July 7-9
Prior to leaving I searched the weather apps and found that we could go any direction we wanted. There were clear skies everywhere. I also looked for every location of Red Lobster, Skippers, and Long John Silver's I could find along our proposed routes. No luck except if we wanted to stop in Denver. I find it very strange that fish restaurants are mostly gone.
Day 1: Italy TX to Raton NM
We left before the crack of dawn so that we could get through Dallas before traffic really hit. Once we were north of that tangle of traffic we stopped for breakfast at a McDonald's and were carefully watched by a greedy gang of grackles.
We did not stop at the best donut shop ever in Wichita Falls, and the gift shops we used to visit on 287 are now out of business. So it was all about drive and drive and drive. We did find a really cool new one and of course I didn't write down either its the name or location. Ah well, I know it's on 287 somewhere in west Texas.
Day 2: Raton NM to Rock Springs WY
Raton is a lovely town, could be fun to spend a weekend. The morning drive was lovely. We went took the toll road around Denver and stopped at a couple of shops in Fort Collins to stretch our legs. I will admit to looking for western themed items to go with the new bedroom décor I was planning. No real luck but it was still nice to get out and move.
We were about 10 miles outside of Rock Springs when we drove through this huge dust cloud. Shortly after that my car had a panic attack. It had all the bells and whistles going off telling me to pull over. Flashing lights and warning notes on the screens and argh. Traffic was super heavy and the freeway was packed because of construction. I eventually pulled over. Shanna had pulled out the manuals and was reading. I figured I was driving a computer so the thing to do was restart. I restarted and we still had warnings but not as many. The car thought it was having a heart attack from what we could tell.
I made the executive decision to get back on the road and drive the remaining 5 miles to Rock Springs. After all, the check engine light was flashing, not solid. The car wasn't driving any differently than normal and there were no weird sounds. We managed to get back on the freeway and into Rock Springs where we checked into our motel and called the dealer.
They said to call back in the morning when their expert was there, but that I might want to take it through a car wash. WTF? I called my dealer back home and they said it might be the air filter. The manual was no help at all. We decided to drive it to a restaurant. Of course the Applebee's was now out of business but a local Mexican place was pretty good. When we got back in the car the lights and warnings were still on though the alarms had stopped.
We stopped to put gas in the car, got back in and everything was fine. WTF part 2.
My drama queen vehicle
Day 3: Rock Springs to Pocatello
We got up late since the dealer didn't open early. Called in and got the 'too busy but if you show up you might be fitted in' answer. Called my Pocatello dealer. They told me to go to any car parts store. These stores have the magic device that can read the codes and tell what is really wrong.
YAY that worked. The air filter was icky. Probably from driving through that big dust cloud. I would have bought a new one but they didn't have it in stock so we knocked the dirt off and put it back in. Problem solved. The car clearly had a panic attack. We headed for home. No more car problems.
In Kemmerer we stopped to check out another rock shop In Stone Fossils: https://instonefossils.com/.
A little side story... I love the books by Patricia C. Wrede where she reimagined the world and made magic part of it. Unfortunately she made the Americas devoid of native populations in order to make it a wild and magic place (there be dragons). I love the books despite this because of the humor and the characters it is set in the late 1800s/early 1900s Book 1: Thirteenth Child, Book 2: Across the Great Barrier, and Book 3: The Far West. We listened to these books while we were driving in the car. One of the books lists some of the wildlife beyond the great barrier. This list included a wooly rhinoceros. I had never heard of this creature till I read the books. I looked it up and they really did exist. I'm so bummed that like the wooly mammoth we no longer have them on the planet.
So when we stopped at the fossil store and there was a complete wooly rhinoceros skeleton I could hardly contain my glee.
Using Shanna for scale
My new fossil (Knightia eocaena) from this shop
Super cool to find these rock shops in Kemmerer. We finished our drive to Pocatello noticing the darkening of the skies. It would be strange to have it be mist or fog with such hot weather. *sigh* It was smoke. What we later learned and experienced is that smoke from the huge fires in California were drifting all over the west.
Glad to be home. - Jenny
