Road Trip: Day 9

Day 9: A road to victory

Ashton Idaho

Ashton Idaho

John Upper Left, Craig Upper Right, Brad Lower Left, Sarah Lower Right

Sunset in Idaho from the interstate.

John, Sarah, Craig

Day 6, 7 and 8 were uneventful but relaxing. John and I had to stay with some friends in Gardiner while Sam and Eva attended wedding things. The days consisted of video games and movies. What I was really doing through these harsh times was being focused on day 9 and get out of town. Every day was a step closer to true freedom. While I was away from work and in Gardiner or Missoula, they were too familiar. There was no new in those situations since having been to both.

Day 9 started off rather slow. I woke up at 10 in the morning and made some breakfast. I overheard John say that Sam would be ready by noon. This made my day. I thought we were going to be Gardiner for at least 12hours if not more. So 12:30 hit and Sam pulled up in the Gus Bus. We had to drive up to Mammoth to get Sam’s truck and bike and bring it down to Gardiner. When we got back to the house, John and Sarah hopped in and we went down to the gas station. We said goodbye to Siobhan at Subway and then waited in the parking lot for about an hour or so trying to pack the van and get things situated. 

It was 2:30 and we left until I had to use the restroom not even 5 miles into the trip. We pulled over for a few moments at the Mammoth Camp Ground site where we were delayed in leaving the Yellowstone Greater Area once more…I hopped back in the van and the next stop was a gas station in West Yellowstone.

We filled up Gus once more in Idaho Falls and it was about 8 o’clock. At that time we made a decision to drive to Provo, pick Spencer up, and drive straight to Zion National Park. Currently, it is 10:02P.M. and the road conditions are great along with clear skies. I was reminded that we in Utah when I saw a sign for “Mormon Bread”. I’m not entirely sure what that would consist of but I remembered we were in Utah.

The city lights in Salt Lake are cool to look at. All three times I’ve been through Salt Lake City, its night out. As I look at distance silhouettes of mountains, I can’t help but wonder what it looks like during the day. Sam mentioned something about it as well, so were going to try and drive back so it’s day time in Salt Lake City. I think I might be a little fascinated with the lights due to living in almost the middle of nowhere.

We picked Spencer up at about 11:30 at night but had to wait for his laundry to finish up. We left his house at about midnight. Once we were back on the road, the crew in the back woke up and the party started again. Sam is driving at the moment and I’m his co-pilot. The plan is to be with-in one hour of Zion when we stop driving. We currently have four hours left of driving to do. Unfortunately, I chose to go down 89 instead of the 15 which tacked on a couple of miles and perhaps another hour. Leaving Provo, we passed a few windmills which were at the entrance of the Spanish Fork Canyon that we could not see. It feels as if we were on a long country side road in Wisconsin. I’ve made the comment to Sam when we were driving through Idaho that it felt like the drive from Delavan to Janesville; farm after farm. The only major difference is the elevation. We could see miles of farms with mountains outlined at the horizon of our view.

Of course driving at night will be the same anywhere on a country road but the amount of stars viewable from just driving is quite spectacular and appreciated. In Utah, they have “wake up strips”, not only on the right side of the road on the white line, but in the middle of the road where the yellow is. So once and a while, Sam will look to the stars, (maybe for guidance because he doesn’t trust me…), but we’ll hit a strip on either side and he’ll get rather angry about them. They don’t mind to me, but also, I’m not currently driving a tall van with items on top of the roof in some crazy cross winds, so I guess it could be somewhat annoying.

Last year, many coworkers from Mammoth went on road trips after the season. I can say without even thinking about it, I missed out after the end of last summer. I can definitely see me doing this season after season and eventually start going to other countries and seeing what they have to offer but not until I’ve had my fun in the National Parks. It’s 1AM and all I can think about is how lucky I am to have met such great people to travel with for 2-3 weeks.

Here’s hoping everything works out for the next few hours, days and weeks.

Thank you for checking in,

MacKeag