Driving – Day Two – North Platte to Salt Lake City

We woke early to find a snow covered car.  After a quick stop at McDonald’s for breakfast and coffee, we were on the road – half an hour earlier than yesterday. And, we pulled into the hotel just after 5pm.  Tom's formula worked again today. We're not quite sure how we did it, but we covered a few more miles today in less time -- even with my snail's pace shift at the beginning of the day.

Tom took the first shift of driving, for which I was grateful.  I could sip my coffee and appreciate the sunrise and the beautiful light over the Nebraska prairie.  

We noticed the geography change about where I-80 split off to I-78.  The prairie turned into buttes and bluffs.  And, where yesterday we saw old-fashioned windmills, this morning we saw working oil rigs!

I noticed several “no hitchhiking” signs just past entrance ramps in Nebraska.  I can’t ever remember seeing these on other road trips.  But, they sparked a good conversation about whether people do hitchhike anymore (Tom’s take is that they do, or there wouldn’t be signs), and whether either of us had hitchhiked … Tom has.  I haven’t.

We changed from Central Time to Mountain Time at 7:45 am. -- just before Sidney – headquarters of Cabella’s.  Tom wasn’t impressed by the aesthetics or architecture of the building.  Later, we drove through Sinclair – home of Sinclair Oil.  I recalled the story of the GIANT blow up dinosaur my dad brought home from the local Sinclair station.  We named him Dino, after the dinosaur on the Flintstones.  (No imagination, right?!)  In between, there’s an aptly named town – Pine Bluffs! 

I took my shift driving after a gas-stop in Hillsdale, Wyoming – just outside of Cheyenne.  It went well for about, oh, 5 miles, and then things got scary.  The wind picked up and snow was blowing across the road.  We kept seeing signs that warned us about black ice and high winds – turn off your cruise control.  We pulled into a rest stop just outside of Laramie and I happily let Tom take the wheel again.  We had a rest stop again and Tom went in and I kept my seat-belt firmly buckled in the passenger seat, so, Tom drove until we got to Rock Springs, where we had a quick lunch and then went on our way.  I drove the last leg of the day – Rock Springs to Salt Lake – about 189 miles.

If I had to pick only one word to describe this leg of the trip, it would be harrowing.  We had sheet ice on the highway, blowing/blinding snow, mountain roads/steep grades, sleet, and high winds.  I was glad I had my sunglasses on, because I didn’t think I needed a headache from squinting at the sun glinting off the snow in addition to the ache I had in my shoulders from trying to keep the car on the road.  And, yet, somehow, Tom trusted me enough to nap just a bit.

Before he napped, he took some pictures.  This one is from just outside of Green River.  Tom said he thought it looked like heaven. I told him that if I looked at the photo while I was driving, we both might end up there.

I was gripping the steering wheel so tightly when we pulled into the hotel at Salt Lake, I thought my hands would be stuck in that position for days.  I would have cried from relief if I hadn’t been so tired.  We had dinner at the Golden Corral (they have fantastic veggies) and then went back to the hotel for a soak in the hot tub—after a quick stop at the state-run liquor store for a bottle of wine.  Why didn’t they tell us the pool and hot tub were in a separate building from the hotel itself?!  A small band of children led us to the pool house and warned us that the “smoke” (steam) would get “really bad” if we closed the door.  We took the risk.  Because there weren’t any towels in the pool house, getting back to the hotel in our wet suits just added to the surreal quality of the day.

Tom just reminded me about how we picked our dinner spot.  I picked three.  He picked one – The Golden Corral. Tom put each restaurant name on a slip of paper and put them in his beanie.  We agreed we’d go to the place I picked out of the hat.  We both laughed when I picked HIS choice – especially after he joked about putting GC on all of the slips!  (He didn’t, but it did lighten the mood!)