GTTC: Day 4
Today we traveled from Rock Springs, Wyoming, to Winnemucca, Nevada. Google maps says that's a distance of 533 miles. We got an early start this morning, leaving just after 7:00.
After a few miles, we saw a huge grove of windmills off in the distance. I checked the odometer and tracked how far it was from where I first saw them off in the distance to when wc came abreast of them and it was about 25 miles.
The vistas in this part of the country are amazing. Sometimes in Tennessee I can see a mile or so up the road on a long straight stretch. One perfectly straight piece today in Utah with no curves at all ran for about 45 miles.
It was across the Great Salt Lake Desert just west of Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake. The ground is completely white with almost no vegetation and very little in the way of hills or variations in the flatness.
Driving along minding our own business, we suddenly saw this sculpture beside the road. I barely had time to fire up the camera and snap a picture as it sailed past. This evening, I did some googling and found out about it. It's called the "Tree of Utah" and was created by an artist from Sweden in the 1980s. The link above ("this scupture") leads to a news story about the sculpture.
Just before the Nevada border, we passed the Bonneville Speedway, just as the map had promised. We didn't choose to pay the $5.00 to get on the speedway and "open it up", but it was nice to know we could have.
After crossing the desert, we came to Wendover (in Utah) and West Wendover (just over the line in Nevada). Karen was driving and I was not clear enough about my desire to stop so we were past the West Wendover exit before she could react. There were no more services for almost 60 miles into Nevada, so I was thankful there was another West Wendover exit just a mile or two further along and we were able to follow the frontage road back to a Pilot station. Coming back into West Wendover, we saw the view above across the white desert we had just crossed.
Flying along through Nevada, I saw this picturesque name. Can't find much about it on the web, except for indications that it's the site of a geothermal energy development and this by a guy from Hawaii with the same curiosity I have and more resources to satisfy it. His blog entry is very interesting.
Eventually, we reached Winnemucca. In the hotel room, I read some material about the town that explained that it is named after a Paiute Indian chief. When a group of prospectors first met him, he was wearing only one moccasin, so they called him "One-a much-a" since "much-a" was the word for moccasin in his language. He liked the name and adopted and used it for the rest of his life. A town with a picturesque name should have streets with picturesque names, right? So it does. We saw this street sign walking down to a nearby store to pick up some supplies.
This is the mountain to the east of Winnemucca, behind our hotel. The setting sun is shining on it from behind the camera.
These two pictures show the mountain to the west of town, in front of the hotel.
After a few miles, we saw a huge grove of windmills off in the distance. I checked the odometer and tracked how far it was from where I first saw them off in the distance to when wc came abreast of them and it was about 25 miles.The vistas in this part of the country are amazing. Sometimes in Tennessee I can see a mile or so up the road on a long straight stretch. One perfectly straight piece today in Utah with no curves at all ran for about 45 miles.
It was across the Great Salt Lake Desert just west of Salt Lake City and the Great Salt Lake. The ground is completely white with almost no vegetation and very little in the way of hills or variations in the flatness.Driving along minding our own business, we suddenly saw this sculpture beside the road. I barely had time to fire up the camera and snap a picture as it sailed past. This evening, I did some googling and found out about it. It's called the "Tree of Utah" and was created by an artist from Sweden in the 1980s. The link above ("this scupture") leads to a news story about the sculpture.
Just before the Nevada border, we passed the Bonneville Speedway, just as the map had promised. We didn't choose to pay the $5.00 to get on the speedway and "open it up", but it was nice to know we could have.
After crossing the desert, we came to Wendover (in Utah) and West Wendover (just over the line in Nevada). Karen was driving and I was not clear enough about my desire to stop so we were past the West Wendover exit before she could react. There were no more services for almost 60 miles into Nevada, so I was thankful there was another West Wendover exit just a mile or two further along and we were able to follow the frontage road back to a Pilot station. Coming back into West Wendover, we saw the view above across the white desert we had just crossed.
Flying along through Nevada, I saw this picturesque name. Can't find much about it on the web, except for indications that it's the site of a geothermal energy development and this by a guy from Hawaii with the same curiosity I have and more resources to satisfy it. His blog entry is very interesting.
Eventually, we reached Winnemucca. In the hotel room, I read some material about the town that explained that it is named after a Paiute Indian chief. When a group of prospectors first met him, he was wearing only one moccasin, so they called him "One-a much-a" since "much-a" was the word for moccasin in his language. He liked the name and adopted and used it for the rest of his life. A town with a picturesque name should have streets with picturesque names, right? So it does. We saw this street sign walking down to a nearby store to pick up some supplies.
This is the mountain to the east of Winnemucca, behind our hotel. The setting sun is shining on it from behind the camera.These two pictures show the mountain to the west of town, in front of the hotel.
Labels: 2008, California
posted by GreenSkink at 7:36 PM
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