Ultimate Roadtrip: booked.

Getting back to the hotel, we had a decision to make. I booked us for a few nights, but that was easily cancelled. To head south, or back to Reno for the Air Races? Danny did some calculations and we figured we would have to cut a lot out of the trip, and do too much backtracking to make it worth while. We packed our bags with the sun still out and headed to Salt Lake City. Close to arriving, we noticed a billboard for an air museum nearby with an SR-71 Blackbird. This plane was awesome to me as a kid; had several models and toys of it, and it is still awesome to me as an adult. We decide to try to find this nameless museum with nothing more than the exit number on the billboard. Which is completely wrong. We end up on an Air Force base and see this totally rad Starsky and hutch tribute. The gate guard tells us we need to keep trucking north a bit, so we head out. It’s about 5:30 when we arrive at Hills AFB Aviation Museum at this point and we’re figuring it’s closed.





They are having some sort of military retiree picnic, inside and out, and we find out it is indeed closed, and the Blackbird is inside. We walk around the planes outside, including a kickass B1 among others, and after some discussion, decide that we’re both badasses and we’re going to just walk into that place like we own it and see if we can at least catch a glimpse of the SR-71 before getting kicked out. One of the best decisions of the entire trip. A guy who seems like the janitor sees us walking back and says to be careful, he thinks the alarms are one. I tell him we just wanted to catch a glipse of the Blackbird, and he says, ”Oh, that’s about 3 hangers back in the back.” We’re defeated. We tell him we’re from DFW and on a roadtrip, and that we saw the sign so we decided to stop by. He introduces himself to us as Don, looks around, and tells us to follow him. We are in one of the biggest aviation museums I have ever seen in my life and it is just the 3 of us, with him randomly tripping on half the lights, and telling us of each aircraft and how it came to be there, and if he had helped restore it. Turns out he is retired AF, and helps them maintain the planes and rebuild them to be shown. Fucking AWESOME. I cannot say enough nice things about this guy, and he was a total badass. He led us around and talked to us for about 20 or 30 quick minutes, much to the chagrin as we got back of his wife, who was ready to leave. We dropped some cash in the donation box and thanked him profusely.













We head back south through Salt Lake City, and a good 50 miles of the freeway is under construction and in absolute shit condition. We end up in Joseph, Utah, and can’t find a hotel room again. There is apparently some type of ATV Jamboree going on outside of town. We end up getting a place, and crash out, completely wiped.

The Salt Flats is a weird place. It was 65 degrees with a nice breeze blowing. Perfect, right? The salt reflects the sun, which made it feel nearly 100 out. You also have to lather yourself with a shitload of SPF. I think Danny ended up getting a very mild burn, I goldened up pretty decent. Ironically, I was looking forward to Bonneville almost more than anything else on this trip, and it ended up being one of the most boring parts. The cars took forever to make a run, and while there was some decent iron out there, not enough was happening to keep our interest up. The fastest car I saw went either 282 or 292, which is pretty damn impressive, but waiting ten minutes between each run makes you grow weary of just sitting there after awhile. We decided to bail, and wash off the salt.

Day 5: The Bonneville Salt Flats. We’re up early, and there are old codgers in the breakfast area of the casino with timing guns sitting next to them. This bodes well. Turns out, we’re about 5 minutes from the Salt Flats, I accidently booked us pretty much the closest and best possible hotel for this part of the trip. This was the only room that we pre-booked, everything else was done on the fly because we weren’t sure what kind of time we’d be making. We’re on the salt, and seeing some interesting rides. We’re walking around and get around this little car, and you can just see the leg of a woman inside, who is giving non stop good natured hell to the 5 old guys trying to get an oil leak fixed on it. All of them we very jolly and entertaining.

[cobrajet69]

It's Dannys fault. I used to be such a nice guy.

lol

We would have never guessed otherwise.


As for the photos and narative.... Man what a treat, to live vicariously through these pix. And I couldn't pick a more appropriate person to "verbalize" it too. Good job Eric.

I have wanted to do this same trip for years now, especially since I got a taste of PCH (Cayucos to Monterey) a few years ago.

Can't wait for more pix.

And BTW - that shot with the wild Mustangs in the background and steel pony in the foreground is choice! Definitely a framer (assuming you can photoshop the Sasquatch out).


David

It's Dannys fault. I used to be such a nice guy.

