Roaming with Beau - Day 2

Twin Falls, ID to Fillmore, UT

The southern fringe of Idaho before entering Utah on I-84.

It was a slow motion getting back on the road this morning. I knew it was cold outside as the trailer furnace was kicking on and off most of the night. I made getting the water going for my coffee a priority as the heat from the stove would help heat up the trailer a bit more. As usual, Beau was very anxious to go out for his morning walk. When I opened he hesitated for just a brief moment as the cold wind gave him a blast. The smells of the horses and other animals about the fairgrounds were worth the chill. The ground was well frozen and the grass crunched under out feet. We made a few loops around the RV area within the fairgrounds and that was enough for me. For a change there was no hesitation on Beau's part when I opened the door to the rig.

We both had a light breakfast and made preparations for getting underway. I had left the truck and trailer connected the night before so I wouldn't have to fumble around too much with frozen fingers getting ready to go. Even so, I managed to drive away with one of the wheel chocks still in place but didn't realize it until arriving at out next stop. Second time I've done that!

We made our way along the southern outskirts of Twin Falls and back onto I-84 east and then southeast between Twin Falls and Pocatello. From there it was about 80 miles with a vast view of absolute nothingness. The snow covered plains and small hills made it difficult to find a horizon. There were intermittent snow flurries as we entered into Utah and passed the small town of Snowville. All I saw was the sign and maybe a gas station. From there the scenery slowly began to change as we entered the more suburban areas of Brigham City and Ogden, leading into Salt Lake City. The highway went from two lanes to six with the large volume of cars on a Saturday afternoon. Usually there is some white-knuckling pulling a trailer in such a populated area but people were rather polite as the merged on and off the freeway and maneuvered around me. Slowly the lanes reduced and the traffic lightened as we continued south past Provo.

My original intention was to get to a strip of BLM land near Panguitch but it was getting late and I had had enough driving for the past two days. I saw a large billboard advertising a "Love's" fuel stop that had RV parking with hookups in Fillmore, UT. I had previously read about it on Campendium with good reviews so I took a chance. I pulled in and there were eight spots just off from the fuel pumps and right next to the freeway. At this point it didn't matter to me. It was clean, had a dog run, and power to run my electric heater so I wouldn't burn off propane at the same rate I had the previous night. The price was reasonable and the spots were on concrete and flat. Once again I did not have to unhook the truck from the trailer and from inside the trailer it was fairly quiet.

I took Beau over to the dog run and there was another Golden. "Vinny" was about Beau's age and they enjoyed playing together. Vinny's owner was a trucker from South Dakota. I told him we were from North Bend and he knew exactly where that was as he had stopped at the T/A station there and remembered very well having to chain up for Snoqualmie Pass. When he left to get back on the road Beau and I went in for dinner and had a short walk before bed. It was cold here but without the wind we had in Twin Falls. Before bed I decided I would take things a bit slower and planned to move on to Bryce Canyon NP despite the projected weather and stay somewhere in the area.