I woke up to the sound of Pickering's knocking on the motel room door. It was already 10:30 local time and we had agreed to leave at 11:00. Sweet took a shower while I packed up my stuff. A quick half hour later and we were once again on the road. But not before stopping to get a sandwich for lunch. Initial impression of Salt Lake City, from the half dozen or so people I saw, is that it's a very blonde city.

From the highway it looks like any other city in winter. There's more snow on the ground than I'm used to. There is also a mountain range quite closeby, you can see the lights from what we assumed are ski resorts at the top of the mountains. As we drove by last night we could see the main Mormon temple in the distance, and it doesn't look all that impressive so far away. It looks better in close-up pictures.

Once again we were on Interstate 80 heading eastwards. Sweet was driving as we crossed Wyoming. My impression of Wyoming is that it is quite empty and unpopulated. We drove 30-40 miles between towns, and we were on one of the two major highways running thru the state. There was a light blanket of snow everywhere, although you could see the ground mostly still. The wind would sweep these tendrils of snow onto the highway, at times obscuring the road completely. Luckily, it's a very straight road so you just keep going and hope for the best. On the side of the road we saw these wooden frameworks which Sweet said are set up to make snow build up into snowdrifts away from the road.

Nebraska was much the same, although more populated. We stopped at The Golden Spur, a steakhouse/saloon. You walk in and are greeted by a standup of Roy Rogers. Other standups of western characters are sprinkled in the restaurant area: John Wayne, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, etc. Three wall-mounted televisions were showing some sort of concert, probably on TNN. Peanut shells decorated the floor, apparently some western-motiff restaurants provide you with shelled peanuts, you're supposed to toss the shells on the floor.

I ordered a New York steak and baby backed ribs combo, which was quite good. Sweet had liver and onions. Liver is a great source of iron, but it must be quite chlorestrolly since my dad can't eat liver. Pick had some sort of steak, I think. After a good meal we were back on the road, Pick was driving by now.

We drove through Omaha but not much farther as Pick was quite tired, and so were the rest of us. The speed limit in California was 65 on the I-80, this went up to 75 in Nevada and continued up to Iowa, where it dropped back to 65. Sweet and Pick drove at a constant 85 or so while I drove at 75. We had a couple of close calls with state highway patrol but weren't stopped.

So we ended up at a Super 8 and got one room. Not quite as nice as the Sleep Inn we stayed in last night. I tried to get online but their phone system is ancient and I couldn't get connected reliably. The other guys went to sleep while I stayed up a bit and took a shower. This would probably be a mistake since I'd only have a few hours of sleep.