Monday was Labor Day, and in my quest to complete some of the items on my list, I convinced Angel, Inge, and Janeen to accompany me on an adventure to the Bonneville Salt Flats. As long as I've lived here, I've never been too far west of Salt Lake City, let alone to the Salt Flats. So the holiday was a good excuse get away and make it happen. The Salt Flats are a little over 100 miles from here, and I just have to say that it is a mostly boring drive. Once you get past the Great Salt Lake, and a few salt processing plants, there's really not much to view, except for flat, open, salty country. It's easy to see why there's a lot of car accidents out there. People just get mesmerized by the nothingness. Thank goodness for my handy dandy iPod with the accompanying wireless FM Transmitter, so that we could have some musical accompaniment for the journey, courtesy of Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles.
The trip ended up being fabulous. We stopped a couple of times - once at the Salt Flats Rest Area where we played around and took some pictures, then again at the Bonneville Speedway. It was a gorgeous day, made that much brighter by the sun reflecting off the salt. We ended up meeting and chatting with people from all over the country. In fact, we seemed to be the only "local" people around. Everyone else was from the East Coast.
From the Speedway we drove into Wendover, UT/NV. We ate at the buffet at the Montego Bay Casino (or as I like to call it, the Great and Spacious Building), and did our bit to help the local economy and the Nevada Gaming Commission by losing a few bucks in the slot machines. (Note: No longer are there the one-armed bandits. No, everything these days is high-tech. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out, so blew my five bucks pretty quickly.) I can't really stand being in casinos anyway - with the lights, the smoke, the noise, and the people with their eyes glazed over, it's total sensory overload for me.
On our way home, we saw some interesting sights. All the vehicles we passed seemed to have something weird about them. One van was completely covered in Astro Turf. Don't ask me why - it's not like it's biodegradable or anything. It was so bizarre we had to pull over to let it pass so that we could drive by it again. And two other trucks/campers had hula hoops tied on in the back, in addition to all the camping gear. Again, I ask - why? (Disclaimer: Later we found out it had been the Burning Man Festival over the weekend, so our assumption is that is the reason for all the strange sights.)
We finally arrived home that evening, after a fun and adventurous day. Thanks to my good pals who helped me cross another item off my list!
The trip ended up being fabulous. We stopped a couple of times - once at the Salt Flats Rest Area where we played around and took some pictures, then again at the Bonneville Speedway. It was a gorgeous day, made that much brighter by the sun reflecting off the salt. We ended up meeting and chatting with people from all over the country. In fact, we seemed to be the only "local" people around. Everyone else was from the East Coast.
From the Speedway we drove into Wendover, UT/NV. We ate at the buffet at the Montego Bay Casino (or as I like to call it, the Great and Spacious Building), and did our bit to help the local economy and the Nevada Gaming Commission by losing a few bucks in the slot machines. (Note: No longer are there the one-armed bandits. No, everything these days is high-tech. I couldn't for the life of me figure it out, so blew my five bucks pretty quickly.) I can't really stand being in casinos anyway - with the lights, the smoke, the noise, and the people with their eyes glazed over, it's total sensory overload for me.
On our way home, we saw some interesting sights. All the vehicles we passed seemed to have something weird about them. One van was completely covered in Astro Turf. Don't ask me why - it's not like it's biodegradable or anything. It was so bizarre we had to pull over to let it pass so that we could drive by it again. And two other trucks/campers had hula hoops tied on in the back, in addition to all the camping gear. Again, I ask - why? (Disclaimer: Later we found out it had been the Burning Man Festival over the weekend, so our assumption is that is the reason for all the strange sights.)
We finally arrived home that evening, after a fun and adventurous day. Thanks to my good pals who helped me cross another item off my list!
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