Be sure to read Part 1 for a trip overview.Travel Dates: 4/24/11
Spokane to Dillon MT
370miWe chose the southern route to avoid snow, but we ran into snow anyway. Lighted Montana DOT signs on I-90 strongly suggested taking I-15 south due to weather conditions, and most of the highways in Montana were under construction, reducing speeds to 50mph.
I f***ing figures that the day we leave, the weather clears up. Summers in Spokane are beautiful.
Lake Coeur d’Alene
In October you can see bald eagles. I’ve done the drive around the lake in the fall. Its beautiful.
The largest (by sales volume) Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealer in the world. Almost the entire town of Kellogg is used to store inventory. People come from all over the country to buy cars and trucks here.
Arrived in Dillon MT and checked into a Motel 6.
Newton getting fed and watered.
Within minutes of getting to town, I was pulled over for doing 34 in a 25. They let me off with a warning. In general, I’ve found police in Montana to be very friendly.
There was nothing in town open for food, not even a grocery store. I ended up heating/buying whatever I could find at the gas station.
Kim got me a candle she made out of beeswax. Its awesome!
Travis got a fire going in the back yard at Kim’s
We discussed Greek politics and international travel
We ate lasagna and listened to the police scanner. Spokane is a strange place, and it gets stranger when you listen to the scanner.
We needed more wood to keep the fire going, so Travis attacked the hot tub. It hadn’t seen use in a decade, so we were good to go.
I got a crack at it. I may have enjoyed myself a little too much.
Several glasses of wine later. Sean dropped me off at her house. I was already a bit drunk and barged in the front door with a sombrero on. And of course, I was in argyle.
It was raining a lot. It rained the whole time I was in town.
Alcohol makes me very, very friendly.
Burning the hot tub.
Apparently the wood we burned was perfectly usable redwood. Oops.
The next morning they found old fireworks in the garage and lit them off. Its amazing what you can get away with in a quiet suburb.
Sean’s dad has a GMT400 pickup. This is my all-time favorite pickup truck.
This one’s too new to have the funky half moon gauges, but it does have digital climate control. It rides like a late 80s Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham.
Went to Kalico Kitchen on Division (Ruby?) with Tyler and Ian. He ordered eggs benedict. I think I ordered eggs. Everything was excellent, including the service.
I attended Kara’s graduation from Gonzaga University. I hate graduation ceremonies, but I’m happy to show my support. Catholics love their wacky rituals, and this was a long one.
That’s it! We hit the road on May 9th and got the hell out. I’ll miss everyone, but I hate that town.
Had lunch with my friends, Sean and Cassie. They just bought a Honda Pilot. Looks great!
Notice how its raining and cold. It stayed that way until I left in May.
Bo and Linda are selling their puppies
One of my dad’s border collies
Went to Domini’s downtown for lunch with Matt and Ian
Popcorn appetizer
THAT’S A HUGE SANDWICH
Corned beef, swiss
Went to Zip’s, a regional fast food chain, and ordered a “Big Zipper”. Its basically a long bun with meat and cheese on it.
Knowing I was impossible to wake up by telephone, Sean showed up the following day and tried to drag me out of bed to see Fast 5.
I wasn’t having it.
In the depths of my boredom in Spokane, I seriously considered buying an Audi TT Roadster. I realized what a poor decision that would be and bought this $3 die-cast model instead.
My dad’s other dog, a labrador and border collie mix. This one’s pathetically lazy.
Tire shop scratched my car. They had it fixed but it still shows.
GOD DAMN IT. I’m 29.
I don’t know what this means.
I drove Bo’s Yamaha ATV from 1983. I wrote a brief review with a couple videos.
I saw this blue Altima in downtown Spokane with a NICOClub banner on top. I did finally figure out who owned it.
Went to see Travis (drummer) at Zola
Met up with Floyd, who I hadn’t seen since… 2003? and his girlfriend
Matthew
Travis, Kim, and someone I didn’t intend to forget
Bo gives serious face
In Spokane, seen just south of the Hillyard neighborhood. If he doesn’t want people to dump their things, maybe he should keep his property from looking like a dump.
