Putting the "Journey" back into "Really Long Journey"

Done in Wyoming, our new goal was to get to Nevada. These, sadly, are not adjacent states.
As we got to Nevada a little earlier than expected, I was able to start writing this blog. See how slowly I’m catching up? One little step at a time. One little step.


Don pulled me aside as we started this driving segment to say that he’d like to do a video update to post to YouTube – a little State-of-the-Journey for people following along from home. I thought about ways to best do that, but we were all too tired by the end of the day. (Also, the guy at the motel said if we were going to film in his motel, we should prominently feature the sign out front.) It got put off for other reasons for the next few days, and actually still hasn’t happened yet. We still talk about it once in a while.


We pretty much sped straight through Utah. It was a strange state in that the land itself reminded me of Christmas. The plants that grew sprouted it up in deep, rich green. Big cuts into the land revealed baked red clay and earth. Completing the effect were miles and miles of salt flats. It took me hours to figure out what I was looking at; it was baffling to see. At first I thought it was shallow, pale water. Then I was convinced it was some kind of weird, low-altitude snow. Then I was thinking a very white plant. Then I decided it was probably lakes with unusually bright sunlight on them. I was wrong. It was unearthly levels of salt, just spread across miles.


Salt Lake City has extremely high walls lining their freeways. I saw almost nothing of the city. I guess they are a secretive people. All I really ever saw of Salt Lake City was the occasional billboard, most of which were for fast food or exotic dancing. That’s what I’m going to remember of Utah. That and Christmas.



Utah is a predominantly Mormon state, with low precipitation and a staunchly conservative image. It’s no wonder, then, that their road signs feature whipped-cream beehives.