Up at six Sunday; clear light and at the gate by eight…

to the highway; Gerlach, Empire…447 south;

An hour and a half later Fernley’s ridiculous roundabout connects to 50 east and Fallon;

Fox Peak Station, Fallon.

L. pushes past Sand Dunes, Cold Springs, Austin…

to lunch somewhere beyond the petroglyph site but well before Eureka.

Finally Ely, so jammed with tourists at the Shell we cross the street to an offbrand station with vile restrooms selling offbrand booze inside the former Burger King…

Two ranges to the border, an hour lost entering Utah…more traffic than usual [which isn’t saying much] across the Western Desert to Hinckley, Delta, Holden; on I-15 anomalous 85 mph bumper to bumper vehicles of all sizes up to Scipio, quiet 50 southeast to Salina and gas.  L. then merges onto I-70 to cross the plateaux…

descendre…

Green River, 103 degrees and last glare, 7:45 p.m.  The Tamarisk by the river packed with summer visitors but fine for dinner when the sun finally relents…

Monday; up at six, I-70 into the light

to the border and, two miles in, the Trail Through Time’s dog walk

Colorado morning; Grand Junction [“President Trump!”] for gas, a truly mediocre breakfast [ “Trump the Dragonslayer!”] at the Pufferbelly and 50 down through Delta, Montrose and into the mountains, over three[ish] passes to…

Gunnison Reservoir, then

[after construction delays]

Gunnison, Monarch and, easily by noon despite, Salida for a long expensive sojourn in the Safeway, lunch in the cab of the truck, dogs eager for leftover omelette and…

Down the Arkansas [not shown], abandoning 50 at Cotopaxi.

Westcliffe has gas but no “facilities”

but the Gardner Post Office has mail, Libre’s just up a last hill

at 3:15 to offload, unload and all fall down…

Over dinner we’re again thinking how much easier it would be to take an extra day coming across, but of course we never do as that would take an extra day coming across.

All fall down…

M

[Next up: the Fab Fourth!]