York, NE to Rawlins, WY

Somebody get me out of this car, please! What a long, monotonous drive across Nebraska. It is just as desolate and long going west as it was going east. It is all cattle country. Having grown up in cattle country I have nothing against it. As a matter of fact I really love it. But 6 or so hours at one stretch makes the drive very long.

There was one event however that broke up the monotony. About 15 miles east of North Platte, Nebraska my check engine light came on. At first I was rattled. Here I was in the middle of no-wheres ville with an engine problem. Up until this point the car had run like a champ. Of course I thought it had a drinking problem. The car couldn't seem to pass many gas stations without needing a hit. But that is what I get for pulling a trailer.

I realized that on my Magellan, I had a column for AAA approved repair shops. I pressed the icon and Bud's Auto Repair came up and was only about 12 miles ahead. I programmed it into the trip and "Kate" led me to the repair shop.

At first the manager didn't want to take us. Here it was late Friday afternoon on a long weekend. He was slammed as  it was. He took pity and agreed to read the code in order to determine the problem. The code said it was an Oxygen sensor. I pleaded with him to fix it. He was nice. He didn't pull any mechanics off their jobs, he came off the desk, got the part, and changed it himself. An hour later we were back on the road.

The rest of the way home we had no problems with the car, other than dealing with its drinking problem. I can't be to hard on it. Under normal driving conditions on the highway I get around 30-33 MPG. Pulling the trailer we dropped to a low of 22 MPG (climbing the great divide to 8800 feet) and an average of 26-28 MPG. I like 33 better than 26. Don't you?

One thing I can comment on,we in the Pacific Northwest, are getting ripped off by the gas companies. The further east we went the cheaper gas got. I filled up here in Kelso at 3.97 the day before we left. I filled up in Streator, IL for 3.23. And I don't use cheap gas. When we got home gas was 3.99.

Well, we finally crossed into Wyoming. Once again I really love that state. It is so beautiful. The desert smells so good. There is nothing like the smell of sage brush in the desert. I would have like to have stopped in Cheyenne but it was way to early. We drove uneventfully into Rawlins.

We checked into the 1st Choice Inn. This motel was a little rough on the outside. Wasn't quite like its pictures online. Inside it was OK. It was clean but older and a little worn. But the bed was comfortable and the room was large. However, it had a side walk that ran all the way around the building. There was no ramp or path for a wheel chair to gain access to the sidewalk. I had to run my power chair up onto the sidewalk. The doors had a large threshold that I had to get the chair over. It was not wheel-chair friendly.

We checked in, unpacked a couple of things. While Irene was in the shower I ordered a pizza from
Domino's. They delivered about 25 minutes later and we had dinner for the night without even going out. First time I have ever ordered a pizza to a motel room.







We went to bed very early. Which meant we got up at 3:00 AM. So we showered, dressed, packed the car and loaded up. I plugged in the next address into the Magellan, turned the swoop light on and we pulled out of the driveway at 3:45 AM. Next stop - Twin Falls, Idaho!