Stupid trashy idiot.
Bo gave me an Apple Messagepad 130!!!! I owned a 110 and a 2000 years ago and regretted selling them. THIS IS SO AWESOME. It even comes with the original Apple rechargeable battery pack.
Sean, Cassie
Went to Jack and Dan’s near Gonzaga University to celebrate Kara’s last day of undergraduate classes
Kara, Keari, Tyler
Tyler, Kara
Went to Atilano’s at the end of the night for food
DELICIOUS
Its a wall of… cocks?
Met up with Kim and Travis at Suki Yaki downtown. I haven’t seen either since high school which was 11 years ago.
Rainbow Bar in Spokane is the trashiest place I’ve been to in my entire life.
Kim, Travis, myself, Matt, and Zack were there
It was trashy, but delightfully so. The strippers remained on stage while strange looking folks filtered in and out of the bar. A few odd gentlemen with creepy stares were seated in the corners looking at the low-end dancers.
Something about this place was magical. After spending a half hour or so here, I stopped feeling miserable about having to be in Spokane. Maybe being surrounded by sad and unfortunate people made me feel better about myself. Maybe the good company I was with put me in a positive mood. Or maybe it was Rainbow Bar magic.
I’m going with magic.
Travis, Matt, Matt’s brother Zack
Kim, Me
We went to The Swamp, a bar just outside of a neighborhood called Browne’s Addition. The atmosphere was pleasant with an outdoor seating area and fireplaces. It was like camping without having to camp out.
These two questionable girls followed Matt home. They eventually left.
I had a massive hangover. This was Bloomsday in Spokane, a day where everyone in town pays $15 to run 7.5 miles and get a t-shirt. The runners were noisy, but the kid down the street banging on his drumset in the front yard (I’ll admit, he was good) was even louder.
I walked to the backyard and threw up.
Dick’s Hamburgers — This is a Spokane landmark. The food is mediocre, but its about the atmosphere and the environment. Located downtown, this burger stand is swarming with migrants, addicts, seagulls, and homeless people. You walk up to the window, they take your order, you pay, and you leave with your greasy sack of satisfaction.
Osama Bin Laden died, so the Spokesman Review blessed us with this awkwardly written headline.
Outstanding pizza at The Flying Goat. Tyler ordered a Thai pizza with curry and sriracha sauce. It was surprisingly good.
The tire shop scratched my bumper so they sent me here, where no one was available to answer the door. I called and was told they were out to lunch.
Went on Craigslist and found a paintless dent removal guy. $55 and he took care of it within 15 minutes.
I went to Northern Quest Casino and spent… a lot. I was really, really bored. Ian didn’t want to join me so I left him in the car like a bad parent.
Kara and Tyler cooked a roast, lemon asparagus, and mashed potatoes. It was SO F*CKING GOOD.
This is a blurry picture of Kara and Keari’s rabbit. Its HUGE.
I would normally stop in Portland but I’d been here several times and wanted to get to Seattle in time for dinner.
“Entering Washington” — Sales tax goes from none to outrageous, but you get to pump your own gas.
“GIGGITY”
Ohio-style bridge
The moment you cross into Washington, people forget how to drive. They forget that the left lane is for passing and people treat the speed limit like the word of god, doing 59 in a 60 even in the far left lane.
Boeing facility.
787 Dreamliner
Seattle
Lynnwood WA — When you approach this building, the lamp post gets in the way of the “L” in “Clocks” and appears to read “A House of Cocks”
David took the picture above. “COCK SALE”
Picked up my old friend David, who I’d known since the age of 9(?) and went to Ivar’s for dinner in Mukilteo
The ferry
I ordered clams and fish and chips.
David got a crustacean
Ian got crab cakes
It was OUTSTANDING. It had been years since I’d eaten seafood that good.
David worked in the petroleum industry for several years. He enlightened us on the cause of the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Sadly, dinner was over and I needed to head to Spokane, Washington.
300 miles from Seattle to Spokane
Bellevue WA
Newton’s going ape shit for a dog treat.