[Ratt]

I'm not a creeper, and I don't arbitrarily hand out the number 10, nor am i easily impressed. There was a couple of times in SF I literally had to pick my jaw off the ground. Maybe I am a BIT of a creeper. A picture or two from later in the trip will tell for sure. More to come when I'm off work and can dick with photobucket more.

[Chili]

Teapots?

Sorry, Teakettles: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teakett...on,_California

But now that I look at that I suspect I may be confusing that one with the shoe tree.

Edit - Yeah, this is the thread I was thinking of:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/54404-RIP-Highway-50-shoe-tree?highlight=vandals

[46Tbird]

Teapots?

[Chili]

Danny notices a piece of art on the wall and asks if the “Shoe Tree” is near by. For those of you unfamiliar with it, basically people take their shoes, tie the laces together, and hurl them into the tree, where they get wrapped around a branch and stay for eternity. Perfect Americana Roadside Attraction. It was some womans art project. According to the proprietor of the gas station, the ladies husband got pissed off at her and went and cut her fucking tree down. Lmao. Would love to know what that argument was. He says a new one has started and is just down the road. We make it, and there is the tree. Throwing shoes into a tree is much harder than it looks. Just trust me. After dicking around with it for a bit, we notice a huge pile of shoes a few hundred feet away, and realize it is what is left of the old Shoe Tree. Dude totally cut that bitches tree down. Bummer. But kind of funny.

There was a thread about that on another forum I frequent. Such a shame. Vandals took down another, similar tree in the middle of the desert. That one had teapots if I remember correctly.

I'm disappointed in the lack of pictures of previously-mentioned "10s."

I'm not a creeper, and I don't arbitrarily hand out the number 10, nor am i easily impressed. There was a couple of times in SF I literally had to pick my jaw off the ground. Maybe I am a BIT of a creeper. A picture or two from later in the trip will tell for sure. More to come when I'm off work and can dick with photobucket more.

[mstng86]

I could not imagine how difficult it was to build those roads in the desert. This looks like it was a good trip.

[Ratt]

I'm disappointed in the lack of pictures of previously-mentioned "10s."

It is starting to get dark. Out here, dark is REALLY dark. There is fucking nothing, except vague reflectors on the road, blind sharp curves, and wildlife. Danny is scaring the fuck outta me hauling ass, so I pop a muscle relaxer and go into silent mode. We get to The Wendover Nugget and Casino, which turns out to be one of the best bargains of the trip. Dirt cheap and SUPER nice rooms, I would highly recommend this hotel to anyone planning a salt flats excursion. I loose all the money I won in Reno and then some, then retire. The women out here are not comparing to Cali.

We’re back on the road and doing a steady 105 when --------this story happens---------.

http://www.dfwmustangs.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17897&referrerid=38

Unfortunately it was so fast that there aren’t any pictures of it. Yes there is plenty of time to stop the car in the middle of the freeway and take as many pictures as you want.











We go a bit down the road and get held up by a road block that is only letting one lane go through at a time for 30 minutes on end. There is a group of Harley bikers at the front, and a pickup behind us. Danny talks to the guy behind us and he saw the fly by; said it happens all the time with the base being near by. Roadblock opens up. There is a gang of about 20 motorcycle assholes only going 70mph directly in front of us, with a smattering of about 5 or 6 other cars ahead of them. I’m used to doing 100+ at this point. I am getting annoyed. Danny says that bikers consider it poor etiquette to pass their gang, and seeing as they are stretched out over an entire fucking half mile at 70 mph, it probably isn’t a good idea. The hitch here, is that you can see off into infinity on this road, and I can’t see a single person coming. So, we’re at 100+ again passing all these bikers and cars for probably somewhere close to 3 miles on the wrong side of the road. That was a little nerve wracking. I keep in the gas to put some distance between us in case they decide to get all Del Fuegos on us. An hour or so later, we come up to another roadblock. We start talking to a guy with a very nice Model A on a trailer in front of us. After about 15 minutes, the biker gang rolls up about 3 cars back. I’m having pictures flash through my head of the end of Cannonball Run with me as Burt Reynolds and Danny as Dom Delouise taking on Peter Fonda and his merry men of mayhem. They get off their bikes and start taking their helmets off, and the roadblock opens. Run! We finish up Route 50 and I toss the keys to Danny in Ely.