I waited a while this morning before leaving Provo to let rush-hour traffic die down a bit and then headed north on I-15 towards Salt Lake City. From there, I took I-80 west past the Great Salt Lake towards Wendover, Utah, home of the Bonneville Salt Flats. I stopped and got a picture of the Salt Lake from the highway:
I thought this plaque was interesting:
Obviously, the pioneers didn't live long, leisurely lives.
From Salt Lake City to the Salt Flats was about 80 miles or so. Right before you get to the exit for the Flats, there is a rest stop that has this little tidbit of information:
The races start tomorrow, but today is the day the do the inspections on the cars, trucks, and bikes that will be running all week. I went on out to the Flats and man, this is a car-nut's dream. There is a road that goes out to the salt itself that is about 5 miles long, and then from the end of the road to the pit and inspection area is about another 5 miles across the salt. The texture of the salt varies a bit, with some stretches being sorta like loose dirt and other sections being hard as a rock. The salt is blindingly white, as you might expect, and there are just more vehicles than you can shake a stick at. Here are a few that caught my eye:
I assume this is a top fuel dragster. Anyway, it was one of the largest vehicles there today. Right behind it was one of the smallest:
And there were just a whole bunch of really cool cars:
The red one is a Ferrari!
Anyway, I hope that gives you some idea of the variety and sheer "Cool" factor that I saw today.
I'm staying in Wells, Nevada, about 65 miles west of the Flats (closest town with a room at a reasonable price!). Tomorrow, they start running the races, so I'll hopefully be bringing back some more cool pics.
Miles today: 247. Total: 3,920.
