So this is our third summer road trip and maybe our longest, Lord willing; 17 days. We will be traversing 5 states and have 5 major stops. A successful road-trip for us contains an equal mix of open road, landmarks, and friendly visits, often of the Rice-family sort.
The first leg took us through the entirety of Nevada via Highway 80. Honestly, there isn't much to see on that route. The salt flats near the Nevada-Utah border, where they break land-speed records, were pretty cool looking, with vast white plains and rock mirages.
We hooked up around the bottom of the Great Salt Lake to get to Layton, Utah in order to see my cousin, Emily and her husband, Michael. That first night after dinner we went on a hike and it was nice to stretch our legs after about a 12-hour drive. It was equally nice to catch up with Emily on all the latest family gossip.
Saturday was jam-packed with breakfast at Sil's Cafe, where we were forced to try their “scones,” a version of pastry that was like a large crispy, soft bready-dough. It reminded me of a sweeter pizza crust. They served it with honey butter, which we used as sort of a syrup. Oh, and cousin Katie and her friend Dani joined us for our adventures that day.
Then there was a patriotic parade we watched until we couldn't bear it any longer and decided to go swimming in the Great Salt Lake! I have always wanted to go swimming in that lake ever since I saw it in my science book with a lady smiling broadly as she seemingly enjoyed how well she floated in its dense waters. I don't remember if my science book told about the brine shrimp, mud and the biting gnats. Michael, Katie and Dani enthusiastically waded out into its murky waters while Emily, Chris and I took our time and talked about how we needed water shoes. Sure-enough, those waters were super easy to float in. Sit back and you were indeed buoyant. In fact floating like a human buoy was almost all you could do because, due to the viscosity, swimming was difficult. While crocodile walking back to shore I couldn't help, but feel like I was skimming for dead gnats, and God-knows-what debris was in those waters, with my swimsuit. We all were covered in a layer of salt and couldn't wait to shower back at Emily's.
That really tired us out, but we still wanted to go out for Indian food. “Taste of India” in Layton was one of the better Indian food establishments in our opinion. Later we would take our stuffed-selves to meet up with Michael's family and watch fireworks. Boy, did we sleep well both Friday and Saturday night.
Right now we are driving through Yellowstone, as suggested by Michael. We were excited at first, but after the 5
th and 6
th hour of driving, nothing is novel anymore (that is until a buffalo passes over the road!). Still we are looking forward to getting to One Horse in West Yellowstone to rest, eat and down a cold one.
Going North on the 540 we hit a deer, leaving our poor Corrolla in this state. The deer was still mindlessly leaping across the road when we looked back. We called our insurance and saw a body shop guy and got the front end aligned. Good to go for the rest of the road trip!
This was a little snake we found in Chico's garden...
