Skies and Mountains

Utah - Click for day 3 pics

While on our way into Utah, aria called to let us know she and her husband wouldn't be there when we arrived, so she would leave the keys in the mailbox for us. This this was just as we started a very windy climb into the mountains. I was glad she'd called, as I no longer felt the need to arrive at a reasonable hour and could stop trying to shave minutes off the GPS' estimated for our arrival.  I drove through the mountains at a leisurely 55 or so, which I'm sure made other drivers just so happy with me.  I'm pretty sure the speed limit was still 75 there.  :)  But it was dark! And hey, there were two lanes.  All the other cars could feel free to pass me.

We got to salt lake city at about 10 pm, but couldn't for the life of us find house number 958.  There was 960.  And next door there was 954.  But no 958. I finally had to call and ask her.  Turns out 954 was the ground level of the house, and 958 was the upper level.

Day 2 couches

Having got that straightened out, we explored the place we'd be staying that night. It was a converted attic, so all the walls sloped down, and the windows popped out creating little nooks everywhere.  It was the cutest little home ever.  Every cabinet had a different funky knob or handle, their kitchen magnets looked like they'd been handmade from souvenirs from their travels, there was an adorable tiny table in the kitchen window nook, and shelves hung on the kitchen walls with dishes and other kitchenware since there were no cabinets.  The place was super-tiny, but Tricia and I decided we wanted to live there anyway.

Then, next order of business - showers.  Their shower head was mounted on the ceiling and pointed straight down and made it like it was raining.  After two days in the car, the shower was amazing!!  It was very lovely to be all clean and Comfy for the first time in a while.

Aria and Clay were so so nice. When they came home we sat at their dining table and chatted about Europe and traveling for a while.  Last summer they had spent over 2 months in Europe and told us their favorite places in Spain and Italy.  They also recommended trying our oatmeal in the morning with berries and yogurt, which was pretty good.

Library in Salt Lake

In the morning we actually got to see salt lake city in the daytime, and it's gorgeous.  There are mountains on all sides, and everywhere you look the view is breathtaking.  Several times we stopped in the middle of the road to take pictures.  And then Tricia had to see the library, which was amazing.  It was about six stories tall, with crazy architecture.  Tricia talked to the librarian about working in library science.

Tricia, Kat, and Jesus

We also had to see temple square before we left.  We walked around and saw the Mormon temple, but couldn't go inside.  We ducked into the Mormon tabernacle, and were the only people inside save for a woman playing the impressive organ at the front.  Another lady came hustling down the aisle from somewhere unseen - we smiled at her and ducked back out, thinking perhaps we weren't supposed to be in there after all.  We went to the visitors' center and learned about Mormon history, and climbed to the third floor to see the statue of Jesus on display. 

Afterward, we ducked into a little shop to buy a loaf of bread.  For lunch we had peanut butter sandwiches, clementines, and chocolate pudding in the car.  We ate while trying to find the world's largest copper mine, which can apparently be seen from space.  Tricia's iPad decided to stop turning on right about then, which put us in the middle of nowhere with nothing to direct us where to go.  Since the iPad has a touch screen, when it's not on it has two buttons - the on button and the reset button.  Tricia tried to get it started while I drove around aimlessly, but to no avail.  I've had an iPod for several years though, and I've learned that if you hold down multiple buttons at once for ten seconds it resets the device.  Finally we were back in business.  As we drove on, I Tricia suddenly started swooping her iPad back and forth through the air.  I raised my eyebrows at her.  "What??  It says to move it in a Figure 8 to recalibrate it!!"  Well, if the iPad says it, we must obey.

Closed copper mine

The copper mine, it turns out, is only open in the summer.  We got as close as we could and took pictures of the big structure, but then turned around and got back onto 80.  Next stop was to see the great salt lake. We clambered all over the rocks there and Tricia launched herself off the boat ramp.

It was already after 2 and we weren't going to make it to San francisco that night and needed to find a place to stay in Reno. We tried hotels but on a Saturday night the cheap ones were all booked up. Finally we turned back to couch surfing again.  Tricia read through several profiles looking for someone that might be willing to host us.  When we switched seats and she took over driving, I saw that the last person she'd looked at had included his phone number, so I called him.  His name was shadrach.  I called and he picked up and I said " hi, my name is kat, I found you on couch surfing, we were wondering if you could host us in 7 hours or so.". And he said, sure! Like strangers call him every day and ask to sleep on his couch. Which they probably do.


Pretty sky



After that we used up the freshly charged camera battery taking pictures of the sky and mountains.  We have four hundred pictures now, mostly of sky and mountains taken out of the window of the car at 80 miles an hour.

The Pig

Once it got dark, we started once again to look for a gas station.  Gas had been getting more expensive as we got farther west, so we downloaded an app to find cheap gas stations. We got off the highway in winnemucca in search of a gas station rumored to have gas at $2.95, but it turned out not to exist.  However, we did pass a restaurant in the area called The Pig, where we decided to stop for dinner. We ordered a pulled pork sandwich with honey spice sauce and curly cue fries.  It was actually pretty good.  Also probably not worth making an unscheduled stop for.

Day three accomodations

Finally, we made it to Reno and met Shadrach.  He had an empty room since one of his roommates had just moved out. He pulled the mattress out of his pull out couch and made it into a bed for us on the floor of the guest room.  It was actually very comfortable.

In the morning we got up intending to find a cheap Reno breakfast. But shadrach was in the kitchen making bacon.  Tricia and I helped him make scrambled eggs and banana/clementine smoothies, and we had a nice breakfast before heading out to san Francisco.