Day 66 – August 10, 2001 – We had a long drive scheduled for today, going from Rock Springs, WY, to Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Our original plan called for us to go south into Utah, along the Flaming Gorge Recreation Area, and then pick up Highway 40 across upper Colorado. It was a longer, more difficult route than taking the interstate but we have carefully avoided the major highways. After several days of discussion, we decided that Interstate 80 would give other cars a passing lane and might make it easier than a busy two-lane road. I HATE driving the T’s on the interstate but, since I don’t drive, those who drive needed to make the decision. The traffic was a little heavy in the Rock Springs area but thinned out as we drove further east. We had our first flat (picture below) on the highway, kind of ironic that it would happen on good road rather than on one of the really bad ones we’ve been on.
Once we got off the interstate, we were on a long, virtually empty road for almost 80 miles. There were no services at the exit we took so we got off the highway hungry and 50 miles from the next station in the direction we were going. We could have stayed on the highway for another 20 miles to the next city but that would have meant backtracking and this group doesn’t backtrack. We made the 51 miles in 1-1/2 hours, a pretty fast trip for us, and Jennifer’s tank still had 1/2 gallon of gas.
The worst part of the drive was the 45 miles into Steamboat Springs. This was on a busy two-lane and we were constantly pulling over on the shoulder or a pullout to let other vehicles pass. It was pretty stressful, especially when a large 5th-wheeler got behind Ginger and refused to pass. She pulled over, slowed down, waved her arm to encourage him to go around. Nothing worked. Not only was it worse for her because he was on her bumper, it made passing an even greater obstacle for those behind him. Finally, we pulled off the street completely to let him and the 20-25 cars behind him go by. About 10 minutes later, we were stopped at a pull-out when a police officer drove in. He had received complaints about someone holding up traffic and wanted to be sure we knew to pull over when cars lined up behind us. Ginger told him that we pulled over but “there is this big motor home that won’t pull over and won’t pass so other people can get around”. We drove on down the road and, much to our delight, the cop had pulled the guy over and was issuing a citation! I hate for you to think we are so mean that we would laugh but we did. We were all chuckling so hard that we forgot to take a picture.
We arrived in Steamboat Springs just as the rain stopped and the sun came out. It is a cute, tourist-y sort of town and we are planning to go check it out. We are here, checked into the motel before 6:30, and we don’t have cars to rebuild! That must be some kind of record.