Highway 287 – This is RoadTrippin!

September 13, 2014

I have figured out something about myself; I like to see the whole picture.   I need to know the end point and I need to have checkpoints along the way that I can check off.  I started figuring this out when I was working out; I needed to see the count down on the treadmill, running 5K races , I needed to know I only had 1 more K or 1 more hill to go (just ask Andrew).  All that to say I NEED a map and one bigger than the 2 inch screen of a GPS, I don’t want to just see the next 10 – 30 miles – I want to see it all and I want to know all of the options.  So here we are on Day 2 of our Roadtrip and I can’t find our Atlas – it’s driving me CRAZY and that means I’m driving Kelly CRAZY.  I searched and searched and couldn’t find it, it’s supposed to stay in the truck or trailer so by now I’m close to freaking out – thank goodness Kelly realized my need and that ignoring it wasn’t going to make things better and in Dumas pulled into Walmart so I could go buy a new atlas ahhhh I can already start to feel the relief.  $5.99 later I am out the door with a folding map of the Western United States – no atlas, but I feel better!

Now that we have our map, we can make some decisions on our route and not feel bullied by our GPS, we decided to go 287 to 40 then to I-70.  This was a different route than we had previously taken.  It was a nice change to be on the smaller highway and go through the little towns, that’s part of the road trip – seeing the country, not just Interstates!  We went through one little town, Campo, Colorado that had a “Country Lawyer” and the Beautician in the same place – in a tiny little building that went by so quickly I couldn’t take a picture.  Their signage was like graffiti painted on the side and front of the building.  So we wondered … is the hairdresser now charging for those chat sessions and advice?

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Hwy 287 – Welcome to Oklahoma!

Highway 287 must be known to the truckers as the “Over-Size Load Road”, I swear we saw more oversize loads  on that road than I’ve ever seen.  We actually enjoyed the trip on 287 it was fun to go through the little towns, some that made us wonder – “what do people do that live here?”  We made good time the speed limit was usually between 65 – 75mph and generally the road was mostly smooth except for a couple of short stretches were we were jiggled around a bit.

 

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Prince nappig

The dogs are doing great – Prince has now figured out that he can stretch out across my laptop bag and the cooler and use the console as a pillow so he can be almost in the front seat.  If you take this route, make sure to fill up at the Walmart in Dumas, it was the cheapest fuel we saw from that point on.

The trip to Laramie was a pretty easy one, until it came to figuring out how to get into the Laramie KOA Campground ($39 w/o KOA card $34 w/KOA Rewards), between the GPS (agghhhh) and the confusing signs at the Campground, we got into another backing up situation (starting to see a pattern here yet?) at least this one was not as far, just a few feet.  The Laramie KOA campground was just off of the highway, we had seen negative reviews because of the noise, but we didn’t think it was too bad – you don’t really hear much once you’re in the trailer.  The sites were nice and level, we stayed near the back because we wanted to be close to the pet area, which was nice and had a few agility things for the dogs to jump through or run over – they didn’t quite get it.  We were a bit frustrated that for late arrivals they don’t provide the wifi code, so make sure if you’re going to get there late you call and get a reservation and ask for the code!  The other little gotcha is that their cable TV requires a digital box, so again you can’t get that after hours – it takes a $50 deposit because there is a little box that you have to use.  I would recommend this campground – especially if you understand the above and have a KOA Rewards card because they don’t take any other type of discount.

Next Stop – Grand Teton!

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Sharon

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