Yellowstone Road Trip - Day 04

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming  'Wow! What a Ride!'”  ~ Hunter S. Thompson

John's phone alarm went off at 6:30 but he didn't hear it and Linda was enjoying snoozing so she waited until Fannie Mae set off her alarm before getting up. John rolled out of bed at 6:52, surprised that he had missed the alarm. We all got moving pretty fast and were headed out of Baker, Nevada by 7:25 having breakfasted in "efficiency #2" on RBTT for Linda and Honey Bunches of Oats for John.

We returned the key to Rayven (yes, that's her name) at Silver Jack's, got some ice for the cooler and headed out on the Baker Shortcut to Hinckley, Utah. If you are ever going to visit Great Basin National Park we recommend that you stay at the Silver Jack Inn. It is near the park, the managers are great and their Lectrolux Cafe is excellent. There is zero, nada, none, forget-about-it, cell service here. But, the wifi on the front porch of the Silver Jack Restaurant is quite good and it's very peaceful and quiet. Just make sure your laptop is fully charged as there is no AC outlet on the porch. About 20 miles down the road we finally saw another vehicle – not a busy Labor Day weekend in this part of Nevada.  At 9:13 we finally came upon a vehicle to pass in our lane – a giant RV, at first Linda thought it was a tour bus.

The Old Buzzards spent about 20 minutes in Delta, Utah for a quick rest stop at McD's. John got a senior coffee (what a deal – 50 cents, but it's not on the menu, you have to know to ask for it) and Linda got iced tea with a little lemonade mixed in. The mistake she made was that she used some McD's hand soap in the restroom when washing her hands and had a hard time getting rid of the lingering aroma. Once back in the car she used some hand sanitizer. Even that didn't get rid of it. Luckily she had some Herbs de Province lotion (Rosemary, Thyme, Sage – no Parsley) and that did the trick. Thanks Sheila!

An interesting old building in downtown Delta had a lacy sign that said The Gathering Place. Linda has a friend who is the pastor of a church by that name in Dallas, Texas. They both seem like very welcoming places. The photo didn't make the cut for the gallery, Linda will send it on to her friend, Joy.

Upon leaving Delta there was lots of green vegetation in the fields and many sunflowers along the roadways. AND, some more traffic action: we passed 2 pickups.

Salina City was a cute little town. They have the All Washed Up coin laundry, a Hot Spot eatery and Mom's Cafe.

You know those guard rails along the curves on highways? They actually do work. On I-70 we came upon a place where a truck driver had just taken out about 10 of them, which probably prevented him from going over the ledge.

We stopped for a quick tailgate lunch at a rest stop on I-70 near the Fishlake National Forest. John had peanut butter on rice cake and a boiled egg. Linda had some Tarvin tomatoes and the rest of her turkey panini from Genoa, Nevada. We warmed the panini by setting it on the engine manifold!

After we were into Utah for a while we noticed a definite difference in the landscape. It seemed like all at once there were columns and shapes very similar to those we remembered from our previous trip through the lower part of Utah where there are so many beautiful national parks (Bryce, Zion, Arches etc.). We think you will notice a big difference too when you see today's photo gallery. Another difference we noticed was in the fines for littering ($2000 in Nevada, $100 in Utah). AND in Utah there are no tacky casinos. Or untacky ones for that matter.

After Linda took a turn at driving, we arrived at our La Quinta in Grand Junction, Colorado around 4:30. Today was what will likely be our second longest day of mileage on this trip but we are getting to be old hands at unpacking and setting up our blog equipment for the evening.

We picked a nearby restaurant that we had noticed on the way to our lodging. It turned out to be very good. Linda had broiled tilapia which included broccoli, fruit bowl, whole wheat toast and a salad. John had the Cobb salad. John had done so well on calorie intake for today (cereal and rice cake with a dab of peanut butter), that he toyed with the idea of getting a slice of Caramel Pecan Silk pie, or their special limited edition Salty Hog pie....yes, it incldes bacon, caramel, chocolate silk and a special filling. He asked for calorie information, but they couldn't provide it, so he skipped the pie and settled for a 2.07 oz Snickers (280 calories). Still finished way under budget.

Today's photo gallery has but 22 photos...but, they shout "Utah"! You can view the gallery by clicking here.

Here's a short video driving across Utah. Some decent scenery and music. Oh, and this was the first time we used the Hero2 camera out in the rain.



Happy trails!