SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, TO RAWLINS, WYOMING

Another early (for us) start this morning, leaving the noise, congestion, heat and pollution (the last two days of our stay were in the air quality "red zone") of Salt Lake City behind us. Our first 20 miles were on urban freeways constricted by road work, then a 3,000 foot climb to the summit through more construction.

It was with a huge sigh of relief that we left it all behind and crossed the state line into Wyoming. The traffic thinned, the road improved, and we began to make time.

We had planned what we consider a long driving day - 300 miles - from Salt Lake City to Rawlins, Wyoming. This part of interstate 80 traverses long stretches of sage-covered basins with not much in the way of towns. The road is good, with little traffic. Rather infrequent rest areas are augmented by "parking areas" - a rest area without restrooms. Works fine for those of us who carry our own!

I took both of the top photos at our lunch stop, a parking area with a wonderful "big sky" view of rangelands and snowy mountains in the far distance.

After a fill up at Flying J in Rawlins (diesel for $4.609/gallon, the cheapest we have encounted since we left Sacramento), our day ended at RV World Campground, just off the interstate. Although Odel and I aren't too impressed with the place (and didn't expect anything different), Luna loves it. Right outside our door she found her heart's delight, a basin of dust - a very fine, yellow dust. Oh, boy - she had a good, long, grind-it-in-to-the-skin roll.

And there was something for Odel and me, too: a hilariously bad miniature golf course. For $1 each (I can't believe they actually charge for it!), we got way more than our money’s worth of laughs. You can see a photo of the "course" on our campground review, here.