Homeward Bound

It was finally time to head north. We had stayed for a full month longer than we usually do because our place in Wyoming was not yet open. The temps in south Texas heated up and the humidity made it more than we could stand so we spent most of the day indoors. The plan was to drive the seventeen hundred miles in four days, which is a huge mount of driving without breaks.

The first day on the road was a drive of four hundred plus miles to Sweet Water Texas. Once we got on the way, (we had a lot of prepare the fifth wheel for storage), it was ten thirty which meant that we would get to Sweet Water about six in the afternoon.

If you have never been to south Texas, the area we crossed was really flat. At least there were lots of scrub brush to break up the monotony and crossing several rivers. All of the rivers we crossed were low due to the drought that eastern and central Texas is currently undergoing. Gas was cheap and when we reached Sweet Water, we found a nice place to stay along with fast food restaurants nearby.

The second day was another drive of about the same length but this day we drove through some areas with buttes, and the area near the Canadian River was really quite pretty. It reminded us of some areas in southwest Wyoming.

This day we as we neared Oklahoma a warning light came on. We had never seen a warming light on this car and this one said that a tire was underinflated and needed to be checked. Renita even got a text message from Subaru!

We had just left Perryton, Texas and turning around we went to Perryton Tires, There the staff welcomed us and got our car in and after removing the tire and looking for a leak, put the tire on and sent us on our way free of charge. We offered to pay but the tire man thanked us and said no payment was necessary! If anyone ever sees them self in need of tires or service Perryton Tires is the place to go!

After spending the night in Garden City, Kansas we left on day three for another leg to Sidney, Nebraska. There were lots of detours and we got off route so bad that our gps stopped receiving data. We found a map of Kansas, in a small convenience store in Atwood, Kansas. We decided to take a longer route to get back on track as the road we had been on was narrow. It had rained most of the day and we dreaded going on such a road with no shoulders.

The highlight of the day was when we stopped at a small picnic area. There two American goldfinches flew nearby and landed in a small bush next to the car. They were brilliantly colored in their breeding plumage, (and puffed up from the cold temperatures as it was forty-five degrees Fahrenheit), but they flew away before we could get any pictures.

We reached Sidney, Nebraska and were shocked to see the gas price was fifty cents higher per gallon than the town that we had passed through forty miles earlier. It seemed like price gouging to the extreme which is pretty typical when you are in a town next to the interstate.

We left Sidney and drove across Wyoming, stopping for the night at the Little America on Interstate eighty. It was an easy drive, a little less than four hundred miles.  The mountains were covered with snow and it was so nice to see mountains!

Our rv park did not open till the next day and so we were only one hundred and fifty miles away. It was the first time we have stayed at Little America and the room was nice but dated. They do have two grills there and so we had our usual chicken and cheeseburgers. The highlight of our stay there were the two red breasted nuthatches that stopped to look at us before continuing their hunt for bugs.

The final day started with a short drive and we arrived at eleven am. The rest of the day was spent checking for damage, (no damage to our fifth wheel), and unpacking. It is amazing how much stuff we brought in our Subaru.

Clear skies