Way Too Much Time In The Car
We had one of our road trips this past weekend. Nancy's grandmother's family was hosting a family reunion in Burlington, Wyoming on Saturday. Nancy, whose work schedule is normally Friday through Monday, managed to get both Saturday and Sunday off by switching shifts with other employees. So after she finished work on Friday evening, we got in the car and headed out of town.
Our original plan was to drive part of the way that night, find a nice camping spot somewhere, and then wake up early and finish the drive in the morning. We left Salt Lake at around 8:30 on Friday night, making our way east on I-80 through Park City and Evanston, Wyoming. We turned north on US Highway 191 at Rock Springs and made our way to Farson. We turned right onto Wyoming Highway 28 and eventually merged with US 287 southeast of Lander, Wyoming.
We topped off the gas tank in Lander, where my mission trainer, Elder Duncan, grew up. There we had a decision to make. We decided to continue driving, maybe even all the way to Burlington. Nancy took over driving duties at this point, which would have been about 1:00 in the morning. We continued through Riverton, Shoshoni, Thermopolis, Worland, and several other towns with elevations larger than their populations. We were tired, but we talked and kept the music playing as we drove. We turned left on Wyoming Highway 30 at Basin, and a few minutes later rolled into Burlington. It was approximately 4:15 a.m. On the way we had seen on the road (and almost hit) six rabbits, two deer, a wolf, and somebody's house cat. Who says there's nothing interesting to see in Wyoming?
A quick word about the town of Burlington is in order here. It's a small town...really small. According to the most recent census (and the sign on the edge of town), it has a population of around 250. Only the main road through town is paved. It's so small that my Dad, who spent 25 years driving the back roads of Wyoming as a salesman in the ag business, had to ask me where it was.
Upon setting out on this little journey, we'd been told there would be camping facilities available at the park adjacent to the church where the reunion was to be held. However, after driving around town (which didn't take long, see above) we could see no such facilities available. There were no tents anywhere, and not so much as a porta-potty available for our...er, relief. Oh, and the sprinklers were on in the park. We drove briefly out of town to see if there was a campground or motel anywhere nearby, but there was not. So we returned to the church and set up our tent on the east lawn, hoping that if we weren't supposed to be camping there, the church would be least likely to have us arrested for trespassing.
As we finished setting up the test, I happened to look up into the eastern sky. It was beginning to grow lighter. It was 5:00 in the morning, and the sun would be up soon. We'd pulled an all-nighter.
We managed to sleep until about 9:00, when we started to hear people setting up in the pavilion on the west side of the church. We put on hats and shoes and made our way over, introducing ourselves and helping get things set up. Breakfast started around 9:30, with the rest of Nancy's family arriving from their hotel room in Cody just after 10:00. After breakfast we moved the tent to the shady area next to the pavilion, and I lay down for a nap. Nancy took advantage of the time to use the shower in the church's ladies' room.
I was abruptly awakened to something apocalyptic-sounding an hour and a half later; it turned out just to be Nancy's sister's dog trying to jump through the unopened tent door. But I was now fully awake, and lunch was being served. So we joined everyone for food and stories and making and renewing acquaintances. After games and conversations, there was an auction to raise money for next year's event. Nancy brought several items that raised about $85 in the auction. We also bought a few items, including two hand-stitched baby blankets. No, that isn't an announcement.
Things started to break up around 3:30 or 4:00. We cleaned up the area and took down our tent. Then, having spent the day in the same clothes I'd driven (and slept) in the previous night, I took a shower. It was cold. There was no hot water at all. After spending the day in the sun and in the church gym playing basketball with the kids it felt good, but it was still a little brisk for my taste. It was great to be clean and cool, though.
From Burlington we drove to Nancy's grandmother's home near Livingston, Montana. At the suggestion of one of the relatives, we took a shortcut on Wyoming 32 to Cowley. There we got on US 310 to Laurel, Montana, where we stopped for dinner at Subway. From there it was just a matter of following I-90 west to Livingston and finding her grandmother's house outside of town. We got to bed around midnight. We were assigned to the living room, where we slept on our air mattress on the floor. Air mattresses are one of the greatest inventions ever.
