Lakes, Trains and Orange Barrels – June 18, 2009

After being amply supplied with food for the road by my sister-in-law, we left early driving up I-5 towards Sacramento. Our destination for that day was Salt Lake City. In Sacramento, we made a third change in our route, taking US50 out of Sacramento towards South Lake Tahoe. Although costing us a couple of hours in time, it was well worth the scenic drive through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada along a canyon carved by the American River. Breathtaking beauty of the mountains, trees and rivers was highlighted by the view of Lake Tahoe as we crested Echo Summit.

We stopped for lunch and ate sandwiches at a roadside park right on the shore of Lake Tahoe. Once again, we had relatively cool, sunny weather, and watched the parasailers over the lake.

Crossing into Nevada and descending into the desert the foothills are much drier and rockier as Mother Nature drops all the rain on the west side of the Sierra Nevada. Alpine forests were replaced by the stark beauty of northern Nevada as we made miles and no longer made stops to take pictures. Principal among the sights were row after row of orange barrels. It seemed that most of I-80 in northern Nevada was under construction. Construction zone after construction zone dropped our speed from 75mph to 55mph or less. After stopping for dinner in Elko, where Dave’s grandfather had lived and worked for a time in the ‘30’s, we resumed our trip across the desert.

Just as twilight turned to darkness, we crossed into Utah and the salt pan of Great Salt Lake spread before us. Both Dave and I came to a special weary kind of alertness, each scanning the road on his side for deer. I was not put at ease when we saw the heavy barred bumpers which had been added to the front end of the long distance trucks we passed. After spotting only a few jackrabbits, we pulled into the KOA in downtown Salt Lake City around midnight.

Readers, you may have noticed that, when called for, I have been complimentary of the accommodations that we have used during our road trip. When they have not been so good, I simply don’t mention them. The Salt Lake City KOA, however, is an exception. Every transportation device know to man was operating through the night near this campground. Trains, with accompanying whistles, came into the nearby rail yard every twenty minutes from midnight to four AM. Planes landed and took off from the nearby airport. When these two sources were quiescent, traffic noise from trucks on I-80 took over. I even thought I heard a boat whistle, although it was probably a switching engine in the rail yard. The birds chimed in with their wake-up calls at four AM until we finally gave up attempts to sleep and rose at six AM.

Next: Tired Travel to the Tetons