Day 4 Alliance to Tonopah

Got in to Alliance extremely late last night, sorry for the delays in posting. We arrived in Alliance around 11:30 at night, but according to our internal Chicago clocks it was 12:30 and according to our internal home clocks 1:30. Needless to say we were pretty exhausted. Especially since NE-2 was a desolate empty road with no lights. A couple jack rabbits (possibly) tried to waylay us and there was a suicidal owl and bat (we think) but other than that a lot of farmland and a lot of cargo trains and a lot of nothing.

Alliance… was pretty incredible. A one street town with a lot of what seemed like trailer homes, a couple gas stations, a couple hotels and a few fast food joints. And a lot of open space. It was an interesting experience, totally different from what I’m used to.

Woke up sort of early, but not as early as planned due to need of sleep, and went to Carhenge. Let me stress NEBRASKA IS FRIGGING COLD. And really windy. And there was still snow on the g round. Carhenge was supremely awesome but I couldn’t feel my fingers after a minute so I really hope I got some good shots. We were out there taking photos for a while but I kept having to take breaks to try and warm my hands. Matt says that Carhenge is kind of in an area like the real Stonehenge. I’m jealous. Now I want to go to Stonehenge. And come back to Carhenge in the Summer. So so so cold. Nebraska is COLD.

The landscape got kinda wacky after that – a lot of hills that I don’t think I can express in words or photos – they were so hard to capture. I was driving also, so Matt got some photos of those, but we decided that we aren’t really landscape photographers so we’re not sure if they capture the beauty of the hills.

We’re probably going to have very few stops this leg since we have a 14 hour drive to Tonopah according to Wilma, who has been known to be wrong. A lot. But we are changing time zones again which will help. We have plenty of food in the car, so we’re thinking PB&J for lunch and Matt can have his leftover pizza for dinner and I think I have leftovers or something too, if not more PB&J is fine. Might also have shorter driving shifts so that we can nap and try to catch up on sleep a little. We have a few alternate stops that we can make that are before Tonopah if necessary, but considering that would take away from our time in Yosemite National Park or San Francisco, we’re hesitant to do that. We’ll see how far we can get before we collapse I guess.

Signing off for now, cheese and crackers are calling my name.

Lovin Harley’s Summit in Utah!!! Driving through the mountains is one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. No, the most incredible. The Rocky Mountains are so … words can not express how beautiful this is. We’re driving through a curvy valley right between two sets of mountains covered in snow and… we keep slowing down because 1. it’s pouring rain but 2 it’s so so beautiful we keep getting distracted.

Just passed The Great Salt Lake and … I’m speechless once again. Utah is incredibly beautiful. Matt probably already mentioned this but we’ve seen so many different landscapes in this day alone that I’m overwhelmed. We went from the flats of Nebraska to the hills of Nebrasky to the buttes (mesas, whatever) of Wyoming, to more hills and huge crags to the beautiful Rocky Mountains. The rain has stopped, the sun is coming out and the clouds are just amazing. Today is the best day yet. And it’s only day 4. I keep trying to think of words to express how I’m feeling right now but all I can say is today has been near perfect and I love that I’m sharing this with Matt.

Bit later

Tack on to our list of different landscapes from today the absolute complete flatness that is the stretch of Utah before the Salt Flats. It’s like crossing the Ocean. There is no going back once you hit this stretch. No turning around and no getting off. It’s beautiful, but intimidating. It looks like people have created messages with rocks in the sand or salt that we’re driving through right now. I wish we had time to stop and read them. There also appear to be a lot of beer bottles. Broken and made into weird art formations and whole and in weird art formations. We’re driving towards more mountains that look beautiful. I can see the cloud above the salt flats in the distance, pretty cool stuff all this.

And, just so you all know – the FIRST thing you see when you cross the border into Nevada is a casino. Go figure. Mountains and a Casino. Then a road full of small casinos and then a road straight towards the mountains surrounded by nothing.

Okay wait a minute wait a minute let’s back track for a minute.

Flat Nebraska
Nebrasky hills
Butte’s and Mesas in Wyoming,
Hills and Crags in Wyoming,
Beautiful Rocky Mountains in Utah,
Completely Flat Salt Flats in Utah,
Desert Mountains in Nevada.

All in one day. Wow. Right now we are driving on a road through the desert that is absolutely beautiful. It’s also completely empty. We see a car maybe every 10 minutes. There are no towns. Again with the whole intimidating thing. But we have almost a full tank of gas so I’m not really worried at all. Just basking in the beauty through a bug stained windshield.