A Summer Road Trip to Wichita
June/July 2005
Page 12

Day 12

The day began with sunshine and a bit of a breeze. We headed west on I-80 with Wyoming a short distance away. When in Wyoming the countryside was green rolling hills. I saw a housing development that appeared to have very large lots for each house, I'm guessing 10 acres. However, the lot sizes may have been big, but there were no trees.

The simple, grassy landscape was occasionally broken by the lines of structures such as an oil refinery and a cluster of white satellite communication dishes. The cluster looked as if it might be a military installation. In a short time small pine trees began to appear along our route.

These trees are a result of us gaining altitude as we approach the highest point on I-80. At this point there is a rest area — at exit 323 — that has a big bust of Abraham Lincoln. This is a familiar sight to us that brings back memories of trips made long ago when we were at the rest area and witnessed an exciting event when a car caught fire and was totally destroyed. But that is another story.


A large bust of Abraham Lincoln — Notice the split rail fence —
At one time, Lincoln split rails for a living.

The expanse of Wyoming stretched out in front of us as we made it over the pass and headed down into the high prairie. This is cattle country with many herds seen as we traveled toward our destination. Also seen along the way were small groups of pronghorn antelope grazing on the plentiful supply of green grass.


The highway goes through the wide-open, high-desert area

A common sight along this part of the highway are a lot of snow fences. These structures use the wind to cause snow drifts to form on the hillsides and not on the roadway. Even though the fences are artificial, they sometime form interesting patterns on the land. I've seen these fences only in the spring or summer. I don't want to see them when they are doing their job.


Snow fences mean we are in snow country — It makes me glad it is summer now

The fuel gauge on our motorhome was showing that it was time to begin looking for a place to refuel. The map showed a Flying J Travel Plaza located on the west side of Rawlins, Wyoming. So our plan was to make a stop there to refuel and to have an early lunch. I had the cruise control on our motorhome set to 65 mph while driving in a 75 mph zone. The Flying J Travel Plaza was located at Exit 209.

As I passed mile marker 215, a tractor-trailer rig passed our motorhome, with an "OVERSIZED LOAD" sign on the rear bumper, carrying what appeared to be a small portable office on a flatbed semi-trailer. Shortly after the big-rig was in front of our motorhome, near mile-marker 214, an object appeared to fly from the left side of the trailer. The object was tumbling through the air and appeared to be some sort of hardware like a lug nut. It was approximately 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 inches in diameter.


The trailer ahead of us threw what looked like a lug nut that hit our windshield

A new view — The result of a startling encounter with a flying lug nut

I put on the brakes in an attempt to avoid being hit, but the object was moving too fast. BAM! When the object hit the windshield I just let the motorhome coast as my mind processed what had just happened. Suddenly I realized that I should try to catch up with the truck and talk to the driver. The big rig was traveling between 70 and 75 mph. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to catch up before I had to pull off the freeway to refuel at Exit 209.

I got off the freeway at Exit 209 and entered a line at the Flying J Travel Plaza to refuel. While waiting to get to the pumps, I called my insurance agent to report the incident. Then my Kay took over with the cell phone when I had to get out to refuel.

The resulting damage to the windshield was a in the form of an eight inch (approximate) set of concentric ring shaped cracks somewhat like a target. The bull's-eye was an area of badly smashed glass about three inches in diameter. The entire damaged area was just to the left of the driver's center field of vision. The position was such that it would be able to return home to California to get the windshield replaced.

This shows the location of damage
Close-up view of the damaged area

The damaged windshield kind of ruined the remainder of the day. Even so we had a nice ride as we continued along our planned route. Lunch had been forgotten temporarily. As we entered the eastern part of the state, the landscape changed to rock formations and buttes. The stratified rock formations often have multi-colored layers of rocks. The buttes rise dramatically above the stratified landscape.


This area has a lot of colorful rock formations

The highway seems to go on forever

The pretty layered rock structures gave away to grassy valleys with snow capped mountains as a backdrop. Along the road, not far from Evanston, we saw an accident shortly after it had happened. The emergency vehicles were arriving as we approached the scene of a minivan lying on its side. Rescuers were running down the short incline to get to the vehicle that appeared to have been pulling a trailer that was still upright.


I never like to see scenes like this, but I still take photos

As we traveled on, cloud formations began to build, but it would be temporary with only a few sprinkles hitting the windshield before clearing up. Again rocky formations began to appear around us as the motorhome climbed the incline between Evanston and Salt Lake City. This is a long climb that usually tests the cooling system of whatever vehicle we are in at the time.

We decided to stop for a late lunch at the rest area at the top of the incline. This is a place familiar to us as we've stopped there on previous trips and sleeping overnight at one time. The rock formations all around us were a rusty red. There was a viewing area that provided a view looking down the steep route ahead toward Salt Lake City. We would be on that run in short order.


A nice place for lunch — Our RV looks small next to the big rigs

After lunch the motorhome was steered out onto I-80 and almost immediately I turned on the exhaust brake to take the pressure off of the brakes as we coasted down the 6 to 7% grade. We entered Salt Lake City with the exhaust brake engaged while driving through the end of rush hour traffic. I hate driving through Salt Lake City anyway and it is worse with a million cars all around. Well ... maybe not a million, but a lot of cars anyway.


This downhill run gave our motorhome's exhaust brake a workout

It was a relief to be driving along the Great Salt Lake because it meant I was out of the rush hour mess. Soon we were driving along the uniform landscape of the Bonneville Salt Flats. This is a place that can be ugly or beautiful and sometimes at the same time.

The only thing that helped to break the sameness was the occasional sighting od an unusual vehicle. One type of vehicle we saw a lot of were road trains. Even though what we saw is smaller than the road trains of Australia, I use the term to describe the tractor-trailer rigs that have three trailers.

A small road train — one of many seen on our trip

The road trains of Australia are much bigger with a record breaking, 4000+ foot long rig being made up of 87 trailers being pulled by a single tractor. Anyway, I saw a lot of three-trailer big-rigs on our trip. Many of the rigs were seen in Utah and Nevada.

At the end of the salt flats we headed for the familiar Wendover KOA for our place to spend the night. This was the place where we stayed on our way to Wichita where the wi-fi network was working very well. However, this visit found the wireless connection not working. Oh well, maybe the next stop.


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