Busted!

Ah, Elko, NV doesn't like me. 94 in a 75 zone, reduced to 80, which saddled me with a whopping 107 dollar fine. Of course, since the day before, I was approved for 60K in loans, words couldn't have described my apathy. "Pardon me, officer, but could you speed it along? I'm trying to make good time. Now I'm going to need to do 104 just to compensate."

Yet, I remember the high school days where I got a ticket and burst into tears because I'd just made 160$ babysitting at a time when I needed the cash for HEAT! Had a can of frigging kerosene sitting on the passenger seat. Ah, those were the days.

Sorry not to update, but I couldn't find a hotspot for the wireless, thus my inability to access the internet with anything other than DIAL UP, which didn't even work in St. Joseph, Missouri, sent me into a state of pure catatonic schitzophrenia from the withdrawal. Ish need 'puter!

So, I'm going to split this into two posts to represent the change in days. Works, right?

Thursday, we headed out, I got my bustedness, and we left Nevada in shame. Bye Nevada:



Utah had some incredibly pretty spots, that naturally I didn't take pictures of. Unfortunately, Salt Lake City wasn't one of them. And what's up, Mormons? Any other city in the world, your temples are elevated, lit, and pretty, beacons to the world. In your CAPITAL city, you can't even see the great temple from the freeway? And instead, you wall in the freeway with concrete barriers thus destroying ANY chance someone MIGHT have of seeing anything attractive all while increasing their chances of dying in a wreck of they weave off your curved-through-the-city turns? Silly Mormons.

Fortunately, we hit Parley (Parley's?) before dark, and I did get pictures of that, because boy howdy, is it beautiful. There's a town at the top (Parley's Summit, go fig) that is ripped straight out of a Dickens novel:



As such, I couldn't help staying a while and taking mondo pictures while freezing my butt off:



Of course, I also had to go up a winding little road, usually only populated by SUVs and pick up trucks, to get the obligatory mountain views:



And naturally, our Christmas tree:



After that, if you couldn't tell, it was dark as we proceded into Wyoming, missing all the pretty bits to utter darkness.

We had initially planned to stay in Rawlins, but alas! No Motel 6, and I need M6 because they allow pets! D'oh. This meant conquering Elk Mountain at night, which meant icy roads and blowing snow and a little white knuckle driving, but nothing spectacular. Donner during a blizzard (done it in the hyundai!) is so very much worse. Ended up staying in Laramie for the night, which I keep thinking of as a brand of cigarettes because it is on the Simpsons. For my random reference.