In June, got in our new truck and headed to Yellowstone with our trailer. What we thought would be an easy trip, started out as a complete and total nightmare. First, less than 50 miles from our starting point, in stop and go traffic, we had a guy honk at us and he let us know that our electric cord that we use to hook the trailer up to land based power was being drug down the freeway, so we made an emergency stop to coil in back up and lock it in place. Thankfully, the road had not damaged the plug so it was still usable.
We stopped in Rancho Cucamonga for dinner and then continued North on I15. All was going well until we were 3/4 of the way up the grade going in to Baker, CA. All of a sudden, an alarm on the dashboard goes off (beeeeeeeep!) and the truck loses power. We go from 70 miles an hour to about 20 miles per hour at the top. Justin plugged in the reader and it showed that we were having an overboost issue with the turbo. Mind you, we JUST had it serviced before we left.
We stopped in Baker, which was about 110 degrees outside to figure out if it was something we could continue driving with...or if we were stuck. It showed that if we restart the truck, it should clear the computer. While we were working on that, we went in to the trailer for a quick potty break only to find that the globe above the table/Lauren's bed had rattled loose and shattered everywhere!
We continued on to Las Vegas and all was well. We stayed at Sam's Town in Henderson because they have a nice RV campground there. The next morning, we went to the local Walmart to buy a few things we forgot...like a bike helmet for Lauren.
We made it up through the grade going through the Virgin River Gorge, which was terrifying, because it was under construction; single lane each way with K-rail on both sides. If we broke down there, we would have stopped all northbound traffic on the 15. Ugh! We stopped at the Cracker Barrel in Saint George for lunch a took a huge sigh of relief.
As we were pulling back on the the freeway en route to Park City, Utah, it happened again...but this time it was an underboost alarm on the turbo. We reset it and kept driving...questioning the whole time, "are we making the right decision to head further away from home?" As we were limping our way towards Park City, Justin was on the phone calling every Ford and diesel repair station along the route...but...it was Saturday...in Utah. Good luck! Nothing was open the next day and no one had room for us that day. Finally, we got the news that we could indeed take the truck in to the repair shop in Salt Lake City...on Monday! The day we were supposed to arrive in Grand Teton National Park. We called the KOA in Salt Lake City (that we had reservations for on the drive home) and they fortunately enough had a spot we could reserve. It was extremely stressful, but we finally made it to Salt lake City without any other issues.
Since we arrived on a Saturday night, and had all day Sunday with nothing to do, we decided to spend the morning at the Mormon temple. We attended the "Spoken Word" and then did a temple grounds tour.
Uncle Reed and Aunt Betty live just outside of Salt lake City, so they drove down to our campground and went to lunch with us that afternoon. It was great seeing them!
Monday morning, Justin took the truck to the Ford delaership and waited there while they worked on the truck. I took Lauren back in to downtown Salt Lake City. We rode the lightrail there (there was a stop just up the street from our campground!). We thought the repair would take all day, or even 2 days.
Much to our surprise, the truck was ready around 1pm and we hightailed it back to the campground so we could get on the road. We had called ahead to Colter Bay Village RV Park to let them know we would not be arriving on Sunday and would hopefully be there on Monday or Tuesday. They were so great and said not to worry, just keep them posted on our arrival date. They would not give up our spot without us talking to them first.
We made up the grade going in to Park City without issue. We then made it to the stop of the grade going in to Star Valley, WY! What a relief! We stopped in Afton, WY to check out the town. My dad's ancestors established the township in the 17 or 1800's! There are still buildings and streets there named after his family members. Basically, history goes that my moonshining, athiest grandfathers came in to the Star Valley to do fur trapping and basically saved all of the Mormons that had moved in to the Valley over the Summer but had no winter survivor skills. The history books say that they were friendly and helpful but refused to convert to Mormonism.
The highway between Star Valley and Jackson Hole was beautiful. We both agreed that we would not mind retiring there some day.
We arrived in Jackson Hole around 7pm. Our itinerary had called for us to spend the day in Jackson Hole, and since we lost a day because of the truck, we stopped in Jackson Hole en route to our campground in Grand Teton National Park. Ideally, you do not want to drive in the area after dark because of the wildlife on the road...but it was inevitable, so we decided to just enjoy our time in Jackson Hole, even if it meant a REALLY late night and a scary drive in the dark.
Lauren was obsessed with the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar! We went on our planned stagecoach ride around town, did some shopping and had dinner. Around 9:30pm we got back on the road for Grand Teton National Park. During daylight hours, it should take about 55 minutes to travel that distance. Unfortunately, for us, it took almost 3 hours. The night time driving speeds were already reduced, but then there were NO CARS on the road, so we went super slow. We encountered a few elk and deer just off the road, so we were thankful we were going slow enough to stop at truck and a 9,000 pound trailer on a dime, if we needed to.
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