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| Miles Traveled:
649 Total miles: 6041 Stops: Music selections: Click on highlighted words for pictures... |
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I woke up in Beaver (I really wanted to type that! hehehe), ready to put
in a long day of driving and move toward bringing my road trip to an
end. The farther I can make it today, the less driving I'll have
on my final day on the road. Today gave me the chance to reflect
on everything I've done, all the cool people I've met, and just how well
everything went. Sure I had some hairy times, but they were few...
and the great times grossly outweighed them. I think taking this
trip was the best idea I've had in a long time, it was truly worth all
the trouble, and I'm thankful for how everything worked out. Even
the weather has been fantasic.
But one thing I thought of all the way was... "What am I gonna post about today - pictures of rest areas and gas stations?" Yawn. So I set off to find something worthy of pictures. I came up over a hill, and what do I see sitting on the median under an overpass? A Utah state trooper with a radar gun. OH SHIT. I've got the cruise control set on about 83 mph, and the speed limit is 75 mph... As I'm passing him, I see his lights go on, and him start pulling out onto the road... DOUBLE OH SHIT. He's in hot pursuit mode now... lights flashing. So I slow down to 75 mph, and pull over into the right lane.. He's gaining on me.... whoops.. he went right past me, and pulled over the Blazer in front of me... WHEW!! About the time I hit Provo, I got a message from my crack dealer. Krispy Kreme, next exit. Aaaaaaaah! "My pusher, who art in the crack house.. Hallowed be thy bitches and hos..." - Fishbone So I made a quick stop for some donuts... and while I was there, I took some pictures of a sweet 50's Ford panel van they had parked in front of the shop. But I gotta do better than that, I think. I thought I might take some pictures of the Great Salt Lake, but by the time I hit Salt Lake City it was looking pretty smoggy & hazy... I wasn't sure how they'd come out, so I decided to bag that idea and forge ahead. Every time I saw a sign for some park or scenic drive, I'd check it out on the map to see how far out of the way it was. I skipped quite a few of them, but stopped and took some pictures of the mountains along the way. Then I came across the sign for the Golden Spike Historical Park... I have to admit, I'm a bit of a history buff, and thought it would be cool to actually *see* the spot where the Golden Spike was set. I always thought it was interesting how much the connection of the west to the east changed this country forever. Underneath the sign was another for a "rocket display"... Okay, between the two of them I should be able to get something photo worthy. So off I went, in search of the Golden Spike, which was only a straying of 29 miles from the course home. First I stopped in Thiokol... a city that seems to be named for the company there (or vice versa). Thiokol is a company that makes rocket engines, and apparently has manufactured a number of missile assemblies for the military (Minuteman, Patriot, Polaris to name a few), as well as the solid rocket booster for the Space Shuttle. It was interesting, and quite cool... I'd say it was worth stopping there if you were driving by, but I dunno if I'd drive specifically to see it. I snapped a few pics, and then it was off to see the Golden Spike park.... I arrived around 2:00 and went out to check out the steam engines they have on display... They are replicas of the engines that originally met on the tracks in 1869. This park is probably only for those who are into history, because there really isn't much to see beyond that. I really enjoyed it, though... they've done a lot to reproduce the way things were on the day that the event occured. I spent an hour or so at the park, and figured I'd better roll... but for some reason I was compelled to take one of the unpaved side roads that tour the entire park area. About midway through I found an amazing view of the valley beneath, and a little farther down the road, a very cool limestone arch. Nice! Okay, enough pics... time to go. Back on the freeway, I set in for a long haul to finish out the day.... My goal was to reach Boise before the end of the day. A few miles down the road was a pretty hair raising sight.... it seems a semi truck going the opposite direction had overturned and blocked most of the lanes. Glad I'm not going that way! I started calculating in my head how long it was gonna take me to get to Boise, and I figured I had about 4 hours.... so I figured - why not go farther? Less driving tomorrow. Then I got a novel idea.... what if I could make it into Oregon? Then I could spend at least one night in all of the 9 states I visited. Ontario, Oregon was only an hour past Boise, and that would be all it took to do it. So Ontario it was... and tonight I spend my last night away from home. Thank you to everyone who helped along the way. It was great meeting all of you... This has been a fabulous trip. <<previous ----- <<schedule>> ----- next->> |
