American Gam

“When traveling with someone, take large doses of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee” ~ Anonymous

We said goodbye to the Pacific Ocean at Rincon. We won’t see another ocean again until we see the Atlantic in Rhode Island in five months. For now we travel eastward into the hot, arid desert. 🌵

Our first overnighter we boondocked at quirky little place that’s part of the Harvest Host network. It’s Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner in Yermo, California, just outside of Barstow. We parked out back in the shade of a highway sign that promoted Toyota trucks. 🛻

We left the air-conditioning on for Kodi while we went inside for a bite to eat. The diner food was as you’d expect it…hot and greasy. The to-go ice cream was cold and melting fast in the Mojave Desert heat. It was a fun little place that harkened back to a simpler time in American history. 🇺🇸

Just before we reached the Nevada state line we passed by this solar array. It’s the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.

It uses 173,500 heliostats mirrors on the ground to focus all of that sunlight onto the 460-foot tall solar tower boilers, which is then converted into electricity. When this facility opened in 2014 it was the world’s largest solar thermal power station. Now you would think that all of that electricity would be used for nearby Las Vegas or perhaps even sent back to Los Angeles but, surprisingly, most of the energy actually gets transferred all the way up to San Francisco some 500 miles away!

We stayed at our familiar KOA, which is part of the Sam’s Town Casino.

There’s an interior park inside the casino that makes you feel like you’re outside. We had dinner there two nights in a row. They put on a show every two hours called “Mystic Falls” featuring a water display with laser lights and animatronic animals that was mildly delightful.

After regrouping in Vegas we headed to Rowley’s Red Barn in Santaquin, Utah for another night of boondocking. While there we bought apple fritters, pumpkin pie, blueberry cheesecake ice cream, blueberry syrup for pancakes, and a bottle of Moxie Cola.

The next day was the fifteenth anniversary of the day we met. We decided to celebrate that special occasion at the local…

Ford dealership.

Yes, that’s right. The transmission on our Ford F-150 had been slipping for the last couple of weeks, especially going uphill. I awoke on this morning to a recall letter from Ford in my junk email stating they would correct the problem free of charge, so…that’s how went spent our anniversary. They said it would take thirty minutes to correct the issue. It took seven hours. So that was fun. At least we had our camper in their parking lot to hang out in.

The next two nights we stayed at two different Walmarts and enjoyed the amazing scenery of Utah and Wyoming.

The long day ended at KOA in Douglas, Wyoming where it was cold, rainy and windy. But the tumultuous winds of change were even more devastating than any climatological event could ever bring…

I hope you come back for the next post.

The gam continues…