Day 26 Orem, UT to Alvord Hot Springs, OR

Our Comfort Inn was cozy and had a fine hot tub and it really filled up. We hit the road early to get through SLC traffic…and an hour later, we were still going through SLC traffic. I really like the location of this city, but there’s just a bit too much…city.

We scooted around the south end of the Great Salt Lake to charge the car near Tooele and hunt for some coffee. Discovered the very first Starbucks I’ve seen with no lobby; it is drive up and walk up only. This area is designed for cars…we could see Starbucks across the “street”, a road with 6 lanes of traffic plus a turning lane and no sidewalks anywhere. Even so, there were at least 8 other people who walked up instead of drove through. We were a diverse group of humans…how did we all get here? And yay for bi-peds who use their feet.

Neither of us had ever driven hwy 80 across the salt flats. The road is long. It’s straight. It’s fast. But not as fast as driving on the salt itself. When the season is right and the lakebed is dry, people test all sorts of rolling contraptions at the Bonneville Speedway. We had to go check out this storied locale and discovered a simple two lane road that dead ends at the salt flats. We knew we were in the right place because of the fancy sign. We contributed a photo to science; see a time lapse of the salt flats here. We did not get Indian food at the gas station, but many folks do and say it’s good.

We grabbed coffee at a Starbucks in the Golden Nugget in West Wendover because it seemed the thing to do and gotta say, I wasn’t tempted to drop any cash. Onward to Wells for more excellent Taco trucks then Elko for some Western History (amazing handiwork).

Originally we were hoping to spend the night in the ghost town of Unionville, and head to Oregon the following day and maybe stay at Alvord Hot Springs near the Steens Mountains. The weather had other plans. The wind had picked up, snow was in the forecast and by the time we hit Winnemucca and the snow was really coming down. After hemming and hawing, we canceled the place in Unionville and then our backup hotel in Winnemucca, grabbed food for the road and drove north to Oregon.

I don’t remember how I learned about the Alvord Hot Springs, but I’ve been wanting to go for years. It’s a bit out of the way, so the opportunity had never appeared. But they had room for us and had a place to plug in the car (a necessity to get up to the next charger near Burns) and the weather forecast was better than where we were, so off we went for two more hours of driving. It turned out to be a good choice.

Day 27-29 Alvord Desert to Bend & Eugene & Home

Finishing all this up several days after returning home.

Woke up to the rustling a little mouse friend trying to get out of the garbage can, so we released him outside and hung up our food from the ceiling. When we woke up for reals, there was a light dusting of snow on the desert but we had stayed warm in our Gulf War-era bunker.

After an excellent soak, we used our trusty portable water kettle to make coffee & instant oatmeal (finally ran out of our own home roast so this was a purchase). Enjoyed talking with John the camp host and Darcia the office manager. Darcia told us to check out Harvest Host (free RV camping at wineries & such) and we told her about Plug Share (app that shows you charging options and lets you review them.) Played Set with Darcia’s kids (and gave them our game) then headed out into the snow.

We learned exactly how much range 30 miles of gravel uses (another third as much)…which made us glad for every mile of range we had put on overnight. Saw some huge rabbits, bright blue birds, quail and grouse on the way out. Sadly, did not get a view of the Steens because they were covered with snowy clouds, so we will have to come back in summer and take John for a ride on the salt flats.

We didn’t have driving issues in the snow, but we saw some folks who did (but they were sorting it out) and waved down another car to warn them about the congestion they were about to encounter. Those people told us “we just helped a guy turn his car right side up!” and sure enough, a few miles later we saw the skid marks. John had told us “be careful on 78, but once you get to Cove it’s easy” which was good advice. Flynn (our car) is good in bad conditions.

We were looking for someplace off the beaten path for our night’s stay, but when we charged in Bend and saw the very welcoming Marriott Springhill Suites right there and they gave us a better price in person than I expected, we decided to stay. Had a good walk & checked out the cute downtown strip & split a burrito. Hung out at the hotel bar for a beer, cribbage and some chatting with other guests & staff.

