Oshkosh or Bust 2021 July 19th Oxnard to Hill AFB, UT

Oshkosh or Bust 2021 – July 19th Oxnard to Hill AFB, UT (Day 1)

Well, this is a day late and a dollar short, but here it goes.

So I woke up about 1145pm at home and proceeded to get myself together and make the final preparations to hit the road with the main goal of making it through the desert before the heat of the day hit.

I got dressed, took care of all three of our dogs, and then proceeded to pull the food out of the freezers and load it up into the camper and then grab water to drink in the truck while out on the road. Once this was done, I headed back into the house to say goodbye to my wife, my mom (whom was still awake) and of course my dogs.

Then it happened…..

After saying goodbye to everyone, locking the door, I got in the truck and then proceeded to try and start the truck. Yeah that didn’t work.
CRAP!!!!

I tried a few more times to start the truck but all it would do was make a clicking noise, which told me that the batter was dead or close to being dead. ARGH!!! I then proceeded to check over everything on the truck and then the camper. Yeah while I kept everything hooked up to the truck, I didn’t disconnect the electrical connection and I believe this is what killed the truck battery, but hey I had power to the camper!

Time to go back into the house, and try to use the wife’s Toyota RAV4 Hybrid to jump start the truck. Yeah didn’t think this one through very well. Cause her car is a Hybrid, it doesn’t have a normal battery and I had also recalled reading somewhere that it wasn’t a very good idea to try and do it anyway as I could potentially burn out the electronics in her car and my truck. So it was now time to call AAA, back inside the house I went.

I called AAA and after going through several of the menu’s got it set up to get someone out to my house to give me a jump start. It was going to take them about an hour to come out to jump start me, so instead of leaving about Midnight or so, it was now looking like it would be until well after 0100 (1 am for you non-military types) before I would get on the road. According to AAA the driver would be at my home by 0142.

So by about 0145 the AAA Driver called and said he was just about there and I met with him outside. I popped the hood on the truck and he hooked his jumper cable up and it took about 30 seconds (“That’s What She Said” and she fired off.

Now it was time to say goodbye again to everyone and getting the show on the road.

So once I left the house, I decided to take Route 126 which takes me through the East Side of Ventura, Santa Paula, Filmore and eventually to Interstate 5, then onto Santa Clarita and off to my right hand side Six Flags Magic Mountain (Please keep your hands in the car at all times, sit down and don’t stand up).

During this little run out to the main interstate, I discovered that my gas milage on my truck was cut almost in half! ARGH, I should have known that this would happen, but didn’t really think about it until then. Well so much for driving Mach 5 on the highway.

Once on Interstate 5 South, I kicked the truck up to about 60 mph put on the cruise control and just drove on down the road for about 13 miles and then headed North on Route 14 which would take me through Lancaster/ Palmdale and eventually to Mojave. This drive was pretty boring and I managed to stay driving in the right lane of the freeway and maintain a constant speed, but still kept looking at my fuel gauge and other information to see what I was doing right or wrong.

As I reached Mojave, I noticed and felt it was time to get gas for the truck before pushing onto Barstow and the push on to Vegas. I pulled into the first gas station and purchased the fuel and was there just long enough to get that and to keep going.

Once I left the gas station, I pushed on down the road, past the Mojave Airport and the Airliner Bone Yard, and eventually hit Route 58 East, this would last for about 65 miles. The drive itself at this point was pretty uneventful, except that the skies to my left (North) was lighting up every often from hits of lightning from a storm that was passing over the area.

Eventually I hit Interstate 15 North and was now on the road towards Vegas and eventually Ogden, Utah. I did make one more stop at “Eddie’s World” to top off my gas tank before getting the drive going towards Vegas, only because I knew it was better to be cautious and not take any chances.

So from Barstow to Las Vegas proper is about 157 miles and the drive was uneventful with a lot of going up and down hills and such, but I kept my speed constant and stayed in that right lane on the highway and the 2 hours or so that it took me to get to Vegas, went by without much fan fair. The only major issue I had was figuring out what music to listen to and whether or not I should have a cigar or not.

Once I reached Vegas, I kept myself in the same lane of traffic and that was the best choice I made, as I made it in time for the morning rush hour. The traffic was at least moving especially past the “Strip” and on into North Las Vegas. Then to top it off, it decided to rain a little bit, so I just slowed down enough to make sure nothing stupid happened.

During this period I reached out our friend Cliff and to let him know that I was pulling through Vegas and headed further north. He gave me a few very much appreciated pointers about driving and what I should do about the fuel issues and such. It wasn’t much longer than this, that I was upon my next fuel stop.

I pulled into the Love’s Truck Stop in Apex, Nevada and proceeded to find a spot to pull into to take on fuel that would take me up into Utah.

Fuel stop done, now to keep on moving through the desert, during this period of the trip, it was awesome as it wasn’t that warm out, and I was able to put the windows down in the truck and with the cruise control set, just kicked backed jammed tunes and looked out at the desert scenery.

After a while, I crossed the State line into Arizona from Nevada. Wait Arizona? Really? Yup sure enough you have a short hop to go through in Arizona before getting into Utah. But the run in through the “Beaver Dam Mountains” was really pretty with a lot of really neat colors and even a few glimpses of the river running through as well. But then eventually the road finally hits Utah.

Here it was about 1130 (1130am) finally driving across the State line into Utah and the City Of St. George. My goal at this point was to get to the town of Beaver and stop to get fuel, before pressing on to Ogden and my final destination of Hill AFB.

The drive up the Interstate 15 corridor is really pretty in Utah, with lots of wide open spaces, mountains, trees and just argh hard to describe. I wanted too on multiple occasions stop and just take the time to take pictures, but honestly was also really wanting to get up to Hill AFB, so I could relax and enjoy a couple of days to myself and explore a little bit of a town that I’ve never been too.

Around 3pm I was getting close to Salt Lake City, and the skies began to get dark and I started to see a few lightning strikes here and there and then it started to rain a little bit, and then the traffic hit. But what amazed me was that unlike California the traffic continued to more and people were actually not driving like a bunch of nuts.

Eventually the exit from Hill AFB was upon me and I turned off the road and proceeded up North Hill Road and the Main Gate.

After getting my ID checked at the gate I asked the guard where the camp ground was located, he laughed and said make a left at the light and you can’t miss it.

Pulled into the Camp Ground and was stopped by the Camp Host, who proceeded to provide me with the information about the camp ground and pointed out the spot where I was supposed to park. I backed the Camper into the spot and began to set everything up.

After hooking everything up and figuring out how the water system worked I noticed that a bunch of water running out from underneath the camper. Yeah this was the fresh water over fill tube. The guy next to me helped me out, thankfully and I turned the water off, and then proceeded to drain my now over filled water tank. OOPS. I think I have this figured out now!.

Once I got that figured out, it was time to called it a night and to figure out what to do for Tuesday.

Well that’s it for Monday’s trip news, sorry about no new “REAL” photo’s, but I do have some from my adventures from today. But I’ll put some of those up tomorrow before I hit the road.
Good Night!!!
Semper Fi,
Frank