West Trip - Day 9 - Desert Travel Day

    Today was a big travel day. The Holiday Inn Express near the airport in Salt Lake City was pleasant, but we woke early and were on the road by 8am. We continued along route 80 West,  and the landscape yet again took another shape. Gone were the hills to the north, replaced with sage-brush flat-lands with mountains in the distance on either side of the road. We passed by the Great Salt Lake and it was quite a sight, the shores of which were completely white with salt. Soon we reached the Bonneville Salt Flats. This area is a completely flat remnant of an ancient salt lake, with a stark white "salt" surface. It almost felt like we were driving across a snow field. The flats are famous for hosting land speed attempts, many world records were broken here, and continue to be.

     We pulled off to a rest-stop and were immediately hit with a wave of heat. The desert environment was in full swing, completely arid, and probably nearing 95-100 degrees, even in the morning. We walked out onto the salt flats themselves, and actually tasted the ground, not fully believing that this entire landscape was made of salt. It certainly was, the thick salt crystals were very potent.

     Continuing along Interstate 80 we passed into Nevada. Right after the border, probably 100 feet past it, was the first Casino/Hotel. Nevada wasted no time exploiting the weak, tortured souls that seek gambling to get away from their daily stress ( only to find more stress when they inevitably lose all of their money). The

wind was causing quite a ruckus as we continued through the desert and mountain terrain along 80. It was a fight to keep the Xterra in the lane at times and quite nerve-wracking. We were very focused, and in our driving "groove". Before we knew it, we were 3/4 of the way across Nevada, and turned south along route 95 heading towards Fallon, NV. The chaos of Interstate 80 was behind us now, and we were headed into serious desert desolation. There was nothing but sage-brush flats, juniper trees, and rocky outcrops, with a backdrop of mountain terrain. Sometimes in the distance we could see the vortex of sand kicked up by the wind, the dust devils. Small mini-tornadoes that seemed menacing, and as we actually passed through one, realized they were not.

      We passed near Walker Lake to the south and in Hawthorne( near the site of a military base), took route

359 south-west heading towards the California border. The drive was peaceful and relaxing. There was hardly any traffic at all on this route, and an unmistakable feeling of isolation. Along the route there were numerous cattle crossing signs, and it would seem that the entire area was free-range for them. It did keep me alert as the driver, extremely "rare" steak was not on the menu yet.

     Driving over a hilly range, we were now heading due west, and passing over a rise, we could see the magnificent Sierra Nevada mountain range in the distance. The peaks were seemingly jutting right out of the desert floor. Route 359 took us due west now and there we passed the California border. It was becoming very late in the day, and the sun was settling behind the mountain range. We were tired and ready to settle down. Passing into California though, was a big relief. At the California border, the route number changed to 167, and took us to the foot of the Sierra Range. At that point we took a left, heading towards the Tioga Pass road, which would bring us into Yosemite National Park in the morning. There is a small town at the end of the Pass called Lee Vining.

     We drove through the town and weighed our lodging options. They were slim, as every small hotel had NO VACANCY. Heather remembered a small Inn that we drove past on our way into Lee Vining. We turned around and made our way back. They had one cabin left, that a couple passed on ( fools), and we even got a discount since the cabin slept 6, and we of course are only 2. The cabin turned out to be rather nice, though antiquated, but had a bed, and that is all we needed.

     Of course we were really hungry at this point( around 8pm), we checked out the restaurant that was within the hotel, but were not too interested in the expensive items on the menu.  Heather had been craving pizza since Yellowstone, since that was one item that was not served there.  Therefore, we decided to drive back up into town to a small pizza shop that we passed earlier.

We ordered a cheese pizza that turned out to be a mistake. It was covered with what seemed like 5 extra bags of cheese and was a grease haven, with no sauce. We had a piece, and hoped for the best with pepto within our reach. Basically we decided it was an epic fail, and made a note to never eat pizza in Lee Vining again, and possibly California. Although dinner was a flop, we went to bed excited, eagerly awaiting our adventures in Yosemite the next day...

West Trip Day 8 - Leaving Yellowstone

     We awoke rather early on our last day in Yellowstone. Packed up the rest of our belongings, and decided to get a proper breakfast at one of the restaurants on our way out. I of course had the full stack of pancakes, despite the waiter's warning that I would not be able to finish it. He was right of course, and I did not. With our bellies full, we waved goodbye to Canyon Village and started our journey south.
     The particular road we were on, we had not traveled thus far. This road cut through the Hayden Valley, which is another great area for wildlife viewing. Since it was still rather early, ( around 9ish ) the roadways were fairly clear and we pulled over to an empty pull-off, with a view overlooking the valley below. I pulled out the binoculars, and started glassing the rolling hills, scanning for movement. With my naked eye I could see a black dot moving up the hillside to the right. The binoculars revealed a large grizzly foraging along the hill. My heart raced, and I excitedly pointed it out to Heather, who was equally excited. Some people pulled up near us, no doubt as a result of our pointing and gawking. Soon the pull-off was full of people looking at the bear, and watching it disappear momentarily, and appear again on the other side of a hill.

