64 The wind blows free

Those truckers were mighty fine folks. Got another ride out of Ogallala from a kindly trucker. I guess it gets lonely on the road. I was sitting squished up in the front seat for a while by the window. It seemed like we were riding a slight hill and I noticed the landscape was more arid. Yeah, it was browner that time of year. "Where are we?" "Wyoming." "Are we going to go through Colorado?" I knew that Colorado was south of Wyoming, the nuns made sure of that. I just wasn't sure where the road was headed. "No. We're going to miss it completely." 

Oh well. We're going to California anyway. We'll see mountains. Yeah, there's some pretty nice mountains in upstate NY and New England, but just not as big and grand.

I suppose the truckers take the easiest route. The least mountain passes. Less climbing means less gas, less wear and tear. So we were headed through high prairie country.

I'm sure we pulled in somewhere to use the bathroom, but it wasn't memorable and it was quick. This guy planned to get us through Wyoming and he wasn't taking his time. I felt like spreading out a little and went in the back. My usual daydreaming and staring at the ceiling, I fell asleep.

We started making more turns like we were pulling in somewhere and it woke me up. "Where are we?" "Utah. I've got to let you out here." I'm guessing we were somewhere near Coalville. Thanked him and jumped out. What a different looking landscape than the east. The sky really did look bigger. The clouds sat differently in the sky. No gray haze. Big blue. Deep blue. Wow.

Multiple tracks

Cool. There were a bunch of trains sitting there. Freight trains not passenger trains. Not the Long Island Railroad. God damn. I loved tales of depression era hobos hopping trains. Woody Guthrie traveling the country and singing songs of the common people. Excuse me for saying this, but we are just weak imitations.

There were multiple tracks and plenty of trains parked. It was a dream of mine to jump one of them. "Let's jump one!" Then we were walking up and down trying to figure which ones were headed west. It was a great time. Found what we thought looked good. Nice sliding door. Just as we were grabbing it we heard a deep mean voice. "Hey, you!" He came walking up fast. Pretty damn mean. "You get out of here now and don't come back. If I even see you again the sheriff will have you." He didn't smack us with a club like they did during the 30's, but we sure got the message.

Boxcar Bertha

Well, that dream was shattered and I thought "why?" But I guess who knows... maybe something crappy might have happened. We got the hell out of there. Pretty sure he meant business. Practically ran out to the road and stuck our thumbs out. Kept walking fast cause not much was driving by. Some kind of luck was with us and a fairly young guy with short blond hair stopped. The car was from the 40's and awesome. Just the way it was back then. One heck of a big front end.

We jump in and he said it was lucky he was driving by. "It's all Mormons out here. You might have been in trouble." Huh. This was before South Park and the internet. I was sheltered growing up in New York. There were cultures there, but little did we know just how much else was out there. Later I learned that a lot of Mormons are also really kind and damaged just the way recovering Catholics are.

He was so happy to see us. He was beaming. He wanted to hear about our plans and where we had been. He could only take us so far but he said it would be a better place to catch a ride. We never made it into Salt Lake City that day, but he dropped us right by the Great Salt Lake.

What was this place? Look at it! A lake that lasts forever. Mountains in the distance. Big blue sky. And white stuff all along the shore.

That was another long day. We started in Ogallala early but it was getting on. "I have to go in." "No. I have to go in." It was pretty shallow where I walked in. I don't think there were but a couple other people around. I heard from my dad about the Salton Sea. He traveled to the west and southwest a number of times for business. He really thought it was cool the way you could float so much easier on the salty inland water. I mean I heard about it a lot and he took slides. I had to try it out. I figured it worked the same way here. Walking, walking. Damn it's not like the ocean. Still pretty shallow. Hmmm. Lots of flies liked the water too. Who cares. I'm going in.

Wow. It was great. I was rolling around. But then I did something I didn't normally do. I was a good swimmer. I somehow breathed in water from the Great Salt Lake. I started choking and I mean big time. I got up and went to the shore and laid on the ground. I was gasping but no air was going in. I know there were people around me, but I turned over and just started gagging. I thought for sure I was going to die. If I wasn't such a healthy specimen, I think I would have. All those hold your breath underwater contests paid off.  They tell me I coughed up some water. Let me tell you that was not a pleasant feeling.

Time to find a place to throw our sleeping bags down where no one could see us.