Rainy. At least it wasn’t snowing.
The rain and clouds were eventually replaced by darkness. No wonder people up there are depressed.
A few hours later I arrived in Spokane, dreading the two weeks I’d have to spend in that dreary town.
Be sure to read Part 1 for a trip overview.Travel Dates: 4/22/11 – 4/23/11
Crater Lake to Corvallis OR
180 miles
Woke up at a Motel 6 in Corvallis OR
Newton smelled terrible so he got a bath.
Drove up to Independence OR to meet Gary from the CadillacOwners forum, who I’ve seen several times at midwest meets.
Up to this point, Gary’s Seville is the only other one I saw west of Denver. There were plenty in Washington, but almost no Cadillacs in California.
He was getting his oil changed.
Went with Gary, his girlfriend Erin, Newton, Ian, and his dog Hoover for a walk.
They sure like to walk around here. With weather this nice, why not?
Parking in the shade for the dogs.
The four of us had some Chinese for lunch.
Headed to Gary’s house and checked out his collection of models, souvenirs, and memorabilia.
Ooooooohh
Gary’s dad retired from the air force. Someone built this model for Gary.
His 2001 Seville. The shale/beige interior is SO MUCH NICER than the dull, lifeless grey in my STS.
We went to the dog park and Gary was kind enough to let me drive his prized collectible, a 1964 Chevy Impala.
[A link to a review and video will be posted soon.]
Gary took us for the took of his workplace, the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis.
“Powered by Orange”
The quad
Campus model
Women’s Building
One huge tree
😀
“Oooh” + “Ahhh”
lolwut
Hanging out in Gary’s office
Cadillacs
Cadillac badges
Hmmm
Heading back in the Impala
Gary treated us to an outstanding dinner at a local steakhouse.
Ian somehow jammed up the driver side door lock in Gary’s Seville
Hoover and Newton
Ian and the dogs
A JOYOUS DAY! Erin made an outstanding breakfast with chewy AND crispy bacon, toast, potatoes, and scrambled eggs. The eggs were particularly amazing. I think she said her secret was adding butter.
Erin and Gary, our generous, patient, and delightful hosts.
[Thank you for having us!]
Me, Gary
And the dogs
Hoover is awesome. I’ll miss him.
I’m very glad I stopped to see Gary and meet Erin. It was a nice way to relax and wind down an otherwise hectic trip.
There’s a button for cyclists to press that causes a “CYCLISTS IN TUNNEL” sign to flash.
Welcome to Oregon!
This area was pretty rednecky. I think this town calls itself Cave Junction.
Stopped at Wild River Pizza, which was quite good. This chill guy was hanging out in the back of a NISMO Nissan Frontier.
Starting to see civilization.
The gas pump at the Albertsons in Grants Pass was a mess. In Oregon, you can’t fill your own tank. You have to wait for an attendant to walk over, take your card, and stick the nozzle in your filler. There are always more customers than attendants, which leads to long waits and lines. Some have tried to justify the law saying its safer, but if you tell the attendant to top off your tank, they start the pump and walk away! If there was spillage for any reason, it would take longer for me to get out of my car and disable the pump than if I had just been standing there from the beginning.
Its stupid. Plain stupid.
“Why lie? It’s for beer.”
Heading to Crater Lake
Gold Hill OR
110 miles from Grants Pass to Crater Lake
Starting to see snow
Tried to take a scenic detour. Bad idea. Reversed back to the main road.
More snow
Much more snow
Much much more snow
That’s a lot of snow.
Got to the visitor center just seconds before it closed
The whole building was buried in snow.
How Crater Lake was formed. Mount Mazama blew up and left a hole with water in it.
3D model
Exiting the visitor center
He’s trying to burrow himself into the snow, or something
SO BEAUTIFUL. Its dead silent. There’s some deer and a few birds but that’s it. The water is so still at this time of year that it creates a mirror-like reflection. Even the clouds in the sky are rendered perfectly.
The water has no external sources, making it the cleanest body of natural water in North America.
