Rainbow at Vermillion Cliffs

   Ellen had made plans to fly to Salt Lake City and meet me in Wendover, UT,  just outside the Bonneville Salt Flats.   Ellen would be there late tonight.   I couldn’t wait to see her.   The past 3 weeks riding have been surreal.   I love doing it and seeing all these fantastic places, but it has been 3 weeks since I left.  I also had it in my head that reaching Wendover was a milestone.  75% of the ride would be done.  I was stopping at the destination that started me thinking about this trip in the first place.  The Bonneville Salt Flats. This is where extraordinary people come to lay there cards on the table.  The planets proving ground to test the physical limitations of man, machine, engineering, and guts. The “put up or shut up”, “no excuses only results” place.  I could not wait to witness this event.

Boat, but why?

   The ride was pretty un-eventful as I now knew to gas up wherever possible.   Just because a town existed on the map did not mean it physically existed in our space/time continuum.   I just needed to cover 400 something miles to get to Wendover and see my wife.  I was confident that Wendover existed because I had seen pictures of it and had reservations at the Motel 6 there.  I did drive through some beautiful winding roads on the way.  More canyons and sweeping corners, but today was about getting there.  Southern Utah must have a population of a few hundred people or something.  I barely saw anyone along the way.  Just tiny towns with a gas pump and a store once in a while.  It also had thousands of acres of military test sites(deserts).   The air was dry and extremely hot.  I stayed on the 2 lane roads that meandered North West as long as possible until I had to jump on Rte. 80 West.  This was the only road to Wendover. Really! 120 miles of flat, straight highway with salt flats and desert as far as you could see on either side.  I had to wonder, even when reaching Wendover, what settler stopped his wagon here and said to his wife and kids, “This is it. We’re building here.”   Even now to be honest, who wants to live in this heat surrounded by desert and rock?.   I am glad they did however, because now I can watch people break land speed records and go back to my hotel and have a beer with my wife.   Thanks man!

    I got there late in the afternoon, called J.T. at Zero Gravity, who promptly mailed Maybeline a replacement windscreen and I gave her a bath at the car wash at the end of town.  Wendover is 2600 miles from Phillipston Ma.  It took me 7552 miles to get here because as stated earlier, the ride was not about getting to my destination, it was about seeing everything I could along the way.  Mr. Yamamoto was excited to be here.   Maybeline was relieved and I was just stoked!  Ellen arrived at about midnight.  I was so thankful that she came out here.  Most wives would not have taken the time and effort to come to this desolate place where an event takes place that she really did not know much about and therefore had little interest in.

All this would change.  

Hanging with the guys

Ellen and I “caught up” and had a wonderful reunion. (Say no More!)