A Warm Welcome at Welcome Station RV Park near Wells, Nevada

We drove from Ogden to just west of Wells, Nevada on Monday, where we received a wonderful welcome from owner Steve and temporary receptionist, Jan. Our friends Steve and Nancy purchased this property last year; Nancy is with their daughter who had her baby a week ago; their (and our) friends Jan and Smitty are here helping in Nancy's absence.

Before leaving the Ogden/Salt Lake City area we wanted to fill up with diesel. I had checked GasBuddy, and almost all of the stations had gone up in price since we arrived in Ogden (bummer! should have filled up when we arrived!) - but one was still at $3.199/gallon and it was reasonably easy to get to and to get in-and-out of. We put in a little over 130 gallons!

I had wanted to get a picture of the Great Salt Lake while we were in the area, but had not found a place where we could see it. On our way west, we stopped at a view point off of I-80 at the southern end of the lake.

Finally! I got to see the Great Salt Lake!

Pictures of almost 360 degrees - 1 of 6

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When we were at the view point, we could see large white irregular looking things further west - they almost looked like icebergs in the lake, but we figured that was most unlikely! Turns out it was a Morton Salt facility (https://www.mortonsalt.com/business-product/puresun-culinary-crystals/).

I-80 heads off west almost completely straight

In the salt flats, there are a number of "art" pieces - some more art than others. This is "Metaphor: The Tree of Utah" (https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2230).

What is that? Is it a sea monster in the salt flat?

Of course it is! Made out of tires!

Eventually, just a few miles east of the Nevada border, we came to the Salt Flats Rest Area on I-80.

It was easy to walk out onto the salt flats in this area.

Lots of people were walking out there.

So we joined them!

Beautiful, but other-worldly!

It looks almost like I'm standing on a frozen lake...

Dwayne on the salt flat...

A picture of the surface.

I had used GasBuddy and knew that fuel prices in Nevada and California (our next two states) were going to be a lot higher than Utah, so we topped off Miss Doozie at the exit for the Bonneville Salt Flats. While regular gas is priced at $3.699, diesel is $3.259! In my opinion, that is as it should be (since, as I understand it, both are derived from the same raw material and diesel requires less production work than gasoline).

Then we detached the Jeep and drove out to where the speedway is located.

Ignore the graffiti - we were down near the bottom middle of this map - I-80 and the Western Pacific Railroad tracks were further south of us, and the speedway was a little ways into the salt flat and heading off 10 miles away.

 I had done some reading on the web before we got there (http://things2doinutah.com/bonneville-salt-flats/):

That line on the horizon that is slightly higher than the horizon is a train.

The driving area into the salt flats

There were a number of vehicles out there (black specks), but we elected not to drive the bus (which we had left at the truck stop) or the Jeep out onto the flats - we didn't need any extra corrosion on the vehicles!

Continuing west, about to enter Nevada. There were road warnings about high winds - you can see the windsock in the median. The winds weren't bad here, but almost as soon as we got into Nevada, we had quite prevalent cross winds.

Beautiful country...

The road looks like it goes on forever..

We crossed 3 (I think) mountain passes from entering Nevada to Wells.

There were a few of these kinds of overpasses - they did not seem to carry a road over the interstate...

Here one is being built... I am not certain what they are for... I'll need to do some more research.

Fuel prices in Nevada - similar to what we saw in the Ogden area for regular ($3.159) but significantly higher for diesel ($3.699).

Near Welcome Station - I think this is Hole in the Mountain Peak

We're almost there!

There it is!!!

Miss Doozie settled in...

Just north of the park is pasture land where there are horses.

Just south is I-80 and (what I think is) Hole in the Mountain Peak.

 We are looking forward to visiting with friends (Jan made us supper for our arrival day - 8-can soup and salad and rolls - YUM!) and there are planned festivities for the 4th. Nancy will be returning on Thursday. So nice to be with friends!

Sunday - our last day - in Ogden

Saturday night it was full here at Century RV Park...

... but Sunday morning, they all cleared out...

On both sides of us! We take showers, promise!

There are a lot of folks who stop here just for one night. Since we're parked in the long pull-thru area, folks with motorhomes particularly like these sites because they don't have to detach their towed vehicle for the overnight stop.

