Little RV on the Prairie

Our Little House in the Prairie

The last 4 days have been a study in differing terrains.  In Iowa and Nebraska, we encountered the prairie and America’s breadbasket.  Miles and miles of corn and soybeans, generally flat, but often rolling hills.  The contours and the lines of the rows and irrigation were very sculptural.  Somewhere between Nebraska and Wyoming, the prairie gave way to sweeping mesas, with little vegetation and dramatic rock formations.  In Utah the ragged mountains erupted to enclose the valley for Salt Lake City.  As I write this we just finished walking out on the salt flats, which butt up to I-80.  It looks like snow and a group of teenagers were actually trying to form and throw “salt balls”.  They quickly gave up, as the balls, while formable, were more like rocks.   It sounds very interesting…but driving through it can be very boring.  The prairies and mesas go on forever!!  We survived by first listening to a book on Audible and when we finished that, Deb read aloud the sequel.  (Several campsites without internet thwarted our efforts to download books.)   These helped us push on westward and gain a day on our schedule. We just started our 3^rd book, this time on Audible, the 4^th in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, The Girl in the Spider Web.

Deb at Salt Flat....teenagers throwing salt balls in background

We did make a few interesting stops.  In North Platte, Nebraska we enjoyed a railroad museum.  The engine was one of a kind and huge and the cars were restored.  The mail car was interesting.  Workers sorted the mail in between stops.    We skipped all of the Buffalo Bill museums as they were several of them and each looked like a tourist trap.  I’m sure one of them was probably interesting, but which one?  In Wyoming we stayed at Curt Gowdy State Park, on the shores of a granite quarried lake.  It was beautiful and the sunrise that morning was as pretty as the ones at the beach last month.

Railroad Museum in North Platte, Nebraska

Sunrise at Curt Gowdy State Park Wyoming

Since we had done the typical tourist things in earlier trips to Salt Lake City (the Mormon Temple,  “swimming” in the Salt Lake), we explored other parts of the area.  The city is very bike friendly and we were impressed with the protected bike lanes and electric light rail.  The city seems to be on an upward swing with multiple cranes sprouting up on the landscape, and many condos both new and long-standing.  However when we drank the Chamber of Commerce “kool-aid” and tried to explore the arts and shopping district our first afternoon there, we discovered they still roll up their sidewalks about 6 pm.  We did eat sushi in an interesting Japanese restaurant that was a converted Lutheran church, and we stopped at one of David’s favorite Odell projects, the Shriner’s Hospital.  At almost 25 years old, it still looks terrific.  The view of the city from the neighborhood surrounding the hospital was amazing as we were partially up on the mountain and had a sweeping view of the valley below.

Friday was a fun mix of stunning natural beauty and art galleries.  We took a day trip through the Cottonwood  Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains to Park City where we walked Main Street enjoying the shops and art galleries.  Dave even found two very whimsical signed lithographs for his elevator lobby.  We thought about Sharon and Richard and their ski trips there and their trip to the Sundance Film Festival. 

Japanese Restaurant in old Lutheran church

Shriners' Hospital

Windy Hair in Cottonwood Canyon

How does his hair stay down?

Before leaving this morning, we went to the Saturday Farmer’s and Craft Market for breakfast.  A wide variety of farmers, crafters and food vendors take over a city park.  We were fascinated with the portable wood fired pizza oven and saw more heirloom tomatoes than I thought possible.  We enjoyed empanadas for breakfast along with a decadent orange cinnamon bun, and bought peaches and tomatoes for future lunches.  It was very well done.  Why can’t Charlotte do this in Bearden Park or the new park across from Imaginon?

Boiled peanuts in Salt Lake City
They billed it as the edameme of the South!

Mobile Wood Fired Pizza Oven

Most of you know I play the license plate game on every trip.  I now have 46, with only 4 to go.  Yesterday in the RV park I got Hawaii.  This isn’t especially rare, especially as a “vanity” tag on the front of a car, but this was on a 40 ft. diesel pusher RV and tow car!  Somehow I don’t imagine huge RV’s in Hawaii!  And the thought of shipping it state-side sounds terribly expensive.

We just entered Nevada and will stop in Elko this afternoon and hopefully make it to Reno and Lake Tahoe for Labor Day.  Some folks we met at the campground had just come from there and verified our choice of a campsite in Elko.  They told us that Reno is having a Rib Festival and Dave began salivating.  Hopefully we will be able to secure a good campsite there.  We just passed a sign that said, “Do not pick up hitchhikers, prison area”.  Looking at the terrain, its easy to imagine the filming of the movie Holes… lol!