North Thru Utah and More Storms Coming

I am not one of those who when expressing an opinion confine myself to the facts.

Our departure from Hurricane, Utah wasn’t quite as early as we had planned.  The planned departure hour was 7:00 AM when we went to bed Tuesday night.  That time was the goal since our favorite people – weathermen – had predicted strong winds were to hit a section of our travels starting about 11:00 AM.  We figured by leaving at 7:00 AM we would be just ahead of the winds.  However, you might as well figure it that my morning our favorite people – weathermen again – changed their predictions.  Strong winds were no longer in the forecast even as far north as Salt Lake City.  Yippee!!  Things would be good and we leisurely finished our departure tasks before we got on the road about 8:00 AM.

It may look like just rolling hills but we were still climbing.

Our route was I-15.  It had been many, many, many years since we had driven this road.  At that time we were heading south and not heading north. I'm not sure that matters though. Terry swears everything from southern Utah is UP.  We climbed, then we climbed some more.  After that we even climbed more.  The peak was close to 6500’.  Even though our destination was around 4200’, we still feel those roads never went downhill.  Our conclusion ….. Utah is full of mountains.

Don't let the flat look fool you!

Now the roads were good but they were mountain roads.  How can one say Utah and I-15 is not a mountain road?  The Siskiyou's and Grapevine summits in California don’t even reach 4500’.  Of course, if you're already sitting close to 3000’ feet as we were, climbing in Utah is only an additional 3500’.  I said ‘only an additional 3500’.  I’m sure you all know what climbing does to your fuel and there’s no reason even to mention it other than it drains it faster than going downhill.

Is this what a snow plow looks like?

The terrain changed from one type of high elevation with rolling mountains to another type of high elevation with mountain peaks.  Not much snow was visible in southern Utah but as we continued to move north, the mountain peaks were higher and the snow level seemed lower.  I’m sure it wasn’t lower.  It was just that we were higher and at the snow level.

Snow covered mountains were starting to come into view.

We did miss the winds.  However, my cousin who was traveling a few hours behind us got into the winds.  Now remember the wind forecast went away in the morning.  I guess it returned in the afternoon because now gusts were hitting 40 mph in the Beaver, Utah area.  

There are lots of mountains in Utah.

We pulled into Camping World ahead of the winds and ahead of the newly predicted rain.  The beautiful sunshine was now hiding behind many, many clouds but it wasn’t cold and it wasn’t raining … yet. The front parking lot was pretty empty.  We thought that strange for a Camping World.  Every one we had been to was usually packed with cars and RVs.  However, we visit most of them during their high season.  I think high season here is still just a little in the future.

Here are more mountains and more snow.

We thought we’d just boondock in the parking lot and be ready for the appointment on Thursday.  However, that wasn’t to be.  It was better.  This Camping World has four electric and water hookups in back on a first come basis.  Yippee!  We were first.  I wonder if we can work it out where we can stay the day before the appointment and the day after?  That wouldn't really work but it was certainly worth thinking about since the park we're going to is much more expensive than we like to pay -- (much more!).  However, it's best to get on the road before the weather turns again. 

More mountains and lots more traffic add to the fun of travel.

Just around the corner we discovered the Goodwoood Barbecue Company.  It was great barbecued brisket and it's not even in Texas!

Our RV park for the night -- can we stretch it to two nights?

Over Wednesday night the weathermen were busy at it again.  What was predicted to be a beautiful and dry next week or so in this area has changed.  We’ve got a snowstorm coming along with high winds that are currently supposed to include between 40-70 mph gusts!!  At least that is what one forecast is saying at this exact time. We aren’t looking forward to Saturday or Sunday if this is right.  We could run but we can’t hide since the whole western part of the States is going to have a similar experience … at least the area we would have to run to isn’t going to be in good shape either.  I think we’ll just dig in for a while and hope this storm continues blowing east.  In the meantime right now temperatures are expected to be close to 80 before it drops drastically and the Family History Library is close.

‘Tis life on the road!