The West

Today we left the midwest in the dust. Literally. My car was covered with it when I got up this morning. Apparently the wind finally died down sometime during the night. I saw no more tumbling tumbleweeds. After a couple hundred more miles of flat prairie land, I was glad to see low mesas and hills, then taller slopes spotted with conifers---the very foothills of the rockies. Soon the horizon opened up to stretches of snow-capped peaks. Wyoming was a beautiful and welcome change of landscape. So many interesting rock formations: red rock mesas; yellow, washed-out ridges; brown and green hills covered with sedge or something like it; pine-tree-strewn mountains, splashed here and there with snow in shapes like golf course sand traps.

We left Sidney, Nebraska around 8:00 AM and drove all day. I decided to swing down to Salt Lake City for a bit of urban living and culture. I've had it with road food and trucker towns, and since we've been making such good time, we can afford to spend a couple of days in one place. The city, what I've seen of it in the few hours I've been here, is beautiful and nicely laid-out. Brigham Young knew a good thing when he saw it. The city is tucked in a valley surrounded by 7,000-foot mountains (the Wasatch) and to the northwest is The Great Salt Lake. I've seen lots of old and interesting architecture, and I'm hoping to check out some of it tomorrow (if stuff is open on a Sunday). Of particular interest to me is the Cathedral of the Madeleine.

I took a drive through the city tonight, and checked out my tour book and found a nice Thai restaurant out past the university. It was refreshing to the palate to have a little spice and flavor, and to eat some tofu instead of chicken or beef. One thing I've been dying for is seltzer. Apparently, the midwest doesn't know that adding carbon dioxide to water creates a bubbly, satisfying drink. If I can't find some here in Salt Lake City (they have to have it), I'm going to dig out my Isi Soda Siphon and make my own! But that would mean unearthing it beneath all the stowed gear in my CR-V.

I've been keeping a tally of my gasoline consumption, and it's astounding:

136.4 gallons since leaving Fort Montgomery.
$317.34 total.
Average price: $2.32

I've saved every receipt. For food and water and hotel rooms, too. I'm hoping for tax deductions, seeing as this is a professional endeavor, a business trip of sorts.

Here are some pictures I shot today:


Saw this little guy, and about 20 like him, at a rest area in Wyoming. It's a prairie dog.


At another rest area, also in Wyoming, this was the view. Not ugly.


Same mountain, from the road.


I think I was trying to photograph windmills, but got clouds instead.


If you look closely, you can see the windmills in this one. Why aren't there more of these everywhere?

The next three are some shots of the Utah mesas and mountains:




G.