We left Thompson Springs around 10:30am Thursday morning as planned and backtracked on I-70 westbound through Green River, Utah. We turned north once again on US191 about five miles west of town. It was a relatively easy drive until we hit Indian Canyon just north of Helper. We drove this route back in 2014 and recognized some of the landmarks, but I didn’t remember how tough the climb out of the canyon was. We finally topped out over 9,100 feet above sea level.

Our next stop was at Steinaker Lake State Park, north of Vernal, Utah. We had reserved a site with water and 50-amp electrical service. It was hot once again and we wanted 50-amp service to run both roof-mounted air conditioners. Although our site was a pull-through, the roads and paved sites are narrow and tight. Our “pull-through” site had a really sharp turn before the narrow exit – no way could we drive through it. I disconnected the truck from the back of the coach in anticipation of reversing out of the site in the morning. We were at an elevation of about 5,200 feet above sea level.

Donna went for a short hike around the reservoir and shot a few pictures.

After a mostly quiet night – we had some gusty winds that woke us up a couple of times – we were back on the road Friday morning. Three straight travel days were wearing Ozark the cat out – she’s not too keen on the travel days.

Our route northbound on US191 had us climbing again. On one section of road, there was a sign warning of sharp curves with 10 switchbacks over a four-mile stretch. Once again, I kept an eye on our engine coolant and transmission fluid temperatures as it was hot outside – around 90 degrees. On hard climbs, I slow down and downshift the transmission manually to keep the engine RPM around 1900. By downshifting, I reduce the load on the engine by utilizing torque multiplication through gear reduction. Running at higher RPM keeps the radiator fan spinning at higher speed and circulates the coolant through the engine quickly for efficient cooling.

When we crossed the state line into Wyoming, I remarked to Donna that I’d never driven in Wyoming without seeing antelope. For the next 15 minutes, I wondered if I jinxed myself before I saw a lone antelope buck about 75 yards off the roadside.

We hit I-80 about midway between Green River, Wyoming and Rock Springs. We checked in at the Sweetwater Events Center – we’ve stayed here a few times and never had a problem getting a site. It’s a huge property with arenas, race tracks, a golf course and about 1,000 RV sites. There were only three or four RVs in sight when we arrived Friday afternoon and a few more showed up on Saturday.

We paid for four nights ($114) and set up. We took the truck into town to stock up on groceries at Smith’s Grocery store. After dinner, Donna saw our Verizon Jetpack mifi jump off of the window sill! The lithium-ion battery pack had blown up! This happened to our last Jetpack a couple of times before it finally went kaput after about three or four years. This one is about three years old. I put a back-up battery in it and it turned on briefly before an error message stating “no battery” appeared and it shut down for good.

Saturday morning I went to the Verizon store at the White Mountain Mall. The woman at the store there told me there was a recall on the Verizon mifi and I needed to call a special phone line for it. I looked at the recall notice in the store and it didn’t include our model (6620). She told me I needed to call – she couldn’t help me. I made the phone call and as I suspected our model wasn’t included in the recall.

I knew there was another Verizon store about a mile away and I went there. The woman there told me she sold her one and only Jetpack a few days earlier. Then she told me there was a third Verizon store about half a mile up the road. I went there and they had two Jetpacks in stock. I bought a new model 8800L Jetpack mifi and we’re back in business. The Sweetwater Events Center has wireless wifi, but it’s not 100% reliable.

We headed down to Bunning Park near the old downtown area for the Blues and Brews Festival a little before 3pm. We attended this festival a few years ago and had a great time. Last time, they had only a handful of breweries participating and a couple of very good bands. This time we found many more breweries represented, a larger audience and the opening band was not so good.

The second band was unusual and they sounded good. What was most unusual was their drummer. He sat on a wooden box and used soft-tipped drumsticks to drum against the box. The box had a microphone or pickup inside to amplify it. It actually worked well.

Admission was $40 and it included unlimited 7-ounce beer samples. I had a wristband and they gave me a miniature mug – the vendors were supposed to check wristbands and only fill the 7-ounce mugs – but a few people had pint glasses that they filled with multiple pours into the approved 7-ounce mug. Donna was the designated driver, so she didn’t pay or get a wristband.

I knew the third and final band would be good when they opened with Too Rolling Stoned by Robin Trower. Their band was called Stones Throw and they were very good.

We had a good time people watching and listening to music. We bugged out of there at 7pm after eating burritos from the Taco Time food truck onsite.

In my last post, I mentioned meeting Curt Mangan and touring his guitar and bass string factory. When I talked with him, he told me they were selling strings as fast as they can make them. They have warehouse distributors in England, Europe and Asia – I think he said Japan and Singapore – as well as around three hundred retailers in the US. But he surprised me by saying the majority of his sales come through his online store! I think I’ll change my guitar strings sooner rather than later so I can make a fair comparison against the strings I’ve been using instead of waiting for these strings to sack out. If I wait until these strings lose their tone, anything will sound better, so I won’t be able to accurately judge if the Curt Mangan strings are equal or better.

We had a couple of visitors today! One of Donna’s tennis friends from Viewpoint, Val Tremelling and her husband Shorty, live about 100 miles north of Rock Springs. Donna sent a message to Val on Friday that we were here in Rock Springs and if they happened to be in town, be sure to let her know. As it turned out, they were on their way to a family BBQ and stopped by to see us before heading there.

The temperature here reached 90 on Friday and Saturday. Today is cooler – in the mid 80s with gusty winds. Tomorrow should be cooler before it heats up again on Tuesday. We plan to pull out of here on Tuesday and follow US191 up to US89 south of Jackson, then hit US26 into Idaho. That’s the current plan, we’ll see how that shapes up.

*Just so you know, if you use this link to shop on Amazon and decide to purchase anything, you pay the same price as usual and I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!