It’s Wednesday already, and we’re leaving Crater of the Moons. We have really enjoyed our visit. But it’s time to head back to civilization for some needed maintenance. Besides, it was 35 degrees this morning (low 32).
We go back through Arco again and stop at Jack’s Travel Plaza to do the dump and fill routine. Their underground water system has a problem so there is no water at the dump station. BG has to do a little dance between the main building for water fill up and the dump station to clean the tanks. The Travel Plaza also had wifi, so we took the opportunity to post 4 blog updates.
Going through Arco this time we saw this sign. And Frank’s curiosity was piqued.
The world's first peacetime use of nuclear power occurred when the U.S. Government switched on Experimental Breeder Reactor #1 (EBR1) near Arco, Idaho, on December 20, 1951. The town of Arco* became the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power from a reactor built near EBR-I, the BORAX III, on July 17, 1955. It was only temporary, but the way was paved for commercial use of nuclear power. The Arco reactor later suffered a partial meltdown -- another World's First. But, there's no highway sign bragging about that.
The lava fields extend for miles and here are a couple more examples.
Since we got a late start, which seems to be our norm, we have the sun behind us which is great for driving. As a bonus, we get to see the moon rise in front of us.
And we see some more of those strange buildings that seem out of place.
Arrived at the Idaho Falls, ID Walmart about 7:30pm and it was just getting dark. Frank unhooked the Element and took it into the Walmart Tire Shop to see if they could repair the front drivers side tire. Turns out they don’t repair All Season tires. But they gave me a name of a place to go.
Thursday Frank’s up early and heading over to Les Schwab Tire Center to get the tire patched. After checking in and getting a fresh cup of coffee he realizes he forgot his wallet and cash. He borrows the keys and rushes back to the RV to get his wallet and hears EJ say, “forget something?”. They repaired the tire and the Element is ready for more adventures.
Frank also made an appointment for Big Guy to get his oil changed as well as service the generator, again. Can you believe we have already passed the 10,000 mile mark on this trip? And we’ve already used the generator for 150 hours since Anchorage. Wow, time is flying.
EJ had another laundry day. She found a nice Laundromat and pretty much had it to herself. Well almost. There were 4 teenage girls that considered it to be their personal hangout.
Then it was back to BG to have dinner and get everything packed away because we have to be at the Cat dealer at 8am. For us that is really early.
Friday morning when we woke up, we found this next to us. It’s a Newel and it absolutely dwarves BG. Looks like the class of Walmart campers is looking up.
Friday is Big Guy day. Getting fresh oil (19 quarts) and filters and a general check up. They call it a PM-1 maintenance. It was great that they could squeeze us in without an appointment.
We took off in the Element to the Visitor Center, go find breakfast, and take a long walk along the Snake River and Idaho Falls.
Idaho Falls has 3 hydroelectric plants that have an average production of 16.5MW. They can max out at 27MW. The walkway around the river is beautiful with lots of outdoor art and plenty of signs explaining buildings and such.
Here’s the top of the LDS building downtown.
We get the call and BG is ready. Great ,it only took about 4 and half hours. Here’s BG ready to get started on another 10,000 miles.
We make it as far as Perry, UT. We’re dead tired having gotten up at 6:30AM this morning. We’re getting too used to sleeping 9-10 hours a night.
What seemed like 10 minutes down the road on our way towards Salt Lake City, we whizzed right by the exit we intended to take to Willard Bay State Park. 4 miles down the road we’re finally able to turn around and go back. The reason we want to go to the park is to see, touch and taste the Great Salt Lake.
And yes, it does taste salty.
Here’s a view of downtown Salt Lake City. Along the interstate from Perry to Provo it’s all developed. You can’t tell where one city ends and another begins. To make things even more interesting, I-15 is under serious construction all the way through. Have to admit though, it does have a nice backdrop.
As we passed this, we wondered if it was owned by one of the head honchos in the Mormon organization. And it was one of several buildings on the same property.
Another trucker has a problem. For the most part, the truckers on this trip have been courteous and even on occasion helpful. Hate to see this happen to one of them.
We had intended to make it as far as Cedar City, UT but at 6:30PM we pulled into a Flying J in Beaver, UT to plan our next step. We decide to spend the night. We see a couple of RVs parked in a field behind the Days Inn so we join them. High today was 83 degrees, I guess we found warmer weather!
| BG Miles Today | 515 | BG Total Miles | 10633 |
| Eat Out total $ | 1516.45 | BG Total Fuel $ | 6080.77 |
| Entertainment total $ | 1401.63 | Total Camping $ | 1177.03 |
| E Miles Today | 29 | E Total Miles | 3013.31 |
| E Total Fuel $ | 626.44 | Day # of Trip | 134-137 |
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