Wednesday July 12th 2017

Today was a travel day from West Wendover NV to Provo UT. I slow rolled my departure preparations until I 10:45. It was just fifteen minutes before check out time when I pulled out of the RV park. The guy waiting to “clean” the site was hovering down the row of empty sites waiting for me to leave. With only 160 miles to travel, I didn’t want to get to my destination before the 2pm check out time.

Site A13 at the Utah Lake State Park.

My trip had two distinct parts. The first one hundred and ten miles was through open territory. Sitting high in the motorhome it was possible to see more of the salt flats. Crossing the flats in a car it is not possible to see the surface of the salt flats beyond the raised berms for the road and train tracks. In the motorhome the white expanse of the salt flat seems endless. The downside is the additional white surfaces increased the glare. Even with sunglasses it was bright. Nearer to Salt Lake City, I had a similarly improved view of the Great Salt Lake. The higher vantage point made the lake look a little more impressive.

Once I reached Salt Lake City the nature of the trip changed completely. Instead of light traffic in open spaces, it became heavy traffic in the concrete jungle of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The last forty miles was on Interstate 15 with four or more lanes in each direction interspersed with both right and left exits along with an HOV lane. The scenery was only a bunch of shops and businesses, but I didn’t have time to look at it. I had plenty of traffic to navigate.

View in front of my RV home of Utah Lake and through the haze the mountains to the north beyond.

I arrived at the Utah Lake State Park in Provo Utah around 2PM. I setup in the hot sun of the heat of the day. The clouds moved in for a while later in the afternoon, but the bright sunshine has returned as sunset approaches. The campground isn’t full which is apparently normal for the middle of the week in July. The marina and day use area is not as busy as normal because the lake is experiencing a Blue-Green Algae Bloom. Signs have been posted warning people to stay out of the water. The algae won’t impact my stay. I’ll be here until Tuesday the 18th.

Tuesday July 11th 2017

Today was my last full day in Wendover. In many ways it was a clone of yesterday. The weather was the same 98 degree heat and my activity level was as sedate as yesterday.

I did spend sometime getting ready to travel tomorrow. I mounted the bicycle rack on the back of my SUV and loaded my bike. Whenever I stop for more than a couple of nights, I take the bicycle and rack off the car and lock them up. It only takes about fifteen minutes to load or unload them and it is easier to maneuver the vehicle and access the back without the bike and rack sticking out of the hitch receiver.

Rock hill side that overlooks West Wendover NV.

Thinking about the bike, I can’t remember the last time I rode it. The last significant rides I can remember were in the spring of last year. Since then I road it around the campground a few times in Florida, but not out on the bike trails. The bike has logged a lot of miles on the back of the SUV. I either have to make an effort to ride the bike or get rid of it. I almost road the bike on the closed Going to the Sun road at Glacier National Park, but I ran out of time. One thing for sure is I have to get the oil can and WD-40 out and work on a cleaning up some of the muck and rust that the bicycle has picked up on its journey.

Another thing different today than yesterday is my neighbors. Last night the campground didn’t fill up as much as it has been, but tonight travelers seem to be steadily arriving. There doesn’t seem to be any real pattern to what nights it will be heavily populated and what nights it will be sparsely populated. Either way, I’m sure the campground is meeting expenses.

I have about 160 miles to travel tomorrow. I will probably have to stop at a rest area along the way to kill time. Checkout here is at 11AM and check in at the Utah Lake State Park is 3PM. In fact the checkout time at the Utah Lake State park is 2PM, so that is the earliest I should show up. Time will tell.

Monday July 10th 2017

After two days of triple digit temperatures today’s 98 felt cool. It was cloudy overnight keeping the temperature from cooling way down. It was in the low 70s at sunrise this morning, but the clouds parted with the rising sun and the temperture climbed steadily.

I have one more full day in West Wendover NV before I move on to the Provo UT area. It won’t be too soon. I came to this area because I needed a place to stay over the Fourth of July holiday and it looked like there were a few interesting things in the area. Campsites in the tourist areas and areas with recreation opportunities were book for the entire holiday week. I should have moved on yesterday at the end of the holiday week. I’ve run out of interesting things to do in this area.

