Salt Lake City

I've been home two weeks and Lynn and I decided on a
change of scenery! Yes, we both still have the travel bug,
but we're taking trips close to home this summer. We headed
to Salt Lake City, which is about 4.5 hours away from home.
Along the way, we stopped at the new In-N-Out Burger in
Draper. In-N-Out is a regular stop of ours in California, but
now we have one only 4 hours from home! Good thing we
don't have one in Grand Junction because it certainly would
not be good for my waistline!


We checked into our hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and
it's a cute little mom and pop style motel, called the City
Creek Inn. It's located only blocks from the center of the
city. Salt Lake City is set in a beautiful location, with mountains
all around. Much like Denver, if Denver had been built right
against the Rockies instead of on the Plains. Right against
the mountains is the University of Utah. We drove around
the campus and saw Rice-Eccles Stadium. This is where the
opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics
were held.


Before we came back to the hotel for the night, we drove around
the downtown area. Salt Lake City is the home of the Mormon
(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) religion. Salt Lake
City is to the Mormons like Vatican City is to Catholics. The
centerpiece of their faith. The Temple itself is very pretty and
is especially so at night. We can't go inside though since we
aren't Mormon. Overall though, Salt Lake City is very welcoming
and there are lots of things to do here. We should have a good
time seeing the sights over the next couple of days.

Colorado-Oakland-Reno

It seems that we can never stop traveling. This morning, we flew
out of Grand Junction's friendly little airport and after a stop in
Salt Lake City, found ourselves in Oakland, California. We had
to fly to Oakland so that we could pick up the Truckasaurus.
Truckasaurus is Lynn's sister Lenlee's Toyota 4Runner that we'll
be borrowing for the next 6 weeks. It also means a very long
drive for the next few days, as we slowly make our way east to
Indiana to visit my Mom.


This drive is an adventure for both of us as we have never driven
the stretch between San Francisco and Colorado. After leaving
Mill Valley, we made the obligatory stop at In-N-Out Burger and
feasted. I mean, who can't stop at In-N-Out Burger if given the
chance? Crossing the Sierras wasn't a problem since it's July, but
I wouldn't want to drive this route in the winter since it gets literally
feet of snow at a time! We stopped at Donner Pass which is famous
in history for the struggles (and not-so-tasty food choices) of the
participants on their way west.


The Sierras are beautiful though and although we couldn't spend
much time here on this trip we vowed to return someday. Lots of
really pretty mountains, lakes and vistas...with clean running rivers.
Similar to the mountains of Colorado...but different.


Once we crossed the Sierras we found ourselves in Nevada.
Neither of us had been to Nevada before so it was something
different. We stopped at a CVS drugstore in Reno (it was huge!)
and they actually had 20 slot machines in the store! Probably
not uncommon for Nevada, but certainly different than what we
are used to. We drove a bit longer than we wanted to but we had
reservations at the Red Lion Hotel and Casino in Elko, Nevada
and we pulled in about 9:00. It was a really nice hotel. When
we checked in, they gave us a coupon book for free stuff and
after we ate dinner, played $5 worth of free slots and ended up
losing $10 more. They wouldn't make a lot of money off us,
but when in Rome...or I guess in this case, Elko...