Monday 5th September, Driving SF-SLC

San Francisco – Salt Lake City. 730 odd miles, 720 of them on one road, ladies and gents the I-80 East. Madness. It’s a race against time, an 11 hour drive and a hop skip forward an hour. We’ve left the glittery Pacifc past Sacramento and Reno - where try as I might I couldn’t make Mark stop to get married. Not even to Joss. Into Nevada winding through Tahoe National Park over and under the lower reaches of the Sierra Nevada. Some quite majestic views whose scope and beauty I couldn’t capture. There was little rocky rivers and cypress trees stretching every arm directly up to the beating down sun. And so little else to see that the bright white birds swooping in formation and elegant pylons in uninterrupted lines captured our attention. The land flattened out as we approached Utah (Utah! Saints!), and since we went crossed that line into Mountain Time the landscape now extends straight out in every direction as far as the eye can see. And the ground is white, white like dust. Get out and lick the ground…why it’s the Great Salt Lake Desert. I’d pass around the tequila, only approximately 50% of the car load is coming down flu-ish and just wants sleep and hugs. We went to San Francisco and all we got was this lousy cold Having got up at 7am, the sun is dipping below the horizon with but 60 miles left til I meet my first Mormon.

you can see Mark's pretty succinct opinion of Salt Lake City below.