Oct 20-24 Grand Junction, CO to Ellensburg and Home

 339 miles, 315 miles, 395 miles, 391 miles and 132 miles

We are anxious to be  home so we are pushing forward.  We've been over the Rockies and over a 11,000' pass. Mountain formations are amazing.  Hit Denver around noon,  Slow going but moving.  Passed a cattle drive with cowboys on horseback stretching more than a mile.

Last night was in Ellensburg.  We went in town and had dinner at a Western themed restaurant we have been to before. Got back into listening to Bob Marley, the Maine comedian.

Trip statistics:

Gas-$2183

Food-$698

Camping-$2121

Misc-$1059

Eating Out-$1340

Fees and tolls-$170

Mileage-11,000   (99197-110295)

It was a great trip!

Along I 70, we passed at least 100 Union Pacific Railway engines.

A tiny house parked in the campground.  More and more of the KOAs had more permanent housing,

KOA animals

"Stinker" truck stop complete with skunk.

Huge hay barns in Eastern WA.  Heart rock given to me from Hunter for good luck on our trip.

Fog in the pass

Fog on Snoqualmie Pass

The Maine trees made it. Will they be alive next spring?

Looks like the sun wore out my trailer wheel.

Home at last!  The bushes need pruning!

Oct 20 Limon CO to Grand Junction, CO

339 miles. We are pushing for home so doing more than 300 miles everyday that we can.The foliage is yellow.  Not a favorite color of mine but here, it is gorgeous with the browns.  In Aurora,we began to see the Rockies.  Denver is at 5200'; gold mines at 8200'; coffee in Georgetown, 9600'  Denver traffic was a little slow but moving all the time. At 11,000', we began a 7% grade down.

I was hoping to visit a place called "Footloose" in Grand Junction.  In 1989, I saw this company at a holiday gift show in  the Kingdome.  They create hand made shoes and boots by wrapping your foot in duct tape over a sock to make a pattern and from that, they create a boot with a custom fit.  It's hard for me to get shoes that fit so I was excited to find Footloose.  I am now on my second pair.  I was hoping to  talk to the owner but it was a Saturday and they were closed.

We were looking for vehicles with deer but didn't see any.

A check point for logging in the deer hunt

Oct 16-Junction City, KS to Limon, CO

384 miles.  Traveled past Eisenhower childhood hometown of Salina and a Russell Stover factory  which would have been fun to tour if we had felt better.  We continued along I-70 gaining altitude to 5000 'at the Colorado border passing wind turbines, oil rigs, cattle, sorghum fields, The Cathedral of the Plains in Victoria, KS.

Waiting...........

I-70 scenery

Oct 18-Columbia, MO to Junction City, KS

268 miles along 1-70   61*  Very flat farming land

Unusual hand-washing  unit

Right amount of traffic.

Oct 17 Portageville, MO to Columbia, MO

The colds have us down so we are heading West  steadily to get home.  We believe that Dale Earhart's car trailer passed us.  There are races nearby in Kansas City on Sunday coming.  All day freeway travel passing cotton fields along the way.    296 miles

The cotton is pressed into bales and wrapped in yellow plastic for shipping.

Miles and miles of cotton

Is this load of hay leaning right at all?  We were  imagining this tractor hitting a bump and dumping the load.


The Budweiser Clydesdale farm wasn't far from us. We would have gone for that tour but it was closed.

Oct 16- Loretta Lynn's Ranch Tour and on to Portageville, MO

Map of the grounds

We spent the morning wandering around the ranch grounds and then had a tour of several buildings and the main house. We broke camp around 12:30 and drove 149 miles under sunshine and blue skies.  Sonny has caught a cold and has a miserable cough that is keeping him up at night so we have been short on sleep.

Main store and Post Office

The family cabin in Appalachian Kentucky that Loretta lived in about 13 years before she married Oliver Lynn. ( I always thought Lynn was her middle name not her husband's name. The family moved  to Custer, WA (east of I-5 near Birch Bay).  By the time she was 18, she had 4 children so she turned to music to find peace.  

Lynn is also one of the most awarded musicians of all time. She has been inducted into more music Halls of Fame than any female recording artist, including The Country Music Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and was the first woman to be named the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year in 1972. Lynn received Kennedy Center Honors in 2003 and a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. She has won four Grammy Awards (including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010) and sold more than 45 million records worldwide.

Loretta still uses these carts,

Currently, cattle and horses are raised.

Kitchen entrance to the old plantation home.  We couldn't take pictures inside. Loretta now lives in a home behind the main house. When her children visit they still stay in their old rooms in  the main house.

Fall decorations on the front door.

Patio area outside the cafe.  There were only a few groups visiting so we had plenty of room to walk about.

A few members of the herd.

Reproduction cabins.

Rental cabin.  I like the "Honky Tonk Girls' Cabin" sign.

Oct 14th-Broadway, Virginia to Bristol, Tennessee and on to Waverly, TN on the 15th

279 miles today. This is a driving day.  No museums!  The sun came out around noon time.  We were on I-81 and I-40. The hills continue to be gently rolling. I-40 always makes me nervous with fast moving tractor trailer trucks only inches from us. At least it isn't' snowing like the last time.

We passed this sign that intrigued me:  Hungry Mother State Park. We didn't stop but I found a story on the internet.

The Legend of Hungry Mother

Legend has it that when the Native Americans destroyed several settlements on the New River south of the park, Molly Marley and her small child were among the survivors taken to the raiders’ base north of the park. They eventually escaped, wandering through the wilderness eating berries. Molly finally collapsed, and her child wandered down a creek until the child found help. The only words the child could utter were "Hungry Mother." The search party arrived at the foot of the mountain where Molly collapsed to find the child's mother dead. Today that mountain is Molly’s Knob, and the stream is Hungry Mother Creek.

We saw these oak leaves at a rest area.  I thought they looked purple.

Victory Baptist Church had this very large cross on the lawn.

From Bristol, we drove 385 miles. Weather is showery with wind gusts. We plan to camp at Loretta Lynn's Ranch just as soon as we find it!  The GPS failed us by sending us off on old back roads.  We asked for directions and followed a guy for a while but we lost him, too.  It was getting dark by now and the anxiety level is ramped up.  Finally, we got on a more traveled road and into   the local town for more directions.  In the end, the GPS had us to turn a half mile before the main Ranch entrance. Had we stayed on the main road, we only had another mile or two to go. Grrrrrr. The campground was in a pretty tree covered hill with paved sites.  However, it was on a hill and it was a sharp turn to exit the site.  I walked ahead while Sonny pulled out as I didn't want to watch!  

On Monday, we asked the park host if we could leave our rig at our site while we took the Ranch tour.  She kindly agreed so we drove out to the ranch  where Loretta lives.  She actually owns 3500 acres which is the whole town of Hurricane Mills, TN.  I believe the Post Office is the smallest in the US.  We aren't big followers of Loretta Lynn but Sonny listened to her music growing up.  I'll continue with our tour in the next post.