Today was another day watching TV, reading and spending a couple of hours in one of the casinos. There is nothing wrong with slow days. I enjoy doing nothing, but I am in a bit of a rut. If there was grass, a few shade trees to sit under and maybe some wildlife to watch I’d could do the lazy day thing for many more days. Unfortunately, there is nothing pretty or relaxing about this area. I’m in a gravel parking lot with lots of dust and a few trees. On the positive side it’s not particularly noisy except when a train goes by. Most of the RVs stay here for a night or two. I have been here ten nights now and will be here for a total of twelve nights. That’s much to long for this area.

My next stop will be at the Utah Lake State Park in Provo UT for six nights. The location should have a lot more interesting things to do. The campground may not be much different than this park. Gravel lots for camping are the norm in desert areas. I also heard on the news that Utah Lake currently has an algae bloom in the area of the state park.

Sunday July 9th 2017

I was out of the RV earlier than normal this morning. I went to the nearby McDonalds for breakfast. All of the tourists in town seem to have had the same idea. The place was a mob scene. It was also a “newfangled” store that had eliminated all but one cashier position in favor of the self service kiosks. In this instance I prefer to deal with a human.

After breakfast I got on Interstate 80 heading east. My goal was to find out what was on the other side of the salt flats. The basic answer is “not much”. Once you’ve completed the 40 mile drive across the flat white expanse, the road starts to climb over a ridge line. The mountains are mostly rocks with a few grassy areas. I traveled for another 40 plus miles before I reached the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake and the first real signs of civilization. I’m not sure what I expected of the lake, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. It was just lots of water with some white stuff that I assume was salt on the edges.

Soon after I passed the Great Salt Lake, I arrived at the Salt Lake City airport and then the actual city. The transition from nothing to built up area is very quick. Since I’ll be staying in the area at the end of the month, I turned around and headed back toward Wendover. I’ll have time to tour the city when I’m staying near the airport.

Blossoms near the ground on a pink rose bush at the RV park.

On the way back to Wendover I had time to think about the original travelers to the west. When I was in the Twin Falls Idaho area, I learned that the Oregon trail went across southern Idaho on the south side of the Snake River. That area would have been open desert with lots of sage brush on gently rolling terrain in the mid 1800s. The first emigrants to California at the start of the gold rush angled southwest off the Oregon trail in the Twin Falls Idaho area. All of this avoided the Great Salt Lake and the salt flats to the west of the lake. It’s hard to imagine the type of character an explorer would need to find a route through the mountains, deserts and areas like the salt flats. The idea of starting out across the salt flat on foot knowing the water on the flat was undrinkable takes a particular kind of guts. I’ve read that at the peak of the gold rush emigrants were crossing the salt flats, so somebody must have blazed the trail.

The next group of people to wonder about are the surveyors that laid out the railroads across the area and later the roads. They manage to find ways through the mountains with minimum grades. This often requires the route to wander miles north or south of the main east west path they are negotiating. It’s the surveyors that solve the riddle created as you travel across the flat of a valley toward a solid wall of mountains. They determine which way the road will turn to find the pass through the mountains.

Back in Wendover this afternoon I stopped at a casino to make my daily donation. However, I was luckier than the casino today. I left with a little more money than I started with. My next stop was at the Smith’s grocery store for a rotisserie chicken for dinner back at the RV.

Saturday July 8th 2017

Guess what? It was hot again today. The mercury reached the triple digits again. These high temperatures are ten degrees above normal for the area. It’s worse south of here. Las Vegas and Phoenix are experiencing record daily highs and record number of consecutive days in a heat wave.

I pretty much used the heat as an excuse not to do anything today. Most of June was very busy touring in the National Parks. So far July has been a more sedate month. I will be back in National Park touring mode in August and September. I will be visiting the parks in southern Utah starting with Arches and Canyon Lands in early August. Right now, those areas are hotter than here. I’ll continue on with Capitol Reef NP, Bryce NP and Zion NP in Utah. I haven’t decided yet how to visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Reservations in the Grand Canyon NP campground for RVs are not available until late October, so I’m considering other options.

The roses in the campground enjoy the heat with their irrigation water.

