Balyeat Concert on Sunday

Sunday morning, we headed back to Wendover, this time to worship with two churches that were coming together for a common service with a concert by the Balyeats.

The combined service was held in the elementary school in West Wendover.

Bob and Nancy Balyeat sharing in song

After church, we went back to the Salt Flat Cafe (where Carl and I had eaten on Wednesday evening) for lunch. We had shared a plate of nachos then, but we each got our own plate on Sunday...

... it was a *lot* of food!

... for each of us!

We also visited the grocery store while there as they have a full service grocery. 

It was a long drive, but we enjoyed being with our friends.

Christian Fellowship Spring Rally 2025

Our Christian Fellowship Spring Rally started on Saturday, May 31...

Nancy and The Balyeats (Bob and Nancy) led in worship...

Pepper stayed quietly listening!

Pastor Gary brought a devotion and we enjoyed fellowship together.

Continuing on to Welcome (Station RV Park, that is!)

We left Wendover last Thursday morning on our way to Welcome Station RV Park, west of Wells, Nevada.

As we were driving from the Airfield Museum to our fuel stop, we crossed from Utah into Nevada (you may be able to see the two state names on the marker located on the road surface)...

... followed by a welcome to West Wendover, Nevada.

On I-80, we saw wildlife bridges over the highway.

We also saw the Humboldt mountains south of Wells, Nevada.

In just a few miles west of Wells, we passed the front of our friends' campground, Welcome Station RV Park. This is the view from I-80 -- we took the next exit and were warmly welcomed to the park!

We came for the spring rally of our Christian Fellowship BOF (Birds of a Feather) group.

Historic Wendover Airfield

We spent Wednesday night at the Harvest Host at the Historic Wendover Airfield. In the morning, we took some pictures around the outside...

Control tower behind the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) building

Information about the hangars...

... side of one of the hangars

An airplane which was used in the movie "Con Air"

Fixed Base Operator (FBO) building with control tower just behind

Hangar with front doors open, located west of FBO building

FBO building

Officer's Service Club with Gracie and the Jee-rage parked in front

Since we had visited the museum a few years ago, we decided to not tour it on this day, but we did purchase a teeshirt to help with the funding of the work.

Continuing on our way west

We finally left the farm in Spanish Fork, Utah on Wednesday about 2pm. Traffic was heavy but moving well all the way up into and through Salt Lake City where we turned west on I-80 on our way to Nevada.

Garfield Smelter Stack west of SLC (it's a bit hard to see the stack against the mountain)

From Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_Garfield_Smelter_Stack):

Kennecott Utah Copper LLC’s Garfield Smelter Stack is a 1,215-foot (370 m) high smokestack west of Magna, Utah, alongside Interstate 80 near the Great Salt Lake. It was built to disperse exhaust gases from the Kennecott Utah Copper smelter at Garfield, Utah. It is the 61st-tallest freestanding structure in the world, the 4th-tallest chimney, and the tallest freestanding structure west of the Mississippi River. 

Looking north across the Great Salt Lake

Morton Salt producing facility 

Information from Morton about their salt production (https://www.mortonsalt.com/morton-sea-salt-sourcing-production/):

Morton Salt believes that creating the best tasting sea salt starts with sourcing only from naturally occurring saltwater lakes, oceans, and seas that are open to the sun and wind. Never mined or mechanically evaporated, Morton Sea Salt is always produced through natural solar evaporation. The Sea Salt production process begins by drawing ocean, sea, or saltwater lake water into large, shallow ponds. After the water is collected in these saltwater evaporation ponds, heat from the sun and exposure to the wind slowly evaporate away the water, allowing pure salt crystals to form naturally. The salt is then harvested, washed, crushed, and screened to the perfect size. 

... located alongside the largest saline lake in North America - The Great Salt Lake, Morton Salt’s Grantsville, Utah facility harvests sea salt from the billions of tons of salt already dissolved in the waters of The Great Salt Lake. The natural replenishment of salt from local rainwater and snow melt makes it an ideal climate for natural solar evaporation.  

Another view across the Great Salt Lake (on the other side of the railroad tracks)

Along this area of I-80, it feels almost like we are on a causeway with standing water on both sides of the roadway.

Cargill Salt Plant in Grantville, Utah

Some of the salt piled up near the plant

Information about the salt production at Great Salt Lake from Cargill (https://www.cargill.com/story/the-great-salt-lake-is-thirsty):

The Cargill salt plant in Grantsville harvests many tons of salt each year, culled from ponds that span 10,000 acres just south­west of the lake. The facility, which runs 24 hours a day, has been there since 1901. Cargill has operated it since 1997.

Salt is carried into the lake by tributary freshwater rivers, dis­solved in trace amounts. As the water evaporates, the salt remains, trapped without an outlet. The salt plant pumps in brine—a mixture of water and salt—to the ponds alongside the facility. There, the water evaporates, leaving behind tracts of crystal salt for trucks to scoop up. That salt is cleaned, dried, and sorted by size. An array of precision machinery processes it for a range of uses: pool cleaners, water softeners, animal feed products, salt licks.

