Tuesday June 25 2002

Salt Lake City, UT to Cheyenne, WY

Weather: Started off hot in Salt Lake and got cooler as I went on.  Party Cloudy...High in the 80's

Total Miles To Date 6,547 miles

Money spent today:

$51.09 on motel 6

$44 on gas

$7 on lunchables and water

$33 on Outback

Total Spent today

$135.09

Total Spent To Date

$2,990.57

10:40 in the morning and I decided to the northern route and avoid the Colorado fires....

So I just back on 80 East

It was startling to see the landscape change almost immediately.  When I entered Utah it was all salt and white...no life anywhere.  About 10 miles east of Salt Lake, the mountains became lush and green.  It was quite amazing...

Then the worst thing happened...for no reason whatsoever the speed limit became 55...why? in the middle of no where...Fortunately, this didn't last long (I didn't really go the speed limit anyway)

12pm Mountain Time and I'm in Wyoming....Welcome to the state that's under construction.  Construction and road closures everywhere...You would tear away for 1/2 hour doing 90 then get stuck in traffic and go down to 40...this went on for hours...

Another interesting point of interest...Wyoming is book ended by two "Super" Rest Stops called Middle America.  They created a little town in the middle of no where.  When you're driving and you see nothing but desert and mountains and all of a sudden you see an acre of trees and buildings and hotels...It's like an embryo Las Vegas w/ no gambling.  It's really nice...they have everything there.  They even had ice cream cones for .35

Also another fact of life in Wyoming is the highway patrol is everywhere and they are pulling people over...I'm going to have to be cautious in this state

3:30pm and I'm on Rte 80 East in Wyoming and the greatest thing happens...A huge rain storm.  This is the first rain, lightening and thunder I have seen in over a month.  I saw some drizzle in Monterey, but it was more like a mist... This storm was awesome.  The great part was that I knew I was going to hit it for hours.  I saw it in the distance.  When it's that clear outside and that flat you can see things for about hundred miles.  This storm was powerful.  It was really windy.  So windy, that my passenger window wouldn't close for a little while.  I caught some great video footage of the lightening...I forgot how good the smell of rain is.  Anyway, I drove thru it in about 10 minutes..

4:45 and I'm in Cheyenne.  Why am I here.  There's nothing here.  I check into another Motel 6..

6pm and I'm off to get some food.  Unfortunately the only thing around here is Outback Steakhouse.  Well, I'm in Wyoming.  I guess I should have some steak.  I stuff myself with steak, soup, mashed potatoes and an onion bloom....Wow, too much food...yuck...I actually felt sick from eating that much.  The funny thing was half way thru my dinner two typical truckers that you would see in the movies sat right next to me.  It was great.  They fit the stereotype.  They wore that baseball bat hat that no on wears...big old suspenders...everything you would imagine...

Found nothing to do in Cheyenne so I went back to my hotel room and started researching some stuff for the rest of my trip...

C YA

notes:

In case I didn't really emphasize this, hitchhiking still exists everywhere.  It's really there.  The only places that were not allowed were near the Federal Correctional Facilities that had signs marking that you shouldn't pick up hitchhikers here.

Total Miles Traveled Today 

435