Our trip from St. Louis to California went by so quickly. It was a pretty rush trip after a brief stop over in Vermillion, South Dakota – where the highlights were getting my driver’s license and attending a demolition derby that took place right next door to our camp spot in the city’s free campground.
And then it was a really quick trip across Nebraska and into Wyoming, where we overnighted at the Flaming Gorge. Most have already seen the rainbow picture we got there, but I’ll include it here anyway to complete the story of this leg of the journey.
We had time for a quick stop in Salt Lake City for dinner with
.. before we headed into southeast Utah to visit Zion National Park. The purpose of our routing this way was to meet up with the good folks at Powerful Signal, who provide the cell phone booster systems for the Oliver. The repeater antenna was overpowered for the size of the trailer and causing oscillations with the receiver, so they offered to help us tweak it out if we were in their area of the country. So, since St. George, UT was only a couple hundred miles off our already rushed track, we thought – why not? So we headed towards St. George, UT – and they recommended we stay at Zion, and they’d be happy to come to our campsite. They left us with all sorts of toys to try out to maximize our connection. What fabulous customer service and mega-cool people to boot! Definitely – go to them for any of your signal boosting needs – mobile, stationary, personal or business. These guys rock and know their stuff.
The trip through Zion was absolutely, without a doubt, breathtaking.
We stayed two nights in Zion, despite not scoring a campspot with power. It was topping 105 degrees during the heat of the day while we were there, and 2 days was just about all we could handle without air conditioning. But it was good prep for Burning Man to start conditioning our bodies for the elements.
And since we knew our friends Sterling and Melissa where planning a weekend in Vegas and had invited us along – we felt it was nomadic serendipity to plan to rendezvous with them.
And as soon as we made that decision, Curtis & DeeAnn who are on a 6 month nomadic journey across the US traveling in a Prius with 2 blogging cats contacted us to let us know they would be in Vegas around the same time. So viola – instant party in Vegas.
I don’t think we really needed the following days of 115 degree weather in Vegas to remind our bodies what desert heat is – Burning Man should feel temperate in comparison. But it was completely awesome to spend time with friends and experience Las Vegas for my first time.
Our other highlights in Vegas included attending Coverville 500 and seeing Le Reve, as well as some of the most awesome sushi ever. Oh, and yes – I blew $2 in the slot machines.
And then it was on into California to stay in Sacramento for a few nights. Lindsay and Sean have a new apartment that has room for our trailer in their parking lot – so it was awesome to stay there and mentally catch up from the past few months for a bit. We got some chores done and prep’d to hit the road to Burning Man.
Right now, we’re in Reno where we’re making final procurements before heading out to the playa in the morning to hold land for Camp Nomadia. We had the Most Awesome Shopping Experience last night at Save Mart to get groceries. And this afternoon we passed 5000 miles that we have traveled since departing Florida in mid-July. I am ready to be still for a while.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised in the past couple of days to learn that dear friends have decided to attend Burning Man last minute. And I can honestly say, that for the first time in months – I’m actually excited about it, and not just seeing it as another item to check off my to-do list.
This blog is fueled by YOUR enthusiasm. Your comments help inspire the next post.. don't be shy!