Traveler's Log: Days 4-6

Left Rawlins, still unsure of its status as ghost-town. There were more people, but not by much. Perhaps all the inhabitants of Rawlins just don't like being out at night...or during the day.

Drove through the rest of WY, UT, and into NV. Ties my record for "Most States Been in on One Day Driving West," the others being MN, NE, and CO. We stopped in Salt Lake City and toured the capital. Biggest capital building I've seen. Simply massive. Gorgeous too. I learned a lot about the history of Utah (they were one of the only states that let women vote until the federal government made them stop). Got a picture of Brigham Young's statue. Either he was a very large man or the statue is at least 1.5x the actual size of Mr. Young. I sorta hope it was the former.

After a bit of wandering around Salt Lake City, mostly to find how to get out of Salt Lake City, we were on the highway again. We were able to prove our tour guide wrong, who had said of the Great Salt Lake "You can't miss it," by completely missing it. But we did stop at a rest stop and got to see, up close and personal, the Salt Flats. Oh, I forgot to mention another rest stop we encountered that had a fantastic view of the mountains, but I don't recall where it was, or even what state (upon further investigation, it was near Echo, UT).

We stopped in Elko, NV for the night because we basically had to (From One Elko to Another!). Nothing spectacular to note from Elko, NV, other than the lady at the front desk asked us if our town was named after Elk, to which we answered no, we didn't think it was at all. Elko, NV, on the other hand, is in fact named after Elk. I'm not sure where they got the extra "o" from.

We began our journey after a delicious and free breakfast at the Coffee Mug that shared a parking lot with the hotel. It was free because we got free vouchers from the hotel. It was good because it consisted of eggs, hash browns, and pancakes.

The plan was to make it to San Fran. We decided to go to Yosemite instead of Lake Tahoe. The back roads we took were extremely scenic, going through the mountains and around a clear blue lake. We came upon trouble, however, when we were only a few miles from Yosemite. The clouds looked ominous, so we called the Yosemite number, finding out the road we were going to take was closed. I'm not sure why they say Yosemite is open when the only main road going through Yosemite is closed. So we trekked to the nearest town of Bridgeport, CA and stopped for the night. We ate at a delightfully authentic Italian restaurant (Where the Eggplant Parmesan is Made On-site and the Spumoni Contains Alcohol!).

We decided to stay another night due to the fact that chains are required on tires. We don't want to buy them, have nowhere to put them, and don't really want to install them if that became necessary. So we're hoping and praying the requirement only lasts for today and not into tomorrow. Further developments to come...