“Due to several unique factors, most prominently that it has no inlets or tributaries, the waters of Crater Lake are some of the purest in terms of the absence of pollutants in North America.
Secchi disk clarity readings have consistently been in the high-20 meter to mid-30 meter (80–115 ft) range, which is very clear for any natural body of water. In 1997, scientists recorded a record clarity of 43.3 meters (142 ft).”
There’s a rope to discourage people from being stupid and slipping down the hill.
Wizard Island – “Lava eruptions later created a central platform, Wizard Island, Merriam Cone, and other, smaller volcanic features, including a rhyodacite dome that was eventually created atop the central platform. Sediments and landslide debris also covered the caldera floor.[12]”
That roof sticking up is the third floor of the building.
Tree tops!
People have gone up on the roof anyway.
Oh hi.
A little viewpoint away from the people.
I replied “Thx bro”
I wrote a plug for the blog.
Breathtaking.
At this time of year, the ring road around the lake is closed due to snow. They said it typically reopens late in the summer.
We left San Francisco the night of the 20th and headed up to Rohnert Park to meet Dustin, a NICOClub member with a Subaru STi. He’s a skilled chef who has served Christina Aguilera and Governor Schwarzenegger. I talked to him online for years and looked forward to putting a face to the screen name.
Another taco truck
Ian HAD to get cookies, so we stopped at a CVS near Petaluma.
After meeting up with Dustin in Rohnert Park, Newton got nervous of the other dogs in the house and took a shit on the carpet. I decided it would be best to check into Motel 6.
The Napa Valley region is stunning in the daylight, like a scene from The Sound of Music.
The next day we met up with Dustin for lunch at Mi Pueblo in Petaluma CA. Portions were huge, prices were low, and service was fantastic.
I wanted to believe that the Seville was able to keep up with the STi, but the truth is that Dustin was gracious enough to slow down for me. I have to say, though, that despite weighing over 4000lbs, being nose-heavy, front-wheel drive, and a bit soft, the Seville did a shockingly good job. Steering tightened up predictably, PAS software and sensors held the gear through corners, and there was enough power to somewhat keep up with Dustin on the few straightaways.
This is more or less what a sport sedan is intended to do. You might not be as quick through the curves, but you’re able to at least get the job done. And when the road settles down and things get back to normal cruising, you can relax and enjoy yourself without any exhaust drone or harshness.
I’m pretty sure I ate up my Pirellis though.
I lost him for a while and found him around a curve, waiting for me patiently.
Stopped to take a close look at his Subaru and check my oil level.
This color and these BBS wheels are perfect.
Valentine One
We parted ways at Bodega Bay.
The graphics on the gas pump show a Porsche.
Except for a bit of construction, traffic moved at a surprisingly reasonable pace.
Be sure to read Part 1 for a trip overview.Travel Dates: 4/20/11
A: Oakland CA – Motel 6
B: Palo Alto CA – Computer History Museum
C: Cupertino CA – Apple Corporate Headquarters
D: Golden Gate Bridge, Day
E: Berkeley CA – Dinner at Sea Salt
F: San Francisco CA – Castro District
G: Goldgen Gate Bridge, Night
160 miles
Approaching the city center of San Francisco.
Interesting eclectic architecture.
This dutch-looking structure is a holdover from when San Francisco had a large Swedish population.
A very car-friendly city with wide boulevards.
A Citroen 2CV!
Approaching the Golden Gate toll. Free to leave the city. A fee to enter.
“More people commit suicide at the Golden Gate Bridge than at any other site in the world.[51] The deck is approximately 245 feet (75 m) above the water.[52] After a fall of approximately four seconds, jumpers hit the water at some 76 miles per hour (122 km/h). Most jumpers die from impact trauma on contact with the water. The few who survive the initial impact generally drown or die of hypothermia in the cold water.
