BRIGHAM CITY, UT TO KENNEWICK, WA HOME STRETCH!

Sunday July 30^th: 

Driving ( Brigham City, UT to Tri Cities, WA) (9hrs, 572 mi) (Home!!)

We did it we were up and rolling by 7ish, and I think all of us were ready to just be home. Mandi & I missed our dogs we left with a sitter, and honestly we were all pretty beat from runnin’ and gunnin’ the last day or so. Over/Rock Landing is way easier on the mind than highways… Must be the lack of traffic?

We jumped on I-80 northbound and made a blitz for Twin Falls, ID. But pulled off near Rupert as I had acquired a strange vibration. So while the other took advantage of the facilities aka Highway Oasis (that were under construction), I check lugs, u-joint’s and equalized my tire pressures before pressing on.

I recall getting better mileage as we were targeting Mt Home, ID for the next fuel stop, and the weird vibration had gone away. We hit Mt Home and fueled and grabbed lunch at Wingers, and then put in the longest 2-3 hours, into Ontario, OR for a quick fuel and go. We were getting closer to home and everybody was getting anxious to be done, next stop La Grande.

We hit the Truckstop on the East side of La Grande, to avoid all the country traffic in the main exit. Fueled up and rolled on through 3 hours later we were parting way via radio at Exit 114 on Hwy 182 as Mandi & I pulled off and made the final 5 mile dash to the house here in Kennewick.

Prologue:

The trip although long and hot was a success, my supercharger install performed very well although I’m still getting used to the weak peddle might need to look at option there as my Diablo computer has settings to make the pedal feel better, but it doesn’t play well with the supercharger tune as all it does is dump extra fuel. I also need to find a better cooling solution, if I want to enjoy windows up AC on trips in the summer. With triple digit temps use of the AC while climbing grades is a no go.

As usual with all our Colorado trips, it was awesome, and yes it begs for a return, but after hitting the state for three consecutive years, we’ll be looking at other options for our clubs’ out of state trip for the next couple of years.

Thanks for riding along!

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MEEKER, CO TO BRIGHAM CITY, UT ON THE BACKROADS…

Saturday July 29^th: 

Driving backroads Meeker to Brigham City (2 lane highways  391 miles – 8hrs?)

So we got an early start (for us) and were rolling around 8ish, leaving Meeker we traveled first to a little hamlet called Maybell, CO on CR 57 & Hwy 40. We stopped at a little store hoping for bathrooms, nope and got sent to the city park. None of us had ever travelled this route so we had no idea what we’d find along the way, but that’s part of the adventure, right?

After Maybell we continued on Hwy 40 to Hwy 318 heading to Dutch John, UT, it was all rolling hills (mountains) and valleys, ranches, etc. and following the Green River, it really looked like a wonderful place to live. We chatted about what we would need to live there (high speed internet seemed to be a must for all, oh and a kid to come shovel us out in the winters).

The temps were climbing fast up near 100 degrees, but dropping into Dutch John was interesting, at one point we’re cruising along on Highway 318 in and out of UT/WY and all of a sudden the highway turns to a half assed dirt road (Brown’s Park Rd) up over a small pass (6300’) dropped into Wyoming for half a minute and finally hitting the pavement again now Hwy 191 down to a gas station in Dutch John for fuel and we were off again.

Next we hit Hwy 44 north to Hwy 414  Traversing the lower edge of Flaming Gorge Reservoir, Next stop Mountain View WY for fuel and a late lunch/early dinner. We chose the bowling alley (only place with burgers), and then made our way north and west avoiding the awaiting I-84 to take in the lesser seen route that we had a warning of road closure, but chanced it anyway. Hwy 414 turns into Hwy 412, north and west up to Hwy 189 north again to Kemmerer, WY.

Kemmerrer was a drive by rolling on towards Logan, UT. Hwy 189 turns into 30 or 89, we took 89 the road supposedly closed (thinking if it was closed and we couldn’t get around it we could always turn back and run back to the boring freeway.

Lucky for us it was open, although a semi obviously had some problems at the top of the 7000’ pass above Bear Lake. A flat out crazy place that apparently all of central UT goes to in July, it was a veritable zoo in traffic. We grabbed gas and hit yet another 7500’ pass up out of Bear Lake then dropping through one of the most scenic canyon areas we’d seen (reminding us of the lower half of Hwy 12 above the tunnel along the Rimrock Lake). In this case we were following Beaver Creek and Then the Logan River down into Logan, UT.

In Logan as the sun was setting we gassed and made an all out run for Brigham City to our awaiting hotel rooms and bed. It was nearly 10 pm by the time our heads hit the pillows, but we decided on another early start to try and beat the heat tomorrow.

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