Tuesday's Drive

Tuesday was probably the most boring day of our trip. I tried to find interesting things to see outside but unfortunately, there isn't a lot of change in that part of the country. Most of it looks pretty much the same. Especially in the middle of winter. We left Boise before the sun came up so we got to see the sunrise. It was very pretty peaking over the horizon and very sudden too since there weren't any mountains to block it. One moment it is dark and the next it is not. There was no gradual sunrise like in the NW.

Driving through Eastern Idaho was probably the most dangerous part of the trip. We were very blessed to have good weather pretty much the whole time and we were lucky not to have gotten caught in any storms or snow. The roads were a bit icy and the big trucks were kicking up so much slush and dirt it was hard to see through the windshield. After slipping a couple times I realized I needed to slow down. You don't really realize how fast you are going in on a straight boring stretch of road.

After stopping at another McDonald's Playplace in Northern Utah for an hour's lunch break we turned east once again rather than continuing south to Mormon territory. The Rockies were starting to make themselves known even though we were still only in the foothills. Also, further south they become much more rugged and dangerous to cross. Still looking ahead at the mountains it was hard to believe a major freeway was finding its way through this small pass. It was a tight squeeze and had several sharp curves but we popped throught the other side and very quickly found ourselves in Wyoming.

Now Wyoming is a state I can't imagine myself living in. Especially the southern part. If you aren't a rancher or a trucker there is absolutely nothing there for you to do. My mom reminded me that the whole state is probably not that way but the part we drove through was boring beyond boring. It was flat. Very flat. I was looking forward to seeing an old school friend who lived near Rock Springs but she called to say that her kids had strep. As we were approaching the town though we did see start to see a few interesting natural formations. If you ever wondered "What exactly is a butte?" Well, the following is a picture of one.

We stopped in Rock Springs around 4 pm again and found ourselves another hotel. Even though we weren't meeting my friend anymore, after checking the map we realized there was a whole lot of nothing coming up and Rock Springs is the only town with any significant size for several more hours. The kids were starting to fight again pretty bad anyway so I knew it was time to stop. We went to a local Chinese buffet (not that great) for dinner and then came back and threw the kids in the pool again to get out their wiggles. We then went to bed early again.