I just have to say, Utah rest stops are fantastic. This rest stop had indoor bathrooms (as in, a proper door to get in, not just a walkway that lets cold air in) and even had a private gender-neutral bathroom which was great to use to brush my teeth and wash my face.
I got back on the road at around 9am and made it to Salt Lake City a few hours later at 2pm. Gas is getting noticeably more expensive as I go north, about 30-40 cents more than in New Mexico, but it’s still much cheaper than Canada so I can’t really complain.
The Utah state capitol building is undergoing construction (shocker, they all seem to be) but I was still able to get right up to it for my photo. I wasn’t able to find anyone to take my photo for me, so I had to take a selfie which is not something I’m a huge fan of doing, but oh well.
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The view from the capitol is pretty cool, it’s built on top of a hill so you get a view of the entire flat plains below as well as the mountains in the distance. My mum compared it to Mont Royal in Montreal, and I definitely see the similarities.
It was then time to head east. The next capitol is all the way on the south-east corner of Wyoming: Cheyenne. With a population of only 65,000 people, it’s the smallest capital city I’ll have gone to so far, but I’m still excited to see it.
I didn’t make it all the way there, since I did my usual thing of stopping at the last rest stop before the city to avoid having to drive out of the city in the dark, and also because I’d be there too late to get a photo today.
The drive was fine up until I got to Evanston, which isn’t actually that far from Salt Lake. I-80 was closed due to snow and multiple stalled semi-trucks, and I don’t really have an alternative route. I had half a tank of gas, so I figured I’d get gas and then figure out something to do.
Getting gas turned out to be an ordeal and a half. The first two gas stations I found with the cheapest gas on GasBuddy just… didn’t exist. They were on the GasBuddy map, but they weren’t anywhere else and certainly weren’t there in real life. I then found a Shell gas station and decided I’d just accept the higher price so I didn’t have to deal with going to another station, but it turns out all of their pumps were out of order! I went in to use their bathroom anyway, and it was one of the worst gas station bathrooms I’ve seen so far. There was an unknown liquid (you can probably guess though) on the floor, empty fireball shots in the bin, no paper towel, and instead of soap they just had a jug of isopropyl alcohol!
I then went to a Sinclair gas station down the road, which finally worked and I was able to fill up. By that time, I-80 was open again, but it was starting to snow quite a bit down at my elevation now too. I started to get on the highway, but then saw a rest stop sign so figured I should maybe just stay there rather than going through the mountains in the snow, and later in the dark. Que the extremely loud incorrect buzzer noise, because that rest stop closed after dark, and so I didn’t really have a choice but to continue on.
It didn’t end up being that bad, the highway was pretty quiet and everyone drove 20 under the limit, so I just stuck with a truck the whole time until the road cleared up and I could safely drive the speed limit again, which is 80mph (130 km/h!) in Wyoming!
It was a bit sketchy near the end since I drove for about 30 minutes in the dark, and my headlights aren’t the best in good conditions, so when they get covered in slush and snow they get even worse. Any time I passed a semi-truck the spray would completely cover my windshield and it would get a bit scary, but I made it safe and sound to the Bitter Creek rest stop, about 3 hours from Cheyenne.
It’s snowing as I write this and the temperature has plummeted from the balmy New Mexico 25 degrees to a semi-chilly 1 degree. I don’t think it’ll be too bad, since I don’t have my sweater on and I’m only a bit chilly, so with my sweater, socks, and blanket, I think I’ll be fine. I also have my sleeping bag I can grab if I get too cold. I’m also Canadian.
