Day 25: Burley, Idaho: 469.6 miles; 6:39

At breakfast we overheard a conversation:  "Is Zion open?"  "Yes, or it will be soon."  So we went back to the room and turned on the TV.  Turns out the Utah Governor made a deal with congress and will be opening 5 National Parks in Utah.  Utah will pay the employees until the government gets their act together.  They are hoping that after the shutdown they will be reimbursed.

Only question was WHEN are they going to open?  Looks like it won't be till Saturday.  And I'm guessing all those folks at Hoover Dam will descend on the park.  We tuned into 1610AM and they were still saying the park is closed, so we decided to head home. Should be an interesting development.  I wonder what the governor of Arizona will do?

So we started out at 7:45 and took the back roads back to the freeway.  It is definitely beautiful country, whether you are in the park or not.  And this was the early "magic" hour for photography.  We didn't get to Zion, but we caught a glimpse of Zion's beauty.

We love Utah.  The scenery is very photogenic and the speed limit is 80!  Jim sad that "Hurricane" means go like the wind.

We got back on the Interstate and soon came to Cedar City (pop. 28,857; elev. 5,840 feet).  This towns has pages of accommodations in the AAA guide -- much larger that you would expect from it's size.  The city was a mining center until 1920 and then, because of its proximity to the National Parks, became a tourist center.  They also host the Utah Shakespeare Festival.

We have noted since we hit the desert (New Mexico) that our windshield has remained clean.  No bug splatter to speak of.  Also, Jim noted that we have had virtually no roadkill.  (We were up to 10 deer, 1 raccoon, 2 possum, and an alligator head).  And the bug sounds have stopped, plus all the insect bites that I encountered in Texas have disappeared.  I realized that bugs were a way of life in Texas when I went to Walmart and discovered an entire isle labeled "itch relievers."

Rest areas in Utah seem to be a joint venture between Utah and Cheveron/Subway.  Signs inform you that this is a "public/private partnership."  You get off at a rest stop and end up at a Cheveron.  Works for me...  There was another interesting public/private partnership going on in Las Vegas.  There were  freeway signs that would tell you how long it takes to get to a specific destination  One of those destinations was the "Tropicana" Jim figured someone had paid for that.

We were at about 6.600 feet surrounded by 12,000 peaks.  This I-15 corridor was really scenic and remote.  I mentioned to Jim that soon we would be getting to civilization as we approached Provo.  He remarked that that was not a good term as the driving would be less civilized.  So I changed the term to "urbanity," or as Jim coined "urbananity."

We soon entered urbanity related to Provo (pop. 112,488; elev. 4,549 feet) home of Brigham Young University and an important industrial area for steel, pig iron, and foundry products.

We saw signs that were very confusing related to an HOV/toll lane.  It said that "2+" was "no toll" and every so often mentioned a toll -- usually 25 cents.  We got into the lane for a while and then got out (given our suspicion of toll roads from our experience in Texas).  We wondered how they collected the 25 cents with no toll booths.  It also mentioned an "Express Pass"  (reminding us of the "EZ-Pass" in Houston).

I got out the Samsung and looked it up.  Turns out that you buy a "transponder" and attach it to your windshield.  Detectors on the freeway determine that you traveled a certain leg of the freeway in the "toll" lane and automatically charge you.  The price change with the amount of traffic present from 25 cents up to a dollar per segment.  

Although confusing at first, this seems like a very easy system for tolls.  Houston take note!

We went through Salt Lake City (pop. 186,440; elev. 4,390 feet). Salt Lake City was founded by the Mormons and is in a spectacular setting at the foot of the Wasach Mountains with the Great Salt Lake to the northwest and the Great Salt Lake Desert to the west.  A nice setting for urbanity.

We continued into Ogden.  The HOV/Toll lane briefly stopped, then started up again until we got through Ogden.  Ogden (pop. 82,825; elev. 4,300 feet) is am important railroad distribution cneter for products headed to the West Coast.  It is also historical because the "golden spike" uniting the nation by rail was driven at Promotory, northwest of Ogden in 1869.  We passed the exit to this historic site, but since it is a "National Historic Site" concluded it was CLOSED.  So we drove on by.

After we left Ogden, urbanity just disappeared. Highway exits warned us of "no services."  The landscape changed as well as we headed towards Idaho.  There is an amazing contrast between the urban area of Salt Lake City and the relative desolate rural areas of the state.

The signs for Motels were now for distances of 100 miles.  We stopped at Snowville near the border with Idaho since they had "services", a lone gas station.  It was very crowded.  Then we headed on to Idaho.

The sign said, 'Welcome to Idaho."  That's all, no slogan.  We soon encountered a stretch of highway with no services and multiple signs warning us we were in a "dust storm area."  We knew about that from Winslow...

Then we saw a number of potato fields and  "potato trucks."  We must be in Idaho...

We stopped in Burley (pop. 10,345; elev. 4,165 feet).  Burley is along the Snake River and hosts the National Speedboat Races each June.

On to Oregon tomorrow.  We will be home soon.













meant "Go like the wind."

After we got back on the freeway we hit Cedar City (pop. 28,857; elev. 5,840 feet).