I interviewed Mike in the morning. He was pretty tired still, and I even got a funny photo of him stumbling out of the bathroom in his boxers. I love candid shots when people are NOT expecting them in the least. Mike had printed up some directions for me on how to get to Salt Lake City from his place, but I left them behind, as I have my Garmin Nuvi… that thing tells me where to go, and recalculates when I miss a turn… bottom line is, it’s gotten so much easier for me to watch the little screen, complete with distance countdown (.8 miles left till your next turn….) , and talk on the phoine, than it is to look for streets, or try to figure out how long I’ve gone since my last turn.

As with my last drive, I drove…. I drove and drove and drove…. Thank goodness for the phone- when it works. Colorado and Wyoming did not have any reception for me. Kansas is a long state– or.. is it wide? Since I was going West the whole time? Hmm… either way - I drove through a very beautiful road- there was nothing but fields on either side of me. Today they were all covered in snow. I saw some deer or something like that, so pulled over for that. It was a funny story though… I put on my 70-200mm, on a 2x extender… good thing too, as those things run FAST! They started running off. I walked across the median. It seemed pretty flat, so I ran across, and then discovered that snow can SEEM flat, but really be about 4 foot deep. I kept sprinting across, and made it. Traffic was non-existent, and I had no problem crossing through the other side of the road. I shot the deer, then had to cross the snow again.

My feet were hurting from the snow! They were so cold. I put the heater on high, and took my shoes off. They thawed quickly.

I drove past a sign that said “Starbucks” - I was going to pull off at that exit, but then noticed that it says “Starbucks… 77 miles” - I could not believe it…. as I am used to seeing 5 on every block (literally, in San Fransisco).

Next stop- need more gas. I stopped in this town called Park, Kansas. I stopped because I saw a sign that said there was gas. I could not find it. Though, after searching, I found a frozen dirt path, that led to a giant silo, and that had a gas pump at its base. 2 diesel, one normal gas. I had spoken to the people inside, and it turns out that it’s only 109 people in that town. Definitely not used to that small of a town. It was fun to talk to the poeple though. They had a photo of their son next to 110 pound watermelon. I never have seen such a large watermelon. They told me of the recent ice storm that wiped out electricity for many people, and left ice around the powerlines…. ice that was more than 7 inches thick. They showed me photos.

I took off again, and was so tempted to go drifting on all these frozen fields I drove by… but… that is not wise. I would not like to think of what a pain it would be to get stranded, and further delay my trip.

I drove some more, and then I saw a train. I took some photos of it– again, sinking in the snow. I had to go to the bathroom…. since I was already behind the train, I figured- awww what the heck. I took a photo of yellow snow. Now you know where it comes from (later that night, I made a video of where it comes from).

I spoke to mom and dad, when I crossed Kansas into Colorado. They started voicing their concern for me driving through snow, and ice, and me being tired. I told them that it is obvious that they have still not watched The Secret. If they had, they would not voice such concerns…. Certainly, wouldn’t you know it… later that night there was ice, and snow, and high-velocity winds (55+ mph), and I got tired. I did not know there was so much distance. 1,000 miles, you’d figure it could be done in a few short hours, but alas… it took all night. I drove from 9am Kansas time, through into Mountain Time, and got to Utah at 3am Mountain time. So, that’s 9am to 4am. 19 hours of driving. I had gotten tired before the end of the journey. The solution was simple- just follow these steps. 1)make sure that the weather is -5 degrees, 2) lower window, 3) stick hand out of window, and accelerate to 80 miles per hour, 4) take cold (now hurting) hand, and place it on warm belly. Between the pain from the cold, and the shock of cold on a warm spot…. it kept me awake! I did take a 10 minute rest in a truck-stop in Utah. I took a stop on the side of the road in Wyoming to pee…. video this time. Don’t worry, I didn’t film anything I shouldn’t have.

The drive was freaky…. that snow blew hard, and I could not see a thing. The wind blew, and I felt it. I learned to chase 18-wheelers. They take the wind, and they have big red lights that make them easy to follow. Top that off, they drive fast! I had a couple of interesting games…. there was one that wanted to chase a truck too, as I was doing… but he thought he’d steal my truck! I liked the one I was chasing, so I tailgated him so this other truck could not cut me off. He tried a few times. Finally though, he managed to be so close to where I couldn’t move to the left…. my truck moved left, and the guy that kept trying to pass me was in the left… he’d finally won a round.. but he let me pass him I was pretty ahppy. I kept going after that 1st truck until I feared I may not have enough gas to continue. Those trucks hold a lot of gas!

You already know the ending though- I made it to Utah. Took that little rest, had to find some gas…. and FINALLY got reception on my cell phone! Myndy had left me a voicemail with her address. Thank goodness, because otherwise I would not have known where to go. Did I mention that Wyoming and Colorado had no reception on Sprint? I tried! Over and over! I was missing the comfort of human companionship, which is what my cell phone conversations have become. It really makes the time

Share the love- social bookmark this