An official suicide count was kept, sorted according to which of the bridge’s 128 lamp posts the jumper was nearest when he or she jumped. By 2005, this count exceeded 1,200 and new suicides were averaging one every two weeks.[31] For comparison, the reported second-most-popular place to commit suicide in the world, Aokigahara Forest in Japan, has a record of 78 bodies, found within the forest in 2002, with an average of 30 a year.[53] There were 34 bridge-jump suicides in 2006 whose bodies were recovered, in addition to four jumps that were witnessed but whose bodies were never recovered, and several bodies recovered suspected to be from bridge jumps. The California Highway Patrol removed 70 apparently suicidal people from the bridge that year.[54]”
Exiting at the park just north of the bridge.
San Francisco
Alcatraz. Dirt inside my camera lens.
After the bridge, I wanted to go check out Berkeley, a place I hadn’t been to since 1998.
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge, 5.5 miles
Berkeley CA, a town known for its hippies, wacky liberals, and UC Berkeley.
Smart Alec’s on Telegraph. I used to eat here a lot. There was also a record store nearby that I sometimes walked to.
Stopped for dinner at a place called Sea Salt based on Yelp reviews.
Ordered a large lobster roll, $15
Dessert
The food was excellent, service was slow, prices were high, and portions were small. It was good, but I probably won’t go back.
Headed back to San Francisco
That’s a REALLY STEEP street. Traction control engaged a few times as I climbed the hill in the rain.
San Francisco’s Castro District. Yes, that’s two dudes on a date… or something. I tried to keep my distance from Ian as we walked around.
The story behind “The Castro”:
“The Castro came of age as a gay center following the Summer of Love in the neighboring Haight-Ashbury district in 1967. The gathering brought tens of thousands of middle-class youth from all over the United States. The neighborhood, previously known as Eureka Valley, became known as the Castro, after the landmark theatre by that name near the corner of Castro and Market Streets. Many San Francisco gays also moved there after about 1970 from what had been the formerly most prominent gay neighborhood, Polk Gulch, because large Victorian houses were available at low rents or available for purchase for low down payments when their former middle-class owners had fled to the suburbs.”
The famous theater.
Rainbow flags everywhere.
A store that sells, I don’t know, gay porn and stickers and stuff?
“Booty call Wednesdays” at club Q.
Went to Lombard Street and managed to get the Seville, challenged by its wide turning radius and long front and rear overhangs, down this winding insanity of pavement
This is what it looks like in the daylight. It was tricky, especially with my power steering pump already in need of replacement.
Another very steep street. Street cars were descending and ascending at the same time.
I’ll never complain about Freya Street in Spokane ever again. I genuinely wasn’t sure that I’d make it. With a 300hp Northstar V8 I had more than enough power, but traction in the rain was lacking.
Daylight pictures from Google:
So steep that steps were needed.
Camera tilted to make the street look level.
Another thing… there’s no plastic bags in San Francisco! I went to Walgreens to buy some ibuprofen and asked for a plastic bag. The cashier said the city banned plastic shopping bags a few years ago. I was disappointed since I use them to pick up dog shit.
Golden Gate at night.
San Francisco is beautiful but not obnoxiously congested. I found the people to be warm, friendly, and courteous. I look forward to coming back.
A: Las Vegas NV
B: Hoover Dam AZ
C: Oakland CA
620 miles
A Maserati Quattroporte spotted on the way to Hoover Dam in Arizona
“Sup guys”
Lake Mead
Entering Arizona
Newton gets curious.
Winding our way down to Hoover Dam. Before the bypass road was built, this narrow, twisting path was used heavily by trucks and cars.
At the security checkpoint they just waved at everyone.
Had to walk up this winding walkway to get there.
This explains the bypass route/bridge that was built to carry traffic around the dam rather than over it. The project was initiated for dam security and traffic relief.
You can see in this map the new US93 bridge compared to the winding route that used to go over Hoover Dam. They had detailed and lengthy power plant tours, but I didn’t want to leave the dog in a hot car for two hours so we skipped it.
Made it to the top!
Who paid
Nice view from up here.
The guy in the dark bluish minivan parked in the shoulder on the left was eventually shooed away by security.
Heading back down. There’s the Seville parked at the end of the row.
