Hasta la vista MDST!

Our 3 day stay south of Salt Lake City came to an end Monday morning about 11 am.  We eased on to I-15 north bound to continue our westward jaunt on I-80, but before we did that we stopped at the local Flying J to add a couple hundred dollars worth of diesel and top off our tank.......this last 52 gallons will get us into the Tahoe Basin for the summer where we will not have to worry about fueling up again until early September.

The drive west on I-80 was flat except for two passes of 6,000' and 7,000' that we had to traverse.  While is was only partly cloudy we actually got snow flurries as we took a break at the top of the 7,000' pass under mostly blue skies.....weird!

We have not driven this stretch of I-80 before so this was brand new territory for us.  I-80 skirts around the southern end of the Great Salt Lake, and it is giant!  Just as you come to the Nevada border you see signs indicating you have reached the famous Bonneville Salt Flats where so many land speed records have been set and attempted over the decades.

Great Salt Lake

Nearing the Bonneville Salt Flats

Our total driving distance for Monday was 230 miles and was as uneventful, and pleasant as you could hope for.....our kind of travel day.  There was a slight wind out of the north, but it was hardly a factor, and certainly not the intense wind we had faced the last two days of travel into Salt Lake City.  By the way, we heard on the radio as we were merging on to I-80 westbound that I-80 was closed going east at Rock Springs due to the snow they had gotten the last couple of days.....we got out of there just in time!

We had planned to over night in the Elko Walmart parking lot, but about 12 miles east of Elko we spied a cute little RV park on the south side of the interstate and decided to get off and see if they had a space for us (Elko RV Park).  As it turned out they had ONE site left that would fit us.......things always seem to work out for us.  This little park is about a thousand feet from the Humbolt River which parallels I-80 for quite a ways.  This park is made up of mostly full time residents, but the park is kept in very nice condition, and shows continued maintenance.  As it turned out it was a good last minute decision as the overnight low temperature got down to 29.

Just after we crossed into Nevada we re-entered Pacific Daylight Savings Time and left Mountain Daylight Savings Time.  On another positive note our house batteries seem to be okay.....they did finally charge back up to 100%, so we'll see over time if there is any long term residual damage, but the real test will be the next time we dry camp and how quickly they discharge.

Tuesday we will arrive in Fernley, NV for two days....we're going to take some time to visit several RV parks that have contracts with Amazon.com to see which one we will stay in when we come back to work for Amazon in November....then south to Washoe Lake for a couple of days, then into the Tahoe Basin for the summer!

Thanks for stopping by!