Yo from You-Tall

Utah along I-80 is astonishingly lush and beautiful; it deserves to be designated a scenic byway, IMHO.  This is a Rest Stop; as you can see the jacket and long pants would suggest, the weather is very cool.  Today is a very long route to Wells, NV.

Along the way, I crossed many mountain passes west of Salt Lake City which took quite some time to inch up in 2nd gear at 30 mph.  I learned a few fuel fillups ago not to put any more fuel in my tank than absolutely necessary to get across the mountain to the next service area.  Same goes with water on board--the rig needs to be as light as possible as these grades are hard on a gasser.  I'm already "dreaming" of my next moho, a diesel.  (This was my original pick before the transaction on the trade went bad.)

This is my GPS navigator in a "flat line" state of existence!  It is indicative of the route across the Bonneville Salt Flats.  This segment lasted over an hour; I put the vehicle in Snooze Control and found myself daydreaming.  Signs along the way exhorting drivers to "Pull off the road if drowsy" were the only thing to stimulate the senses.




This is how the road looked for over an hour...

Finally, a REST STOP and a place for a picnic lunch.

Fellow picknickers, along with chihuahuas "Leche" (lying in the scorching sun on the hot pavement-obviously a brain-damaged dog) and "Cafe".

This is the famous "measured mile" used by the auto types to see how fast cars accelerate etc.    

One was able to actually walk on the salt surface.  Sue:  I picked up a sample of the solid "rock" for Cody.

I finally crossed another time zone--I am in Pacific now--and picked up an extra hour!  Pulling into the campground, I noted a Post Office across the street (have been looking for one without success for 3 days) and also a hardware store with walking distance of the campground.  This made me very happy so I hoofed it and got a lot of minor things accomplished-like buying a flyswatter for the stupid flies out here.  There is always ONE--just ONE--that gets trapped in the RV and is too stupid to leave when I put a window down for an exit.

After getting settled, I marched myself and my glass of wine next door to my neighbors who were sitting outdoors having drinks.  This is usually a sign that people welcome company and I had not spoken to an adult until the post office and wanted some chitchat.


Next stop is Winnemucca, NV where I WILL have a campground.  I understand I have two more mountain passes to traverse today.  Ugh.  The temps will be in the low 100's (but the air is DRY!!!!)