I've noticed, though, that folks with 5th wheels and trailers all seem to detach, even if they just pull their tow vehicle ahead a little and then back it up and reconnect in the morning. I'm guessing that it has to do with leveling of the trailer/5th wheel not being possible when it is attached to the truck. Seems like a lot of work to un-do to just have to re-do in the morning, but I guess you do what you need to do.

We took a little walk around the park today - they have quite a few amenities...

I think this is a fire pit.

Horseshoes...

shuffleboard...

Down there at the end is a group pavilion with a couple of nice BBQ units...

Basketball court....

And a pool - I felt odd about going in and taking a picture as folks were using the pool - there is also a hot tub. Looked refreshing!

The rate here seems high to me -- $300/week for full hookups - works out to a little less than $43/night. Since I have a goal to stay under $15/night for the year, it is high, but we have boondocked some too,

...so my budget for the year is not far off... unfortunately, we haven't stayed enough at Thousand Trails, so our effective cost per night for Thousand Trails is very high. I'm not sure whether we're going to make that up or not...

In 2017, we did really well against both our per night cost and terrific on our overall cost for Thousand Trails - we stayed a total of 109 nights at Thousand Trails. I sincerely doubt we will make that for 2018.... but we still have 6 months to go!

We plan to continue west into Nevada on Monday!

Saturday in Ogden

I had read before coming to Ogden that they had a downtown Farmer's Market on Saturday, so we decided to go and see what kinds of veggies we could pick up. We parked at the train station, which was at one end (Wall Street and 25th) of the Farmer's Market... unfortunately all the vegetables and fruit sellers were at the other end of the market (Washington Street and 25th - about a mile walk) - but it was good to get our walk in!

Looking east toward the "farmer's" part of the Farmer's Market.

Looking west

The market is on "Historic 25th Street" between Wall and Washington Streets.

I noticed this sign as I was walking back to the Jeep...

I was wondering why they had a menu item called "Montenegro", but there was a line of folks waiting to order, so I didn't ask to find out... but I checked out their website, and sent in a question and got an answer!

But I checked out their website (https://www.dalicrepes.com/about), and sent in a question and got an answer!

Hi Patti

I'm from Serbia, gentleman who work today with me is from Crna Gora (Montenegro) one of the best prosciutto make in Niksic.  That's was inspiration for name of my Crepes.

Please next time be my guest and try some of our Crepes.

Dalibor

I wish I had stopped and chatted with them!

When we got back to the train station where we had parked, we decided to take a look at the outdoor exhibit of trains that they have there. The first one is Union Pacific Steam Locomotive #855 - The Speedy Engine with "Elephant Ears"

I took a picture of the 6' tall wheels -

Google created a "stylized" photo automatically for me, making it into all black and white - I thought this looked really neat!

Further back on that train...

I thought this was interesting because of a story I remember my Mom telling us when we were young. She worked in the Post Office in Providence Forge during WWII. I can't remember exactly the circumstances, but something to do with the military folks getting paid in silver dollars, and maybe someone had purchased something in the Post Office with a lot of the silver dollars. At any rate, she had a lot of them in the outgoing mail that she put in the canvas sack for the train to pick up as it went by. As this sign indicates, the folks on the train used a metal hook to pick up the canvas bag - but with all the weight of the silver dollars, either the canvas bag or the strap broke, or the pick-up person dropped it, and silver dollars went all over the side of the track. She learned not to do that again!

I didn't realize that there were "Post Office Cars" on the train. I just thought the train was a pickup/delivery vehicle.

This one could pull a train seven miles long!

And to the back of the train...

After the Farmers Market and visiting the trains, we headed to Sam's Club to fill up the Jeep with gas and do some shopping. I took this picture of the mountains - seeing the mountains here reminds me of being on the front range in Colorado - always seeing the mountains whenever you're out and about - except here they are to the east. I have been told that there are mountains on the other side of the Great Salt Lake (to the west) too, but they aren't as noticeable.

We were stocking up on foodstuffs as the next week we will be visiting friends at an RV Park in Wells, Nevada, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of shopping near there - so I wanted to make sure we had the veggies and meats that we need for the next week or so. I think we're set now!