Oshkosh or Bust The Trip Home Day 5 and 6
Oshkosh Or Bust 2021 The Blog The Trip Home Day 5 & 6
Okay I’m just a little shy of a month late on getting this written, so come on no memory lapse’s.
August 6th, 2021
Well the day started out a little early for the wife and I, we were up early and decided to get the show on the road and continue towards home.
We packed up the inside of the camper grabbed some snacks and drinks for the truck and then proceeded to re-hook up and proceed out for the highway. Before doing so, we quickly dumped the black water and grey water tanks which took about 15 minutes give of take.
With all of the work done, we pulled out of the Three Forks KOA camp ground, turned left and got the show on the road. Back on interstate 90 east bound towards Butte and eventually Interstate 15 South and what we thought would be our last big push for home.
The run into Butte took us about an hour or so, and would have been a really beautiful scenery if it wasn’t once again for all of the smoke in the air. We then eventually hit our exit that showed us heading towards Salt Lake City and Las Vegas, that’s right we were on Interstate 15 South bound! The drive on this road was uneventful, and again would have been beautiful to see the scenery if it wasn’t for the smoke.
During the drive my wife and I talked a lot, and we began to make more trip plans with our camper and plans to bring along our baby pup Ms. Scarlett. As we were having these discussions we began to feel the wind kinda knock us around a little bit, and then began to see signs that were warning of severe wind conditions, and my wife looked up on the weather app, that it was supposed to be nasty south of Salt Lake City.
Now keep in mind that I think I’m a pretty good driver (sshhh don’t tell my wife), but having a 26 foot camper towed behind your truck brings another sense of oh crap…
During the drive through Idaho to the Utah State Line, I had gotten a call from the Hill AFB Camp Ground to see if we were going to be there for the evening or not. So after some talking with my wife and realizing that I was actually a little more tired than I was originally willing to admit, I called the Hill AFB Camp Ground back and told them we would be there for the night.
Yes, I admit it, I was tired after 9 hours of driving that day, but was also concerned with the winds and just didn’t want to take any un-necessary chances.
About 45 minutes or so after crossing the Utah State Line from Idaho we were getting off the highway and headed towards Hill AFB. The GPS on my phone had us going in another direction and it took us past and it actually routed is through the gate right next to the air museum.
Once we were through this gate it seemed like it took us another 20 minutes to drive to the Bases Family Camp Ground, but it gave us sometime to kinda of soak in how the Air Force has their base set-up and appreciate how each of the services look at taking care of their people and the mission.
We eventually made it to the camp ground and proceeded to check-in. Now remember the you have to wear a mask mandates were back in place, so here I am wearing a mask into the Camp Ground office. Yeah that cracked me up as the guy giving me the information about the site and the other information wasn’t even wearing a mask nor was his co-worker. Got love hypocritical people.
Yeah, as we drove into the Hill AFB, Camp Ground we glanced over to our left and noticed that the recreation field was filled with all sorts of stuff and they had a band playing. My wife looked at me and said “HELL NO!!!”. It was a Military appreciation day event and we had arrived just in time for it to begin. ARGH!!!
We eventually got to Spot #1 in the Camp Ground and my wife guided me into the spot and we began to set up the camper. It was during this time as we set everything up that I noticed that
the rear left landing gear on the camper was not hosed-up. When the hell did that happen? Yeah, your guess is as good as mine.
Soon after arriving, I took a minute to call Barber RV and ended up leaving a message with our Service Rep to call me back to set-up a date and time to bring the camper in once home.
We eventually got everything nice and leveled out, un-hooked the truck and at that point decided to head over to the Air Force Exchange to see what they had to offer us, and top off the fuel in the truck.
The exchange was nothing to write home about, however it was cool as apparently the Air Force Exchange will let you buy firearms there, but of course you had to show proof of residence, so I was automatically hosed, especially since we were from California. I did try to purchase a few things for my Air Force brother, but because I’m from you know California was told to pound sand.
While walking around the exchange, we came across the propaganda section for Air Force related stuff. I picked-up a HILL AFB t-shirt (I was trying to be a smart ass to my friend) and then my wife came across the ultimate gift for her. That’s right we found a “Space Force” rain jacket, it had the logo and all, she had to have it. So I bought it for her. Nice guy right!
Upon leaving the exchange, I took my wife over to Taco Bell and procured her some food so she didn’t have to cook food that night back at the camper.
Once done over at the exchange and the gas station, we headed back to the camper and began to chill out.
Back at the camper the wife decided to watch some of her shows and I decided to go outside and sit down with a cigar, beer and tunes and just try to unwind a little bit. It was during this time that Barbar RV called and our Service Rep Geoff was on the phone with me talking to me about the trip and the problems with the camper.
