Road Trip #3 Day 6 - The Unintended road home = over 600 miles

July 18, 2012
Colorado, USA

From Wendover, UT to Home

We had a crappy cup of motel coffee and rolled out of Wendover UT about 8:30 this morning without looking back. On our minds was crossing the Great Salt Lake Desert for the first time and seeing the Great Salt Lake. A few miles out on I-80 coffee and breakfast somewhere in the Salt Lake City vicinity became an intermittent topic of conversation. We were happy to be riding under sunny skies - warm and dry. It was windy.

Well, the Great Salt Flats and the lake are something to see. The vast expanse of it is impressive and we agreed it was a happy circumstance that we were not traversing it on horseback or wagon as the pioneers had done. We found it interesting to note that tire tracks led off highway into the salt flats at several points along the way and noted as well that from the disturbed terrain some of the off-road jaunts did not end happily. And all along the way people had signed the roadside by arranging bottles and rocks or used sticks to draw hearts and smileys and initials in the sand.

I-80 rolling east through the Great Salt Lake Desert

By the time we reached the Salt Lake City metropolitan area we had talked ourselves out of venturing into the urban areas of the city itself. Instead, we found gas and traveled I-15/84 north toward Ogden UT. We found Dee's Family Restaurant in Ogden UT, arriving in time to order a healthy brunch. YUM! Dee's was clean, the service fast and friendly and the food arrived quick, hot and plentiful. I repeat - yum!

While we were relaxing over the last cup of coffee, we looked at the map and talked about what to do with the rest of our day. We decided to ride east on Scenic Hwy 39 through Cache National Forest and decide when we got to the Wyoming border where to end the day. Landing in Wyoming would not be my choice but we agreed that riding around The Flaming Gorge again might be fun tomorrow. Hwy 39 is a scenic, forested, gently winding road following a river at times and traveling through a well populated area for a good ways. We traveled by small farms and the Snowbasin and Powder Mountain Ski areas. We enjoyed it more when it broke out of the more populated areas and the trees and cliffs offered some protection from the winds for a while.

Scenic Hwy 39 - Utah

The photo above is from a beautiful pulloff. Too bad the serenity didn't last as a few miles down the road we ran into another batch of nasty road construction.

In the tiny town of Woodruff UT not far from the Wyoming border, the road east split. We pulled off in a church parking lot for a stretch and a drink of warm water (no place selling cold drinks in town) under some shade to consider our options. The road split here (as did our minds) and north or south was the choice. South on Hwy 16 would put us in Evanston WY on I-80 or thereabouts for the night. Pooh says I. North on Hwy 16 would put us in the Bear Lake area. Better says I. Well, perhaps not. We ran into another stretch of nasty road construction traveling north. Now, when I would have zigged west on Hwy 30, Tim zagged east. He was mumbling something about !!&%$^%&^$!! road construction and how he remembered the towns of Kemmerer and Diamondville as cute little towns with restaurants and small motels. That is not how I remembered them at all. The only thing of note I remembered about the area at all is that it was touted as the Fossil Capitol of the world (which has me wondering if it was talking about rocks or the inhabitants) and that the mother store of JC Penneys sits on a corner just off the square in Kemmerer. Typical of Wyoming in summer the winds were howling and the skies were beginning to fill with ominous looking clouds.

We rolled into Kemmerer, stopped for a few minutes on the square, rolled out of Kemmerer and stopped again at a convenience store just outside of town [Diamnodville] for ice cream and a fountain drink. There were a couple of small motel prospects but the food offerings didn't appear to be up to snuff for Tim.

So, we headed southeast on Hwy 30, thinking we could make easily make Rock Springs for the night. We ran into more road construction and more wind and rain that came out of clouds Tim had called just virga clouds a few minutes before. Ha! Well, it is rodeo season in Wyoming and there was not a room to be had in Rock Springs. We rode on to Rawlins - same story. After choosing the Best Western in Rawlins as a last resort, I finally blew a gasket when the clerk suggested we pay for a smoking suite at what can only be called an exorbitant rate. I looked the man in the eye and said something to the effect that it would be a cold day in hell when I paid that much to stay in bohunk Wyoming. In the next breath, I told Tim gas er up, we are 200 miles from home and home is the end of the road today.

And that's exactly what we did. It was a windy, wet, and eventually cold ride. We stopped in Laramie about 11 pm at Shari's where we had coffee and pie. That's where the pictures end. When we rode out on the last leg of the trip that would put us in our own bed for the night, we added another layer of clothing. Along the lonely and dark stretch of Hwy 287 between Laramie and Fort Collins Tim complained about needing to adjust the lights. When we checked them after getting home he noticed we had lost both the low beam headlight and the right auxiliary light. I'm not surprised with the rough roads we traveled.

It was just after midnight when we rolled into our neighborhood. I'd say we were a bit road-weary after 622 miles. We are somewhat surprised to be home on day 6 of a 10 day road trip - but sometimes you just have to know when to call it a day or a ride. No big deal. We still have the rest of the week off and all of Colorado right out the front door - I reckon we will manage.

As we settled in for the night I remembered to wish Tim a Happy Birthday.

Total miles for Road Trip #3 = 2152.6

Slide show of Day 6 part 1 - from Wendover UT to near WY on scenic Hwy 39 = 67 photos:

Alternate link to this slide show

Slide show of Day 6 part 2 - the long road home = 100 photos:

Alternate link to this slide show