The Big Road Trip – Day 6 – The End of the Road

I have arrived in Ontario, OR – the destination for the first leg of The Big Road Trip. What a great adventure so far. I’ll catch up now on the last long day of travel, yesterday and my impressions of the trip and new parts of the country I’ve seen so far.

First, here is my commentary about yesterday’s travels. It was another great day. I left the Best Value hotel, made a quick stop at Wally World to pick up some oil for the Caddy RV and then proceeded to get back on I-80 and head west to Utah. Rock Springs was less then 100 miles from Ogden UT and the driving was smooth all the way. There were a few small areas of roadwork, but nothing that really slowed me down, much. Boy, what a difference there was between the Wyoming high country and Utah. In Nebraska, I suddenly realized that I had been climbing in elevation across most of that state. In Wyoming, I was on top of the world – I think I was up to about 8,000 feet at one point. I was well over 7,000 feet for most of the state, it seemed. But, when I crossed into Utah, we started descending. I don’t mean a gradual descent like the ascent in Nebraska – I mean I knew I was going down and fast. I-80 was meandering through the passes in those huge hills and mountains like a snake and it was a constant descent. The rock formations and the landscape were changing a lot, too. I started seeing sheep ranches as well as cattle ranches. There were many farms, though most of the spreads seemed smaller then in Wyoming.

I finally made it to a little place called Echo, UT where I-84 begins. I-84 was my next interstate that would ultimately bring me into Ontario, OR. There was one other noticeable difference as I reached western WY and then entered UT. The gas prices were increasing all the way and when I hit UT – POW! They really took a jump. I reached Ogden, UT and had to gas up, I was on fumes. I pulled into a Flying J travel center and it cost me $2.97.9 per gallon – and that was for 85 Octane regular, not even the regular 87 Octane regular we normally use. I asked several people if there was a place I could get to see the Great Salt Lake, since I was so near. No one I asked had a clue as to where the nearest lake access was. So, I checked my road atlas and round a place at the northern end of the lake where I could drive, what appeared to be, about 20 miles from I-84 and see the lake. I hadn’t been to the lake since 1971, so I felt the side trip was worth it. I left the Flying J after a nice break, taking care of some business by logging onto their wifi and catching my breath after paying that outrageous price for gas.

So, there I was tooling up I-84 toward Idaho and I glanced out to the left – and there was part of the Great Salt Lake. I was only minutes from where no one knew how to get to the lake. Boy, did that throw me. An exit was coming up and I took it. I turned left and there I was at the entrance to a State Park with a public beach. There was a $10 per car charge to enter the park, but I played the role of the senior citizen just traveling through and wanted to stop and take some pictures. The cute, blond, park ranger at the gate said, “I’m not supposed to do this, but take this receipt, tape it to your windshield and go on in and just give it back to me when you leave so I can give it to a paying customer.” She was very sweet and I did give it back to her on the way out. I parked, got my camera and borrowed camcorder out and shot my photos. I had my bathing suit on under my sweat pants, just in case. So, after taking my pictures, I left the sweat pants, socks and shoes in the car, grabbed my cell phone and went wading in the lake (first time in 39 years). While I waded, I called my old grad school buddy, Dudley to discuss some potential recording studios for his daughter, Kelly, to record in while she’s in Phoenix. She’s starring in “Always . . . Patsy Cline” and wants to get some songs recorded from the show to make a CD. I love living and working free. How many people have the opportunity to travel and consult, while wading in the Great Salt Lake? What a life!

After my lake experience, it was back on the road again, northwest on I-84 to Idaho. I was at about 4200 feet when I was wading in the lake – and I continued to descend through the rest of UT and into Idaho. Bugs became an issue again as I came out of the clouds. There were very few bugs hitting the windshield when I was up over 6,000 feet. I started seeing what appeared to be dairy farms. There were more sheep. More farms growing crops using the crop circle method. At some places there were snowcapped mountains fairly close on both the left and right of me. It was like being in the Shenandoah Valley, only about 8 to 10 times higher in elevation. I passed lots of small towns, some were literally so small that if you blinked you’d not only miss the town, you would even miss the sign. My original objective was to reach Boise, Idaho last night. But, after my lengthy break at the Flying J and then the stop at the lake – I didn’t think I was going to want to drive that far.

Well, the miles flew by. In no time, I was in rock throwing distance of Boise – and so I pushed through and got there almost a full hour earlier then I thought I would. I made up for my lost time with the tire issue and my lengthy gas and rest stops and the “wade in the water” lake stop. I was very pleased. I didn’t waste any time in finding a Super 8 hotel, with an excellent special price for a single room. Randy, the desk clerk, was a good sort. He had a terrific sense of humor, was doing his Elvis impersonations and we chatted about lots of things before I finally went to my room.

After getting settled in, I once again went out in search of a local, non-chain, eatery and I found one. Rockie’s Diner appeared as I was driving down Overland Ave. in Boise. I did a U-turn and went back. Neat place! It’s done up with all kinds of 50’s & 60’s memorabilia. It had a booth where a DJ could spin records – yep, real 45’s – it was set up to look like a 60’s radio station. The waitresses wore the tiny skirts and black tights with black roller skates like the car hops of that era wore. And great oldies of the era were playing constantly. It was a very neat place and it is one of a kind. I was very favorably impressed by a local establishment that had been featured on the Food Channel and wasn’t just another box, chain restaurant. There was an Applebee’s directly across from the Super 8 and I could have received a 10% discount by just showing them my room key – but if you’ve seen one Applebee’s you’ve seen all Applebee’s. So, that topped my day.

I went back to the hotel, took care of a little business, including catching up on a blog posting – and then turned in for the night.

Today, I wrote and posted another episode of my travel adventure, took care of some e-mails, had some breakfast (very light) at the free breakfast buffet provided by the hotel and checked out at noon. I set my course, got on the road about 12:30 PM and drove the, leisurely, last 61 miles to Ontario, OR – arriving at about 1:30, found a room at a very, very nice Super 8 and had completed 2,534 miles since I left Winchester last Tuesday evening. Actually, I got a really good rate on the only King bed suite in the hotel. Since I needed to convert my accommodation into both a place to live for the next 5 nights and as a recording studio during the day, one of my reasons for making this road trip, this suite is perfect. It’s actually two separate rooms. By 2:30 PM I had loaded in all my gear, acoustical conditioning materials and I parked the car. By 4:30 PM, the bedroom had been conditioned and tuned as a recording studio, my recording gear was set up, wired and tested on the desk in the sitting room. My food stuff was in the refrigerator. My clothes were unpacked and in draws or hanging out to let the wrinkles fall out and I was sitting on my loveseat, relaxing.

The next four days should be a breeze. I’ll meet the author, Cameron Taylor, tomorrow morning and we’ll start recording by around 9:30 AM and go until around 5 PM with a break for lunch. Did I say I love living and working free? Well, I do.

There’s more to this adventure and I want to get it all down before it loses its color, but this is going to be a very long post. So, I’ll save more for the next post, which will, hopefully, be tomorrow.

Ciao from my suite and portable recording studio in the Super 8 hotel in Ontario, OR

Enthusiastically,
Ed