9-9-2013 The Utah desert then on to Moab, UT

It was a very long day, about 380 miles to Moab.  Our educational stop for the day would be at Promontory, UT where the golden spike was driven in to unite the eastern railroad with the western railroad.  We would all now be one; away with the pony express, away with the wagon trains, away with the wide open plains.  

You know, when you're driving into the desert and all of a sudden, you come upon a lot of buildings, many of which are partially underground, wide roads are leading over the hills, and you think,"space aliens," no it's just the ATK propulsion laboratories for NASA.   Pretty cool once we looked it up, but looked pretty strange out there in the middle of the desert.  

After our side trip, we travelled mostly on the interstate so we could make some pretty good time.  We passed through Ogden, Salt Lake City and Provo.   The traffic moved along quite well but we did not arrive to our destination until about 7:30 pm, just about the time the sun was going down and the rain was beginning.

Look quick again!!  The capital of Utah and the Great Salt Lake.

We had wanted to stay at the Dead Horse State Park, but by the time we got there, it was already filled up. (You can't make reservations at some state parks)  In the Utah desert, it was dark and we didn't know where to go from there, so we pulled into the parking lot at the visitor’s center, planning to stay there until morning.  At 10 pm the Ranger came knocking at the door and informed us that we could not stay at the center.  She suggested that we drive to the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campgrounds about 8 miles down the road.  So we relocated to settle in for the rest of the night.  By the time we got there and found a spot we thought we could fit in, the rain was coming down very steady.  We had to disconnect the car to back into the site. There was no lighting at the park so we had to feel our way around. After leveling the RV we finally got to bed about 11:30. We had not driven at night in several months so we were a little tentative getting around.  But, the rain beating on the roof was very soothing and we really got a great night’s sleep.

We had been very excited when we entered the state park; the rock formations were beautiful. We did get to get a glimpse of a sunset on our arrival, too.  It made the sky look like it was on fire with hot lava.

We decided to find a place in Moab the next morning since we were very low on fuel and could not dry camp without having to run the generator.  No gas no generator.