Day 3 - Sunday, June 14 - A family Reunion
The plan for today was to meet up with the rest of the family in the hotel lobby at 8am… and then drive to Elko, NV with a couple pit short stops and also a couple slightly longer stops at the Great Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats.
We packed up our stuff and went down to the lobby for the free continental breakfast. Sure, enough, the rest of the family was down there too. The kids were excited to see their cousins, Luke and Leia.
As I said about the previous breakfast, I’m not a big fan of these things. However, this one was MUCH better than the one the day before. We ate and then spent some time on the patio out front, while the other “team” loaded their car.
And of course, we saw more trains!! (We assume some of them were on their way to Bailey Yard in North Platte.)
Pickle was goofing off for the camera, so of course, I had to take a turn...
Not too far into the morning drive, we saw our first “real” mountains of the trip. Snow off in the distance!
And of course, we had to hop off the highway to see Buford, WY. The nation’s smallest town, with a whopping population of one person!!! Haha!
Back in the car and a bit longer, we stopped to see the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Monument. Seemed sort of interesting, so why not?
I asked Princess to hop up on the pedestal to get an interesting angle for a photo….
And of course, Pickle and Leia had to join in too!
It turns out that the Lincoln monument was at one of the coolest rest stops ever (just outside of Laramie, WY.) They offered a collectible sticker to everyone. These are really cool! (And made us want to stop at other rest stops to get more!)
The lady behind the counter was super friendly. It was fun chatting with her for a few minutes. They also have a small museum on site, with WY history and stuff. Really cool!
We probably spent 30 minutes in the rest stop and then we were on the road again!
OK. Highway 80 through WY is actually pretty darn cool. Interesting sites and great scenery!
I can’t remember the name of the town where we stopped for lunch, but it was a couple hours east of Salt Lake City. We had Wendy’s, which is Grandpa’s favorite chain restaurant. I’d say about half of the party was excited for it, the rest of us where like, “whatever, sometimes you just eat because you die if you don’t.” LOL.
Another couple hours, we made it to Salt Lake City. I had never seen this area before, it was pretty spectacular coming out of the mountains and towards the lake. We decided for a pit stop at the Great Salt Lake Marina. Turned out to be a great place to get out, stretch the legs, explore a bit, and see the lake!
It was pretty darn cool! We checked out this “look out point” for a few minutes, and then realized that you could actually go down to the water.
There were people swimming out there, but it didn’t seem to appealing to me. It smelled like death and there were nasty little flies everywhere. Regardless, it was pretty darn cool to be standing on the shores of the Great Salt Lake. I took tons of photos, but choosing to keep it pretty straight forward here. Here’s a shot of Nanny and Grandpa!
We probably spent about an hour total here, and then got on the road yet again.
Another hour or so later, we made it to the salt flats! I had read that there is a rest area about 10 miles east of the Utah/Nevada border, so we pulled off there.
Wow, this is actually a great place to stop. They had easy access to the salt flats, water to since your feet off afterwards, and restrooms. Perfect!
Before I had a second look, the kids were all out on the salt.
Too cool! This was truly bizarre. It felt like I was on a frozen lake with a layer of snow on top. I kept on expecting the surface to crack and give way, but it was totally solid.
I looked up again, and they were way out there!
Again, I probably took over a hundred photos (or more), but I’m only sharing a few. Here’s one of Stephanie and her mom.
The top layer of salt was actually sort of moist, with a consistency of cake frosting. It stuck all over our feet. Weird!!!
And looking more closely, the salt had all sorts of cool crystals on the surface...
We probably spent about 30 minutes or so on the salt (it was really hot and sunny) and then decided to head towards Wendover, NV for dinner. (Probably 20 minutes west.)
OK. We have to stop for photos at the Wendover Will statue!!!!!
Stephanie took a photo of me, and realized that it looked like he was patting my head, so we had to ham it up a bit...
We decided to stop for Burger King for dinner, as it was just down the road from Will. No pictures or anything, as it wasn’t anything special. The one interesting thing about it was… They had hot dogs. I figured, this must be a special regional thing, because I never heard of BK having hot dogs before. I did’t really want one, but I liked the idea of trying something new so… I ordered the two dog meal. Bad choice, they were disgusting. I couldn’t even finish them. LOL. Oh well, you can't win them all...
It was another two hours or so to Elko, so we hopped back in the car again. The evening drive was gorgeous. Beautiful sunset!
And a little while later, we made it to our hotel. Another Fairfield Inn. (Yahoo again for Marriott rewards points!)
Another really nice hotel, similar to the one the previous night.
We headed down to the pool so that all the kids could swim together and burn off some energy. Around 10pm, we headed back to our rooms.
Interestingly, these rooms were supposed to accommodate 5 people by default. I guess we should have asked for a cot or something, but I thought they’d have a sofa bed. No worries, we turned the chairs together and it made a nice little bed for Pickle. Good night moon!
.... I guess maybe they get used to it, but definitely would not motivate me to go swimming
