Saturday, August 11, 2018
Day 25

Left Elko about 9:30am. Still smoky! Didn't get to see the Ruby Mountains near Elko. Very beautiful usually.  There were lots of trucks traveling today. Some cars but not many except in Salt Lake City!! I took quite a few pictures today because of the scarcity of traffic but now looking at them, they pretty much all look similar. LONG stretches of road!! The first one is on the west side of Wendover. Wendover sits on the border of Utah and Nevada. The line runs directly though town. On the pavement in front of one of the casinos it has Utah/Nevada. The yellow sign is on the salt flats. It is very long and straight and many mirages! Fortunately I didn't get sleepy there.

The picture of the train is west of Salt Lake City proper. It is loaded with coal. When I was growing up, every year my dad would order a train car load of coal. It would come to the railroad station in Durham, and our foreman with help would truck it to our ranch. Hadn't thought about that for a long time.

All day I was at elevation above 6000 feet. The signs for road closure are outside of Evanston, WY. There are several places along the route where the road is closed in the winter time due to weather or snow.  I crossed the Continental Divide 2 times!! one was 6900 feet other 7000 feet. Couldn't get a picture But not sure how one can cross it twice.  The picture of the LONG stretch which was about 6 miles with the windmills on the hills in the background was amazing. the smoke was finally starting to clear. Was nice to see blue sky for a change after 3 weeks. There were gorgeous rock formations in Utah and Western Wyoming. Well the closer I got to Rawlins, the terrain changed. Kind of more flat but still with some interesting rock layers, etc. I think would be interesting to look up the geology of the area.

The motorcycle sign saying that there have been 7 fatalities in the last 30 days was one I hadn't seen before. And ironically just as I saw that I saw 2 riders going 80 miles an hour without helmets. No wonder!! Other signs say look twice, motorcycles are everywhere.  Well, would help if they didn't appear out of nowhere going lickity split and expect you to see them. Pretty skies again!!

Another interesting thing I saw and wish I had gotten a picture was in Evanston. There was a huge yellow sign that said Pyro City. And the scenery behind the sign was a burned hillside!! I think it was probably an ad for a fireworks place. But tickled me!! Doesn't take much sometimes.  Another one was in Eastern Nevada.  First sign said Prison Area. Don't pick up hitchhikers. The next sign was turn off to Independence Valley :-)


Interesting car on trailer in front of motel.  I'm at Holiday Inn Express.  Glad I called this am to get a room because tonight when I was checking in several people came to get rooms and they are sold out. The Hampton Inn was sold out this am when I called.  I have a nice room. Think they called it a King Executive. Got regular rewards points and then because I was "randomly selected a VIP" I get 500 more points.  I just noticed what I thought was the refrigerator - I think is someone snoring next door!!! Fortunately I can't hear it real loud. :-)

That's all folks for today!! Scenery tomorrow will be much the same. If you want to look, there are probably the same pictures on last year's blog!! :-) 

I hope all is well with everyone.   Praying for the firefighters and emergency personnel, families that have lost loved ones and or their possessions. Here is a link to a You Tube video made by Juan Brown. It's very informative about the fire situation. I have followed him since the Oroville Dam problems last year. He is very knowledgeable and gets to the bottom of issues. Not just the political side of issues. He lives in Nevada City, CA in the foothills. He is also an American Airlines Pilot and loves the outdoors.
Link to Juan Brown's Blancolirio video about California wildfires
It's about 15 minutes long but very interesting I think.
Nite all. I'm on Mountain Time now. Lost an hour. And will probably lose another hour tomorrow. Haven't done research on how far I will go tomorrow. Guess I should do that. Hugs, Carol