Day 15--June 17th--From UT to Toponah, Nevada

 We left Powder Ridge around 6:30 a.m. this morning.  It was very cold!  See the temperature gauge.

   It actually snowed last night, (You can't see the snow in the picture, but it's there.)

 and there was ice on our windshield this morning. 

We saw more deer on the way down the mountain, but our moose friend did not show himself again.

It was another long drive today, but it was quite different from most of the other days.  I told Paul that we certainly couldn't complain about the traffic today.  There wasn't any!  Well, not much, anyway.  We rode for miles and miles and did not see anything but road, mountains, plains, and SALT.  That's right, salt!

We passed the Great Salt Lake, 

which didn't look salty at all.  I know from third grade history, though, that it is at least 5 times as salty as any ocean.  Right, Lauren, Alex, & Emily?  When we got past the lake, we saw fields of salt. 

That's the only word I can think of to describe it.  At first glance you might think that it is sand, but it glistens in the sunlight and is totally white! 

Miles and miles we rode, and this is what we saw.  Fields of salt.  We would also see where people had taken black rocks and made letters to form initials in the salt.  I saw a heart shape once and also a cross shape.  Someone even was imaginative enough to use colored bottles and stuck them upside down in the salt to write messages. We also saw the factory where they package Morton Salt.

I bet some of you can guess what I asked Paul to do.  He shook his head 'no'.  So, a few miles later I asked again.  He gave me 'the eye' and shook his head 'no' again.   Soooo....after a few more miles I asked, "What will it hurt to stop?"  He grinned and said, "I plan to."  Yep, had to have me some of that salt!  I emptied out a bottle I had in my knitting bag with small needles in it and jumped out.  I actually thought  I was going to just pick up a hunk of it, though.  I tried.  I tried again!  It was hard as a rock!  Well, it was actually attached to the rock and neither the salt nor the rock would budge.  I had to scrape the bottle against the salt to get enough to loosen up to fill that small bottle.  Oh, well, I didn't get a 'salt rock', but at least I got some salt from the Great Salt Lake! 

Then we rode, and rode, and rode, and rode.  No, the pictures below are not the same picture. 

They are just samples of how far the road kept stretching out before us.  It was okay, though.  We had the mountains all around us to look at, even rode through some of them, and then miles and miles more of stretched out road.  No houses, no people, (except an occasional car), no stores, no POTTIES! 

Lots of tumbleweed bushes.  

Yep, Paul suggested it, but I refused!

We arrived at Tonopah, Nevada, early, since we went through another time zone.  We got to our hotel and right behind it was a thrift store!  Yep, those of you who know me well know that's where I wanted to go as soon as we checked in.  I found a great deal on BOOKS!  You could fill up a paper grocery bag full for $3.00.  Bless Paul's heart.  After I'd been there for some time he said, "I'm leaving".  And I said, "I'm coming."  That same conversation lasted a right good while.  But it was worth it.  I found Bibles, Joyce Meyer books, things like that.  AND I found knitting needles AND yarn!!! Woo Hoo!  As if I needed some more, right?  I found some more stuff for Patsy, too.  Yep, I'm looking out for you, girl.

We went out to dinner at a real Mexican restaurant.  Oh, it was so good!  We're back in our hotel now, and they had put out fresh baked cookies for the hotel guests.  Oh, no. Two of my favorites.  Chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.  They were still warm and smelled so good!  We brought some up to eat later, but I'm going to TRY to resist.  I'll let you know tomorrow night if I make it or not.

Tomorrow, on to Yosemite.
Until then....
Love y'all.