I was driving across the burning desert...
This is the third installment of my cross-country trip from August of 2004. I'm still negotiating the Old West and enjoying the scenery.
The Nevada desert flies on by me as Las Vegas recedes into my rear view mirror. At the time I was thinking of a Joni Mitchell song called "Amelia" where she says...
"I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia it was just a false alarm."
Always liked that song, and now I couldn't get it out of my head. Onward Joni...
I was getting hungry so I noticed a small town coming up and decided to get some breakfast there. It was about 7:30AM so it was time for a break. I stopped at a tiny speck of a town called Glendale, Nevada and cruised into a no-name diner on a sparsely habited main drag. I had my usual, sausage and eggs, over hard. Jackson hungrily devoured the leftovers and we took some time for him to stretch his legs.
After eating I was now getting another case of the nods, (what a surprise) and I scanned the horizon for a good place to pull over so I could snooze. There wasn't anything appealing, just acres of scrub brush extending to the distant hills and not a single structure, a solitary tree that had some shade where I could park the car. Very well. I would park out in the open at the first turnoff I saw which I did. It was next to one of those solitary gas stations that one sees in the movies. So I parked, rolled down the windows and actually snoozed for about 20 minutes out in the middle of the baking desert. I woke up and quickly got going after checking on Jackson, this heat had to be hard on him and I doted on him constanly. What a crappy time to travel, when it's just just God-awful stinkin' heat everywhere.
There were high clouds so it was a kind of hazy heat that kept us company all the way to the Arizona border. This was a tiny slice of Arizona, perhaps 30 miles, but the landscape was little different than Nevada and it was strange to be in this state again after so many years. I left Arizona many years ago because I hated the heat, I was leaving it now for other reasons but I was still glad it was behind me. Welcome to Utah.
The landscape now began to change. There was still scrub brush but now instead of long expanses of desert stretching to distant mountains there was a sculptor's delight of mesa and buttes all colored with oranges, reds and purples. It's funny, but while I appreciate the intrinsic beauty of the landscape before me I still wanted to dispense with all this heat. Perhaps if I traveled through here in fall or winter I'd take more time with it all. I'm sorry folks, but the heat doesn't thrill me and if I can get the hell out of it fast, I will. The rest of this first day's drive, the first leg of four, ended midway into the center of Utah in a place called Salina. I was going to press onward to the Colorado border but I only had about 1/3 of a tank of gas and the sign on the freeway warned me of "No services for 108 miles". I wasn't going to take the chance so I turned back in the median and stopped at the truck stop where several motels and restaurants beckoned. The heat was oppressive, well over 90 degrees in the car and I needed to get Jackson out of this dreck. I checked into the Super 8 Motel and vegged out in an air conditioned room with my big furry friend. This was a great first day's drive, 632 miles and no mishaps despite the total lack of sleep for the preceeding 36 hours.
This is where 15N ends for me and Interstate 70 begins, not a bad first day's drive. I 70 would take me clear across the midsection of the country all the way to Columbus, Ohio. No maps required from this point on.
continued later...
The Nevada desert flies on by me as Las Vegas recedes into my rear view mirror. At the time I was thinking of a Joni Mitchell song called "Amelia" where she says...
"I was driving across the burning desert
When I spotted six jet planes
Leaving six white vapor trails across the bleak terrain
It was the hexagram of the heavens
It was the strings of my guitar
Amelia it was just a false alarm."
Always liked that song, and now I couldn't get it out of my head. Onward Joni...
I was getting hungry so I noticed a small town coming up and decided to get some breakfast there. It was about 7:30AM so it was time for a break. I stopped at a tiny speck of a town called Glendale, Nevada and cruised into a no-name diner on a sparsely habited main drag. I had my usual, sausage and eggs, over hard. Jackson hungrily devoured the leftovers and we took some time for him to stretch his legs.
After eating I was now getting another case of the nods, (what a surprise) and I scanned the horizon for a good place to pull over so I could snooze. There wasn't anything appealing, just acres of scrub brush extending to the distant hills and not a single structure, a solitary tree that had some shade where I could park the car. Very well. I would park out in the open at the first turnoff I saw which I did. It was next to one of those solitary gas stations that one sees in the movies. So I parked, rolled down the windows and actually snoozed for about 20 minutes out in the middle of the baking desert. I woke up and quickly got going after checking on Jackson, this heat had to be hard on him and I doted on him constanly. What a crappy time to travel, when it's just just God-awful stinkin' heat everywhere.
There were high clouds so it was a kind of hazy heat that kept us company all the way to the Arizona border. This was a tiny slice of Arizona, perhaps 30 miles, but the landscape was little different than Nevada and it was strange to be in this state again after so many years. I left Arizona many years ago because I hated the heat, I was leaving it now for other reasons but I was still glad it was behind me. Welcome to Utah.
The landscape now began to change. There was still scrub brush but now instead of long expanses of desert stretching to distant mountains there was a sculptor's delight of mesa and buttes all colored with oranges, reds and purples. It's funny, but while I appreciate the intrinsic beauty of the landscape before me I still wanted to dispense with all this heat. Perhaps if I traveled through here in fall or winter I'd take more time with it all. I'm sorry folks, but the heat doesn't thrill me and if I can get the hell out of it fast, I will. The rest of this first day's drive, the first leg of four, ended midway into the center of Utah in a place called Salina. I was going to press onward to the Colorado border but I only had about 1/3 of a tank of gas and the sign on the freeway warned me of "No services for 108 miles". I wasn't going to take the chance so I turned back in the median and stopped at the truck stop where several motels and restaurants beckoned. The heat was oppressive, well over 90 degrees in the car and I needed to get Jackson out of this dreck. I checked into the Super 8 Motel and vegged out in an air conditioned room with my big furry friend. This was a great first day's drive, 632 miles and no mishaps despite the total lack of sleep for the preceeding 36 hours.
This is where 15N ends for me and Interstate 70 begins, not a bad first day's drive. I 70 would take me clear across the midsection of the country all the way to Columbus, Ohio. No maps required from this point on.
continued later...
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