One of the concerns is that the Great Salt Lake is reducing in size -- see the Cargill page cited above and/or this web page that has a slider to see the difference in size between 2012 and 2022.

We ended our driving day with a stay at the Wendover Historic Airfield in Wendover, Utah. 

We had stayed here and visited the museum about 3 years ago.

Carl was reading reviews of a restaurant in the area, so we decided to visit it...

It doesn't look like much on the outside, but the food was very good!

We were glad to be back traveling again!

Leaving Spanish Fork

After 8 nights staying on the Harvest Host farm, we were ready to head out on Wednesday. But, we had some last things we wanted to get done while we were there. We drove up to Orem... 

This pictures was taken when we were stopped at a traffic light in the left turn lane. There was a lane that went straight in front of us, a continuation of the lane that was to the left of us...

... it was marked for "bus only". The busses use the leftmost lane of the roadway, and the bus stops are in the center of the street. We did not specifically notice any busses while we were there, but it would seem that their entry/exit door would need to be on the left side of the bus for safety.

I did a little research on this, and it seems that this is called "Bus Rapid Transit" (BRT).

Bus rapid transit (BRT) uses specialized buses that run in dedicated traffic lanes to efficiently transport large numbers of riders to their destinations. BRT systems feature many of the amenities of light rail, like frequent service, traffic signal priority, ticket vending machines, shelters and benches, while providing communities with a lower-cost, more flexible transit solution. (https://www.rideuta.com/Services/Bus-Rapid-Transit) 

It was odd for us -- when the traffic lanes had a green light, the bus (which was in a lane to the left of the left turn lane) also could go straight through the intersection. When waiting at a left turn signal, it was a little disconcerting to have traffic passing us on both sides. 

One of our reasons for going to Orem was to visit our favorite Golden Corral restaurant... 

Carl had indicated that he thought he was "over buffet'd" from our cruise, but after thinking about how much we had enjoyed this restaurant a few years ago, we decided to make a stop before leaving town.

Information in the restaurant

It is clean and bright and well stocked.

When we were leaving, we thought that the ad on the sign was funny, "Weigh and Pay, Baby!" -- touting their to-go option.

From lunch we went to Sam's Club -- Carl gazing longingly at the big TVs as we were entering...

A massive "Roomba-like" device -- automated cleaning machine, though we honestly couldn't tell that it was actually vacuuming or cleaning.

On the way out, they had these new arches...

If you have shopped at Sam's (or Costco) before, you know that your receipt and items need to be checked by an associate as you exit. Evidently, this technology is intended to make that process quicker, in some cases, not requiring a check by an associate. (https://www.samsclub.com/content/exit)

Before getting back to the rig, we also stopped at Petsmart, Costco, and Walmart! You'd think we were heading out into the wilds of Africa for months!

Picking up our mail

We had originally planned to spend two weeks at Kodachrome Basin State Park, and then a couple of nights boondocking near Capitol Reef National Park before continue to a state park near Moab where we planned to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. Because of our plan changes, we cancelled the second week reservation at Kodachrome, and the state park near Moab.

I had decided to order our mail to be delivered sometime around Memorial Day -- the post office near Moab did not indicate that it would accept General Delivery mail, so I sent it to Green River, Utah, a town that we planned to be passing through between Capitol Reef and Moab. The mail was already sent by the time our plans changed, so our mail was on its way to Green River, regardless of the fact that we weren't planning to go through there anymore. We were tracking the progress of our mail as it traveled from Livingston to Green River, and it transited through Salt Lake City -- I wished that there was a way to say, "Hold it! Times! Wait!" and let us pick it up there. But... alas, it went on to Green River.

It was due to arrive in Green River on Saturday (of Memorial Day weekend) by 9pm -- so we decided our best option would be to drive the Jeep to Green River on Tuesday (after Memorial Day) since we could not be sure that the package would arrive before the post office closed on Saturday (at noon). I got a notice on Saturday morning that it arrived at about 7:15am -- which would have given us enough time to drive there before noon on Saturday (it was 133 miles, a little over 2 hours driving time). But, we already had our minds set that we would drive on Tuesday and then head out on Wednesday, so, we stayed with that plan.

On Tuesday, we headed out. We took a few pictures on the way... 

...we took US 6 most of the way -- on the western end near Spanish Fork, it went through a canyon and though there wasn't much plant life, there was a little and it looked green.

As we got to the east side, nearer Green River, it was much flatter and much more barren.

After getting our mail, heading back west the same way we had come.

It took us about 5 hours with stops to get the mail, fuel, food, and changing drivers. We went in the Jeep so could go closer to the speed limit (which was as high as 70 during much of the drive -- we don't usually drive Gracie towing the Jee-rage more than 64-65). It wasn't as comfortable a drive in the Jeep, but we got a *lot* better fuel mileage! And... we got our mail!