On Saturday we drove to Eugene. Had an easy time over Santiam pass and noticed much more rebuilding and new greenery along the McKenzie than the last time we had passed that way. Still hard to see and there are people we know who have not returned.

Brought Yumm Bowls to Mutti’s and had a good visit. Enjoyed watching the turkeys strutting around; there seems to be one hen and 5 males. She tends to ignore them while they display for each other. We planned to go to the Black Wolf Supper Club for dinner with Colin and Enzo and on the way were reminiscing about the Oregon Electric Station and how sad we were that they had closed. It turned out that BWSC now takes reservations which we didn’t have and the Old Spaghetti Factory has opened in the Electric Station building! So we pivoted and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It is a marvelous space and I’m glad people are using it once again.

On Sunday we hung out with Mutti, made some soup for lunch & to stock the freezer, watched the SC women play Iowa, then drove home. Two hours up I-5 was the shortest drive of our trip and we arrived on a beautiful spring day with everything in full bloom. No food in the house, so walked to Hawthorne for cribbage and a burger at McMenamins right before the skies opened up and dumped some spring rain. Picked up groceries and then we felt like we were home.

Dylan’s Flickr Nevada-Oregon photos & Sandhill cranes. More will get uploaded at some point.

A note from Colin

Day 25 Steamboat Springs, CO to Orem, UT

We spent a lot of time today deciding how to get through the mountains from Steamboat to Salt Lake. The charging infrastructure along hwy 40 is much less developed than along I-80. Our maximum capacity is 400 miles, but to be kind on the battery and make it last, we generally charge up to 320 miles. If things go really awry, the backup plan is stay put for the night, plug into a regular 120V outlet, and get 70 miles which should get us someplace with more juice. (We’ve never had to pull that ripcord though) Better than that is an RV park with 240V 30 & 50 amp outlets. That can fill us up overnight, and we have done that but not on this trip. Or we can use a J-1776 charger and get about 20 miles of range per hour from the charger. We did that today in Vernal while eating lunch so that we could have a bit more buffer on the drive down to the Salt Lake area. People who do this same drive next month won’t have any problems at all. There’s a new SuperCharger going in at Vernal and that will open up all sorts of adventure possibilities. Traveling this way is sometimes more work, but the puzzle of it appeals to my joy of mapping and discovery.

Interesting things: those watch for deer signs are correct. But you should also stop for the deer. We did both and were very happy with that decision. (Twice! Those deer are kinda dumb.) When you see lots of short skid marks on the pavement, it means it’s a deer crossing.

The Hayden Granary is worth a stop. It’s a not for profit community center and coffee shop in an a cool old building. Great quiche, better story.

More power is coming to the people. And it looks different. The new style of supports uses guy wires and has a tiny base.

El Homiez Tacos in Vernal is really good

Today is Wednesday and we saw dinosaurs. Not something that is often said.

Dinosaur National Monument is pretty stinking amazing. Being able to actually touch the bones is cool, but the story of the bone discovery and the development of the site is also really interesting. Also, I learned the difference between Petroglyphs and Pictographs; why have I never really thought about this? (The former is etched in, the latter is painted.)

Yes, the Rocky Mountains are marvelous, but the drive into SLC on 189 past Deer Creek Reservoir is absolutely stunning. Wish not quite so many other people thought the same thing!

It can be hard to measure time on a trip like this. Tonight we are in Utah and it feels a bit like we were just here, but that was 3 weeks ago. We thought about going a bit further, but the charger is right by a Comfort Inn, it’s got a pool and they gave us a discount. Plus there’s a place called Fancy Burgers a short walk away.

Sounds: Laura Gibson, Colin Stetson, Alice Phoebe Lou, Ratatat

Day 21-24 Ogallala, NE to Fort Collins then onward to Steamboat Springs, CO

Arrived in Fort Collins on a Saturday and left on Tuesday. So this post covers a lot of territory with not enough words to do justice to the experience.

