Day 8: Nevada to Utah

Had a "wee" bit of trouble waking up this time! Still I had to, so I did. Was fairly brisk outside, and the weather seemed to know I was leaving so didn't make much of an effort; was pretty gray and boring outside.

I packed up everything, programmed the GPS and headed off on my way. Down highway 50 I went, through numerous valleys and down endless empty roads. After a while I was crossing the Nevada/Utah border, past the familiar gas station with a motel on one side, and slot machines on the other, and all just a short 77 mile trip from the nearest town in Utah. Amazing thing is, people do come here to play the slots, as every time I've passed, there have been cars outside and people staying there. Wow!

Passed through various small forests, although forests out here have obviously never met forests in other parts of the country; a few trees here and there equals "national forest" in Nevada!

It's a terrible photo, but the skyline in Utah can be pretty interesting at times…

After a very quiet drive (can't even get televangelism on the radio out here!) I passed through Delta, then onwards towards Lehi. Saw a train approaching, but decided not to stop and take a photo, was on a bit of a deadline. Of course, it turned out the second loco was a special paint job to celebrate the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. Isn't that always the way!?

As I approached Lehi the desert abruptly gave way to endless suburbia, with entire blocks of identical houses springing up. But… there was no facilities anywhere. No gas stations, no malls, no supermarkets, no McDonalds; just houses. So if you wanted anything , you'd have to jump in your car and drive 10 or 15 minutes to get it! But then Utah do love their roads…

I soon joined I15 and it's endless roadworks. Utah loves their roadworks, every time I visit they're busy rebuilding something. Here is a relatively quiet patch of I15. Note the amazing backdrop though, imagine having to put up with scenery like this every day on the way to work!

I had to go to Cabelas to pick up a jacket, however where the GPS told me to turn there was nothing but a huge pile of dirt and a happy looking digger. In fact all around me were happy looking diggers, apparently they're turning the little road into a commuter express way, with numerous lanes in each direction. Anyway, about 10 minutes later I'd managed to find a side road that wasn't entirely imaginary, and turned around and another 10 minutes later ended up at Cabelas.

So I got my coat, it's pretty amazing. Of course it was now 10-15 °C so no need for anything more than a jersey. Next stop was my favourite model train shop in Orem, where I bought 4 locos, and was tempted to buy many more. Then it was back on the roadworks freeway, heading for Helper!

On the way I passed a bizarre looking building; I think it was still in giftwrap or something? Or it'd just had its stag night and all its friends had wrapped it in toilet paper?! I really don't know…

However getting to Helper meant getting onto the I15, which due to switching timezones meant it was now rush hour. Here is how it looked:

Drive down University Ave from Orem: pretty, and not much traffic.

2 minutes later: heaps of traffic / Entrance to I19; lots of traffic!

They have an interesting system in Utah on the freeways; during rush hour they regulate the flow of traffic with an alternating red/green light, with only one car allowed per green phase. So they end up shifting the congestion off the freeways, and onto the feeder roads, leaving the freeways flowing relatively unimpeded.

I19 turned into US6 and soon I was passing the last remaining houses and the giant tripods near Spanish Fork.

Then it was time to start the climb up Soldier Summit. The summit was pretty cool, however most of the snow had melted away.

Pulled into the motel at Helper only to find that the last room had just been let! Mark recognised me immediately of course, and couldn't believe it'd been a year already. He phoned up the next independent motel down the road and spoke to Julio (hoo-lee-oh) and luckily there were some rooms there. So I drove on to Wellington (Utah, not NZ) and got a room there. Room was nice, however not as nice as Helper, and the pillows had that slightly musty motel smell to them. Went to the Outlaw Cafe and had a good helping of chicken fried steak with country gravy and Texas toast. Good luck working out what any of those are!

Heard a few trains pass behind the motel in the night; who would build a motel and not have a window out the back to see the trains?! Could tell they were impressive trains too by counting where the locos were in the train; some had just front and rear locos, but others had front locos, then lots of wagons, then mid helpers, more wagons, and finally rear helpers, all making lots of noise.

Went to bed with the slight musty smell and slept pretty solidly. Had a busy day of railfanning planned for the following day! (Although Fate had other plans…)