travelingz

Left Rawlins, WY 8:30 a.m. Arrived Salt Lake City, UT 3:30 p.m.

Today we had a harder time getting out of bed. The days of traveling are really starting to add up. We probably should have put in a non-traveling day somewhere! I'm looking forward to getting to SanFransisco so we can stay put for a couple of days in a row.

Anyway, today we drove on I-80 all day, through the high plains of WY and UT. We thought about taking a detour to Vernal, UT to see Dinosaur National Monument, but decided it would add too much time to the day. We had some great scenery with sagebrush, canyons, cliffs, etc. We crossed the continental divide twice because we were in the Great Divide Basin. It was pretty windy, but nice temperatures when we were in Wyoming. Now that we're in Salt Lake City, the temperature is close to 100 degrees. I know that people say it's not so bad because it's a dry heat (dew point here is 24 degrees, about 8% humidity) but I'd like to remind them that the oven is also a dry heat. My contacts feel like they've been in the oven for a while after being outside here. It seemed like a very long downhill into Salt Lake after the plains, but no problems with the van.

We didn't stop very often today, although we did think about stopping near Rock Springs at Killpecker Sand Dunes. We really had a good time stopping by Sand Mountain, NV last time we were in the west, so Killpecker seemed like a good time too. Plus they had some cool rock formations in the park. We didn't have good directions to the place, so we stopped at an information desk in Rock Springs to ask. The conversation went like this:
Us: "We're interested in seeing the sand dunes. How is the road? Could we drive our minivan there?"
Info guy: "No."
OK, then.

So we made a quick stop at WalMart and then got back on I-80. However, we did have an entertaining rest area stop with prairie dogs today.



They were very tame at this rest stop and would come up to take food from your hand. People were even petting them. We thought Chocolate the guinea pig might like to come visit sometime. The dogs were about the same size as he is.

We are now at the Grand America Hotel, easily the poshest hotel I've stayed at. Our room is 700 square feet with a balcony view of the Wasatch range. We have a separate dressing room/walk-in closet and the bathroom has a tub, shower stall, and separate "water closet". Marjorie especially likes the service here because a waiter came up and offered us chocolate chip cookies while Jeff was checking in. We also had a very pretty little tray on the coffee table in the room with rosebuds and chocolates when we got in. You should check out their website at www.grandamerica.com if you'd like to see more.

We did have a little trouble getting here from the highway since Salt Lake is one of those cities that couldn't come up with any names for their streets and went with 100 South, 100 North, 100 West, etc. There are 2 streets named Temple (one north-south and one east-west). I just stopped trying to read the map and looked for the hotel, since it's one of the taller buildings in downtown. That was much easier. For dinner tonight we went to a seafood place and had a great meal. We strolled around a little and took the trolley back to the hotel. Tomorrow we will stop by the lake on our way to Winnemucca!