I hit the road on Thursday morning, not nearly as early as I would have liked but I had a few loose ends to tie up before pulling out of town. My great nephew, Eric, (Kee-rist! That makes me sound so damn old) was traveling with me to Missoula. Eric had spent the summer in Vegas working with mybaby boyDarian, and was ready to go back to school and escape the summer heat. Everything went off without a hitch (pun intended). We were on the road by 9:15 a.m. heading for Salt Lake City…that’s the first major leg of the trip. We stopped for a cat nap somewhere around noon, just pulled off in a ‘trucker spot’, cranked up the Onan, turned on the air, and snoozed. Sweet! Taking your bed with you has to be one of the greatestpercs on earth. We made it to some small town/trucker spot about 30 milessouth of Salt Lake by 8 p.m.ish and I was out of steam. This sleeping for about five to six hours and then waking up for the long run, is hard on me.Lately I’m awake at 3 a.m. and that’s the time I would normally be getting off shift if I was on the regular schedule. Everything is turned upside down right now. And at this moment, I could care less. It’s just – way – damn- kewl!

By 6:30 a.m., we were heading through Salt Lake. I set the cruise control for 60, and all the way through Salt Lake and the outskirts, I never had to take it off. That’s down right damn amazing. That’s the easiest run I’ve ever had through there, no matter what time of day. After more stops, and another nap break around 1 p.m., we made it into Missoula MT at 7 PST. My old stomping grounds. It seems so strange to be here and not go visit my sis. Vickie, the long haul, truck driving queen is on the road. But she’ll make the family shindig this coming week in Idaho. That’s my destination, the panhandle in Idaho.

We pulled into another empty lot/space by a RV sales lot where other RVers were spending the night, right off the freeway on Reserve Street. Eric was picked up by a friend, I went to the shower and sleep. it’s now 4:14 a.m. Pacific Time, 5:14 a.m. Mountain time, and I’m firing up the Silver Steed shortly to make my destination point, hopefully by around noon today. I can’t even begin to express my awe at the way the Steed handles the towing and management of the load of the coach. It’s downright damned fricking incredible. Unless I’m climbing a grade, or the road is exceptionally rough, I would never know I’m hauling anything behind me. More than once I’ve chuckled over the fact that I might not be, maybe I lost the coach somewhere in the miles behind. Well…maybe that’s more of a nightmare than something I should be chuckling over.

The only real nightmare is the cost of diesel. But in that respect, the Steed’s ‘info’ chart tells me I’m getting 10.3 to 10.9 MPG, over 1,000 miles. Yes…I’m going to chart it myself but it’s still damn fascinating. I figured I’d be lucky if I got 7 MPG while I was towing. What the hell do I know?For sure alot more than I’m going to divulge here. But when it comes to vehicles, load weights, towing, and all that schmalzy high tech stuff, I don’t know crap.

Time to shut down the motostat and drive off into the sunrise.