Tag: Utah

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Day 3

Great breakfast in B&B

After driving 8 hours, we checked in late to an B&B. It was a nice house, but we did not explore it as we were very exhausted and sleepy. I cooked some veg soup and shared some with David, then went to bed.

In the morning, our host cooked the most delicious breakfast for us. Home made whole wheat bread is my favorite. I love the scrambled eggs from their back yard chickens. Coffee is pretty good too. Lucky! A great B&B.

Mormon Temple
Organ and podium in the Tabernacle building

Mormon temple, Salt Lake City

As out host suggested, we went to the center of Mormon religion, the temple at downtown of Salt Lake City.

There are amazingly recruited beautiful girls from different countries to be volunteers providing tourists free guided tours. They are from Thailand, Taiwan, Columbia….

After the tour, we started our trip to west Yellowstone. It was raining, so not much to say.

-Yanmei

Another 3 state day

One thing I found interesting in the Mormon buildings is the pews and other wooden parts are made of white pine, but they wanted it to look like oak, so they painted wood grain lines. They are remarkably well done, especially considering they were done by the original settlers in the 1870s.

Hand painted to look like oak

After Salt Lake City we headed North towards Idaho. Yanmei was taking a turn driving so it was my job to take a picture of the Welcome to Idaho sign, but I wasn't paying attention, so I failed.

Fail

Idaho definitely had more signs of life than most of Nevada and Utah. There were farms all along the road. By the way I forgot to mention one of the great things about Utah: 80 mph speed limit on their highways! Idaho has the same limit, so we were able to make pretty good time, although they had a lot of construction zones.

Eventually we crossed into Montana as we approached West Yellowstone. The forecast was for a thunderstorm. We didn't hear any thunder, but it rained fairly heavily for a while. Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow when we go to Yellowstone National Park.

-David

 

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Day 2

Since we had a long day planned, Yanmei suggested we start early. It sounded good to me, but I was skeptical about her because it was hard to get her out of bed by 10am yesterday, she's still a bit jet lagged from China. But she was up at 6:30am, traveling really energizes her. When I checked the weather I was shocked to see it was freezing (literally, it was 32F). I guess it cools off a lot at night at higher altitudes.

We went to the breakfast buffet when it opened at 7am, and had a big breakfast for the road. We hit the road at about 8:15am, and it had already warmed up to a nice 55F. I drove the first leg, about 1 hour the the Reno supercharger. I should have guessed, knowing Nevada, the charger was in the parking lot of the Atlantis casino, so you could play some blackjack or slots while waiting for your car to charge.

I didn't do that, but I did go inside to find the sundry shop, because both Yanmei and I forgot to bring toothpaste, or rather we each assumed the other would bring it.

Inside Atlantis casino

After that it was Yanmei's turn to drive. She drove from Reno to Lovelock.

Yanmei with her driving gloves. If you look closely she's cruising at 85mph.

Since this is a road trip it needs some pictures of the road.

We also saw a dust spout.

We took turns driving, until finally we got to a town called West Wendover, which is on the border between Nevada and Utah. As we crested the hill and got our first look down into Utah we saw a huge salt flat. It seems like the border was drawn along the edge, the Nevada side has scrub and rocks, the Utah side salt flats.

After a long day we finally arrived in Tooele, Utah where Yanmei had booked us an Airbnb. Tooele is about 25 minutes from Salt Lake City, so our plan is to go there tomorrow morning and have a look around.

-David

 

California-Nevada-Utah

We had a long day today. We started from the border between California to Nevada to the east, crossed Nevada, finally arrived to Salt Lake City, UT.

3 words make me think about Nevada: gambling+silver rush +desolation

On our way cross Nevada, we saw a couple of signs like “Prison area, hitchhiking prohibited”. Also, we saw a group of cars on the other side with blinking lights on. What was it? We guess that must be cars carrying prisoners. What do you think?

Driving 6 hours at Nevada, we both realized this state is very special. First, We saw Casinos everywhere, even in a Food Mart, a small supermarket at gas station, they have several gambling machines there.

Looking at the landscape besides freeway, I asked David what is the word he is going to describe it. He told me “desolate”. “Is it like the combination of desert and isolation? “”Probably”. It is great to keep prisoners as it is hard for them to escape. No trees, no residents, no where to hide. But Nevada has a lot minerals, we saw some factories beside the road.

-Yanmei