driving

Tahoe to Long Beach

/ klcompren / Leave a comment

When we left Tahoe, we drove back to Crowley Lake to rejoin our RV which we left hooked up at the Crowley Lake RV Park.  After getting settled back in we spent two nights there before making the drive to Acton, CA.

This time we spent one night at the Acton/Los Angeles KOA North just to break up the drive and to not finish our drive battling it out on the LA freeways.  After this one night in Acton we drove through LA to reach Long Beach.

Long Beach Bike Path

During our 11 days in Long Beach we were able to check in with some family and friends and catch up on some medical appointments.

Next stop:  Morro Bay, CA

Advertisement

Teton Pass

/ klcompren / 1 Comment

From Ashton, ID we headed southeast in order to go around the southern end of the Teton range and to enter the Grand Teton National Park from just north of the town of Jackson, WY.  Highway 33 carried us from Idaho into Wyoming and across the Teton Pass which tops out at 8,431 feet and affords beautiful views of the surrounding Wyoming countryside.

10% downgrade for 5 miles

The problem is that on the eastern descent from the pass, the highway has a 10% grade that extends relentlessly for 5 miles.  On board a 24,000 pound motorhome with a 2,000 pound car pushing from behind made this a challenge I hadn’t bargained for.  Taking advice from the highway signs advising truckers to use a low gear and keep their speed under 25 MPH, we make the descent in second gear and attempted to keep our speed in line with the advice.  With the help of a couple of stops at large pull-outs along the way we made it down safely but with the telltale smell of brakes that got a little hot.

On to Grand Teton National Park.

Three Days, 900 miles

/ klcompren / Leave a comment

Ok, it’s not a breakneck pace but it’s a bit more driving than we have done through our road trip so far.  We left San Antonio on January 23rd and drove to Fort Stockton, Texas.  This allowed us to cover about 310 miles of West Texas.  Fort Stockton sits in the heart of the Permian Basin oil field and has ‘Paisano Pete’, the road runner.

Fort Stockton, yes, that's a road runner

The next day we drove on through the rest of Texas and into New Mexico, stopping overnight in Las Cruces, covering another 285 miles.  After an overnight stop, we continued on into Arizona stopping in Tucson, an additional 275 miles.  This drive was by far the most we have driven in such a short time but there just wasn’t much to see along the way.  It was interesting passing through El Paso, Texas, shouting distance to the Mexican border.  If we had brought our passport we could have made this an international road trip.