Day 27

I woke early, as I have since leaving New York. This morning I realized that as we drove west, we entered new time zones almost daily and I woke when my body said “Enough! Get up already!” In Columbus OH, (EDT) the first day of driving, I woke at my usual 5am. In Topeka KS (CDT) it was 4am and this morning about three hours wes of Laramie WY (MDT) it was 3am. I can’t wait for tomorrow morning in PDT.

Today we took a few rest stops, but no sightseeing. We were driven to be home before the end of the day.  (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) To that end, we drove almost 900 miles today in about 12 hours. Normally we would stop long before that but we were going home. The most memorable rest stop had this sign in the parking lot. I thought it was good advice and took pictures from the black top, where I could see sliding and walking things on the ground.

Again, we were amazed at the majesty and immensity of America. The Great Basin (between Salt Lake City and Reno) is both huge and flat. We didn’t think it would ever end. Eventually hills and mountains returned on the horizon. The problem was a perpetual haze almost obscuring the mountains several miles away. We assumed this was smoke from the California fires. There are mountains on the horizon, believe me.

We stopped in Elko NV, (remember Elko? It was going to be our first stop way back on Day 1 but we decided to continue on to Salt Lake City.) There was a cafe in Elko that serves lunch and brunch and had good Yelp reviews. Since the last Yelp recommendation was a winner we decided to try this one. Macadoo’s in Elko was ok, not great. It is a nice little cafe but unfortunately they had BBQ brisket sandwiches as their special. We both agreed after Jo-Bawb’s in Gillette WY it’s going to be hard for any other BBQ place to rate, and this place does not specialize in BBQ. Nice people though. Good iced tea.

Now it is time for a confession and the truth. Rosie didn’t actually go with us on our Journey. That was the semi-fictional travel category of our adventure. She stayed at the Lucky Dog, a sleep away spa for dogs. We picked her up at the spa and she was somewhat excited to see us again.

So, our Journey has ended for now. We drove 7871 miles and were away from home for 27 days. As I mentioned previously, I will spend the balance of this summer adding more Rosie content to these posts and (hopefully) compile all the posts in a book of short stories. Please stay tuned.