I went out for a couple of hours this afternoon. Primarily for lunch at Arby’s. Preparing food with limited power and the need too keep the AC on is a challenge. To run the microwave or worse the convection oven, I need to turn off the AC so I don’t blow a breaker. Thinking about things that can be prepared on the stove alone is the challenge. The other option is to grill outside, but standing in the hot sun to watch the grill is also an issue.

Late this afternoon it clouded over and I experienced a little bit of a “Dry Thunderstorm”. It was very windy, I heard thunder and I may have felt moisture on my skin, but I didn’t see any evidence of rain. The clouds cleared and the hot wind continued into the evening.

Friday July 7th 2017

This blog entry is going to contain my moaning and groaning about the heat. So go ahead and skip this entry if you don’t want to read about the weather.

It made it up to 101 degrees today. Other towns in the area were higher but after you get to a certain point it doesn’t matter. There was no cloud cover to provide any protection from the hot sun. Even in the car there is little protection from the sun. The car air conditioner keeps the temperature under control, but the direct sun light on exposed skin isn’t something I want to endure for long. The UV index reported by the TV weather talkers was off the scale at 12. That equates to less than 10 minute exposure before burning.

Memorial to the 509th Composite Group at a park in West Wendover NV.

These weather factors restricted my activities today. Everything I want to do is either outside or involves a lot of driving. That means I can spend more money in the casinos or stay at home. For the most part I stayed home. I made one trip out to the fifth casino in town. This one looked the most impressive from the outside and was the dumpiest inside. My twenty buck budget still lasted a couple of hours on the penny slots. It is better than watching TV and it’s cool in the casino.

I’m not sure why I’m being such a wimp about the heat. It doesn’t really bother me when I’m out in it. If I had something I really wanted to do, I’d probably be doing it regardless of the heat. I knew when I booked this location for the fourth of July week that it wasn’t a tourist area, but I expected there would be things to do on short day trips. There isn’t much in the way of scenery in any direction other than the salt flats to the east. I may cross the flats one day this weekend and explore the area between here and Salt Lake City. I move to Provo and then to Salt Lake City starting the middle of next week. After that I head for the middle of Utah.

Thursday July 6th 2017

Last night shortly after darkness arrived so did the wind. It was apparently “Gusty outflow winds” from a “Dry Thunderstorm”. Those are the terms the National Weather Service used to explain the weather experience. They’re new terms to this easterner. It had been very calm with bright sun all day until that phenomena arrived to delay my sleep.

Cloudy skies gave some relief to the solar gain inside the RV.

Today has been a cloudier day but just as hot. It flirted with triple digits here in the Wendovers. Once again Salt Lake City was a few degrees warmer. The addition of a few clouds had a positive impact to the inside temperature of the RV. Without the Sun constantly heating the roof, the AC was able to keep the temperature under 85 in my RV home. In this kind of temperature you really need to run both of the ACs in the RV to keep the temperature fully under control. Unfortunately, I only have 30 amp electric service at this campsite. That makes running both ACs a questionable proposition. If both compressors try to start at the same time your guarantied a blown breaker. If you avoid that issue, don’t run the microwave. It just takes a little thought before turning on an appliance.

It was obvious the holiday was over this morning. After the 11am checkout time at the campground, I was the only RV in the place. There were close to 50 Rvs here last night. I had a real lost and forgotten moment when I first noticed the empty campground. I went out for a couple of hours soon after. When I returned the park was starting to fill up again.

Campground looking a little empty during the middle of the day.

I didn’t do anything special while I was out. The fourth of five casinos it town got a donation of twenty dollars for a couple of hours of penny slot play. That’s pretty good for making the money last. I go in with the philosophy that it’s an entertainment expense. If I double the initial investment, I’ll take the money and run.

This evening the gusty wind has returned. The RV is shaking a little and the slideout room awnings are flapping noisily. Checking the NWS site, we are again experiencing “Gusty outflow winds”. This time the sun is shining brighter than it has all day so I don’t know where the “Dry Thunderstorms” might be located.

Wednesday July 5th 2017

Last night I had an excellant view of the West Wendover NV Fourth of July Fireworks. From in front of my RV I was probably less than a half a mile from the launch site. Each air burst filled the sky with color. They didn’t have many of the real fancy shells that you’d see in a big city or theme park show, but they had plenty of good old fashion fireworks. The show started at 10:15 and lasted about 20 minutes.

