Routes
STE1 Hop 7: Moab UT to Silt CO
179 miles via UT 191 and I-70. Cumulative tow miles: 1389. Truck miles: 379. Cumulative truck miles: 1759. The best thing about the trip to Moab was that the truck handled the load just fine. Every hop now increases my confidence that the truck repairs actually fixed the problem. Still, we have decided to avoid … Continue reading
STE1 Hop 6: Salina UT to Moab UT
199 miles via US 50, UT 24, UT 118, UT 120, I-70 and US 191. Cumulative tow miles: 1210. Truck miles: 236. Cumulative truck miles: 1380. This hop was not in the original plan. The basic trip – Salina UT to Moab UT – was the result of chopping out Bryce Canyon and Zion National … Continue reading
STE1 Hop 5: North Salt Lake City UT to Salina UT
157 miles via I-15, UT 50 and local roads. Cumulative tow miles: 1011. Truck miles: 226. Cumulative truck miles: 1144. This was not the hop that I planned because the truck failed us when we got to Salina. Everything was fine until I got to a stop sign where UT 50 took a left into … Continue reading
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
Second Trip East (STE) preview
The Second Trip East (STE) will start in Tillamook OR and will terminate in Naples FL, out home for the winter (if anything is left after Hurricane Irma). It will pass through, among others, the four states that are missing from our map: Utah, Colorado, Nebraska and Kansas. It then drops down to southeast Texas … 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
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