![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
E-Day, post eclipse...
Aug. 26th, 2017 05:41 pmBy the time we were ready to leave for Utah, I was ready to go to sleep. I had spent the past four of five days with long stretches behind the wheel, and with the eclipse behind us, the fatigue was catching up with me.
Natalie volunteered to drive the Honda, while the grandkids rode with Kyle.
After it became clear that traffic on Highway 220 out of Casper was no joking matter, I drifted off into the arms of Morpheus, waking when we reached a point about a mile or two north of Muddy Gap, Wyoming, where Highway 220 joins with Highway 287.
The traffic was horrendous. We'd stand idle for about 15 minutes, and then move slowly forward for about as long before coming to a stop and idling. We finally saw a gas station up ahead, on the left side of the road, and decided to stop in, both for a human pit stop and to wait until the car Kyle was driving (which was behind us) came into sight.
Despite a breathtaking price of $3.64 per gallon, I also decided to fill up the gas tank, just in case. The pit stop was not feasible, as most of the floor space inside the building was taken up by people standing in line for the restrooms.
Kyle eventually came into view and we fell in line behind him. During one of or idle periods, it became clear that a Wyoming state trooper was basically letting trauffic from 220 pass for a while, after which he'd move his cruiser and then let traffic from 287 go by. South of that confluence, the traffic picked up the pace.
I fell asleep again, until we reached Rawlings, on Interstate 80.
At Rawlings, Kyle filled up on gas and everyone stood in line for a pit stop. Whoever was in the men's room took his jolly sweet time going about his business, and after about 8 minutes (with about a half dozen people still waiting in front of me), I gave up and went back to the car.
I retained consciousness for a while as we tooled down I-80, but fell asleep again, waking only when we stopped at a store in Dutch John, Utah, to pick up firewood.
We eventually gained the campsite I had reserved online at around 9:30 pm, and we proceeded to erect the tent I had bought for the trip. In the dark. Using instructions that were way short of usable. It took a while, but the job got done, with the help of Kyle and Huntür.
Natalie and Kyle wanted to stay up and marvel at the night sky—which was truly magnificent, with the Milky Way stretching from one end of the sky to the other—but I was still tired, and so I lay down on the ground with only my sleeping bag and the tent's floor between me and Mother Nature, and fell asleep again.
To be continued...
Natalie volunteered to drive the Honda, while the grandkids rode with Kyle.
After it became clear that traffic on Highway 220 out of Casper was no joking matter, I drifted off into the arms of Morpheus, waking when we reached a point about a mile or two north of Muddy Gap, Wyoming, where Highway 220 joins with Highway 287.
The traffic was horrendous. We'd stand idle for about 15 minutes, and then move slowly forward for about as long before coming to a stop and idling. We finally saw a gas station up ahead, on the left side of the road, and decided to stop in, both for a human pit stop and to wait until the car Kyle was driving (which was behind us) came into sight.
Despite a breathtaking price of $3.64 per gallon, I also decided to fill up the gas tank, just in case. The pit stop was not feasible, as most of the floor space inside the building was taken up by people standing in line for the restrooms.
Kyle eventually came into view and we fell in line behind him. During one of or idle periods, it became clear that a Wyoming state trooper was basically letting trauffic from 220 pass for a while, after which he'd move his cruiser and then let traffic from 287 go by. South of that confluence, the traffic picked up the pace.
I fell asleep again, until we reached Rawlings, on Interstate 80.
At Rawlings, Kyle filled up on gas and everyone stood in line for a pit stop. Whoever was in the men's room took his jolly sweet time going about his business, and after about 8 minutes (with about a half dozen people still waiting in front of me), I gave up and went back to the car.
I retained consciousness for a while as we tooled down I-80, but fell asleep again, waking only when we stopped at a store in Dutch John, Utah, to pick up firewood.
We eventually gained the campsite I had reserved online at around 9:30 pm, and we proceeded to erect the tent I had bought for the trip. In the dark. Using instructions that were way short of usable. It took a while, but the job got done, with the help of Kyle and Huntür.
Natalie and Kyle wanted to stay up and marvel at the night sky—which was truly magnificent, with the Milky Way stretching from one end of the sky to the other—but I was still tired, and so I lay down on the ground with only my sleeping bag and the tent's floor between me and Mother Nature, and fell asleep again.
To be continued...
