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Even though we had 552 km to travel, we didn't make an early start. We left the hotel about 9am and headed back to Carson City for breakfast. We had spotted Mom and Pop's Diner on Monday and decide to give it a go for breakfast - we were not disappointed. We checked out the Governor's Mansion before heading out of town. We thought that Carson City was a very liveable city and could understand why Elizabeth's mother (they call her Momma), would be happy living there. We set the GPS and headed out of town on Highway 80 towards our destination for the night.
The whole day was spent travelling through Nevada. The roads were long, straight, in great condition and seemed to go on forever. The pine forests of California had given way to the desert hills covered in nothing but grassy tussocks and rocks. Even though the vegetation was almost non-existant, the landscape was stunning in its own way.
We skirted around Reno, the only big city we passed. Lunch was at Winnemucca which reminded us of a TV show that Hayley watches - Bunk'd which is about a group of children at summer camp called Camp Kikiwaka. Other highlights of the day included a passing train that took Greg 41 seconds to video and the numerous triple trucks, mostly owned by Fed Ex.
Our stop for the night, Elko, was a pleasant surprise after the small towns we had travelled by all day. Elko has a population of about 20 000 people and is another casino town. You would have no trouble finding somewhere to stay at Elko as the main street is a continuous row of motels. The town boasts statues of large painted cowboy boots adorning street, even outside the Elko County Court House.
Our trip continued in the morning but we only had about 390km to drive. The landscape remained much the same but as we approached Utah there was a distinct change in our surroundings. The mountains remained in the distance but beside the road on both sides we were surrounded by salt flats. occasionally there was a layer of water over the salt but mostly it was just salt fields.
We stopped at West Wendover for a coffee break; this is the last town in Nevada and was just a main street with casinos side by side. Just outside West Wendover we saw the sign to Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway so we decided to go have a look.
If you have seen the movie "World's Fastest Indian" you would know why we took the road to the Bonneville Speedway. This is the site of numerous land speed record attempts. The salt flats stretch over 30,000acres. In late 2010, the Ack Attack team set the motorcycle land speed record at 609.69km/h. There was no action at the speedway today, just a caravan and a few vehicles driving on the salt flats. If there hadn't been a sign at the side of the salt flats, you might not have even known you were there - I guess it would be different if an actual attempt on the records were being made, but it was almost deserted today.
We rejoined Highway 80 and continued on another 190km to Salt Lake City, our home for the next two nights.
- comments
Christopher Lots to see in Salt Lake City then if you get into Wyoming the scenery is a treat. travel safe
Merrilyn I like the scenery to be green or mountainous with snow tops. Yes there roads are mostly good