I awoke on Sunday morning around 7:30, got showered, and woke Nancy up. While she was getting cleaned up I deflated our mattress and got our stuff organized. We'd bought some rolls the previous night, so we put those in the oven while we got stuff cleaned up. We enjoyed hot cinnamon and orange rolls on the way back into Livingston for church. We stayed only for the Sacrament service, opting to get on the road as soon as we could. We still had eight hours' driving to do that day.
We had an opportunity to meet up with my parents and my nieces, who were coincidentally also in Montana for that weekend, but doing so would have required adding an hour of driving time to our trip, plus the time we'd spend with them. So, again in the interest of time, we declined, which Mom understood. We left Livingston and headed west to Bozeman and then south to West Yellowstone. From there we got on US 20 and experienced that annoying 20-mile stretch near Island Park, where on six different occasions the speed limit drops from 65 to 45, sometimes for as little as a quarter of a mile. Do you really need to slow down by twenty miles an hour for one building on each side of the road? Anyway, Nancy slept through most of this stretch of the drive, which was good because she hadn't really had a chance to nap on Saturday like I'd had. We stopped at a familiar truck stop south of Idaho Falls to fill up the gas tank, and Nancy took over the driving. We seem to have a pretty good system, with me taking the first shift driving and Nancy taking over when I get tired. It worked on Sunday afternoon as well, with Nancy taking us all the way back from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake. We arrived home around 8:30 Sunday night.
So, to recap our driving:
Salt Lake City to Burlington: 455 miles
Burlington to Livingston: 236 miles
Livingston to Salt Lake: 458 miles
That makes the total distance we traveled 1149 miles—in almost exactly 48 hours. That means that for the entire weekend, including all the time we spent sleeping, participating in the reunion, stopping for gas and meals, and attending church, as well as driving, we had an average speed of nearly 24 miles per hour.
It was a great trip, and I'm glad we went. I met a lot of new people, renewed some friendships, and heard a lot of great stories. And I got to spend pretty much the whole weekend with Nancy, which doesn't seem to happen a lot now that she's working weekends. But in all honesty, I have to say it's good to be home. Being in the car that much is not natural.
Our original plan was to drive part of the way that night, find a nice camping spot somewhere, and then wake up early and finish the drive in the morning. We left Salt Lake at around 8:30 on Friday night, making our way east on I-80 through Park City and Evanston, Wyoming. We turned north on US Highway 191 at Rock Springs and made our way to Farson. We turned right onto Wyoming Highway 28 and eventually merged with US 287 southeast of Lander, Wyoming.
We topped off the gas tank in Lander, where my mission trainer, Elder Duncan, grew up. There we had a decision to make. We decided to continue driving, maybe even all the way to Burlington. Nancy took over driving duties at this point, which would have been about 1:00 in the morning. We continued through Riverton, Shoshoni, Thermopolis, Worland, and several other towns with elevations larger than their populations. We were tired, but we talked and kept the music playing as we drove. We turned left on Wyoming Highway 30 at Basin, and a few minutes later rolled into Burlington. It was approximately 4:15 a.m. On the way we had seen on the road (and almost hit) six rabbits, two deer, a wolf, and somebody's house cat. Who says there's nothing interesting to see in Wyoming?
A quick word about the town of Burlington is in order here. It's a small town...really small. According to the most recent census (and the sign on the edge of town), it has a population of around 250. Only the main road through town is paved. It's so small that my Dad, who spent 25 years driving the back roads of Wyoming as a salesman in the ag business, had to ask me where it was.
Upon setting out on this little journey, we'd been told there would be camping facilities available at the park adjacent to the church where the reunion was to be held. However, after driving around town (which didn't take long, see above) we could see no such facilities available. There were no tents anywhere, and not so much as a porta-potty available for our...er, relief. Oh, and the sprinklers were on in the park. We drove briefly out of town to see if there was a campground or motel anywhere nearby, but there was not. So we returned to the church and set up our tent on the east lawn, hoping that if we weren't supposed to be camping there, the church would be least likely to have us arrested for trespassing.
As we finished setting up the test, I happened to look up into the eastern sky. It was beginning to grow lighter. It was 5:00 in the morning, and the sun would be up soon. We'd pulled an all-nighter.
