Speeding to Salt Lake - Day 72

Not much went on today, so this will be a shorter post. I simply drove from Jackpot, NV to Salt Lake City, UT. The ride consisted of two long legs, one through the dessert and one across the Great Salt Lake.


Each of the two landscapes started out being interesting, but by the end, constant repetition of identical scenery began to drag. I suppose the Salt Lake was better for it's uniqueness. Also, because you can see so immensely far because of the flatness, it is easy to see shimmering mirages of water that slowly turn into just more salt flats.


Shortly into the straight shot across the lake is the Bonneville Salt Flats where the world land speed record is set. At a rest area I took the picture of the Flats' welcome sign, the history and description is worth a read if you expand the picture. Also at this rest area, I followed the lead of some of the other motorists and wandered out onto the salt flats. They were a somewhat mushy consistency in spots, otherwise they were fine crystals. I scratched them with my finger nails, and tasted it...guess what, its Salt! No wonder salt is so cheap and plentiful, you can just go out there with a shovel...not much to the farming. At the end of the flats were a few salt processing plants with 5 story high piles of processed salt.


I guess the only other interesting thing that happened was at a Burger King (only my second pure fast food meal of the trip.) I ran into a bunch of young hippies sporting a New Jersey license plate. They were driving from near Princeton to San Francisco, the fast route, with little in the way of side trips. They weren't really chatters, so I didn't get any more details, but I would guess they were heading to the Haight-Asbury district.


Gotta cut out now. I have to do a little prep work before heading to the Family History Center tomorrow, just a few block from where I am staying. Since there is already some pretty reasonable information on the web related to Mom's side of the family, I will see if I can get any info on the Murphy side. Thanks youngaunt for sending me the starting blocks.