Woke up refreshed, enjoyed a much better complimentary breakfast than normal in a grand acoustic lobby setting, dragged our feet getting ready, finally loaded the car and got on our way.By the way I would highly suggest Ben Lomond Suites in Downtown to anyone visiting Ogden Utah. Ladies the bathrooms are huge.
My brain was totally misinformed because I thought for some silly reason, most of the largest of the mountain ranges were behind us, so I was a bit taken aback that we just kept climbing higher and higher until we were running across the tops of them in Wyoming through some snow flurries, cloud coverage and icy rain thrown in for added fun. <dripping sarcasm>
Mind you, when you turn onto I-80 East, after I-84 runs out of pavement, that is when the fun really begins.
The landscapes and panoramas are majestic, and once again I was amazed by how often and quickly the landscapes change from flat highlands to rough and rocky, to pre-historic shapes and layers of earth randomly thrown about. There is a story or two here, going millions of years back. A quick stop in Jerome Wyoming town showed history going back to the mid 1800s when the town was a frontier catch-all prison for the state’s criminals.
We had made a reservation for a hotel in Rawlins WY, a town in the middle of nowhere, that once had importance as a pioneer town and railroad center. One General Rawlins once found here the best spring water in the area and the slow growing town received his name. Today none of the locals even remember or are interested in their roots. We rolled into town, looked around a bit and I just don’t get how anyone can live out in the middle of nothingness. I won’t even bother giving the hotel a plug since I appreciate my readers. LOL
It had a diner attached which was just okay. We were hungry, drove through old town, which situated along the old Oregon Trail on US 30 and saw that most everything was closed. The town did not offer many choices, so we went back to the diner and called it an early day because the internet would not hook up and I was worn out from having to be overly alert to mountain dangers while driving today.
Interestingly we observed that a lot of dollars have been recently invested in developing a new town directly on both sides of I-80, where all major hotel and retail chains are rapidly expanding their presence from Walmart and Walgreens to Holiday Inn and other roadside giants.
The elevation is now 6834’ which makes breathing difficult again. What were we thinking? The flatlander in me is craving some zero sea level atmosphere.
Today’s Route
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