Desert Blues

Fri Jun 15 - We left our lodgings at University of Utah early in the morning to avoid the desert heat. (One thing that was amusing was that the laundry room on the bottom floor there was labelled "Helms Deep" - someone there was obviously a Lord of the Rings fan!) We drove through downtown Salt Lake City, seeing more of the sights, then set off around the Great Salt Lake. After crossing more mountains into Nevada, we drove through the little town of Elko. It was really depressing - even the landscape, different from the desert in Wyoming, seemed to be barely hanging on to survival. We stopped for the night in Winnemucca, Nevada - a place I will be happy to never see again. Besides the creepy atmosphere, the Super 8 Hotel was the worst motel EVER. At least there weren't bugs, but that's about all the good we could say about it. First and last time ever staying in THAT chain!