I think I was on the phone with him for almost 25 minutes and he kept telling me that he would make everything right. Not sure what that mean honestly (now I know, since we’ve been home and trust me it’s all good), he couldn’t get me in right away, but asked that I bring the camper in the following week after we made it home. I had told him that I wanted to speak to the Sales Manager and the Service Manager as I was pretty pissed off that I ran into the situation with the bad bearing ended up with more damage than I should have. SO that was at least locked in place.
While sitting outside I watched people walk-by and all I could do was smile/ laugh at how they were. The sky was so smoke filled that every time I heard a plane fly by and I looked to see what it was, I couldn't see a thing.. Gotta love fire season in the Western Part of the States.
After a while a really nice husband and wife stopped by to talk to me about our camping experience and what I thought about the camper and such. I told them my thoughts (all positive BTW) and talked to them about my picture taking and was able to give them one of my business cards too.
After a while, I ended up going inside and eventually my wife and fell asleep. The next day would be our big push and our last one to get us home.
August 7th, 2021 – The Last Day On The Road!!
Well once again the morning was really early for me and my wife, we were both up at around 0430am, and decided to get the show on the road as we wanted to get home this day.
It took us about 30 minutes to pack-up/ disconnect everything outside and hook the truck-up, but once that was done, we were gone!!!
The trip from Hill AFB to Las Vegas was going to take us about 6 or 7 hours to include stops to get fuel and such. Remember my truck is only getting roughly 275 miles per tank of gas.
The drive out of Ogden/ Salt Lake City and Provo was uneventful and once again we averaged about 65 miles an hour as our top speed. Nothing more to report here as it was still dark out and the sun hadn’t come up yet.
After driving for about 2 ½ hours we made our first stop at a Flying J truck stop, topped off the gas tank and took a potty break. Once back in the truck as we pulled away from the pumps one of the local workers almost back into us and took out my truck and the camper (yeah that would have just been great, right) When I stopped honked my horn and yelled at the guy, he just looked at me like I was this crazy ass idiot from California (well he wasn’t entirely wrong, was he?)
Our next fuel stop before Vegas was going to be Beaver, Utah. The drive to Beaver was uneventful and boring, as there wasn’t much to see cause of the smoke in the air due all the wild fires.
We stopped in Beaver to get fuel and take a potty break, stretch the legs a little bit. The wife and I ended up buying a couple of seat cushion things to help us sit better in the truck, they were made by the Purple Mattress people, so it couldn’t be all bad right. The cushion we got for me was nice and actually pretty comfortable.
The drive from Beaver, Utah to Las Vegas, Nevada took us about 4 ½ hours and by the time we got to the south side of Vegas, we desperately needed fuel. The wife found the closes Costco to get fuel and yeah it wasn’t that dang close. We drove about another 5 miles off the interstate to get to Costco and the line to just get fuel was freaking HUGH!!!
As I sat in line waiting to get fuel, my wife went inside Costco to use the bathroom, only to return to pick-up her COVID Mask as the state of Nevada was now requiring masks for everyone to go into stores. Eventually I pulled up to a gas pump and got my fuel. As I got fuel I asked the guys there to help me get away from the pumps as people were very impatient and didn’t want to wait for us to pull out, which was going to cause problems. Once done getting fuel, these two gents stopped the traffic long enough for us to pull through and out of the gas station area. So THANKS COSTCO Gas Guys for the assist.
At this point we drove up the road and proceeded to get back on to Interstate 15 South and closer to home.
The run from Vegas to Victorville was about 3 hours and we ended up on the Pear Bloosom Highlway which would eventually take us to California Route 14 and then the 5 North. The run was uneventful to Victorville, the smoke finally cleared up into blue skies as we approached the Barstow and if you looked in the rearview mirror you could see where the line was drawin’ in the sky.
The run from Victorville to Oxnard took about another three hours, and we couldn’t wait to be home and be around our animals and family.
Not much to really see as far as scenery except that we were tempted for about 10 seconds to stop off at Magic Mountain (aka “Wally World) and hit a few rides before getting home. Yeah screw that!!!
WE finally arrived home at around 5pm and were greeted by our Dogs and birds, and it was about another 20 minutes before we were in the hot tub with a cold ass drink!!
We left home on July 19th, 2021 and returned to California on August 7th, 2021. In all we drove a total of 6,108 miles. This involved us driving through California (obviously), Nevada (2),
Utah (2), Wyoming (2) (my cousin say’s we’re jinxed here), South Dakota (2), Minnesota (2), Wisconsin, Montana, Idaho. We experienced some beautiful scenery and the pain of mechanical failure. But through it all we had a pretty nice trip.
I will put together a synopsis of the whole trip, from the issues or concerns about using the camper to the drive to and from Wisconsin to my over all thought about Oshkosh/ Air Ventura 2021.
Thanks again to my wife, daughters, cousin, mom and all of our family and friends for your support during this trip. It is very very much appreciated.
Until later.
Semper Fi,
Frank Sellin
1/9 Everywhere.