Two Whees! and a Warning

A victim of yesterday's storm in Wyoming

This was one long travel day. It would have been a lot longer if we would have done it 24 hours earlier as the I-80 route we traveled was pretty much a snowy parking lot on Sunday as a late winter storm rolled through the Plains states.

We saw plenty of evidence of the aftermath with tow trucks pulling trucks out of the median and a couple nasty wrecks being cleaned up as we went by. The roads were clean and green for us, but we saw a lot of dirty semis coming from the east and heading to the west.

But my day started with a crazy traffic stop in Utah.

My warning ticket (I covered ID parts)

As I was climbing up the grade out of Salt Lake City I spotted a Utah State Trooper on a traffic stop and pulled into the far lane so as not to endanger him. As I passed he was finishing up the stop and went on the roll right after I passed him.

I was doing the speed limit so I wasn’t worried. He came up behind me fast like he wanted to fly by so I put on my turn signal and pulled into the right lane and then noticed he slowed down and was obviously eyeing my out-of-state license plates.

He pulled in behind me and on went the lights, so I pulled over onto the next off ramp.

Crossing into Wyoming from Utah - Whee!

The young trooper advised me that he needed to see my license, registration and insurance and of course I complied. He then noted that I did not wait for two seconds after turning on my turn indicator to pull to the right and that my plastic cover over my license plate was illegal in Utah.

Huh?

 He went back to his office and probably ran a computer check on me and the car and then returned a few minutes later with a printed warning. It means nothing, but I assume I was simply a fishing expedition that didn’t pan out.

No harm, no foul and he was very polite and nice, but for the rest of the day I was counting to two before moving my vehicle after turning on my turn indicator. As for the license plate cover, I have had it on the car for more than two years and this is the first time anyone told me it was illegal. I’ll wait to remove it.

Crossing into Nebraska - Whee!

Ever since we had our new daughter-in-law Toni with us on a road trip last fall Joan has adopted Toni and Teri’s habit of lifting their arms and shouting “Whee” as they cross a state border. Sort of like a roller coaster ride without the necessary “roller.”

Today we crossed into Wyoming and then later into Nebraska (which is a really long day) and so Joan had to let fly with two “Whees!” today. Now you understand today’s headline on the blog.

The weather today was downright Michigan like. We started in Salt Lake City at 31 degrees and it went down from there until later in the afternoon. The lowest temperature we experienced was 19 degrees at some high altitudes in Wyoming.

It was cold out there today

At one point on I-80 we were passed by a pick-up truck with Indiana plates that was pulling a trailer filled with several of those rowing “shells” – narrow racing canoes – that had Notre Dame markings on the side. Not sure where they have been but they looked pretty nice.

This has been a little bit of a nostalgic trip for me as this is the same route I took with my father and stepmother when I was a child.

Yesterday, we drove through Black Mountain, Nevada, which has a mountain with a large “BM” painted on the side of it. As children we used the initials “BM” to indicate bowel movement. So you can imagine two little boys spotting a mountain with those letters on the side.

Little America Hotel

As I recall my brother and I got a pretty good laugh out of it and to be honest I got a little chuckle out of it on Sunday. Almost as funny as Joan having to teach her eight graders about the planets and having all the boys laughing when she brought up “Uranus.”

Today’s nostalgic moment came when we gassed up in Little America, Wyoming.

During my cross country trip with my parents we stopped and stayed at the then brand new Little America Hotel. At that time it was in the middle of nowhere and it is pretty much still there in the middle of nowhere.

The "thunderstorm" field behind Little America

The trip of my youth was memorable because after we pulled into the hotel my father took me and my brother Mike out into the open fields behind the hotel to “plink” at little green plastic soldiers with our JC Penney .22-caliber single bolt action rifle.

Looking back on it, this was probably a way to exhaust two little boys who had been cooped up in the backseat of a car all day, but it was a welcome time for me and my brother.

We walked far out into the field, but at some point my father recognized a quickly approaching thunderstorm. The lightning was flashing, the thunder was crashing and the three of us were the tallest thing for a mile in that open field.

One of the dirty trucks from yesterday's storm

My father urged us to make haste back to the hotel, but at one point he realized that the JC Penney rifle had turned into a lightning rod. My father is a brave man and he was loathe to leave behind our rifle so he lowered the barrel and we continued our hurried retreat to the hotel room in the rain.

I think I remember my father hearing (or at least he thought he heard) some crackling on the end of the barrel. It is a memory as vivid today as it was 50 years ago.

After we topped off the Tahoe I pulled around the back of the Little America Hotel and took some pictures looking out toward the field where the great thunderstorm swept through so many years ago.

Snowy mountain

A lot of today was spent listening to old time radio shows as they really help to make the time pass quickly.

During one episode of the radio version of “Dragnet” with Jack Webb the famous detective was questioning a man about a fraud case. The man had claimed he was a psychiatrist and listed a number of academic initials behind his name. BS, PH.d, and a long list of other impressive initials.

One of the people he was interviewing asked Joe Friday: “I wonder how long it would take a guy to acquire all those letters?”

Jack Webb replied in his famous smart ass style:  “It would take about 10 minutes with a paint brush.”

One of two Continental Divide crossings today

Today we spotted some Sandhill Cranes – the same kind as we saw in Tucson a couple months ago – in a Wyoming field. They, like a lot of us, are probably wondering why they left Tucson so early only to come up here and find things still frozen over.

In Wyoming we saw many fields filled with Prong Horn Sheep, which we weren’t sure were wild or being raised by ranchers. They are probably wild as the fences they were behind would not be any obstacle to them.

We also passed by the World Headquarters of Cabela’s in Sidney, Nebraska.

Endless construction zone

Last night the Airport Inn we stayed at in Salt Lake City was very nice, but the employees there seemed to have a universal attitude problem. When I was checking in they seemed annoyed that we arrived just as they were digging into their McDonald’s dinner.

This morning when I went to the restaurant to collect on our free breakfast, the woman who was helping me collect a yogurt was wearing an outfit more appropriate for a pole dancer in an exotic dancing business than in a restaurant.

Also, one of my pet peeves is when there is an endless construction zone with absolutely no construction work going on. Today in Wyoming we were reduced to one lane for about 10 miles and at the very end of the zone there was one tractor working in the median.I want to buy stock in the company that buys those plastic lane divider cones.

Tonight we are in North Platte, Nebraska in a very nice hotel, which I booked online for $45. The employees here have a much better outlook. So all is good. See you all tomorrow.

Time out: 7:42 a.m. (MDT)

Mileage out: 77349

Time in: 6:30 p.m. (CDT)

Mileage in: 78026 (that’s a lot of miles in 10 hours folks!)