It had been quite the trip, in fact it was a dream trip to me. I had seen many fine points of the American West, and quite frankly I would have loved another week and a thousand bucks more to afford it, as we had not seen everything .Yellowstone and the Tetons would have been a terrific finale to this adventure. However, there comes a time when you want to be in familiar surroundings, LIKE YOUR OWN BED! Also, the Mustang was due back Saturday, so Thursday was a good day to head back with plenty of time cushion "just in case".
On Thursday morning, Natalie and I woke up and had a little breakfast in the Econolodge office. Good thing the desk clerk had no idea we weren't even guests there! Haha just kidding, that free continental assortment would serve a freeloader right! It's a violation of the Geneva Convention to foist it upon paying customers like us. After a while, we got packed, turned in the key, gassed up, and got onto I 80 west toward Salt Lake City.
Interstate 80 has some meaning for me. It was the majority of the Ohio Turnpike when we traveled from Pennsylvania to Michigan and back for so many years. When I lived in northern California, my buddy Scott and I took it going to his parents' house in Fairfield and also occasional excursions to Reno. One could almost call it transcontinental as it heads from San Francisco to New Jersey, but it doesn't end near the coast, but just short of New York City. Close but no cigar. It lightly touches upon Sacramento and the Chicago area and goes through Des Moines and Omaha. but 80 is mostly rural with several small towns scattered here and there. 80 in Wyoming is a bunch of nothing, albeit pretty nothing.
Heading down the pike, we kept seeing signs for a place called Little America. In fact there werre so many signs we thought it might be a megacomplex. It didn't matter to us, we were hungry so we decided to stop and have a bite, thinking there'd be a sitdown place. For all that billboard hoopla, Little America was a disappointment. It was merely a huge Sinclair gas stop for cars and trucks alone with a large convenience store with a snack bar. We grabbed some small road eats and headed out.
Down a little further, we saw an exit with a "Business loop 80" designation. Now, when one sees that, one expects at least some fast food goodness, but all we got was a 15-mile stretch with 3 small burgs: Lyman, Urie, and Fort Bridger. Oh we saw life, but not the life with sit-down service. Coming back to the interstate, we settled on some Taco Bell, which satisfies me never.
Back to the road, we eventually passed through Evanston and then crossed into Utah. It was already the afternoon and we were still almost 500 miles from home. After 50 miles of more curves and peaks, well I hate to say it, but my mind was on home, not exploring. Sure, I'd never been in these parts before, but Taco Bell was running thin! We got onto U.S. 40 east. This was actually the western end of 40, the eastern end is in Atlantic City, New Jersey. After about 20 miles, we entered Heber City and got onto U.S. 189 toward Provo.
At least this road was interesting! It wound through several canyons within the Wasatch Mountains, passing along a beautiful deep blue lake. After all that beauty, we entered Orem. The signs told us to get to I 15 via Orem, but I later found out that I could have kept on 189 and still ended up at 15 in Provo. Ah, the exhaustion of the road was getting to me!
Upon getting onto 15, we were in familiar territory. There were about 30 miles of small towns in Utah County in a row, which make it feel like one large spread-out town. After Santaquin, 15 entered rural Utah. I like this area because it goes fast via an 80 mile per hour speed limit, and the 3 hours to the Arizona line go by quickly. In the 55 mph days, this would have been a 4-5 hour affair!
We stopped at an old haunt called Lisa's in Nephi. At last we could have a real meal and I was not stingy on cost, we deserved this! After the meal and a gas touch-up, we got back on the road. After Scipio and Fillmore, we eventually passed the exit for I 70. I could not help but feel a bit sad as we passed this exit. There was a small temptation to get back on just to relive the sense of adventure from the previous Friday when we'd taken 70 to Richfield to camp for the night. It was just another indication that our adventure was coming to a close.
A stop in Beaver gave a thirst for ice cream...well at least Dairy Queen ice cream. It's not the same, but it was what we had to work with. A hot coffee was also in order as I was feeling the drain from hours of driving. Before long, we went once again through gorgeous Cedar City and then downhill to St. George. It really is a temperature difference of about 20 degrees between the two towns. Cedar City is cooler uphill and St George is more like Las Vegas. Into Arizona and the Virgin River Gorge we drove and then it was back in Nevada soon after. We stopped at the first Mesquite exit for a McNugget touch-up, then headed home.
This was an adventure I could relive, with a couple of changes, like not losing or damaging my wife's things, and getting a more worthy car for such a trek. It was certainly the highlight of my summer.
I know that words do not give a complete view of what I saw and did in that week, but rather a few snapshots. I encourage everyone who can to take a year off of air travel and see America from the ground. It really is worth the time to see something you have always wanted to see. For me it was The Bear Lodge (Devil's Tower for the uneducated). For others it could be the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the ocean, hell even a Disney compound. But make the time to have an adventure where your luggage won't get lost, where you can find local eateries, where you can see the great land of ours. It's worth it, believe me!
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