Had some nice visits with Annalee and her mom Suzie and her brother Sam. It’s a good thing to be part of people taking care of each other during tough times. Ran some errands, had some nice Fort Collins walks, checked out the Cache le Poudre and Horsetooth, discovered good food and beer (no surprise) and got lots of good stories. Also got to hang out with Shawn and Bo which was delightful. Shawn used to run the Comics Club at the kids’ school and always has a million interesting things going on. We even got caught up on some work we needed to do. Had fun doing some 3D stuff…goofy pictures courtesy of Annalee.

We stayed near campus at Remington Flats Hotel. Really helpful manager, nice little kitchen, bright and cheerful and a good choice at a great price. Some favorite places: Tap & Handle for their great bartender Josh and his deep knowledge of dark beers. Perelandra Bookshop for their cozy vibe and drinks and people and “reader in residence” program. And a tip of the hat to the many great business names, “Story of your life” (tattoos) “Screaming peach” (waxing).

Discovered that in addition to the windshield chip Dylan filled, we had another, larger crack that had started down low on the windshield and had spread upwards. Have mainly arrested the progress with two rounds of drilling & filling, but the windshield needs to be replaced. Since we still have some mountains and rough road ahead of us, we will do this when we get home. $1800 from Tesla with some coverage from insurance…but if we use Safelight and a non-OEM replacement it is just the $250 deductible. Ah well.

We learned a few fun facts: the roads are wide because Mr. Avery who planned out the town wanted to be able to turn a 2-horse wagon around on the streets. And wow, yep the streets are wide and traffic hauls! Especially for a smallish college town. And Annalee’s parents used to live in what is now the Avery Museum. Sadly, it wasn’t open for us to tour.

When leaving Fort Collins was thinking they really need a Tesla supercharger; the nearest is down in Loveland. Shawn suggested we skip Hwy 80 and head over to Steamboat and Dinosaur National Park. We weren’t sure that was possible without some overnight camping and charging at RV parks and we don’t have enough time remaining for SLOW travel. Plug Share came to the rescue. It really is a helpful app when you want to get off the beaten path. The J-1776 chargers near us on campus required paid parking, the place by the pool was in use, but the Noosa Yogurt HQ has 2 chargers and a cafe and is right at the entrance to Poudre canyon.

In the end, Noosa was a lot more fun than a SuperCharger. In a different life, I might work at Noosa and live on the Poudre River.

Noosa

Driving up the Cache le Poudre (pronounced poo-der) is lovely. No sheep sightings but birds and water and impressive walls of rock. Once you get to the plateau with the mountains all around, I wondered what it would be like to spend the winter up on one of the little ranches. Dylan said “lots of board games.” He’s not wrong.

Also thanks to Plug Share, found a Tesla destination charger at a reasonably priced hotel in Steamboat Springs: comfy rooms, pool, shuttle to town and friendly staff. Plus there’s a daily paper (!) geared towards locals that the hotel provides and it’s full of good local doings.

It’s pretty darn quiet (tail end of ski season). When wandering around the cute town it was evident that this is the time when folks are training their new staff. Lots of sweet interactions at cafes, bookstores, and a little gift shop. Nice place for walking with a path along the river.

Dinner was strong margaritas, happy hour tacos and good chips and salsa at a place recommended my our hotel clerk. Not cheap but tasty. Walked back to the hotel instead of calling the van so we could get the lay of the land. Hiked up a big hill as a shortcut and didn’t feel the effect of the altitude, so yay.

Things we didn’t do that would have been great in an alternative timeline:

A movie screening and “how we did this” talk with the production crew at the local library (we would have had to stay another day but that was too much pressure on our timeline). In the Dirt is a documentary about fostering mountain biking with the Navajo Nation. Will try to see it some other way.

Going up to see the ski area (23 lifts and 181 runs!)

Open mic night at the pizza place

Checking out the community college, a beautiful new building with a great view of town

Use the swimming pool, hot tubs, and game room at the hotel

Soak in the hot springs “serving the community since 1885”

Check out the west side of town; it’s where the job force housing is. Not swanky but looks like there’s a good beer hall and food options

Go skiing!