Tuesday, August 31

Tomorrow begins the last push towards the Pacific Ocean. I decided to get out this morning and go from where we left off on Sunday at This is the Place Heritage Park and go the 12 miles to the AirBnB we had so that we can jump start tomorrow. The next 4 days will be going through SLC and its suburbs until we get to Highway 50 more commonly known as “The Loneliest Road in the United States.”

The route crosses mostly desolate terrain in its journey across the state; US 50 passes through several large desert valleys and basins. The highway crosses 17 named mountain passes that break up the Nevada desert. To crest some of the passes along US 50 requires navigating steep 8% grades and hairpin turns through pine forests to reach elevations of over 7,000 feet.

In the stretch of highway between Fallon and Delta, UT, a span of 409 miles, there are three small towns, Austin, Eureka, and Ely. This span is roughly the same distance as Boston to Baltimore or Paris to Zurich.

Once we cross the desert we land in Carson City, NV which is also one of the current evacuation destinations for South Tahoe residents fleeing the Caldor wildfire. At present, we would not be able to go over the pass around South Tahoe to Sacramento as a result of the wildfire - we have 3 weeks to get there and with some luck, we will get through but that is for another day. The offshoot of this is that with the western wind we get every day between 30-50 mph which is making the fire danger so high, we are getting the smoke so that we cannot see very far even in Salt Lake City.

Our plan tomorrow is that I will run to meet Caroline and run to the RV center by 9:30am to assess what repairs were made. Chris will get everything from the AirBnB to the RV and we will meet in Lehi UT later that afternoon after the RV is repacked, restocked and refueled for the journey ahead.

Big thank you to Caroline for meeting us, giving us the lay of the land in SLC and lending us her Jeep to get around. Even more importantly, her optimism, Smile and her cute little dog Bella lifted our spirits greatly.

All for today - thank you for your ongoing support.

Cheers,

David.

Dawn at This is the Place Heritage Park

The Valley of Salt Lake City waking up

While the Mormon Trail comes to an end, The Pony Express continues westward towards it final destination in San Francisco