East With The Day: The SFO > STL Roadtrip Move, Day 2

After fueling up with a quick breakfast and a lot of coffee, I said goodbye to Wells, NV and continued my trip east. But first I noticed a reminder of where I had come from (courtesy of the Super 8 Motel), and kicked snow off my boots (good practice for my future destinations). Today was a long day of winding passages through mountains, and high winds through rocky northern plains.

Super 8 Motel in Wells, NV with soap from San Francisco, CA

410 miles or so and I was safely through the state of Nevada, and entered the “Elevated State” of Utah and the Mountain Time Zone, which meant I lost another hour of daylight driving time. Before I left Wells, NV, I had checked my Facebook messages and was really humbled by the private messages I had received congratulating me on this move, many from friends who were surprised at the news and certainly with my speedy departure from the Bay Area. (I reflected on those people and their words through most of the day’s drive, and ended the day's reflections too - keep reading.)

I checked the maps and made a plan to try to get to Cheyenne, WY, or maybe even Denver, CO and stay there for a few nights with my sister, Ana-Liza, in her new hometown. I stopped at a rest area just east of the NV-UT border because of the unusual structural design I noticed from I-80: something reminded me of the futurist style of Eero Saarinen’s airport terminal at JFK.

Utah rest area

The orange glossy glazed bricks of the restroom made me miss the dry air heated restrooms at the Nevada rest areas, and the bristlecone pines and an actual pay phone (remember those?) gave the rest stop an historic feel. Stopping to check out the signs there hinted at the unusual design: I was at the Bonneville Salt Flats, where land speed records had been set on the famed “Measured Mile” track. There was even a viewing platform looking out at the test area lakebed. (But I wondered, “Who really drives to a rest area to watch a land speed record being set? Wouldn’t there be a special area set up just for that?” - OK, I’m no expert in land speed records, so that shows you how little I know!) This was also the site of (or near the location of) the first transcontinental telephone line (although my wavering signal bars suggested that cellular reception might be transcontintentally spotty).

Bonneville Salt Flats (rest area)

Bonneville Salt Flats (rest area)

Viewing Platform

View from the Platform (of the Measured Mile speed test area)

View of the sloping walkway ramp to the platform

Historic marker: first transcontinental telephone line: "Can you hear me now?"

The long drive through Utah and Wyoming would bring me past more dramatically different landscapes, interesting place names, and interesting road signs.

Salt flats

Reflections in the salt flats (wet)

No reflections in salt flats (frozen)

More salt flats [recommended reading: Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky]

Wildlife seemed sparse in this region that followed the historic Pony Express Route, moving past places like the Echo Reservoir, Castle Rock, Blacks Fork River, Flaming Gorge, Pilot Butte Avenue, Point of Rocks, Patrick Draw Road (Who is Patrick and does he only draw roads?), Table Rock Road, Red Desert, Carbon County, a Frontier Prison, the Medicine Bow River, and I even crossed over the Continental Divide not once, but twice (check a map for the explanation to that one).

Freight Train (one of 7 seen today) crossing the UT salt flats (this wintry scene made me think of "The X Files" alien mythology - where are those unmarked gray tanker railcars?)

Leaving UT

Echo Reservoir, UT

Red Bluffs in WY

Plateau in WY

Buttes in WY

Clouds in WY (made me think of a tortoise shell)

My trusty Honda making its way through WY

The rare animals included cows, cows + rs (those would be crows), deer (including one dead by the side of the road, surrounded by aforementioned crows), and black-billed magpies with their long tail feathers slicing through the cool air. The road signs included: “Masonic Families of Utah” (the name of my former street address in San Francisco was “Masonic Avenue”); “House of Blinds and Curtains” (billboard showed a cartoon mouse with giant oversized glasses - way to be culturally competent and sensitive to the blind and visually impaired, South Salt Lake City); “Frequent Wildlife Crossings;” “High Wind Advisory;” “High Wind Warning: Gusts 55+ MPH;” “Danger: 6% Grade;” “Next Rest Area 102 miles” (Yikes - pull over now!); Tex’s Travel Camp (my first nickname in college was “Tex”); “Chinese American Restaurant: next exit” (how is that different from “Chinese” food, exactly - are the dishes made with SlimJims and Funyuns?); “Eat It Up in Lusk, WY” (I chose not to stay at that Best Western, for sure!).

I lost count of all the fireworks signs in Wyoming. “Phantom Fireworks,” “Pyro City,” “Fireworks World,” “Fireworks Outlet,” “Fireworks Barn,” and even “Fireworks Blowout Sale - Buy One Get One Free!” Is this state world renowned for pyrotechnics (or pyrotechnics sales)? How did I not know that? The next time PBS does an all-day broadcast on July 4 showcasing celebrations around the country, Cheyenne, Wyoming better bring it. I’m jus' sayin’! If you are done with fireworks, there is also Romantix in WY (billboard described this as an “Intimates Boutique” with clothing and toys for sale...um...) and a place that looked like a dilapidated gas station just off the freeway with a lone sign that said, “ADULT - WY” and “Trucks Welcome”  (also: um...)

Yeah, I passed on all of those places and instead enjoyed a self-serve, soft-serve vanilla cone in Little America, WY.

