Day 3 - West Wendover to Rock Springs, WY

Miles traveled: about 325

We all woke up surprisingly early this morning: for some because the cats were so enticing, for others because breakfast smelled so good, and for me because today we have some activities on the schedule! Aunt Debbie made us a very tasty breakfast and after some final snuggles with her cats, Brady and Princess, and some farewell hugs, we were packed up and ready to hit the road.

 It was so windy!

Brady (black & white) and Princess

 

We barely made it out of Wendover before we were over the Utah state line and we were a little sad that this was the second state in a row with no welcome sign on the Hwy. Oh well, so much for our planned photo-op. Just a few minutes further was the Bonneville Salt Flat raceway. We followed the road for quite a while and thought about turning back a couple of times, but I'm glad we didn't. The salt flats were amazing, like an enormous field of crunchy crystals as far as you can see. We walked out a few feet, trying to decide what in the world you would do here when we saw a speck on the horizon ahead of us. As it got closer, we realized it was a motorhome driving across the flats, and when he got closer, he parked near where we were. We decided that if he could do it, so could we and so we drove right out on the flats. Well, I guess I should say that Jessey drove. He was very disappointed that I wouldn't let him see how fast he  could go or do donuts out there, but I was just too nervous. I told him he could come out here some day with his own car when he's the one paying for repairs. We got a little ways out, and I decided to take a picture. But just like all the rest of the pictures on this trip, they just don't get the message across, so I also took a video.

 

 

 

On the way back to the edge of the road, A asked if she could drive. There was nothing out there to run into, so why not? Jessey gave up the driver's seat and A took a few minutes drving around out there on the salt. She said it was so much fun, and I guess she honestly wasn't too bad of a driver for a 10-year old.

 

 

After we left the Salt Flats, we made a quick stop at the Great Salt Lake. The lake was pretty from a distance but  kind of smelly up close and since I am still haunted by my experiences there as a child, I was very happy to leave there as soon as possible.

 

Salt Lake City itself was a beautiful place and their central downtown area reminded me a bit of Santana Row. I was blown away by the fact that their convention center parking lot was free for the first hour and charged $1 for each hour after that. We were in town for 3 hours and paid $2 in parking. I couldn't help but think that it would have cost $20 in San Francisco.

 

In Salt Lake City we had one planned stop, at the Family Library, the biggest collection of genealogy records in the world. That place was amazing! I was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of information in that building and the thousands (or millions) of man-hours that have been spent taking all those books and records and digitizing and cataloguing them. They had computers with internet access, so the girls were happy and Jessey helped me look up records online. All around me people were discovering long-lost relatives, making family connections, and rediscovering their forgotten/lost heritage. The staff there truly have one of the coolest jobs on the planet. The lady next to me was looking for someone of Jewish descent. She pulled up a map of his last known address and looked for synagogues in the area that existed 100 years ago. She tried to determine which one was closest enough to walk to and could even tell from the census records (and the last names of their neighbors) which approximate neighborhood they lived in based on the nationalities and ages of those around them. Amazing! They know who kept good records and which types of people are harder to track. They know which rabbit trails to follow and they key in on the slightest clue of information and follow it much faster than my mind could keep up. It's easy to see how people could spend days, weeks, and months there (and why they have an onsite cafeteria :) ) We were there for at least two hours and felt like we barely scratched the surface of trails to be followed. Truly fascinating!

 

We left Salt Lake pretty quickly, already nervous that we were going to get into the campground late and be setting up the tent in the middle of the night again. The views in Utah and western Wyoming are beautiful. I especially loved the area between Salt Lake City and Echo, Utah. As we continued through Wyoming, it became clear that we were not going to make it to the campground before dark. This one was especially troublesome because the campground was a primitive one with only 5 sites in the middle of nowhere. It was free and didn't take reservations and it was a Friday night. We had a backup campsite (also with 5 spots) nearby just in case, but I was just as concerned with not being able to find it as I was with getting there and finding it full. We stopped in Rock Springs, Wyoming, assuming that dark was dark and we might as well see something fun before we succumb to a night with no running water and no toilets in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.

 

Rock Springs had a community college that I had seen somewhere online as something to see. It had a giant dinosaur fossil exhibit - huge, in fact - and we decided to check it out. As we drove up the hill to Western Wyoming Community College, we considered our situation and commiserated a little more. Jessey spotted some signs leading up to the college that said they had a play happening that night at 7:30 (about an hour later than when we arrived) and I jokingly said that maybe we should watch the play and spend the night in this town instead. We tossed the idea around for 15 more minutes before we reached a consensus to do just that. We bought tickets to the show and drove down the hill to grab some Sonic before it started.

 

 

 

The show was SO good! We all laughed hysterically through the entire production of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, and A said she wished it would never end. It was the perfect way to spend the evening after a long car ride.

 

There were plenty of hotels in the area, so I booked a room and we drove straight there after the play. We were all notably crabby from lack of sleep and I was relieved that we were all going to get a good rest and a big breakfast in the free cafe downstairs the next morning. It was just the rest we needed after 3 days on the road.