San Francisco Road Trip: Utah and lands west

I guess it's been almost two weeks since we finished our road trip and a bit longer since we made a post. Well. It's been busy.

After the storm in Wyoming we stopped in the first lodging we came across, a chain motel somewhere between Casper and Salt Lake City. Because of the extra time we'd gained, we looked up directions online and decided to make the trip to see Spiral Jetty before stopping in Salt Lake City proper.

The drive really takes you to the middle of nowhere, and then 15 miles further on unpaved roads. 13 miles in, as the directions put it, "the Class D road designation ends and the quality of the road deteriorates markedly." The jetty itself is awesome, but those last two miles are the real adventure.

We stayed only briefly in Salt Lake City. We saw the Temple and ate at a great vegan place, and then — it was maybe 10 or 11 — were at a weird place time-wise. We didn't want to stay in the city, but didn't feel up to driving much further, so we decided to hit the road and stay at the first lodging we saw.

Thus began the one truly late night drive. East and north of Salt Lake City, along the lake, was an expanse of suburbs and small cities. West of the city was nothing. According to the car's GPS, we drove along the lake for some time; but this was the sort of buildingless, streetlightless expanse that we couldn't see more than 20 feet off the road in either direction. There was nothing but a succession of signs: "Drowsy driving kills," "Sleepy? Rest area ahead," "If you have to, just pull over," etc.

The first lodging was in Wendover, over 120 miles from SLC. There was a concert in town and the woman at the first hotel we stopped at doubted we'd find vacancy. There was a motel next door, but she thought we "might not like it." She made a face. "Kind of skeevy?" "No, no. It's clean. Just: you ask for a key, and look at a room." She also offered to let us sleep in the lot but we figured we would travel another 60 miles to Wells.

We stayed at a small hotel there and woke up on Sunday determined to hit Oakland. Late afternoon we entered California (new home state!) through the gorgeous Sierras.

At Sacramento, the traffic was unbelievable.

And finally, Oakland, at about 3400 miles.

Somewhere in Utah.

The poorly marked way to the jetty.

One of many such "Did we make a wrong turn somewhere?" gates.

I guess this is still the Class D road.

A quarter mile after we should have turned back. It's a good thing we're keeping the car because you could feel the resale value lowering with every KTHUNK.