Places
STE1 Hop 4: Jerome ID to North Salt Lake City UT
217 miles on I-84, I-15 and local roads, with a refueling stop. Cumulative tow miles: 854. Truck miles: 244. Cumulative truck miles: 918. Again, easy navigation (Jett loves these hops!). Again, beautiful scenery. There were some climbs, but no overly taxing ones. So I really don’t understand why our gas mileage was so poor. Normally … Continue reading
STE1 Hop 3: Huntington OR to Jerome ID
200 miles, almost totally on I-84. Cumulative tow miles: 634. Truck miles: 224. Cumulative truck miles: 674. Another easy navigation hop: get on I-84 east, drive about 200 miles, get off. There was a bit of construction, but the delays were minimal. Weather was good, scenery was gorgeous. A very pleasant hop. For me, anyway. … Continue reading
STE1 Hop 2: Boardman OR to Huntington OR
198 miles via I-84 and US 201. Cumulative tow miles: 437. Truck miles: 211. Cumulative truck miles: 450. We started this hop at an elevation near 500′ and ended at 2100′. But in getting to Huntington we had a couple of heavy climbs, one topping out at over 4500′. It was a more strenuous hop … Continue reading
STE1 Hop 1: Tillamook OR to Boardman OR
239 miles via US 101, OR 6, I-405 and I-5 (in Portland) and I-84 through the Columbia Gorge, with a refueling stop. The drama of this hop is captured in the map above, which is incorrect. Google insisted, up until the moment we left Tillamook, that I-84 was closed through the Columbia Gorge due to … Continue reading
STW3 wrapup
The third and final segment of the Second Trip West ended at Tillamook OR. We spent 5 nights there at the Tillamook Bay City RV Park. This is a basic park that we chose because it was close to Tillamook and it had cable TV. Very good cable TV – like 90 channels. There were … Continue reading
STW3 Hop 7: Castle Rock WA to Tillamook OR
130 miles via I-5, WA 432, WA 433, US 30 and US 101. Cumulative tow miles: 1095. Truck miles: 212. Cumulative truck miles: 1361. This was a relatively short hop and I thought it would be relatively flat. Wrong. A lot of up-and-down, starting with a steep 500-foot climb as soon as we crossed the … Continue reading
Mt St Helens and Coldwater Lake
I first visited Mt St Helens about 2 weeks after the roads were reopened to the public following the disastrous 1980 blast that blew out the side of the mountain. I think that was probably 1981, about a year after the explosion. I recall a scene of utter devastation – millions of trees blown flat … Continue reading
STW3 Hop 6: Ellensburg WA to Castle Rock WA
206 miles via I-90, WA 18 and I-5. Cumulative tow miles: 965. Truck miles: 214. Cumulative truck miles: 1149. This hop was only slightly more difficult in terms of navigation than the preceding two. Over half the trip was on I-90 and that segment involved some pretty significant climbs, including the Snoqualmie Pass, followed by … Continue reading
STW3 Hop 5: Post Falls ID to Ellensburg WA
202 miles via I-90 and local roads. Cumulative tow miles: 759. Truck miles: 224. Cumulative truck miles: 935. Another very simple hop for the navigator. Pretty much follow I-90 west for 200 miles. The only hard part was finding our destination, which was a bit off the beaten track. But we made it, despite the … Continue reading
STW3 Hop 4: Missoula MT to Post Falls ID
171 miles via I-90 and local roads. Cumulative tow miles: 557. Truck miles: 214. Cumulative truck miles: 711. This was an easy trip for navigation: a couple of turns to get onto I-90, a couple of turns to get off of I-90. Otherwise, just follow I-90. However, the trip was preceded by a trip back … Continue reading