…we head west on Interstate 80, past wind-blown mudflats, then the Great Salt Lake. Ring-billed gulls and California gulls. American avocets and black-necked stilts. Cormorants.
Saltair Pavilion perched precariously at the edge of the water. It has seen better days.
A marina and a boatyard. Mallards. White pelicans. Teal. Great egrets. Crows and ravens. Railroad tracks alongside the highway. Gleaming white mountains of harvested salt.
The construction truck with a sign on the back that says “We don’t pay for windshield chips. Stay back 150 feet.” passes on the left then cuts back close in front of us. I punch off cruise control and coast until he is safely ahead.
Annie on Judy’s lap. The road rises over rolling hills and leaves the lake behind. We descend to the flats that go on for another 50 miles. It appears there will be no racing today on the Bonneville Salt Flats. They’re submerged under standing water.
We reach Wendover, Nevada at 10:30am. Then we cross into the Pacific Time Zone, making it 9:30am. We’re making great time.
Crossing sky-islands of north/south ridges all across Nevada, we come to the rugged snow-capped mountains south of Wells.
This is where the himalayan snowcocks were released in the 1960s for hunting. They proved too difficult as a game bird, and the isolated flock persists. We won’t see any from where we are.
We end the day at the New Frontier RV Park in Winnemucca. Sunny and warm. We’ve done it. We’ve left the cold wet weather behind.
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