A happy afternoon gas fill-up break in Little America, WY...and only 50 cents!

I played with the place names I drove by as a solo car game, so here is my Almost-Celebrity List of places I passed today: Delle [Reese], UT; [Eckhart] Tooele, UT; Clive [Owen], UT; [Diana] Aragonite, UT; [Cynthia] Rowley, UT; Dugway [Scott], UT; [Cary and Hugh] Grantsville, UT; Wamsutter, WY (is this where they invented high threadcount bedding?); [Mother] Superior, WY; [Henry] Rawlins, WY; [Upton] Sinclair, WY.

Welcome to Salt Lake county! I'm sure this enormous smokestack and factory have a lot to do with the local industry, but to me it was just a potentially scary sight: like something from a Tim Burton/Danny Elfman diabolically clever fantasy. (Couldn't you just see Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter cooking something up in those furnaces?)

Visible evidence of plate tectonics (and geological time) in UT: take that, anti-evolutionists!

Wind Farm in WY

They better turn these things off when they light all those fireworks in this state!

The high winds and very dark roads combined with at least three fishtailing tractor trailer trucks that I had to pass cut my evening drive short and I stopped in Laramie, WY for the night.

Racing the setting sun eastward through WY

Not a UFO: one day I hope to photograph a perfect lenticular cloud, but this suspicious blue shape hovering in front of the orange clouds was close enough for now.

Continental Divide: 1st of 2 crossings in one day

My WiFi connection and cellular reception in this lovely and quirky little place meant that I did not have much time to respond to messages last night, so I went to bed and got some much needed rest, slumbering and reflecting on the good sentiments I received when I started the day about 600 miles earlier. To answer many quizzical points: yes, I am prepared for cold winters and hot/humid summers. After all, I am a New Yorker: we can survive anywhere! I am sorry that I did not have time for more personal goodbyes with more people, but life has its own timeline, I think.

In WY: today's drive in this scenery with truckers everywhere had me feeling very Thelma & Louise. Well, Louise for sure, unless Brad Pitt miraculously appears in a cowboy hat holding a hair dryer...

The freedom of the open road today reminded me of the variances of time: I crossed one time zone and three (almost four) states over two days' time, a time and distance that a jet airplane can cover in just over a few hours. The landscapes I witnessed evidenced a totally different scale of time: geological time that dwarfs us, and is in turn infinitely small compared to universal time. Here I am in Laramie, WY a place that has all sorts of historical meanings for me and I am also left reflecting on the passage of time and how much or how little cultures and people change over time. I was also reminded of this quote (that I had to look up after bringing Chinese take-out food for dinner back to this kitschy motel with a janky WiFi hotspot connection) from one of my favorite books, West With The Night, by Beryl Markham:

"But I have learned some things. I have learned that if you must leave a place that you have lived in and loved and where all your yesterdays are buried deep - leave it any way except a slow way, leave it the fastest way you can. Never turn back and never believe that an hour you remember is a better hour, because it is dead. Passed years seem safe ones, vanquished ones, while the future lives in a cloud, formidable from a distance. The cloud clears as you enter it. I have learned this, but like everyone, I learned it late."

Totally random find in Laramie, WY: super kitschy independent motel, old-school saloon style!

Crazy western-inspired decor everywhere!

The covered seasonal pool was closed, but this non-hibernating bear was guarding the "Wyoming Watering Hole" anyway!

Tatanka! (American bison on Lakota language)

On the motel roof: a rooster, a horse, and a bandit with binoculars. Don't ask. I didn't.

And this lovely painting of wolves watched over me at night (literally: hanging over the bed's headboard)!

I ended the day thinking about time and distance and speed, thankful for cruise control and wiper blades and window wiper fluid, and for courteous truck drivers who flash their headlights when it is safe to pass in front of them. I am thankful for mostly clear, dry weather and mostly clear, dry roads, and I seem to be successfully staying ahead of the snow and foul weather. I am thankful for life and all its changes and some of its permanence too. Somewhere in a 75 MPH zone on the freeway, continuing my drive east mostly during the day after my fast departure from San Francisco, I learned Beryl Markham's lesson too, perhaps not too late in my life, and happily moving forward.

Good night, from Room 30 of the Gas Lite Motel in Laramie, WY!

Day 2 Fact File:
Starting Mileage: 79,540
Average Miles Per Gallon: 27.88
Visible Roadkills: 4 (including one with very persistent crows)
"Oversize Load" or "Long Load" Trucks: 14
Places Passed: Moor, NV; Shafter, NV; Wendover, UT; Rusty Palm, UT;
Elevations: Pequop Summit, NV (6,967 feet); Silver Zone Pass, NV (5,940 feet); Summit, UT (7,800 feet); Continental Divide, WY (6,930 feet)
Soundtrack: "GLEE: The Music, Volume 4, Season Two;" Robbie Williams, "In And Out Of Consciousness, Greatest Hits 1990-2010" (deluxe limited edition 3-disc set); Below Zero (Various Artists), “Minus 1;” Boyzone, “Brother;” Thomas Anders, “Strong;” Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, “Under The Covers, Volume 1;” David Campbell, "On Broadway;" Jason Gray, “Everything Sad Is Coming Untrue” (deluxe edition).