Salt Lake City

We’ve been driving through cowboy country all day. The speed limit is 80, the sky is blue, no clouds, very bright sun, with hardly a tree in sight. Not far from the roads are rocky mesas and sheep/cattle trails. In the distance to the south and west are the Grand Tetons and the Rocky Mountains, with snow visible. We aren’t very hungry, and I wonder if the altitude has something to do with it. Alaza has decided she’ll never live out here because she has no cell phone bars. We’ll spend our last night at a Quality Inn near the Salt Lake airport. I wonder if I can find a  beer here in Salt Lake City?

Sunday Morning

Last night, Cheyenne had a brief thunderstorm along with a huge rainbow. This morning, the weather is beautifully cool and sunny. Unfortunately, our motel room window doesn’t have a screen and if we open it to let the fresh air in, we risk letting the cats out. Just another reason for hightailing it out of the Rodeway Inn. According to the freight company website, our furniture is in Salt Lake City. That will probably be our destination tonight. We’re 1,000 miles from Sacramento, which Google says is a 15 ½ hour drive (not possible in one day with 2 high maintenance cats and a non-driving 19 year old with us).  We plan to stay just one more night on the road, although that will require about 9 hours of hard driving from Salt Lake City to Sacramento.

The Great Plains

Nebraska seems to have big skies and long views. After leaving Lincoln this morning, we saw a thunderstorm ahead. It was dark clouds and lightening far in the distance. We actually saw the entire weather system, with blue skies on either side of the thunderstorm. At one point I used the odometer to measure how far ahead I could see - the land was flat enough and the scenery scarce enough, that I could see a water tower 10 miles away! When the Great Plains begin in Western Nebraska, you know it. There are very few trees; it's all small hills and grass. The rest stop sign said it used to look like a desert before settlers started irrigating. Now it's ranches with cattle, fields of hay rolls, and a few windmills. When we reached Wyoming, we started seeing oil wells and the drive into Cheyenne was dominated by a large oil refinery. We're staying in Cheyenne's Rodeway Inn tonight. This may be the worst motel we've stayed in so far. It seems safe enough, but the furniture is battered, the parking lot is pitted, the laundry isn't working and the outdoor pool is empty - drained - in the middle of June! But we're tired, we'll sleep well, and tomorrow we push on to Salt Lake City.

Friday, June 24

Friday afternoon. We’re in a HoJo’s in Lincoln, NE. Our first travel day, Wednesday, was a short driving day because it was sort of a shake-down trip, mainly to see how the cats would handle long distance travel.  We stopped after 5-6 hours in Youngstown, OH.  We really put pedal to the metal the next day, Thursday, and ended up in Davenport Iowa.  Today, Friday, we’re in Lincoln, NE.  Traveling with cats involves cat litter, food, water, treats, and paper towels to pick up after motion-sick animals. We’re also traveling with a 19 year old daughter, which involves its own set of logistics: snacks, blankets, pillows, subzero air conditioning, cell phone chargers, hotel Wifi, etc. We aren’t doing any sightseeing, so the scenery has been pretty ordinary, with relatively flat land, and farms on either side of the highway. Apparently summer is when Ohio performs all of its construction on I-80, so we were constantly having to slow down and merge into single lanes. Indiana, on the other hand, apparently favors deferred maintenance, so there was little construction but the condition of the road (and rest stops) was disappointing. We’re seeing many windmills in Western Iowa and Eastern Nebraska.  It’s hot out here in Lincoln with few trees and very little shade, but I’m not sure if that’s how Nebraska is naturally, or if that’s the result of highway construction and farming. My next project is to figure out how to publish photos along with this blog. Alan is a terrific photo/videographer, so our December trip was very interesting. This summer trip, with Frances, Alaza and me, promises to be less visually appealing - but we'll try. 

Part Two

Alan and I drove out west to deliver my Prius and me to Sacramento before I started my new assignment as a Sacramento SSA ALJ.  Six months later, I'm completing the project. This morning, Frances and I packed up all our furniture, shipped it out west by ABF Freight, gave the Harrisburg house keys to our landlord, and started driving out west. We'll arrive before the furniture a week from now. We're taking 2 cats and a 19 year old daughter. It's another adventure, similar yet different from the adventure Alan and I took 6 months ago.