What a ride! From Barstow, CA to Ft. Bridger, WY passing through Las Vegas, Payson, Provo, and Salt Lake City (CA, NV, AZ, UT, & WY)
You could tell you were approaching the Nevada border by the glow in the distant sky. As I descended I-15 (a long descent) to the first border "city" in Nevada, you could see the distant glow in Las Vegas 50-60 miles away. The first "city" right at the border consisted of 2 casinos on both sides of the highway. The on-and-off rain stopped right before you got to the casinos and then resumed right after passing them. Hmm, I wonder if the heat from all those lights effected climate conditions? (Perhaps the global warming people should look into that)
Las Vegas truly is a city that never sleeps. It's amazing. I've been there once (the company I worked for rewarded all of the employees across all of the various branch locations for a job well done with a business/pleasure trip). I think Nevada will soon be called the State that never sleeps as there seems to be new casino towns popping up all over.
This segment of the journey had some spectacular mountain scenery. Just stunning. Especially in Payson, Provo, and Salt Lake City. The mountains east of Salt Lake City were largely obscured by fog and clouds. Come to think of it, much of the trip had rain, fog, and snow hiding the view of the mountains. However, when the sun did melt away the clouds and fog from time-to-time, it was just very cool to behold.
It started snowing vigorously (and then on-and-off again) just after passing into Utah. But nearly 200 miles later, it decided to stop for the day. That's good since I don't have chains for this vehicle (Even if I did, I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to attach them to the right wheels!). There were 2-3 sections on this trip that if it was snowing bad enough, they would close the appropriate pass/section. Thankfully, that didn't happen today. I'll have to keep an eye on the weather tonight and tomorrow morning as I may encounter nasty winter weather--better to know ahead of time than to find out about it all of a sudden.
I've never been to Salt Lake City before and was looking forward to seeing the lake as I rounded the bend to start my jouney eastward. But the clouds and fog covered it over this time around.
This trip has been fun going up and down the mountain passes with the truck (not fun in a reckless manner, but fun in enjoying the challange of maintaining the proper speed via proper gear shifting as well as using the engine brake).
Tonight I will sleep good at the truck stop in the "middle-of-nowhere" on top of the Rocky Mountains. Although the ground has about 2-inches of snow on it, it's not presently snowing. And the temperature right now is in the mid-teens--very tolerable--especially if your from Wisconsin. The truck is nice and toasty and will handle a further temperature drop without a problem--unless the truck decides to stop! But I'm at an authorized truck stop that handles repairs for our company so it won't be a problem even if the truck does quit running in the middle of the night (but I sure hope it doesn't!) It's no fun to wake up in a bone-chilling truck! (that happened to me a while back when I left the truck off for the night and the temperature was in the mid-to-upper 30's when I got up in the morning. It took a while to unthaw from that experience!)
Hey...what are those snowflakes I just noticed? Stay tuned!
miles driven = 671
7:55:32 PM
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