This blog entry contains some of the better pictures I captured of the fireworks. I really enjoy trying to capture good pictures of fireworks. I’m including eighteen pictures out of about seventy five that I took. My camera has a fireworks setting, but it isn’t very fast. It takes fifteen or twenty seconds to capture and process each picture.

The fireworks started slow.

Start of the final burst of pyrotechnic energy.

Today was another very hot day. Salt Lake City is setting a record high of 105. I haven’t left the campground today. I’ve probably been brainwashed by the TV weather talkers into being afraid of the heat. It isn’t really that bad in small doses.

Tuesday July 4th 2017

Happy Fourth of July Everyone.

The heat wave continues on the Nevada Utah line. The mercury made it up to the 99 degree mark on the thermometer today. Hot, but still a few degrees cooler than Salt Lake City and much better than southern Nevada and Arizona. This was the hottest day of the year so far in Salt Lake City. It is predicted to get a few degrees warmer each day until the heat wave breaks over the weekend. The worst part is that with sunset around 9:30PM, it is still in the 90s at bed time. I need to run the AC all night.

Parade starting up the road by the Wendover Will statue.

The highlight of the day was the local Fourth of July Parade. The combined towns of West Wendover NV and Wendover UT have a parade from the West Wendover City Hall to the Wendover town offices. It wasn’t a big parade, but it was a fun small town event. The parade started at 11AM. I was about a half a mile from the starting line and it was over at my location by 11:30.

Police cars from Wendover UT and West Wendover NV lead the way. They are followed by a color guard from the Civil Air Patrol cadets.

Marching in a Chicken suit, flapping arms like wings in 90 plus degree weather.

There was a little bit of everything except a marching band. The closest thing to a marching band were a group of cheer leaders and gymnasts from a local training academy. Police and Fire equipment from both towns were making enough noise with their sirens and horns to be heard on the moon. Local businesses and civic groups entered floats in the parade and bringing up the rear of the parade were lots of horses with a couple of mules thrown in for diversity. A couple of the horses were entertaining by walking backward along the parade route.

The grand prize winning float.

The horses brought up the rear of the parade.

By far the biggest draw of the parade was the candy. Everybody in the parade was throwing candy to the spectators. Some of the candy trowing might have even been malicious. One group of adults that were not really watching the parade were showered with candy. It was kind of funny to watch the adults jump and run to be replaced by the kids grabbing all the candy from the ground. I don’t know if the people at the end of the parade route got any candy at the rate it was getting thrown around where I was located.

Tonight at 10:15 the fireworks are scheduled. If I can get some pictures of the fireworks, I’ll include them in tomorrow’s blog entry.

Monday July 3rd 2017

They say we’re having a heat wave. It got up to 96 here today. One hundred plus miles to the east in Salt Lake City it was a few degrees higher. Tomorrow through Friday are forecast to be even higher. Thank goodness for air conditioning.

The line between Utah (on the left) and Nevada (on the right) is a line across the street. On the south side of the street in Nevada is a Casino and on the north side of the street in Nevada is another Casino.

I spent most of the day in the RV reading and watching TV. I made one excursion to the grocery store for bread and cookies. While I was out I stopped at another one of the five casinos in town. Since Saturday I’ve stopped at one casino a day. At each casino I’ve invested twenty dollars in the penny slots. Saturday it lasted less than half an hour. Yesterday I got just under an hour of entertainment out of the twenty and today I got around an hour and a half. If the progression continues, I should leave the next casino with my twenty dollars after a couple of hours then maybe I’ll make a profit on the next day. I can only hope.

Covered bridge connecting the Wendover Nugget Casino and the Montego Bay Resort Casino.

When I entered the Montego Bay Resort Casino I was greeted by a huge video screen with a video loop of a snow storm playing. Coming in from ninety plus temperatures to that greeting was surreal. The walls of the casino had many video screens playing loops of nature scenes from all over the world. If this was Las Vegas all of the video screens would be playing advertisements.

Tomorrow the towns of West Wendover and Wendover have a fourth of July parade at 11AM and fireworks at 10:15PM. I plan to walk up to the Boulevard to watch the parade and hope to be able to see the fireworks from my campsite. Pretty much all of the sky over the town can be seen from here so I should be able to see the fireworks.