      Most of the people we have met so far in the journey have been wonderful. However, one particular guy rubbed me the wrong way while viewing the bear. He was a tall stern-looking older man with gray hair. "What are you all looking at?", he said. "There is a grizzly down there amongst the hills". "Ahh we played this game with him yesterday", he replied snidely, as if this was the same bear? Then I stated "He was just passing down that hill, but he's gone from sight now". "Well he's still there, he didn't disappear", he stated in a rather condescending tone. "Uhhh thanks, I know he's still there". And I left it at that. Having pursued the conversation, I should have said, "Ohhh thank you for the information, I was sure that the bear exited at the bottom of the hill through a dimensional portal to the planet Ursuin Cygnus-9". I'm not sure why this guy bothered me so much, I am generally a very laid back person. This guy just burned my biscuits though.
     We left the pull-off and continued south, pulling into a couple of smaller pull-outs, until Hayden valley was left in our rear-view mirror. We made it to Fishing Village, and stopped for a little bit of shopping. Before long, we were leaving with a couple of brand new t-shirts and a recharge of our supplies. Then we continued to the south entrance of the park with the immediate goal of checking out Grand Teton National Park.

      Grand Teton is a park situated just outside of YellowStone's south entrance. In fact, as soon as you leave Yellowstone, you enter Grand Teton, and there is no entrance station. However, there was a visitor center, and we stopped in for information about the park. The park ranger was an older woman, with a very kind face and a bright smile. She asked if we were staying in the park, or just driving through. I stated our plan was to drive through and continue on out of the park today. She took a map out and marked the best spots along the main road and one lake loop that we just had to see.

      With map in-hand, we continued driving along the main route south. The Teton's revealed themselves in all their glory as we drove down a hill towards the foot of Jackson Lake. The park is named after the tallest mountain in the Teton range, the Grand Teton ( yes Teton is actually French for "breast" ). Standing at 13,770 feet, it towers above the other mountains in the range. The amazing thing about this mountain range, is the fact that there are no foothills like most ranges. The mountains seemingly jut out from the ground. Jackson Lake sits at the base of the range, completing the picturesque view. After gaping at the view for a bit, we continued down the road, stopping at a few view-points and reading the informational plaques.

      At the south end of the park is the bustling town of Jackson Hole. On most modern maps, the name simply says Jackson, a name change that was the result of some uptight politicians, as we were told. Jackson was a blur to us, as we only stopped for gas and continued west. The goal was to hit the main interstate, I-15 and continue south for as long as we could, hopefully making it to Salt Lake City. We took a number of backcountry roads going west to get to I-15, over rolling hills and forests, and then crossed into Idaho. After a few hours we were finally near the entrance to I-15, when we saw a number of cars pulled along the side of the road, and people staring and pointing down the embankment. We got out to join the gallery, and as I suspected, there was a young bull moose grazing in the wetlands below the road. Moose spend most of their time eating aquatic vegetation, and this was a perfect area for him to be in. This was our first time seeing a moose in the wild, and it was quite the thrill.

     In Idaho Falls, we picked up interstate I-15 and made very good time traveling south. The landscape started to change as we drove further south. Deciduous forest changed to sage-brush prairies and mountains. We passed into Utah and were near Salt Lake City, when we saw a very dark gray sky ahead. Heather pulled out the Droid and we saw red and orange all over the doppler map, which means trouble. The wind picked up intensely and the Xterra was fighting it. Normally I would try to drive through this type of weather, but having spent almost 11 hours on the road at the time, we decided to pull over to a rest stop and ride it out. The storm was magnificent, and it revealed an amazing rainbow as it passed. The landscape is so open, that you could clearly see the beginning and the end of the rainbow. In fact, there was a double rainbow at one point.

      After the storm, it was starting to get late in the day. We continued on through Salt Lake City and planned to pick up Interstate 80, and continue West. On the west side of Salt Lake City, near the airport, we found a hotel and spent the night. The next day we would travel through some serious desert territory and enter into California, we needed a good nights sleep......

Rush! ( Rash )

