I didn’t plan to do a long day today. So when I awoke at 6:00 to rain in Pocatello, I promptly went back to sleep. The weather had not improved when I finally got up two hours later.

Last night, my GPS insisted that there was a Starbucks near my overnighting spot, by the McDonald’s, but I couldn’t find it. In the light of day, I had an epiphany, the Starbucks was likely in the Fred Meyers (a store like a Super Walmart) that I had spotted. So I headed there in the hopes of getting decent coffee, breakfast, and munchies for the road. Success! I found some nice Oscar Meyer ‘protein packs’ with lean meat, a few nuts, and cubes of cheese for dirt cheap, and one of those was the perfect breakfast, along with a grande dark roast from Starbucks.

I then hit the road, sticking to I-15 to make sure that I wouldn’t miss the Utah welcome centre. It was very dark almost all the way to the Utah border. It was weird to driven I-15 in that direction, although I do believe I’ve drive the Idaho/Montana portion of the highway as well. I just associate it with the long drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. 🙂

I wasn’t sure if I was going to stop in Salt Lake City or not. When I finally came to the welcome centre, many miles into the state, and got a ‘SLC highlights’ map, I knew that a stop would not be a good use of my time. SLC is a planned community established by the Mormon Brigham Young and the highlights of the city all have to do with the LDS church. I’m all for learning about different faiths, but I’m on an increasingly tight schedule. One thing I can say about the Great Salt Lake, you can smell it from a distance!

I stuck to I-15 through the city (not for the faint of heart and glad not to have done it in an RV!) and then took back roads, most notably route 6. At first, it was painful going, lots of stop and go and slow speed limits, then the road opened up and I was glad to have made the decision. The drive was incredibly isolated, with almost no services, much like the drive through the Sierra Nevadas and the Mojave Desert. I would not recommend getting off the interstate in Utah unless you trust your vehicle! My truck is running great, by the way. 🙂

There really wasn’t much to stop at and the landscape was all the same, so I didn’t take a lot of pictures. I was very grateful to find a small rest area south (or was it west?) of Elberta (not a typo), and I got fuel in Delta ($3.35, I think, compared to $3.19 at Fred Meyer). I didn’t fill up completely, hoping to do so at cheaper prices later.

I had a lot of time to think today, even with the radio blaring the whole way. It’s 10 days to the end of the month and I really want to get to Mexico the first week of November. I have four days’ of work in my queue and ideally need to do another three to be in good shape for November. I hadn’t planned on a canon ball run to Zion, but it suddenly made sense to push on tonight and stay there a full week, giving me time to alternate work and exploring days.

It got really, really hot by mid-afternoon and in an act of desperation, I turned on the truck AC, which has been dead as a doornail since I left Quebec in late 2012. Whadya know, it started blowing cool air… Not super cold, but just perfect! WOW.

I stopped at a McDonald’s in Cedar City to check out the hotel situation in Springdale, the gateway community to Zion National Park. Hotel prices were out of my price range. It makes no sense to sink nearly a day’s income into a hotel room. Might as well not work and truck camp instead! Prices in St. George were much more reasonable, but St. George is a full hour to Zion. Priceline clued me in that there might be a compromise, the city of Hurricane, 30 minutes from Springdale. Online prices weren’t great and I decided to go door to door at each hotel in Hurricane until I found one with a decent weekly rate.

It was coming on seven when I pulled into the first motel on my list. No weekly rates and the daily rate was $50 for weeknights, $90 for weekends. PASS.

Next motel had a weekly rate of about $33 plus tax per night. Amenities included an onsite laundromat and a pool. Suspicious, I asked for a key to a room on the second floor away from the main road so I could inspect it. The room was large, clean, and newly renovated, had yet another super comfy bed, a microwave and fridge, and a decent table and chair setup for work. SOLD. I booked for the week and was assured that I can renew for a few days at the same rate if I want to as I may decide to just hang out if I get work for next week early in the week. We shall see.

I lugged about 50 billion pounds of luggage into the room. I hadn’t planned to get on the road so late and therefore hadn’t expected to be in HOT weather quickly. I really need to switch out the fall clothes with more summery ones!

Dinner was from a well reviewed fast food Mexican joint, Alberto’s. My enchiladas were made with corn tortillas and were not smothered in cheese and sour cream, so even with the beans and rice, it wasn’t a heavy meal. It wasn’t a wow meal, but it hit the spot.

I got some groceries after dinner from a nearby supermarket and noticed a frozen yoghurt place on the way back similar to the one I went to in Salem, OR, where you pay by the weight and can add toppings. I got a small portion of yoghurt with a few toppings and was shocked when it weighed in at over $10! I could have bought several Ben and Jerry containers for that price! It was outrageous and I would have complained had tonight not happened to be ‘fill your container for $3 night’ and my price got reduced to that! Phew! I had a yummy pineapple yoghurt with fresh fruit. Very refreshing!

So now, the plan is to work tomorrow and go exploring on Thursday and Sunday. Andy Baird is camped just minutes away, so I’m hoping to meet up with him while I’m here! This is the guy who gave me a vision of the RV I wanted when I was shopping way back in 2008 and who has been an incredible mentor. It would be the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae to cap off a trip to Zion with a meetup!

So Zion… The LAST item on my American bucket list! Sure, there are other things I’d like to see, volcanoes in Hawaii, the Everglades, the Black Hills, Arches National Park, and Monument Valley come to mind, but nothing absolutely pressing that I’d want to make an express trip to (post edited on July 20th, 2017, to note that I’ve been to the Black Hills, Arches National Park, and Monument Valley since then!). I started traveling as a grown up at the age of 17, starting with my trips to Colorado and NYC in the fall of 1996, and it has taken me less than 20 years to make my way through my list of must dos. My Canada list has only two things left on it. I think it’s high time for me to get to Mexico, and then the world beyond, no? 🙂