to wait until Monday or Tuesday for a motor, I could think of worse places to be than under the shadow of Pike's Peak just outside of Colorado Springs where I have some friends in residence.