On The Road To Salt Lake City
Hitting the open road and getting from one place to another is usually the best part of a road trip for me. In my last post I wrote about Reno, and believe me it was a good time. Although I had fun, I was definitely looking forward to heading-out. My “business associates” had flown-me-in to Reno and I was grateful for that (I’ll have to get into that at some point, but you’ll have to promise to keep it on the down-low…), but after about 5 days full of fun and causing certain people trouble, I was ready to bounce!
For the first day of driving we were going to head east on I-80 and cross the whole state. I had originally wanted to to take US Route 50 starting in Carson City. Any stretch of road labeled by those in the know as “the loneliest road” sounds like something for me. From what I’ve heard it’s pretty remote. Remote as in, make sure you have enough gas and bottled water when you leave town type of remote. Unfortunately Steve and I had a loose schedule we had to keep, and that would have taken to long. I’ll be back though. So we set-out with some great tunes and windows rolled down. The drive was great. I absolutely love passing exits where the off ramp leads you to a road that just disappears into the distance. Note: monitor your soda intake on this drive or you might be forced to make creative pit-stops. Taking this route will give you a great taste of the desert. What in the world do people who live out here do for a living? You’ll go miles without seeing anything, and then a lone home will appear off in the distance. I love it. I also noticed that a lot of the towns will put the first letter of their name in a big white letter on a mountain face for all to see. It may be one of those “blink and you’re thru” towns, but the mountains let you know when you’re there.
We took our time to soak it all in. Eventually we arrived at our destination, which was a town called Wendover on the Nevada-Utah border. It was a great town to take care of some more business, so we decided to stop for the night. We pulled in and wound-up parking on the top level of a parking deck. Upon doing this we were greeted by a great sight. Off to the east, in front of our great steed (a rented Chevy Malibu), was a beautiful view of the Great Salt Flats. It was amazing, I’d never seen anything like it. As far as the eye could see, this white landscape just stretched into the horizon. I couldn’t wait to get out there in it. But first, down to business. I spent the rest of the night doing my thing, playing the usual game of cat-and-mouse, and dealing with some drama. Steve got to watch Screech of “Saved By The Bell” fame do some stand-up. I was a wee-bit jealous.
So the next morning we hopped out of bed before the alarm and got moving. Why is that so easy for me when I’m traveling? At home I’m a total snooze-hitter. When on the road I usually just grab a light breakfast at the local quickee-mart. You know, an apple or granola bar with some OJ or milk. Well, for me at least. For Steve it’s usually an ice cream sandwich with some chocolate milk, and he never gains a pound. Don’t get me started… Anyways, we go in and get our stuff. I check-out and the woman behind the counter is very friendly, she sends me off with a “buenas dias” and a smile. I wait for Steve in the car and he walks out a couple minutes later looking very disturbed. Apparently the lady didn’t greet him, rung up his stuff, took his money, looked up at him and said ominously in broken-English, “Be very careful out there.” Well, it freaked him out and gave me a great laugh.
Ominous foreshadowing or not, we were hitting the salt flats today. After that we hoped to hit the Salt Lake City area. We drove for awhile, and found an exit that seemingly went to nowhere. We pulled off, got out of the car, and ventured out into the flats. It was like walking around on the largest collection of pretzel salt in the world. Underneath was this blue-ish, clay substance. We spent a good deal of time out there, but it was crazy-hot that day. After so long you had to get back and grab some water with AC to boot. Not too far from us was the infamous Bonneville Salt Flats State Park with that big track for testing/racing cars and such. Also, to the south was the Wendover Airforce Range. There were many places along 80 going through the flats, where you couldn’t venture-off to the south because it seemed to be restricted. I know the government owns a ton of land in Nevada, and most of it is off-limits to the public. Hmm, Area 51 anyone? Nah…
Next up: Salt Lake City, and the 2 month countdown to my trip!

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Finally figuring out how to navigate this site… as you can see, I’ve started from the beginning of your travels.
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