Virginia City to Salt Lake City to Scott's Bluff, NB

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July 15th - July 16th

Wow, many impressions of the "GREAT EMPTYNESS" that I had heard Northern NV called -- greener than I thought it would be (rabbit brush very green and sage brush gray green), more mountains that I thought -- not flat at all actually very pretty but no trees as far as you can see. N.Utah the same type of landscape until you get to SLC -- now you have trees for about 20 miles. Wyoming -- let me tell you, more empty than N. NV ever was. I actually think I saw more train cars that real cars-especially in WY. Boy, are there alot of freight trains (and LONG) in WY.
No planted crops or signs of real civilization until almost the NB border and we get alfalpha and corn.
I-80 is a really good road (75-80mph all day) except in WY -- 60% is under construction and repair. The highest employment is road crews and snow fence building and repair. Hundreds of miles of snow fence!
Weather is a balmy 82 dregrees. At the higher elevations (8900 ft) there are even wild flowers still in bloom.
The state lines are almost determined (it seems) on the topography -- NV was mountains & wide flat valleys covered oin rabbit brush & sage, UT was a high plateau with gorges and butts in the distance mostly sage and dirt, WY was some sage brush but mostly rolling hills and NB is praire grasses.

Driver observations: Woman drivers CAN'T DRIVE -- they get in the passing lane and slow down, they stay in the passing lane at 5 mph below the speed limit, if you try to pass them, they speed up. The most popular vehicle is the 3/4 ton pick-up. The speeders are young men in pick-ups or yellow sports cars. The most "out-of-state" license plates are from Idaho and California. The RVs are from Canada and New Jersey. The truckers are great. Road food (on I-80) is not great -- but I have my cooler and fresh fruit and that's all I need.
Decided to get to Scott's Bluff, NB tonight as I was in Cheyenne, WY at 2:30 -- too early to stop. I will stay in Rapid City, SD two nights over the week-end so I can take in Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Deadwood.
More later. . . .

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