Our one-night stay in Rawlins WY concluded the first segment of the STE. The segment by the numbers:
- 8 hops
- 17 nights
- 1605 tow miles
- 2033 truck miles
- $719.56 in campground fees ($42.33 per night)
This was not the segment that we planned. The planned versus the actual routes:
STE1 Plan
STE1 Actual
Highlights:
- Visiting Tillamook again and catching up with my sister and her husband.
- Seeing Canyonlands and Arches National Parks.
- Touring the Mormon Tabernacle and other LDS buildings.
- Catching some incredible sunsets in Oregon and Idaho.
- Getting the truck fixed quickly and relatively painlessly.
Lowlights:
- Having the truck fail in Salina UT. Fortunately we were able to get to a campground and were safe and warm while we waited for repairs.
- Missing out on Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks due to the truck problem. We also had to skip Monument Valley. All huge disappointments.
- The cold weather. We had to endure a number of sub-freezing nights, including one, in Silt CO, that dropped to 25 degrees. I had to wrestle with a frozen hose to pack up there. We also had to adjust our schedule to avoid snow in Wyoming. In general, this entire segment has been much colder than I expected for early October.
The next segment, STE2, will take us through Nebraska and Kansas, completing our 48-state map. It will also get us down to Oklahoma and Texas and, hopefully, into warmer weather.