Didn’t seem like much of a walk until I looked back.
A railroad crossing on the highway. Weird.
Cadillac must have used the same Roadside Service sticker since 1983.
Dirt got into my camera lens. Argh.
Entering California. A pointless “inspection” where they just waved everyone through.
In & Out!!
Their sparkling clean kitchen.
So delicious. I ordered two 3x3s
The last bite is always the best and saddest.
Saved a beef patty for Newton.
Highest prices I saw on the entire trip.
Airplane graveyard in the Mojave Desert.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mojave_Air_%26_Space_Port “The Mojave airport is also known as a storage location for commercial airliners, due to the vast area and dry desert conditions.[5] Numerous large Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, and Airbus aircraft owned by major airlines are stored at Mojave. Some aircraft reach the end of their useful lifetime and are scrapped at the Mojave aircraft boneyard, while others are refurbished and returned to active service.”
Pulled up behind a retail building to get a closer look.
Looks like a lot of people walked over the fence to get a closer look. Apparently a lot of aircraft were relocated from here and much of the space is being converted for military and commercial use.
The last thing a brown man in America should be doing is climbing fences and getting illegally close to jet airplanes, so I stayed put and used my zoom lens.
It was pretty windy. This fence is like a trash net.
Windmills!
Gas war? Somewhere east of Bakersfield. There was a lot of high-speed two-lane traffic without a barrier in the middle.
Wandering around some state roads trying to get to I-5.
The rest of the drive up I-5 was boring and flat, almost as bad as Illinois with lots of bugs. Gas was unforgivingly expensive.
Arrived at Motel 6 in Oakland, located right on the water. $75
A: Chesterfield MO – Home
B: Wichita KS – Picked up Ian
C: Denver CO – Motel 6
D: Las Vegas NV – Motel 6
1,700 miles
Underneath all of this junk crammed into the back of the Seville is my Trek bicycle. I removed the wheels and managed to squeeze in my tools, bicycle carrier, shoes, bike accessories, wheels, frame, and a crib sheet set for my friends in Spokane who were having a baby.
Because the weather changes dramatically in the spring from region to region, I brought additional clothes in a large cardboard box. Newton was confined to one half of the seat.
I headed to Wichita to pick up Ian. Averaged almost 25mpg.
Influenced by Saab(?), the Seville’s instrument cluster has a night mode that disables the electroluminescent gauges. At night, it keeps the eyes focused on the road and relieves ocular fatigue.
A Slim Fast from a gas station…
…which makes up for the lack of nutrients in this hot dog and meat stick. I really, honestly can’t explain why I keep eating gas station hot dogs.
Getting chilly.
Ian was staying with his brother who lives in a new loft-style apartment in downtown Wichita, Kansas.
Went to Spangles, a local chain, for food.
Got settled in. Newton sniffed around.
Railroad tracks nearby, close enough to watch trains but far enough to not be a nuisance.
Beautiful neighborhood.
Stuffed grape leaves at Bella Luna, Wichita
I took his 2007 Cadillac Escalade and 2000 Ford Expedition for a drive and wrote up a brief review of each.
Out west, I ran into this problem quite frequently.
Virgin Mobile uses Sprint’s 3G network for coverage, but there is NO ROAMING. This is a non-issue east of Kansas City and south of Oklahoma City, but its unnerving elsewhere. I might get a TracFone for emergencies.
With Ian’s luggage added, Newton’s seating space was quite limited.
Somewhere in Colorado. Cheapest gas I saw on the entire trip.
Arrived at a Motel 6 in East Denver, $50 with tax. The neighborhood was pretty shady and a bunch of noisy kids were hanging out on the balcony until 4am. I won’t be staying here again.
The room was clean at least.
Headed east toward Utah on I-70. A beautiful, easy drive with lots of services, rest areas, and well-maintained roads.
Lots of tunnels.
Newton had this weird habit of sleeping in an upright position, leaning against the back seat with his head behind the box.
Despite the Northstar V8’s reputation for head gasket problems, the temperature remained steady no matter how steep the mountains got.
