Interstates, cheap gas and the white stuff

Before we headed out on this Thanksgiving trip I wrote that over the 11 days we would be driving through 11 states. We actually drove through 12 states: Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming.

This trip was no exception, we travel as “economically” as possible which means no motels if we can help it. Usually we camp but on this trip we didn’t want to waste any time, so we slept in the truck. We ended up spending two nights sleeping in the truck, one night in Texas and one night in Arkansas. But we’re no fools, we make sure we sleep in places where it’s safe, many of the rest stops have 24 hour security which is nice. It was cold overnight so I was glad to have my zero degree sleeping bag.



Twisties on I-25 near the Colorado - New Mexico state line

We were really glad that the gas prices came down just in time for our trip. The gas prices were about $1.60 per gallon in most states. $1.46 was the cheapest gas that we saw on this trip. That sure beats $3.50+ per gallon we had to pay when we moved from Illinois to Colorado and made three trips from IL to CO. And still cheaper then the $4.00 per gallon that we paid this past summer on our bikes.



Welcome to Texas



This was in Texas, I've never seen so many birds



A cloudy day in Dallas, TX

One of the reasons why we wanted to do this long drive over Thanksgiving instead of Christmas was to hopefully avoid any bad weather. It so happened that we would end up driving into the first big snowfall of the season in Chicago and Fort Collins.



Bienvenue en Louisiane



Rain clouds and fall colors in Louisiana






The Atchafalaya Basin along I-10 in Louisiana



The Mississippi rest stop at the Louisiana border was the nicest one along I-55, they even served free soda to all the visitors

The weather had been good until we were leaving Louisiana. The drizzle turned in to rain further north and by the time we reached southern Illinois the rain was turning into snow. There was a lot of snow in Chicagoland, about 3 inches or so.



Rain in Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas and Missouri



Illinois state line



The rain turns to snow in Illinois



Wet snow falling in Illinois



I'm not dressed for this weather



Snow in Chicagoland

It had stopped snowing by the time we were ready hit the road and get back to Colorado but our departure was delayed because the doors to the truck were frozen shut. A little warm water and we were on our way. We passed many vehicles in the ditches. We decided to drive straight through the 1000 miles, so we left at 12:30AM in order to be back home before sunset.

The high temperature was only in the teens through out Iowa and Nebraska, in the 20‘s in Colorado. We made it back to Colorado in 15 hours. It seemed like we were on the road for weeks and we were glad to be back in Colorado.




About 10 degrees but sunny in Nebraska, our truck and trailer loaded with more of our stuff that needed to come with us to Colorado



Snow in Wyoming, the passing lane was iced over at times



In Wyoming but almost home - look at all the snow clouds ahead



Some snow falling in Colorado



Fort Collins received lots of snow while we were gone



Our driveway full of snow