Day 13 Jackson, WY to Salt Lake City, UT

July 4th (Independance Day)

Distance 320 miles


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Jackson, WY is in a valley between mountains but is still at an elevation of 6200 feet at the bottom of the valley. Leaving Jackson I drove south on US Route 89, which follows the Snake River for quite a while. Most of the rivers out here are so blue and I noticed a lot of white water rafting happening on the snake river. Route 89 winds along side the mountains. At times the land between the mountains flattens out and ranches and farms dot the landscape. Most of the roads in mountainous areas tend to run through the valleys between the mountains & today was no exception.

Leaving Jackson, WY on US-89 South through the mountains and along side
the Snake River (notice the bus in the background, which was carrying white water
rafters)

As I rode almost out of Wyoming into Idaho I noticed the strom clouds building and could see where rain was coming down. I eventually got sprinkled/rained on for a couple of minutes but I missed most of the storm. It was on this leg of the trip that I met probably the most interesting people of my entire journey. I had just crossed into what I would later know as Lap Land Idaho (the area of Idaho where US-89 laps into Idaho and then back into Wyoming). I saw home made signs on the road that said things like "Got Elk Jerky" ... "Need Elk Jerky"... "Stop Ahead" etc... So I wanted to try something new and decided I might as well stop. Thankfully I did! I met the Most Interesting Men in the world and it's not the Dos Equis man. It is Rentfro and his buddy ( I forgot his name). I cant talk about everything about these gentlemen because much is not appropriate but they did remind me of how vastly different this country is!!! I ended up staying for a couple of hours and they did offer me a place to stay and wanted me to go out to town with them, I politely declined but it would have been quite an experience if I had.

US-89 South in Idaho (notice the rain coming down to the west (right))

Said goodbye and headed back out on the road... Eventually I had hit the Utah border and eventually US Interstate 80 East and headed through the mountains and down into the Salt Lake City area, which sits in a valley between mountains. I-80 was probably the most fun Interstate highway I have ever been on. It went up and down mountain sides and wound back and forth. By the time I reached Salt Lake City and settled in at a hotel it was getting dark. I talked to the lovely lady at the front desk and found out where I could get food and watch the fireworks! I ended up talking to the lady, who needs to remain nameless,  for a while and talked about my trip. She ended up offering to help me on my return trip with hotel costs by getting me family discount! This was so amazing of her and even more amazing if you new all the horrible things she was dealing with in her own life. It would have been so easy for her to come to work every day and just do her job and be absorbed by the awful things happening in her life... but instead she was still able to be an absolutely amazing person! I can only hope that all of us ( me included) try to not let all the crap that can happen in life prevent us from being great, genuine, caring people!!! Time to fly to fireworks!