And We Are Off

Thursday was another non-stop day of making the house winter ready and packing and packing some more. We set a weight limit based on the rig’s capacity and I weighed every single thing that was placed inside the motorhome.  I ended up about 75 pounds over but the Cowboy had padded the capacity a bit so we are good.  Storage in a 26 foot rig versus our former 40 foot rig doesn’t even begin to compare. I struggled and continue to struggle–things are so stuffed into the tiny closet we will need a crowbar to get our shirts out and then an iron to use for removing all the wrinkles after being crushed in a 15 inch wide closet!!!:)  I open the refrigerator very carefully as well as any cabinet–this little motorhome rides much rougher than the Country Coach and stuff is always jumping out at me when opening any door!

Friday was the day–we left home before dawn headed for Big Timber.  Is this an early departure for us?  Yes, by about three weeks but there is a fun method to our madness.  For the last few years every spring we’ve ridden to the Pryor Mountains Wild Horse with a group of friends from Montana. Many years this same group takes a fall trip and we have been invited to go along–it just never worked out until this year.  Off we go to ride the Paiute Trail in southern Utah.

We met the rest of the gang in Big Timber at the local gas station and we were off.  A group of four various size rigs, eight people and five dogs.

The drive was uneventful until we reached the northern edges of Salt Lake City then it was big city traffic, everybody fighting for space, bumper to bumper, screeching halts for two and one half hours before we were spit out the southern end and found a Walmart parking lot of the night.  The Cowboy kept saying, “sure am glad I’m not driving a 40 foot motorhome pulling a 30 foot trailer in this mad house!”

It was Friday night in the big city and restaurants were busy.  It was late and we were hungry so Burger King it was and as usual, Burger King was OK.  The Cowboy woke Saturday morning to his wife searching for the thermostat–I was freezing!!!  And so was Emmi but we soon had it toasty warm in our little coach–it’s amazing how fast this little rig warms.

Soon we had to vacate our spot in the Walmart parking lot and with only about one hundred miles to go we were off once again. We brought up the rear as we are slower traveling but amazingly the little motorhome kept up with the diesel pickups all our friends drive. We had no idea where we were camping near Marysvale, Utah but we had read about dispersed BLM camping near a lake and we found it–success!  We have a fantastic spot right on the lake with room for all four rigs, dogs and people.

Once we were all in place and had lunch we unloaded ATVs and were off.  We are just a little early for much fall color but we did find some.  We rode to an elevation of about 10,000 feet where we found we needed more clothes–it was dang nippy!!  After a few hours of riding we were back at camp and enjoyed a lovely happy hour and dinner with contributions from each family.  Sunday we are off for more riding, it was a nippy 38 degrees at camp this morning so warmer attire is the order of the day!!

Life is good, very good!