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Thursday
- 10/05/06
8:00 am
Utah - Wyoming
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Dearest bloggers, As usual I am behind in the blog. I am now in St. Louis, Missouri staying with the Stack family once again, but you wouldn't know that from the info below. I am back tracking, or back blogging if I could be so lame. I am providing a futuristic retrospectus of my trip for your enjoyment as I was driving long hours and henceforth, too tired for blogging from the hotels. Let's pretend that today I went through Utah and Wyoming. I started out today (artistic license granted) from Elko, NV and traveled east on I-80 through Utah and Wyoming. The clouds rolled slowly over the hills to the east, as the moon relinquished the day to the rising sun. (I thought that line was pretty good)
I started out in an eastward direction heading away from the terrors of LA at precisely 8am, which seems to be the key time for departure after eating intercontinental hotel breakfast and loading the VSO gear into my truck. I hit rte 70 east toward Salt Lake city Utah. The hills unfurled under the clouds as I headed east.
The highway continued on, and I was able to see the route
ahead of me for several miles at times here in big sky country
The landscape was beautiful, guiding me endlessly forward
I noticed many tandem trucks along the route, and a few triple
decker horizontal mother truckers. Have you ever seen one of these?
I had seen a few driving through Oregon on my trip to Everett Washington which I never blogged about due to lack of inspiration. I met a guy named Jesse while living at Steve Reid's place. He was recording an album in Steve's studio, and he asked if I would come up and help him work on his house up there which he had bought across from his Mother's place. That story is too long to get into right now. Perhaps I will do a retrospective blog about Jesse in the future.
After a little while I came to the Great Salk Lake desert, which wasn't that great really. It was long and flat. The road stretched out unceasingly before me as straight as could be.
It was so straight, flat, and boring that they had erected signs advising folks not to fall asleep due to overwhelming boredom. They really had a point. I was fairly well rested but found myself yawning an inordinate amount of times while crossing this flat terrain.
I didn't pull over, but put the pedal to the metal to get across this barren, salty mess.
After awhile longer I came to the great Salt lake, which again, wasn't that great.
Below is the best picture I could get of the lake as I scurried across the landscape.
My apologies for this crappy picture. I tried in vain to get a good picture, but they had erected Jersey barriers across the region obscuring the view, despite the fact it was hardly Jersey.
As you can see, the Jersey barriers were almost as annoying as Jersey itself
After getting past the Great Salt Lake, which chapped
my lips just from driving by, I made it to Salk Lake City
This place wasn't that great as well. Not to be negative, but in retrospect, the east side was much nicer. I think I found the only gas station in Salt Lake. I had to drive nearly two miles away from the highway to finally see a gas station.
I nearly turned of erroneously onto a secondary highway in the maze of off ramps and bridges in SLC. (forgive the abbreviation, I did it to save time, which I just negated here explainging why I did it. Once I got through Salt Lake City (which took a lot of time)(not getting through it)(but spelling out the name does) moving on, the countryside became much more scenic to the east of SLC (Salt Lake City)(dammit)
The rock formations became more spectacular as I drove on, headed
to the great state of Wyoming, which again, wasn't that great.
Just then I came to, you guessed it, another tunnel.
This is the outside of the tunnel
and this is the inside
On the other side of the tunnel, the land stretched out in
a magnificent backdrop, of which, I will show a picture
Just then I came to a truck which was
passing another truck that was going in reverse.
Actually, the truck wasn't going in reverse at all. It was being towed by another truck, but I was taking aback for a moment when I thought the truck was indeed driving backwards. I wouldn't put it past these belligerent truckers, who tirelessly deliver the goods consumed by you and I across this great land of ours, which truthfully is pretty great.
All patriotism aside, let me continue my blog with a story of
near death, and some advice about traveling across Wyoming.I was nearly out of gas, headed down rte 80, when I saw a sign indicating a gas station one mile ahead. Nearly running on fumes, I rejoiced to see signs of civilization in this otherwise barren landscape. I did one of those "oh, I can pass this truck and get in front of him before the exit"
Wrong.
I tried in vain to pass the truck with one mile before the exit, and barely made it in front of him. Although I didn't cut off the truck too bad, and he didn't blare his horn at me, I was in for a horrendous treat which awaited me on the other side of the miraculously calm trucker. As I headed off the exit, doing a screaming 70 mph, I realized that the off ramp was a mere 30 feet long before heading smack dab into an intersection with a stop sign. (Don't worry mom, I didn't crash)(though I nearly did) I guess I was used to the abundantly sized off ramps in Boston, LA, and other populated areas. This time however, the off ramp seemed to be an afterthought, and it swerved to the right very quickly, and as I said, ended quite abruptly. I slammed on the brakes as much as I could without skidding, and careened toward the stop sign, wide eyed and white knuckled. My SUV swerved hard to the right, and then to the left as I tried to straighten it out again. I nearly rolled it over trying to stay on the pavement mind you. Luckily there wasn't another car around for 20 miles as I belligerently blew through the stop sign and headed down across the intersection which thank the good lord continued on straight, and didn't end suddenly at a river or mountain. I finally slowed down to the recommended 30 mph after a couple hundred yards, and wiped the sweat from my brow as I headed up the road toward the gas station. There was a farm house to my left, with an entire family poised with their noses pressed to the windows watching surely the only exciting thing to happen in the area that week, which was me narrowly avoiding certain death. After driving the posted speed limit for a couple more hundred yards I wondered where the heck the alleged gas station was at, when I finally saw it over a shallow hill. Much to my dismay the gas station was closed, as any would be employees of said gas station apparently didn't have enough gas to get there. An ironic situation at best. I cursed, spit, and finally headed back onto the highway where luckily there was another gas station lurking up the road a few more miles. I was virtually unscathed by the incident. I fueled up, and got some beef jerky before continuing my journey eastward.
Moving on
(much slower)
I made my way through Wyoming, approaching Cheyenne after my long journey that day from Nevada. I had booked a hotel along the way, using my cell phone, which was working sporadically through the vast, unpopulated expanse of Wyoming. After a little while I drove by a statue of Abraham Lincoln. I'm not sure if this was the actual monument indicated by the numerous billboards, or just a miniature replica, as it really wasn't as grandiose as I had expected, and certainly not as monumental as the legendary president who had freed the slaves and was ultimately assassinated
(Just a bit of history there)
After driving by the miroment, I headed to Cheyenne,
where the sunset started to envelop the area in an orangey hue
The sky was magnificent. Giant clouds drifted by as I approached my destination
Well I have to go apple picking with the Stacks now, toodle-oo
