Departure day arrives. Sept 5, with a desired departure at 7am. We are anxious to get going and manage to leave early. The goal today is Ely, Nv. We are traveling Hwy 50, a road we have driven many times in the past. Once again I am struck by the beauty of the Nevada desert. The way the clouds paint the mountains that surround us. How the sage appears green next to the road but grayish brown in a distance. A friend has recommended Sacramento Pass Recreation area as a great place to camp free for a night. This is about 45 miles east of Ely and well worth the trip. We encounter a rain shower about 5 miles from the camp ground but it blows through by the time we get there.

There are about 15 camp spaces, each with a covered concrete pad and picnic table, a fire ring, barbecue and a square sanded tent pad. First days drive complete having covered 564.6 miles.

Day 2 starts early as we are on the road at 7. These first 4 days are hard travel days as the goal is Bloomington, Il by Saturday. I am not sure why I didn't think about it, but we travel only 30 or so miles and lose an hour to a time zone change. The speed limit in Utah is 80mph and we are covering distance. This little Chevy truck is not having any problems maintaining speed through any of the mountains we have crossed, though the true challenge remains ahead. I-70 through Colorado will cross some mountains that reach over 10,000 feet. I am pleased to say that while it worked hard it maintained what the speed limit was which varied from 65 to 75 mph.

We continued past the originally planned stop because the weather was rainy and we were hoping for it to clear when we dropped out of the mountains. The day had offered a wide variety of weather from dry to sprinkles to a hard rain.

We finally stopped just east of Denver in Brighton, Co some 640.4 miles from the days start point. The weather did cooperate as we now had just partly cloudy skies. We stayed at the Barr Lake RV Park mostly because the website claimed wifi. Well they didn't have it. Would only stay here again if there was nowhere else to go. Not impressed, looked more like a storage lot for how close everything was. It was also close to an airport, next to train tracks and was in the flight path of geese that loved to squawk.

Once again on day 3 we are on the road early. Again we lose an hour. We completely cross Nebraska and enter into Iowa after a full day of interesting weather. Avoca, IA is a charming little town with old Victorian style homes with chairs on the front porch so folks can sit and watch the very light traffic. The draw is a county fair camp grounds. They offer 25 sites with water, power, and sewer hook ups for $20/night. This is really a nice overnight stop with lots of trees. They had had lots of recent rain though as some of the sites were rather muddy. We found a nice location and settled in for the night. Heard some people arrive late and they discussed how wet some of the spaces were. Another 563.6 miles logged and we are in a good spot to reach the desired Bloomington by mid afternoon tomorrow. We take advantage and start Sat with a little breakfast before we hit the road again. This time not leaving until almost 8 am.

Sat is overcast but a pleasant temperature. We are on the road as desired about 8. We arrive at our friends in Bloomington, Il at 2:25 pm and will spend the next 3 days visiting with these folks before moving on to Northbrook, Il. I will report back sometime during the stay with them.