Looks pretty, right? Nice peaceful spot by the Snake River for our first night traveling east.
Look closer, there are railroad tracks on the opposite shore. Glenns Ferry has always been a freight town. Currently 20-30 trains pass on these tracks day and night. That's right; 24 hours a day with at least a train every hour. Of course there is also a couple of whistles that come with the announcement of each train, some rattled down the tracks for over 10 minutes. Not bad while at the camp fire but a long time while trying to sleep!
At 4.30am, we finally gave up trying and headed towards Island Park where our fishing trip awaited us!
I did not capture a picture but this is what the Tsuchinshan comet looked like that morning
Was a beautiful and peaceful ride up towards Yellowstone and we both agreed it was worth getting up so early
Our stay in Island Park got cut short by the weather so we headed out early again Thursday morning to tackle the Teton Pass while temperatures were still above freezing. Roads were wet, but quite a bit of snow in the air as we crossed the summit. Hard to believe this is a major commuter route for many out here!
With the weather crappy, we just kept driving east.
Our only moose sighting just outside Jackson
Cool retro diner, Mitches Cafe, where the only other patron bought our lunch. Farson, WY; "you should live here" is the highway sign just across the road 😊
Some very pretty hills, valleys and trout streams as we headed towards Rock Springs.
Then 310 miles on Rt80 to Oliver Reservoir, NE. Never mind the Extreme Blow Over warning on the highway, we just kept going!!
We were back ahead of the cold front and finally grilled our pork chops being out of bear country in the warm evening air. Then the familiar sound of the whistle blew and we saw the train just across the road. It was going to be another long night!!
By the next morning the wind had caught up with us as we set out to conquer Nebraska. Thankfully the trains here are much less frequent overnight and we are ready to hit Rt 80 again. No Blow Over warnings but a stiff (30+ mph) south wind never gave up. And neither did we. Into the "I" states to camp at Viking Lake State Park. We enjoyed full hookup amenities and a gorgeous evening by the fire. The scenery seemed very remote and peaceful until that chuga chuga sound in the distance come closer and we realize again the campground's proximity to the local train tracks 😏
It's now a thing that no one but campgrounds want land near train tracks or there are way more tracks than we thought across this country! In case you'd like to fact check, there are 160,141 miles of track in the US.
As we ponder our next few days, we both grow a bit anxious to get home so we head out to run through the "I" states in one day. But first, breakfast in Winterset, IA, our brother in law Mike's family homestead town AND the birthplace of John Wayne! Very quaint place if you are ever in south western Iowa
Our plan to stay south of Chicago worked like a charm along Rt24 but took us longer than expected. So we started to look for camping mid-state Indiana. To our surprise campgrounds were full! Who knew it was such a popular pastime in mid October!! Private campgrounds: Full with Halloween events. Harvest Host whose space was much too small. State Parks with 1 walk up site available, we went for it! Now a couple of the full facilities wee very close to train tracks but we didn't care! And now as we try to hightail it to the open spot we are stopped at the RR crossing. 🤨. The train goes by and we see a second train just sitting on the crossings tracks. We sat there for 10 minutes waiting for it to move. No luck. Back up, turn around, follow tracks until crossroad has underpass, finally on our way again. Grrrr! Upon arrival, the agent turned us away. It is now 8pm and we are both exhausted. Eric was persistent and specifically asked about the 1 walk up site. Grateful that she took the time to look and sure enough, it was open 😊
Turns out mississinwa lake has 737 campsites and ours was a short gravel pad with a 30 degree pitch down a hill. Thankful in our tired state we were able to back under the tree and level the camper with no cross words. No trains here! But way too many people. Indiana 🤨😞😆
It's Sunday and 9 hrs from home. We decide to slow it down a bit, watch the Bills game and stay in Ohio Geneva on the Lake. Although Cleveland has som Bills bars, they were downtown with limited parking and lots of crowds. We opted for Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the first half but left due to the Cleveland/Cincinnati game taking all the audio and most of the screens. I drove again the last 2 hours for a nice spot for our last night on the road. We found a local joint for dinner and enjoyed our notoriety of being new people in a locals bar!
The final leg reminded me just how beautiful western New York is in Fall.
Happy to be home and already planning our next wander!
See you on the road
Wow! It looks like an amazing trip.