    My history with the band Rush is sort of vague, and I have just recently become a big fan. Back in 1989-90, I bought my first cd-player. It was one of those stand-alone players, that had external hookups for a stereo. I had two cd's to start with, Metallica - And Justice for All, and Rush - A Show of Hands. Metallica, of course got the most cd time from me, and Rush was what I used too fall asleep to at the time. Since the Show of Hands album, I bought a couple other albums, but the band sort of fell off my musical radar. Rush has played many times near Auburn, but I could just never get myself motivated to go. Being a big fan of Dream Theater, who are heavily influenced by Rush, I should, by default, be a fan of Rush. But something always turned me off about them, and that something was Geddy Lee's voice.
   It was announced in April that they were playing at the New York State Fair grandstand. Chris and I talked, and decided to get tickets, though we decided for some reason to just get separate tickets. The day the tickets went on sale, we were right there at 10am, online, clicking away furiously. Though for some reason there was a slight delay before the tickets were available( around 3 minutes after 10am ), which seemed odd. We both ended up with seats in the front elevated section, which was fine, though a bit strange that we were so far back. It turns out that there was a fan-club pre-sale that we totally missed out on. We will know next time.
      A couple weeks prior to last nights show, I  decided to check out the bands setlist online. I had most of the albums on mp3, and what I didn't have, I bought and put them in a playlist, in order of the bands set. I listened to all the songs over and over and I noticed something amazing happening. The annoyance I had with Geddy's voice was completely gone, replaced with complete admiration for the lyrics and his delivery. I started to "get Rush". Admittedly before this, I have been a fan of Neil Peart's books. He is a traveler amongst many other things, and rides to all of the Rush concerts via motorcycle. He is the primary lyricist for the band, so this in-turn peaked my interest in them.
     Chris and I arrived at the fair around 3:30 pm, both quite excited to see the band. After taking part in the most "important" parts of the fair; butter sculpture, cup of milk, and eating the same food that everyone eats every year, we made our way around to the grandstand. It was around 4:30 and we walked into the back of the in-field behind the stage. There was a fence, and you could easily see the tour buses. I spotted Neil Peart's bus immediately, as that is the bus with the attached motorcycle trailer. Under a small extended canopy on the bus, sat two motorcycles.  We stood there for a bit and the bus door opened. Out walked the man himself, wearing a red ball cap. He stood talking with a couple of guys and then made his way to the stage. I knew we would see him later, while he was "working", but it was very cool to see him in a relaxed state like that. We didn't dare say anything to him, as he is fiercely private, and is uncomfortable with fan adoration. He eludes to this in his books, and one of their songs , Limelight, deals directly with this subject.

      We left, and went in a big loop around the midway area of the fair. I am not a fan of the midway by any means. As we were walking, two large state troopers were standing around scanning the area, one of them yelled "JOHNNY BENDER!". I turned around and half-waved, not sure what to do. I thought of Neil Peart when this happened, though it was very cool being recognized, it was sort of uncomfortable. We arrived back at the main gates just as they were about to open at 6pm. We walked through, showed our tickets, and were not checked at all. This never ceases to amaze me. In this day and age everyone should be frisked, they were only checking people with bags. I made my way right over to the merchandise and purchased a shirt, then we found our seats. Well I found mine, Chris was a different story. His seat did not exist. He was supposed to be in the same row as myself, but ultimately his seat number would have placed him inside the sound-booth. He was "upgraded" to the floor area on the right. I was happy for him, but was very pleased with my seat.

       The band started around 7:45 with a hilarious intro video. It was called "The History of Rash", and was a pseudo version of the band playing in a tiny German Pub. The video quality was just amazing, crystal clear hi-definition, the likes of which I have never seen on such a large platform. The on-screen band was playing many versions of the song, The Spirit of Radio; polka, disco, country, etc. Then the covers that were hiding the band equipment were removed, and the band walked out and played The Spirit of Radio. I can only describe it as pure electricity. The mix of the music sounded very clear, loud and powerful. The setlist continued on pretty much exactly as I had found online.
       The band's playing was ridiculously tight. The video screen, behind the band, showed various video clips relating to the song they were playing. The videos were funny at times and serious in others. For example the song Red Barchetta, which is about a sports car. On the video screen they showed cars made of sausages zipping around, but then followed that with a real-life sequence of a car racing through the desert. The song Working Them Angels, off the snakes and arrows album, had imagery of people working menial jobs, but they all had angel wings on their backs. 

       For the bands second set they played the entire Moving Pictures album, among a few other staple songs. Again they opened with a hilarious intro video, showing a video shoot for the band "Rash". This time the song was Tom Sawyer and when the time machine button was hit in the video, the band members were replaced, with children, or monkeys, or swapping instruments. Neil Peart looked hilarious playing the guitar. Then the band came out, performing the first song from the album, Tom Sawyer. During the song, the screen showed real monkey's playing behind them, in time with the music. It was hilarious. They continued with the entire album, and played it flawlessly. I absolutely fell in love with the band last night. The fact that they are not afraid to make fun of themselves. They are the tightest live band I have ever seen. Their production is well and beyond any other tour out there at the moment.


Here was the setlist....
1. The Spirit Of Radio
2. Time Stand Still
3. Presto
4. Stick It Out
5. Workin' Them Angels
6. Leave That Thing Alone
7. Faithless
8. BU2B
9. Freewill
10. Marathon
11. Subdivisions
12. Tom Sawyer
13. Red Barchetta
14. YYZ
15. Limelight
16. The Camera Eye
17. Witch Hunt
18. Vital Signs
19. Caravan
20. Drum Solo
21. Love 4 Sale
22. Closer To The Heart
23. 2112 Overture
24. The Temples of Syrinx
25. Far Cry
26. Encore:
26. La Villa Strangiato
27. Working Man