2024 Fall Trip – Utah National Parks & Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

1 of 12 – 2024 Fall Trip West Series. We traveled west to Utah and back; about 6,000 miles over 49 days from Sept 10 to October 30, 2024.

Here is a List of some interesting places we stopped at on this trip (bold/italic stops are where we got National Park Service Stamps), tan ALL CAPS hyperlinks to pages:

1– HOME TO CLAY CENTER, KS
Lincoln Home: National Historic Site, Springfield IL
Hamilton, MO (quilt shops)
International Quilt Museum, Lincoln NE (at Univ. of Nebraska)
Homestead National Historic Park, Beatrice NE
Pony Express Barn & Museum, Marysville KS
2– KANSAS
Nicodemus National Historic Site, Nicodemus KS
Little Jerusalem Badlands State Park, Oakley KS
Monument Rocks National Historic Landmark, Oakley KS
3– COLORADO SPRINGS
Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs CO
Pikes Peak Cog Rail, Colorado Springs CO
Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument, Florissant CO
4– Colorado National Monument, CO
5– Arches National Park, Moab UT
6- Canyonlands National Park, (Needles) Moab UT
Needles Overlook, Newspaper Rock, & Wilsons Arch
7- Canyonlands National Park, (Island in the Sky) Moab UT
Dead Horse Point State Park
Bears Ears National Monument?
John Wesley Powell River History Museum
Capital Reef National Park, Torrey UT
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, UT
Bryce Canyon National Park, UT
Cedar Breaks National Monument, UT
Valley of Fire State Park, Moapa Valley, NV
Hoover Dam National Historic Landmark
Pipe Spring National Monument, Kaibab AZ
Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim)
Zion National Park, Springdale UT
Glen Canyon Dam & National Recreation Area, Page AZ
Horseshoe Bend, Page AZ
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument
Walnut Canyon National Monument, Flagstaff AZ
Petrified Forest National Park
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque NM (Adventure Caravans 6 day RV rally)
Valles Caldera National Preserve, Jemez Springs NM
Manhattan Project National Historical Park, Los Alamos, NM
Pecos National Historical Park, Pecos NM
Tucumcari Route 66, Tucumcari NM
Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo TX
Fort Smith National Historic Site, Fort Smith, AR
Crater of Diamonds State Park, Murfreesboro, AR

Here is a map of our route for this trip. The red spots are where we camped overnight, all the grey spots are places we visited.

We needed to do some “RV Prep” a few weeks before starting this trip when we discovered the front window was leaking at the top edge around the seal. Also added some back tail lights to be more visible.

If you want to skip the “RV Prep” section, jumping right to the Trip, click here: –>#Trip

The gasketing was never seated flush around the corners of the windshield and there was a gap in the gasketing at the middle top of the windshield (which should have been at the bottom…) Nathan took this pic of me and Damon standing in the loader bucket after pulling the gasketing out from around the windshield. We intended to reinstall the gasketing with the joint at the bottom but found it was too ‘formed’ to fit differently so we put some windshield gasket sealant in and reinstalled the gasket. There were some places where the gasket still didn’t seat flush so then we went to ‘Plan B’.

Plan ‘B’ was to rent scaffolding from Menards, mask around the upper windshield and install sealant to close the gaps. As it turned out we had almost no rain for the entire trip but since being back we have had plenty of rain, snow, and ice with no leaks.

We (the “royal we”, mostly our awesome mechanic friend Damon) installed vertical lights to make the RV more visible in hazy or foggy conditions. People who had followed us on trips had told us that the tail lights were not very bright in those conditions. The vertical lights also help others notice our blinkers during lane changes. At night backing into a campsite they really light things up.

Starting the Trip: with the RV ready to go we headed West early in the morning of September 10th. Our first stop for a National Park Service Stamp was Abraham Lincoln’s Home in Springfield, Illinois.

Lincoln SpringfieldIMG_5553 — Lincoln’s Home: 426 S 7th Street, Springfield, IL. The home of Abraham Lincoln for 17 years (1844-1861) until he left for Washington, DC. in 1861 to serve as our 16th President. The home and surrounding 4 block area are restored and free to visit. We didn’t stay long; we read some history at the Visitors Center and wandered around a bit before heading on West.

Above: Two other interesting old homes in the historical area.

Hamilton MO QuiltIMG_5564 — Hamilton, Missouri “Quilt Town, USA” is a fun place to stop along US 36. It was a beautiful day and a nice hour long break from driving. Becky bought a pattern and fabrics for making little “Sea Turtle Pincushions”. Interesting trivia: Hamilton, MO is the boyhood home of J.C. Penny.

After the Hamilton stop we drove on to Lincoln, Nebraska where we stayed overnight at “Camp a Way”. In the morning we packed up and went to Nebraska University to visit the International Quilt Museum; also known as the “Quilt House”.

Quilt Homestead ClayIMG_5569 — Becky, about to enter the International Quilt Museum.

I thought this quilt museum stop would be great for Becky and boring for me. It turned out great for both of us. The quilts were amazing and the architecture to display the quilts was also amazing. The brick and stonework were quilt block patterned. Even the bathroom wall tiles had ‘quilt’ patterns.

Quilt Homestead ClayQuilt Museum — Looking down on the entry and gift shop.

Transparent pattern quilts and a ‘quiltish’ Abraham Lincoln poster linked together our visits to Lincoln’s Springfield, IL home yesterday, and Lincoln’s role in the Homestead Act which we would go to visit next.