The Salt Flats

Posted in The Wanderer

I sat on the white salt at sunrise with my son. Legs stretched out in front of me. Just watching him. Explore. It was 80 degrees at 6am. Perfect.

We got up at 5am to see it.

It was one of those sunrises that I got to spend with just him….. on an adventure. We’ve had a lot of them. But it’s been a long time.

We drove the 5 miles of interstate in the dark. And another 5 miles on what seemed like a desolate road. Surrounded by sagebrush and desert. But there were mountains to the left of us. At the end of the road… there was white. It was rock hard salt. And miles and miles of it stretched ahead of us. In every single direction. It was incredible. And like nothing we have ever seen. Other worldly. Especially in the blue hue of sunrise.

………..

It was a quick trip. 3 days. An escape from the craziness of Frontier Days. (I have years where I embrace it, I have years where…. I embrace the chaos less so.) I had the choice of driving 8 hours… or flying and renting a car to get to the flats. I chose the latter.

And here’s a couple things I learned along the way of a quick trip.

They never really feel quick. You still leave. You still come back and feel like you’ve been away forever. You are still changed from what you saw and felt. You always come back with experiences and memories written on the pages of your mind.

Secondly… being nice to people in the service industry shouldn’t be a second thought. It should be natural to be nice. The person behind the counter does not have control over the situation. They are the middle man. I ended up with a convertible Camaro because I didn’t yell at the woman behind the counter, unlike the 15 people ahead of me. I sympathized with her. Told her I totally understood what was happening. Understood the industry. Had a normal conversation with her. Found out her cousin was someone I knew. And I drove away in front of the other 15 people who had been screaming and throwing fits. With one happy kid.

Third.. you never really know about a town until you visit it and it can be in two different states.

and lastly… traveling with a teenager is much different than a little boy.

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On my list (my very very long list) was the Bonneville Salt Flats. We have been wanting to see them for a long time. It’s a place for testing the speed of cars in wide open spaces. There is no speed limit if you drive on them. And even though I was gifted a Camaro, I didn’t not take it on the salt. Ruining the under carriage of a rental car is just not a good idea. So we walked about half a mile out along the speedway. It was so breathtaking. And calm and warm. At 6am it was almost 80 degrees. I love warm sunrises. I had purchased a drone about 4 months ago, that had literally not been taken out of its case or used. So we learned how to use it there. And what a perfect place to learn how to use a drone.

We stayed in a little town in Utah/ Nevada. Wendover.

There is not much there….except 4 or 5 casinos. And a grocery store and a couple gas stations. It’s a town that is overlooked by a glowing smoking cowboy and surrounded by tumbleweeds and desert. It’s filled with people giving their money away but hoping for new fortune with pennies. There’s a Starbucks tucked away in one of the casinos. There’s a swimming pool on a rooftop. We were entertained by the people. We were bored for a while. But a little downtime is never a bad thing. It’s good to have a little downtime.

Weather moved in and we were unable to spend sunset on the flats. But we got up early the next morning and learned more about droning before heading back to Salt Lake.

We went to the Red Butte Gardens (my son chose it to be nice to me because he knows I love flowers and scenery.) It was beautiful and I would love to just spend a day sitting there in the quiet. It was expansive. And the overlooks were incredible. We shopped at City Creek Center. A beautiful mall that I was even impressed with (I’m not a mall person anymore… something that comes with age.)

We caught our flight back.

I didn’t have to drive 8 hours each way.

It was quick.

It was amazing.

It was salty.