Day Thirteen - Provo to Reno

Northwestern Utah

A bad sleep night again, for both of us.  So we decided to get up earlier than we had set the alarm for, and get on the road for the longest single leg of our journey.  From Provo we drove north through Salt Lake City and along the lower west shore of the Great Salt Lake, which obviously is shrinking, and leaving salt flats along the western edge.  Thirty years ago I was calling on customers (chemical plants) on the west coast of the Great Salt Lake and the fear then was it was expanding and might flood the plants and communities along the shore.  No more.

Beyond the railroad in the foreground, the level of the Great Salt Lake is receding.

After passing by Salt Lake City, and turning westward away from the lake itself, more and more we noticed that what normally would be fields of sage brush or grass or sand, were flat, white and looked like salt.

Doesn't look like a field where you could grow anything or
feed anything.  A glance at the atlas told us we had left the
Great Salt Lake and entered the Great Salt Desert.

It got wider and wider, with the Silver Island Mountains in the background.

And still wider.

 

Anyone know what this is?  All it was for us was a hint that we
were coming into a different kind of place.  Sure enough, it was.

The Bonneville Salt Flats

At the western end of the Great Salt Desert, near the Nevada Border, is a place we've heard about since Malcolm Campbell broke the 300 mph land speed record in 1935 and Craig Breedlove broke the 400, 500 and 600 mph records in 1963 and 1965.  The current record is held by Andy Green, who was the first to break the sound barrier on land, racing at 763 mph in 1997.

The sign where Mary Frances is standing was erected in 1972, so the
speed records listed don't include Andy Green's supersonic land speed record.

Mary Frances playing on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

She finds some salt for a collection of travel memorabilia.

Rest area at Bonneville Salt Flats

 

Bringing home the souvenir.

A ball of salt looks like a snowball.

Nevada  

It's amazing how the geography changes from state to state, and we expected that Nevada would simply be more of the extraordinary flat, lifelessness of the Great Salt Desert.  But we were surprised that crossing northern Nevada offered a lot of different views.

Shortly after Bonneville, we were in Nevada.

Yes, there was flatness.

But there were mountains, too.

 

And snowy crests.

 

...in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

 Still more trucks

Of course the double tractor trailers are common on these western highways, but so are the triples.  We saw hundreds in the eastbound lanes, and even passed a few westbound:

Don't see many of these in Massachusetts.  Imagine trying to parallel park?

 Mary Frances traced our route around the USA on (what else?) the USA Today weather map:

Looks like a warm trip ahead.

 One thing you notice crossing Nevada:  there's a casino at almost every gas station or fast food joint:

Flying J is somehow connected to Pilot but we haven't
figured out who has done what to whom.  Plus Casino, natch.

Denny's plus Terrible's Casino.  Terrible's might have been
referring to the food; who knows?

Atlantis Hotel & Casino

Eight plus hours from Provo, our destination, Atlantis Hotel and Casino, beckons in the distance.

Atlantis Casino complex in the distance.  Michelle, our GPS,
was totally flummoxed about getting to the hotel registration
area, but after a couple of circumnavigations, we managed to check in.

 This is some different from Terrible's Casino at Denny's in Fernley, Nevada.  In fact, it's some different from Lady Luck in Blackhawk.

TV in the bathroom?  Decadent.

A pleasant and comfortable room on the VIP floor.  (Don't ask.)

From our room on the 21st floor.  Windows are tinted green.

Celebrating in the Bistro.

 OK, it's gauche to take pictures of your food, but this place is different:

Bistro Cippione.  A magnificent marriage of seafood and sauce.

Onion soup, actually served in a hollowed onion, along
with butternut squash and lobster ravioli.

If you need a price on the menu, you can't afford to eat here.

Mary Frances' dessert, cotton candy.

Oh, and about the gambling.  Let's just say that we gave back some of the winnings we had in Blackhawk to the Atlantis in Reno.  If loose slots are your thing, Lady Luck in Blackhawk, Colorado, is your place.  If a great room (at less cost than Lady Luck), luxury surroundings, magnificent food and well-prepared cocktails trump that, Atlantis is the place for you.  For us, both were memorable.