Big Drive; hay Bales, salt, temples and a desert....

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August 1st 2011

Published: August 12th 2011

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No Filth Please

Nebraska

The time had come to turn back West and return the car to San Francisco, 1500 miles lay ahead of us..with 6 days to do it in. Us being us thought we would cram Yosemite National Park in on the way, so we had to get our skates on. The day we left Pine Ridge we decided to drive into the night to get some mileage in; when we left the reservation, we saw a lot of homeless Indian men drinking on the streets and saw the dark side of how modern life were affecting these native people; this was upsetting but thought provoking.

We drove through a bit of Nebraska; miles and miles of farmland and it was hot; we got the cheapest drink in the world 25c for a huge cup of lime juice, just the ticket in this heat! We were then back into Wyoming and more beautiful scenery, Dim killed a rabbit and some big bird on the drive and we both felt really bad – poor things. We found a campsite after asking for prices at several Motels (all too expensive) it was late so we got the tent straight up and attempted to sleep

Hay Bales..

In Nebraska; we didn't see much more than this here.

by the busy road but not very successfully.

We rose early the next day and drove; we stopped at McDonalds for a cup of tea and ate our cereal outside before making further tracks to Salt Lake City. We arrived early afternoon which gave us some time to explore the Mormon temple area of the city; it was quite interesting to understand more about this religion, to hear the pin drop in the Tabernacle(you could hear this due to the building’s acoustics) and to see the roof top garden on the Conference Centre. Before we knew it we were pulling up at Giles (couchsurfer) house. When we got there Giles was not at home but his housemates Paul, Shay and their gorgeous son Otis were and they were more than welcoming to us. There was a really relaxed atmosphere in the house that made us both feel at ease; just what we needed after our long journey. We spent the evening chilling; spending some time chatting to Paul, Shay, Otis and we got to spend a little bit of time with Giles when he returned home; great people.

The next morning we had breakfast at the table with

Washing up...

in our ready made kitchen at the side of the road.

Otis who has to be one of the most adorable 2 year olds we have ever met; we decided to leave some of our things here as we intend to catch the bus back to Salt Lake City and we would only have to carry it all on the bus and it gave us a good excuse to come back and visit!

Then we started the 519 mile long journey to Reno across the Nevada Desert, this was heavy going and these are the times when travelling can be exhausting, both mentally and physically and it can feel hard to keep going. On these long journeys we can sometimes miss the stability and comforts of home; the thought of spending a few days in Yosemite keeps us going though. Luckily, we had another couchsurf arranged that evening; Tracey and Ian had a huge house and we had our own ensuite bedroom that was very posh; they had to go out that night so we had the house to our self, probably a good thing as we were like zombies after the drive; we had a couple of beers left so we drank them listened to some of Ian’s old