Just a quick post so my mother won’t worry about us …
We spent the day towing across Nebraska as quickly as possible. We don’t have anything against Nebraska, but we made a conscious choice to spend more time in Denver and that meant something along the route east had to be sacrificed. Sorry, Nebraska.
The goal was 400 miles but we actually stepped it up a bit and covered 500 miles, from the capitol of Colorado to the capitol of Nebraska (Lincoln). A terrific wind all day made the drive more interesting. We hardly noticed it, but we sure heard about it from other RV’ers and truckers during rest stops.
So we broke out the video camera and tried to get a few shots of the conditions. You can see the video here. The wind was running about 30 knots from the south all day, gusting to 40 knots occasionally. It could have been a white-knuckle driving experience, but the rig performed beautifully. I’m very pleased — it’s doing exactly what it is supposed to do. The wind knocked down our fuel economy a bit (to 12.5 MPG overall for the day), but otherwise all went well.
The really good news is that we encountered no thunderstorms today, and tomorrow’s weather looks good too. No t-storms means no chance of hail or tornadoes, which are two things that would kill our Airstream. I am always thinking about thunderstorms when we travel in the mid-west in the summer.
We’ll get an early start on Sunday so we can spend maximum time at our planned courtesy parking stop in Iowa over the next few days. Right now, we’ve got to get some rest. The trailer is rocking in the wind and it’s hot and humid, so it may be a slightly challenging night for sleeping. A cool shower before bed, and three vent fans running on MAX are prescribed for this evening…
Your You Tube video, “Windy day towing in Nebraska”, opening with “Once Upon A Windy Day…”, vividly illustrates the benefits of towing an aerodynamic trailer, such as the Airstream, versus a big box trailer, facing 30+ mph wind.
The video camera also conveys your day’s experience vividly to the viewer and is a great tool for the newly emerging interactive media articles and presentations.
BTW… Hats off to the camerawoman!
All those years of faithful reporting on your travels has now come to life with your new terrific videos! They are both educational and very entertaining…glad the wind did not blow you away en route to Nebraska….it was fierce in Denver. Eleanor, I have watched your cooking demo twice and send huge kudos for the content and presentation! Hopefully this will be the begining of a weekly or monthly event. Looking forward to “Live at Alumapalooza”!
JB
Not to clog your blog with useless trivia, but even Presidents don’t visit Nebraska much. The Cornhusker State was the last state Bill Clinton visited, and he appeared to do so more for a check mark than anything else. Presidents Garfield & Harding never visited. W’s first visit there was 9/11 and was limited to kicking back in an underground bunker designed to withstand a nuclear blast. I guess the Secret Service figured terrorists weren’t interested in visiting Nebraska either.
Tom
Let’s not underestimate the suitability of your tow vehicle as a contributor to your excitement free windy day towing experience!