7:07 am - Sunday - October 18 - TA Express, White Hills, AZ - 61° F, humidity 37%, cloud cover 41%, wind 7 mph out of the north....very cloudy today, the last day of our travel south, with a forecast high of 77° F. Where we are headed today (The Wilson Wilderness) the high will be 62° F. On this date in 2024 TLE and I were in Bishop, CA.....
....at the Tri-County Fairgrounds. We had planned to continue our trip south on US-395 that day, but high winds were forecast along our route, so we took a 'wind' day, just as we did this past Friday. The view this morning....
....at the TA Express truck stop in White Hills, AZ.
We were out of bed by 6:30 am Saturday, and on the road by 7:23 am, as we wanted to get through Las Vegas traffic before it got busy. We would continue south on US-95 until we reached Henderson, NV where we transitioned to US-93. The section of US-93 just south of the Lake Mead Vista Point is terrible for about 15 miles. The road is uneven with lots of dips at first, then the right lane becomes almost washboardy asphalt, if that is even possible. It's been like this for years, and I wonder why NDOT hasn't fixed it.
At any rate, about 60 miles north of Las Vegas the two way highway becomes a divided highway the rest of the way to Vegas. The road was smooth, and the driving was easy. Just as we hoped, the traffic on US-95/I-11 through Las Vegas was very light. We took a 30 minute break at the Lake Mead Vista Point, then continued south to the aforementioned rough road. It seemed like way more than 15 miles, but it wasn't. Finally, I saw the exit sign for the TA Express (Travel Centers of America) around 11 am. Our 180 gallon tank was down to around 60 gallons when we pulled into the fast flow diesel pump section. It was the first time we've 'paid the rent' in 6 months, and was it ever painful. Using our 'Open Roads' discount card we paid $6.449/gallon (that's the discount price...the pump price was $6.589/gallon) for just 87 gallons ($554.07). I didn't fill it all the way, because I didn't want to pay almost $800 to fill the tank. Anyway, that took us to over 2/3's of a tank. When the prices come down to a more realistic price per gallon we'll begin to haul diesel from town, whenever we go into town, 10 gallons at a time to top off the tank.
Once we were done 'paying the rent' we found a parking spot in the back of the truck parking area to spend the afternoon and evening. We had just covered 152 miles, and the final 29 were grueling, to say the least. We spent the afternoon watching college football, and were there ever some great games! In all 5 of the top 7 ranked teams LOST on Saturday including #1 Georgia, and #2 Notre Dame....what a crazy, crazy day!
Now it is time to point the nose of the Newell south to The Wilson Wilderness, and home sweet home. Thanks for stopping by!
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