Road Trip 8, P. 10

We left Williamsburg on Friday, June 6th, heading across I-64 toward St. Louis and beyond.

By late afternoon we had made our way to Babcock State Park (www.babcocksp.com) in the mountains of wild and wonderful West Virginia. To get there we left I-64 and got on US 60, the scenic route.

The next morning we continued on US 60 as it wound along the edge of the Kenawha River, eventually getting back on I-64 near Charleston.

It was a very scenic and peaceful morning.

Once back on I-64, we quickly found ourselves in the beautiful state of Kentucky heading toward our destination near Shelbyville which is a few miles east of Louisville.

We spent Saturday night at Guist Creek Marina and Campground in a great, grassy campsite. The daytime temperatures were in the low 90's but we put the screens on the side and back doors and had a good night's sleep. It cooled down into the fifties.

We cooked up a nice dinner of BBQ'd chicken, steamed fresh green beans and jasmati rice and also enjoyed a little wine. We usually eat and drink well on the road. Well, not really on the road but after we stop for the night.

The next day, Sunday, we made it over the Mississippi river and into St. Louis.

We had a nice visit with Lorri's parents in their little house on Maeburn Terrace. The above three photos are of their house and street. I guess I forgot to get photos of them. We stayed there two nights, Sunday and Monday, June 8 & 9.

The next day Tuesday, June 10, was a terrible day of driving with strong headwinds and crosswinds buffeting us all over the highway. At least we didn't hit any rain or tornadoes as we plowed across Missouri and Kansas.

At Wilson State Park (www.kdwp.state.ks.us) in the middle of Kansas we tried to pick a non-windy campsite, but that didn't work. We didn't get a whole lot of sleep that night. The gusty winds kept rocking the van and making a lot of noise.

Oh well, it was on to Colorado continuing on I-64 to Denver where we turned north toward Fort Collins. The wind continued to be a problem although not quite as bad as the day before.

We ended up at Boyd Lake State Park (www.parks.state.co.us), just southwest of Fort Collins. We tried to pick a site protected from the wind by big diesel-pushers on either side, but that didn't work either. Fortunately, after sunset the winds died out enough to get some sleep.

This is a photo of Lorri driving and trying to keep the van on the road. The winds were back with a vengeance. If the wind were a tailwind, we probably could have coasted halfway across Wyoming and got 50 miles/gallon.

It was so windy we decided early on to spend the night in a motel so we could get some rest. We stopped at the Little America Hotel in Little America, Wyoming. This is what our room looked like. They bumped us up to suite.

Eventually we escaped southern Wyoming (remind me to take a different route next time) and worked our way across Utah and into Nevada. We pulled off at one point to check out the Great Salt Lake. It didn't look so great to me.

I suppose if we had left the Interstate and headed south into the mountains that the scenery would have been quite different. Maybe next time. Oh that's right, we're not going this way next time.