July 9, 2016

Yellowstone Adventures - Days #7 and #8

Saturday, June 18th and Sunday, June 19th

Saturday was the start of the long drive home. We decided to split the drive into 2 days going home so our goal was to make it to Winnemucca, NV.

Kurt liked this sign and wanted a picture.

Overall the drive went great. We did have one little mishap in Idaho though. We had walkie talkies so we could talk between the trucks. Marty radioed back and said we had a tarp or something on top of our trailer. I leaned down to look out the side rearview mirror to look on top of the trailer. I recognized the tarp as our awning. It was coming unrolled and was flapping on top of the trailer. As Kurt was trying to find a place to safely pull over, the arms of the awning started coming loose and banging on the side of the trailer. I told him to quickly pull over and as he did, the back arm of the awning broke off the trailer and started dragging on the road. He was able to pull over safely on the side of road.  We were so grateful that Marty had spotted the awning up there. By the time the arm fell off, we had slowed way down so the damage to the side of the trailer was very minimal. If we had been going full speed, I could only imagine the damage done. Good eyes Marty!

We didn't get any pictures. The wind was blowing like crazy and the awning was acting like a sail so we had our hands full. Kurt got up on the trailer and tried to take the screws out that were holding the awning on but we couldn't get it to let go of the awning so Kurt had to just cut it off the trailer. Marty helped him get all the arm pieces off and Kayla and I rolled up the awning. Luckily we have the rack on Kurt's truck so we easily put it up there and tied it down. Then we were back on the road.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, just the way we like it. 

We were literally driving off into the sunset!


We made it to Winnemucca and stayed in the Walmart parking lot. We have never done that before but the Mickelsen's had stayed there on their way out to Yellowstone and said it was fine so we tried it out. I agree, it was fine. Definitely not the ideal place for camping but definitely a fine place for pulling over late at night, sleeping and getting up and back on the road early. And it was free!

We preferred the one day drive though. Kurt likes to get up early (like 4 am) and just go all day and I think I preferred that too compared to splitting it in 2 days. It was fine to split it but it did make it feel longer taking 2 days.

I feel so blessed that we had such a great trip. Seriously. I always worry about long drives. They make me a little nervous so when we got home, I was so thankful that everything went great. The awning is an easy fix and not a big deal at all. We were all home safe and sound and that made my heart happy!

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