Friday, September 6 – Kanab, Utah to Evanston, Wyoming

The view from our room in Kanab, Utah – about 7 am.

This was the only motel on the trip where we noticed a Grab & Go bag – encouraging us to take things with us from the breakfast room. This bag contains a yogurt for me and a blueberry muffin for Cerwin.

We were on our way by 7:30 am and enjoying the scenery along our route in Southern Utah. The temperature was 55 degrees when we left the motel.

The only wildlife we saw on this morning drive was a few turkeys in someone’s yard.

Somewhere along this road – Beaver, Utah – Cerwin mentioned that we had traveled 3,000 miles. He was glad to be back on an interstate again after spending several days on backroads and winding canyon roads. 🙂

We saw a few places along the road that looked like a controlled burn, but this one looked like it got out of control.

We stopped for fuel and talked to a motorcyclist. I mentioned that it was a beautiful day for a cycle ride. He said, “It is now, but we came through rain farther north.” We were traveling north, and did drive through a bit of rain as we approached Salt Lake City.

It was always good to see our flag – reminding us of the fabulous opportunities we have in the United States.

Cerwin enjoyed seeing the extra large big rigs as we drove into Salt Lake City.

Going into Salt Lake City on six lanes of traffic – going one way (seven when there was an exit lane) – brought us back to the reality of city life.

Salt Lake City was not originally one of our chosen destinations, but it was not far off our route when traveling north – to head east on I-80 – and it seemed like a fun idea to see the Mormon Tabernacle and the Great Salt Lake since we have heard about them all our lives – as landmarks in our country.

It is not necessarily easy to get to Temple Square and even less easy to capture a photo of the temple because of the many buildings surrounding it.

Well, now I can say I saw the Mormon Tabernacle. 🙂 Cerwin had seen it in 1961 when he was on a hunting trip to Wyoming, but said the city was quite different now than fifty-eight years ago. (We started dating just before he left on that hunting trip.)

Then we headed west to see the Great Salt Lake. We knew it would probably not be possible to touch the water – and we found that to be true. I suppose if we drove around it, we may have found a place to get close enough to touch the water, but it wasn’t that important to us.

It was fun just to see its location – at least on part of its southern side – just to the north of this hillside.

I took these pictures from the interstate.

There appeared to be salt hills along the road – next to the lake.

We are now officially heading east. I haven’t decided if that makes me happy or not. I don’t like going home from vacations. 🙂 By this point we had traveled 3,224 miles.

I enjoy seeing “Oreo” cattle – Belted Galloway.

We came upon a long construction backup – thankfully for us, it was on the other side of the road. It was several miles long.

We were surprised to see a llama with a flock of sheep, but kind of remembered reading that some ranchers use llamas to guard sheep. I did some research on the internet.

Guard llamas may defend against predators in many ways. Llamas are instinctively alert and aware of their surroundings, and may draw attention to an intruder by making a startling alarm call that sounds like a rusty hinge. They may walk or run toward an intruder, and chase or kick or spit at it. Others may stand apart from the group and watch the intruder. Although llamas have been known to kill predators (such as coyotes), they should not be considered attack animals. They are generally effective against single intruders only, not packs. Guard llamas have been most common on ranches located in the Western United States.

Some llamas appear to bond more quickly to sheep or goats if they are introduced just prior to lambing. Many sheep and goat producers indicate a special bond quickly develops between lambs and their guard llama and the llama is particularly protective of the lambs.

I always wonder about things. Is the sheep on the left sick or just tired? Also, notice there are two different breeds of sheep. Some have white faces and others have black faces.

We arrived in Wyoming at 2:43 pm.

We chose this motel near Evanston, WY, because it had good ratings despite its “humble exterior appearance”. We were pleased with our large, clean room. It was the only place on our trip where we had actual keys to open our door. 🙂 It reminded us of motels from years ago.

While unloading our car I heard a loud racket and thought it was a flock of birds. It was only one. I think it is a magpie because they are noisy.

It was looking for food under the next car.

We drove by this restaurant – several blocks from our motel – and thought it would be fun to eat Mexican food as we hadn’t done that yet on this trip.

It was a nice restaurant – truly Mexican in style. (I took this picture and the next few with Cerwin’s cell phone.)

If we had known that Cerwin’s burrito would be so large, we would have shared his meal and I would not have not ordered a chimichanga.

We enjoyed our delicious meals. The food took us back to when our children were teenagers and learning to enjoy Mexican food. To satisfy that taste we took them to a Mexican restaurant in Lancaster – usually for birthdays – or whenever we needed to celebrate something.