Somewhere in Nevada
Mountain View, CA - Back again in Mountain View. We flew in from Denver late Tuesday evening and were quite exhausted on arrival. When we got to Eng-Shien's house we tried the electronic keypad at the garage, but we couldn't seem to get the code right. We unlocked the front door, took off our shoes and flipped the light switch. Then we hauled all our gear up the stairs and flipped the switch in the hall. Then we stumbled into the spare room, hit the switch and dumped our bags on the floor. At that point we realized we were still standing in the dark. Suwei asked if I would please turn on the lights, so I hit the switch again. Still darkness. Then we remembered the tag we picked off the front door on entering. It wasn't actually a Chinese menu as originally thought, but a notice from PG&E that they had shut the power off the day before. As Suwei got the power people on line, I hunted the house for a the source of a maddening beeping. Once Suwei confirmed that the power would be back on the next day and I found the offending carbon monoxide sensor, it took maybe 5 minutes to fall asleep.So, the power's back on and I'm back to posting. This time to put up some pictures of our move to Colorado. Not much to write about as most of it was spent sitting in a truck buzzing along at 80 mph across the deserts of Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
We did stop short of Truckee to see where Suwei's friend, Moki is now working for the forest service at Big Bend. We were lucky enough to be able to drag her into town for a spot of brunch at the Squeeze In.
However, we were not awake or together enough to remember to take any pictures of Moki or her new place of work. Maybe the call of the road was just too strong to lallygag?
Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
Suwei loading the cab with Cokes for the Road / Rest stop somewhere in the mountains of Utah
Entering Wyoming
I did like one sign we saw welcoming folks to Elko, NV or maybe it was Wells, NV. It advertised that the town was "Halfway to Everywhere," which I felt was a very upbeat way of being in the middle of nowhere.
We ended our first day at Wendover on the Neveda/Utah boarder. The next morning we took advantage of the one hour time change and headed out early to catch the sunrise at the Bonneville Salt Flats. I figured it would be worth a look see (remembering many a fantastic sunrise in the Black Rock Desert at Burning Man.) Well this was truly fantastic. If any of you are not familiar with the Bonneville Salt Flats, you should check out the film "The World's Fastest Indian." It's a great flick, hell, check it out even if you are familiar with Bonneville. It's about New Zealander Burt Munro, who spent years building a 1920 Indian motorcycle -- a bike which helped him set the land-speed world record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1967. While you're at it check out "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension." It's about adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai who invents a way to travel through the 8th dimension while conducting a speed test at Bonneville.
Anyway, The Bonneville Salt Flats are where you can find the Bonneville Speedway, which is essentially a drag strip 10 miles long on one of the flattest surfaces on the Earth. When we arrived on Friday morning, however, the flats were still very much covered with water. The smooth surface of this very shallow lake made for one hell of a sunrise.
The Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah
Nothing much to tell from there. We zipped through Salt Lake City jonesing for bagels but settling on Egg McMuffin's. Stopped just before Park City for coffee and bagels (to quench our craving). Stopped for gas, bathrooms or both every few hours until we got to Cheyenne, Wyoming, where a quick cruise through town seemed to prove that Outback was the most popular spot to grab a steak.
Downtown Cheyenne, Wyoming
Once in Colorado we went about filling Suwei's parent's garage with a truckload of stuff, meeting up with friends, Tanya, Glen, Jackie & Lisa, at the Southern Sun for dinner and drinks (I don't recommend the Chocolate and Mint Stout - everything else was tasty), hiking up to Royal Arch above Boulder, shopping for more stuff to put in our backpacks for China, dining with Jen in Denver, running on one of Suwei's favorite running trails, meeting up with Pat for brunch at Lucille's, napping and then catching a flight home, searching for a flash light etc, etc, etc...
