Tuesday, September 25, 2012

BC Canada to Oklahoma Day 3 & 4

Day 3 found us in Jerome, Idaho and ready to head toward Utah.  We were greeted with a very beautiful sunrise which seemed to follow us for a whole hour.....:-).  It was a little later than what we wanted, but we still had a great start of a another 10 hour day of driving.


Since breakfast was not really being served that early, we left the hotel a little hungry, but enjoying the beautiful morning toward something to eat soon....:-).  My camera was having a hard time focusing since the light was so low.  Using the flash only made things worse.  So, some of the pics are a little blurry....:-(.  sorry


And we drove........and we drove....through endless miles of.......NOTHING.....toward Utah.

more nothing, but getting interesting (kinda) as the shape and sizes of "nothing" was remarkable!
more "nothing"........

After looking at all of that amazing "nothingness", we had to make a potty stop....I think "Ms Vickey" was secretly getting tired too!



The air was still thick with smoke from all of the fires that had been going on.  At one point, we had all of the windows closed and the vents closed to the air system in the car and I still had to cover my nose and mouth with a sleeve from my jacket to keep from coughing.  We stopped at a rest stop and ran into some fire fighters called "Bonniville HotShots".  They looked exhausted and were sooty. None wore a smile.  I felt sad for them and decided to take a picture of the vehicle and not disturb "them".  

We carried on toward Utah and drove several miles all the while hoping that the scenary would change to something a little more interesting than the last few miles.  That interesting nothingness was starting to give me "road hypnosis".


ok!  It's gotta get better from here! So far we have come through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and now Utah!



And I could not believe how different the "nothingness" could get!  But at least there was the promise of more colors other than brown or gold....



Then we looked at the tank and thought..."hummm, there is nothing between were we are and the nothingness we are about to drive into".  Better gas up while we have a chance!


And while we are at it, better grab some "grub" too!  Ain't no food in "nothing"!




This is not as good as it looks.....:-(.  I was a bit dissappointed as I have tasted Ginger Beer before that was very spicey.  This was just the "taste" of ginger.



When I looked around, I noticed how the landscape was beginning to change a bit.... 



There was actually some color on those mountains and hills that were quite striking.....:-)



After taking or potty break and checking "Ms Vickey" and "Maj", we decided to push on and cover as much ground as possible before stopping for the night.



I strolled around the rest area while Chris checked out scoots and the tie downs... 



and then we were on our way again.......the nothingness had given way to "Majestic".....:-)



Sometimes, it felt as if we were driving through the land of giants.....:-)



I wondered what would be on the other side of those hills........


We drove and drove until we reached the next destination........


And then, we ran into some rain.....it wasn't bad though.....:-)


Every now and then, we came across things like this.....


and then we look and notice we are at the half way mark again on the gas tank.  So, we stop in Little America, Wyoming to get some Sinclair gas. 


Here is there famous mascot....haha...Might be a distant cousin to "Barney"! 


and then it was time to go after scauffing down an ice cream cone!


We crossed the Contenental Divide and I was tempted to jump out of the car and stand in the middle of the road......"sideways"! haha... But, since there was a car coming, I passed...haha



These are Antelope.  The only living creatures other than occasional cars that we saw the whole time we drove.....I had to really zoom my little camera lense to catch them... 

by now, we had done 10 hours of driving and it was time to get some dinner and call it a night.  We decided to eat at this place called the "Hoot & Howl" where we had a healthy portion of ribs and onion rings.  But we decided to switch from the Quality Inn which is one of the hotels we use to........




This hotel across the road called "1st Choice".  It shouldn't have been.  It made for a miserable night's sleep!



 DAY 4

We woke up to another beautiful sunrise and headed out early.   
It was so dark that my little camera had trouble focusing.....:-(.  Sorry that I couldn't really capture that for you..  




When the light got better, the pictures did too.....:-)



I don't know how Chris saw anything with his eyes half closed, but he did! ....:-)


a lot of the time, the landscape looked like something from another planet.  Completely uninhabited.....Which could lead to a strange "weariness".  So, we thought we better stop, take a potty break and ......say "Hi!".......haha 


And then it went to this!


to this......

and THEN, to this........uh oh.  And here we go for several hours.......minus the "green"...


We figured we better get some gas at the next gas station.......we met these guys on their way to Casper, Wyoming.....:-).  I think they were coming from Florida.


and of course since I had never met anyone who actually wore a"handlebar mustache", I just had to get a picture of it.....ha


We wished them well on their journey and told them to keep the "rubber side" down...:-)


We decided that we needed to make this day an early "quit" as we had been driving for several hours a day every day since we started the trip.  I was excited to see some "life" and color after so long a time of rock formations and mountains with no signs of life.



and within a few minutes, it went to this.........these are reported to be over 2 million years old......it was like driving through another planet in the solar system......


I mean, can you image living back then???  They were probably much taller, but have been worn down from errosion.... I couldn't decide if it looked more like giant play dough or fossilized dinosaur poo.....    ??? ha


and then it was time to get to the next destination, so we did!



It was also time to get some gas since we didn't want to have to do it in the morning.  Chris was looking tired and I was feeling tired so we made the stop.


We met these gentlemen after filling up with gas......Dale, Paul and....well, Paul! Funny enough Dale was Paul's father and Dale said that the two Pauls were brothers! ha.... I have no idea why two brothers would have the same first name, but here they are...They were fascinated with Ms Vickey and Maj, but especially our trailer.  Our trailer has wheels on its side to assist in rolling it into a garage for storage.  It can be turned on its side and rolled away.  They were on their way to do some ATVing on 1000 acres of land......:-)....wow... 





after spending so much time in the land of "giants and dinosaurs", I was ready to see some people.  Colorado was beautiful........:-) 


And to my amazement,.....houses!  with real people and a lot of them too! haha  YaY!  Not that I would meet them, but at least you knew they were there.....:-)


There were even places of worship......:-)..... 


but now, that we have reached Colorado...it was time to find the nearest WI FI signal at a Starbucks and find a hotel for the night.....


We were both very tired and happy to be packing it in early and finding a hotel quickly.....Can you see how relieved the man looks?  ha


the view from our hotel room at the Comfort Inn......