My Lenovo netbook and sunglasses fit in the glove box perfectly.
Eisenhower Tunnel — “The Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel is located approximately sixty miles west of Denver, Colorado on Interstate 70. It is the highest vehicular tunnel in the world, located at an elevation of 11,013 feet at the East Portal and 11,158 feet at the West Portal. The Tunnel traverses through the Continental Divide at an average elevation of 11,112 feet. The facility lies entirely within the Arapaho National Forest and is divided by two counties, Clear Creek County at the East portal and Summit county at the West portal.”
“The length of the westbound (north) tunnel is 1.693 miles, and the length of the eastbound (south) tunnel is 1.697 miles (outside face to outside face of the ventilation buildings).”
Getting steep.
I got bored and flipped through the Seville owners manual and noticed this oddity, a four-door sedan with the back end of an Eldorado coupe. Was this Cadillac’s original plan for the 90s Seville?
Here I am dressed for the wrong season in the wrong state.
Pricey fuel up here in the mountains. We were next to some ski resort.
Interesting architecture. I believe this was near Grand Junction CO. We stopped at a Denny’s here. Thanks to Colorado’s outstanding mountain drinking water, everything from the tap at Motel 6 to the fountain Coca Cola at Denny’s tasted a hundred times better.
A tunnel.
Creek alongside I-70
Stopped at Hanging Lake Trail and took the dog out for relief.
I packed water cups, plenty of food, and a jug of water for Newton. The water was also in case the engine decided it didn’t want to retain its coolant.
The exit for this trail/rest area is called “NO NAME”
Looked for hotels in Utah. They seem to have a sense of humor about polygamy.
Utah is strikingly beautiful.
Even Newton is amazed by the scenery.
He decided it was a breathtaking place to pinch a loaf. Don’t worry, I picked it up.
Ended up at a rest area in the middle of nowhere on I-15.
It was so quiet it was spooky.
We walked up a steep hill and tried to get a glimpse of our surroundings with the little bit of light we had left.
In the daylight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Rafael_Reef
“The San Rafael Reef is a geologic feature located in Emery County in central Utah, part of the Colorado Plateau. Approximately 75 miles (120 km) long, it is the name given to the distinctive eastern edge of the San Rafael Swell. Composed primarily of steeply tilted layers of Navajo and Wingate Sandstone, it has been eroded into tall fins, domes, cliffs, and deep canyons.
The San Rafael River, Interstate 70, and Muddy Creek all cut through the San Rafael Reef. There are also numerous slot canyons that twist their way through the flanks of the San Rafael Reef, among them Crack Canyon, Chute Canyon and Straight Wash. These spectacularly beautiful canyons are often less than a few feet wide and can be hundreds of feet deep. Much of the San Rafael Reef has been determined to possess wilderness characteristics and the Crack Canyon and Mexican Mountain Wilderness Study Areas, or WSAs, currently protect several thousand acres of the most worthy areas of the San Rafael Reef and are awaiting an overdue designation as BLM Wilderness by the Congress.”
It got dark very quickly. Other than the solar-charged LED lights in the parking area and my camera flash, the place was pitch black. It was completely, eerily silent.
I took care of business here. I made sure to check for bats before entering.
This gas station/motel uses Star Trek fonts.
We made it to St George UT where we checked into a Motel 6. I HAD to stop at In & Out, a west-coast establishment I hadn’t enjoyed since 2006.
SO GOOD. The fries sucked, but the burger was AMAZING.
Unusually excellent fuel economy.
Next morning.
Looked around for a car wash in St George, gave up.
I-15 westbound
Again, Newton sticks his head behind the box and takes a nap.
North Las Vegas is a bit unpleasant. I noticed a lot of gas stations out west use these annoying pay stations, located separately from the pump, where you run your card, specify the pump you’re using, and pay a small transaction fee.
This one’s too new to have the funky half moon gauges, but it does have digital climate control. It rides like a late 80s Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham.
Went with Gary, his girlfriend Erin, Newton, Ian, and his dog Hoover for a walk.
“Oooh” + “Ahhh”