We managed to sleep until about 9:00, when we started to hear people setting up in the pavilion on the west side of the church. We put on hats and shoes and made our way over, introducing ourselves and helping get things set up. Breakfast started around 9:30, with the rest of Nancy's family arriving from their hotel room in Cody just after 10:00. After breakfast we moved the tent to the shady area next to the pavilion, and I lay down for a nap. Nancy took advantage of the time to use the shower in the church's ladies' room.
I was abruptly awakened to something apocalyptic-sounding an hour and a half later; it turned out just to be Nancy's sister's dog trying to jump through the unopened tent door. But I was now fully awake, and lunch was being served. So we joined everyone for food and stories and making and renewing acquaintances. After games and conversations, there was an auction to raise money for next year's event. Nancy brought several items that raised about $85 in the auction. We also bought a few items, including two hand-stitched baby blankets. No, that isn't an announcement.
Things started to break up around 3:30 or 4:00. We cleaned up the area and took down our tent. Then, having spent the day in the same clothes I'd driven (and slept) in the previous night, I took a shower. It was cold. There was no hot water at all. After spending the day in the sun and in the church gym playing basketball with the kids it felt good, but it was still a little brisk for my taste. It was great to be clean and cool, though.
From Burlington we drove to Nancy's grandmother's home near Livingston, Montana. At the suggestion of one of the relatives, we took a shortcut on Wyoming 32 to Cowley. There we got on US 310 to Laurel, Montana, where we stopped for dinner at Subway. From there it was just a matter of following I-90 west to Livingston and finding her grandmother's house outside of town. We got to bed around midnight. We were assigned to the living room, where we slept on our air mattress on the floor. Air mattresses are one of the greatest inventions ever.
I awoke on Sunday morning around 7:30, got showered, and woke Nancy up. While she was getting cleaned up I deflated our mattress and got our stuff organized. We'd bought some rolls the previous night, so we put those in the oven while we got stuff cleaned up. We enjoyed hot cinnamon and orange rolls on the way back into Livingston for church. We stayed only for the Sacrament service, opting to get on the road as soon as we could. We still had eight hours' driving to do that day.
We had an opportunity to meet up with my parents and my nieces, who were coincidentally also in Montana for that weekend, but doing so would have required adding an hour of driving time to our trip, plus the time we'd spend with them. So, again in the interest of time, we declined, which Mom understood. We left Livingston and headed west to Bozeman and then south to West Yellowstone. From there we got on US 20 and experienced that annoying 20-mile stretch near Island Park, where on six different occasions the speed limit drops from 65 to 45, sometimes for as little as a quarter of a mile. Do you really need to slow down by twenty miles an hour for one building on each side of the road? Anyway, Nancy slept through most of this stretch of the drive, which was good because she hadn't really had a chance to nap on Saturday like I'd had. We stopped at a familiar truck stop south of Idaho Falls to fill up the gas tank, and Nancy took over the driving. We seem to have a pretty good system, with me taking the first shift driving and Nancy taking over when I get tired. It worked on Sunday afternoon as well, with Nancy taking us all the way back from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake. We arrived home around 8:30 Sunday night.
So, to recap our driving:
Salt Lake City to Burlington: 455 miles
Burlington to Livingston: 236 miles
Livingston to Salt Lake: 458 miles
That makes the total distance we traveled 1149 miles—in almost exactly 48 hours. That means that for the entire weekend, including all the time we spent sleeping, participating in the reunion, stopping for gas and meals, and attending church, as well as driving, we had an average speed of nearly 24 miles per hour.
It was a great trip, and I'm glad we went. I met a lot of new people, renewed some friendships, and heard a lot of great stories. And I got to spend pretty much the whole weekend with Nancy, which doesn't seem to happen a lot now that she's working weekends. But in all honesty, I have to say it's good to be home. Being in the car that much is not natural.
posted by Michael at
8:12 AM
1 Comments:
Hey- I'm Nancy's friend, Amaree... You know whatr's ironic? We were in Livingston at the same time, and didn't even know it. Sad sad story! I would have loved to meet you and see Nancy... We were on our way home from the Martin's Cove handcart trek... and drove through Yellowstone to get home and Livingtston was the closest hotel we could find... We left around 10 a.m. on Sunday. If we had only know!
By
amaree, At
August 07, 2008 12:56 PM
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