Saturday, September 25, 2021

Gillette, Lander and Salt Lake City

 We had a very comfortable evening in Gillette at our hotel. We had dinner at Applebee's and retired early . Well, early for a vacation night. We did listen to a few more chapters of our audio book.

We got up early-ish, ate a hot breakfast in the hotel "dining room" and hit the road. We were heading for Lander and lunch with Andrew and Christine. Who are now "Cade" and Christine. Cade is a city councilman and he's taken to using  his middle name, which is strange to us family members. 

We got a tour of his business establishment, Maven Outdoor Equipment. He has really done well. It's growing really fast and they are starting a new buiding soon to accommodate that growth.

Mike and I ate a lovely lunch outside with the two of them, said our goodbyes and drove on. Nope, I didn't even think to take a photo while we dined together.

Two incidents on the way TO Lander:

1) Almost crashed head on with a UPS tractor trailer who crossed over the line well into our lane. Mike was aware and braked and headed toward the right hand shoulder. We probably might have been able to take out an antelope or two or ten, heading out to the bush. Luckily, the truck driver corrected his path and disaster was averted. Mike's heart rate returned to normal fairly quickly.

2) Fifteen minutes out of Lander ( going on our way there), we ran into some road construction and bridge repairs. Not a big deal. The bridges were narrowed to one lane, but the signal lights kept it safe and moving well. Until that last one... We stopped at the light, we were second in the wait line. However, the big bus-like motor - home on the bridge coming our way was not moving. Like, not at all. Road workers were able to walk around the bus, so there was room. But why was it not moving? Really weird. We wondered just what was up and how long would we be sitting there. It's not a busy road, so traffic wasn't all lined up or anything. But to go another way would be extremely inconvenient. Like to the tune of a hundred miles and a missed lunch appointment.  Luckily for us and the other waiting people, it was only the motor home's steps that had gotten hung up on the bridge construction that caused the delay. We were on our way fairly soon and made it on time. Mike was glad we didn't have to ford the almost dry creek that the under-repair bridge was spanning.

On to Salt Lake/ Herriman. Again, fall leaves through the mountains and canyons were spectacular. Our lunch was large (Reuben sandwiches), snacks were plentiful, so we just kept going and we're at Nick and Kaylee's before 7 pm.  Early to bed, long nights' sleep for tired ol' bones. Though we did enjoy sitting on their front porch enjoying watching the kids play out front with the many neighborhood children.




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