Windmills, Rainbows and Salt.

Wednesday 9/15/10 We made it well past Omaha yesterday, long hard driving. Stay at a Days Inn, wake early and hit the road. Nebraska, then Wyoming. We see windmills and then more windmills and hill tops covered with windmills. Alternative energy, that gives the landscape wonder. We notice the engine running hard and then see a statue of Abraham Lincoln at the top of the hill. We are on I-80, the Lincoln Highway and have just passed the highest point. We figure that the car is struggling with the thin air. Oliver says he feels like he did our last trip to Colorado, trying to take deeper breaths from the lack of oxygen! We keep on going and going and going. We start seeing jutting rock formations that turn to mountains. We see a cowboy on a horse, chasing a calf down the hill. There goes Wyoming, and now we are in Utah. More buttes, more mountains and then Salt Lake City. Then the Great Salt Lake. There’s the Morton Salt factory. Go figure! There’s an unexpected tennis ball tower sculpture that we’ll have to google later to find out what it is.

It’s more than 2 hours around the lake but its okay because it’s sunset and it gives us a beautiful show. Long desolate flat straight road with salt flats on either side. The mountains turn blue, there seems to be a fog in the air and we enjoy. The plan is to reach the first city, which just happens to be Wenton, NV. Nevada? The first sign of life is a road sign saying, “Races” with an arrow. Salt Flat races? This is where they run cars and motorcycles at crazy speeds! Oh how cool. The movie ‘World’s Fastest Indian’ with Anthony Hopkins was filmed here. We keep driving. We exit the highway and find ourselves in a small town, we drive through hoping to find a hotel near a restaurant. Out of Wenton into West Wenton, or as some might say, Little Vegas! There are blinking lights and neon signs, A neon dance hall girl kicking and a cowboy waving his hat. A bit of a shock after hours of such a blank landscape. I start calling hotels for rates and everyone is sold out. Oh dear it’s race week. A few more calls only to find out that the only rooms left are suites at $200 a night! Oh dear a few more calls and I find a room at the Rainbow, it’s a smoking suite for $70. Yippie! Pulling into the parking lot is a relief. A mustached man with a kind mature face and wearing a blue denim shirt with some club symbol embroidered on the pocket approaches. I figure he’s going to ask if we have a flux capacitator in there, or some other usual comment. Instead, he asks if we’re racing tomorrow. I don’t know what he’s talking about, and he says over at the Salt Flats. It only happens once a year and registration starts at 8am. We thank him, and decline politely. We’re too exhausted to even tell him about our mission. Turning the engine off, we experience a quiet stillness that was long forgotten. What a relief. So peaceful.

We walk in, through the smoked glass doors, and instantly, that peacefulness is gone again! We’re enveloped in a casino atmosphere where everything is neon and mirrors, with black light carpeting of rainbows in outerspace. Very dark, yet blinding at the same time. It is a shock to the system after the long drive of very little to look at. To get to our room, we have to carry our luggage throughout the entire casino. ‘Go to the end, and turn right after the craps tables.’ I suppose they are trying to entice us to drop our bags and play a round of 21, but the ploy somehow does not work it's magic on us. We’re beat and hungry, and are not really feeling like trying our luck. Food and bed is on our minds. Through the smoke filled cosmic darkness we tread, past endless stools filled with old people spending their retirement savings and the sounds of machines happily taking it, only rewarding them with cheerful chimeing ‘ding!’, ‘ding!’, ‘dings!’

The room has a Jacuzzi and a puffy soft bed. Huge flat screen, walk in closet. Mirrors and fake fur on the walls. Marble bathroom with non-matching marble accents. The doors are even covered in tacky marble linoleum! It’s smells of stale smoke, but we’ll survive. The dust ruffle on the bed is made of a similar color-changing material as Marty’s cap from BTTF2! (What a wild thing to notice.)

After taking the full tour of the suite, we head for the restaurant. The Over the Rainbow line is very long. Oli walks over to the Rainbow Buffet restaurant and it’s closed. I see that there are 2 seats at the counter open so we take those. We wait for service, and everyone just passes us by. We leave and cross the parking lot for the exotic wonderment of Burger King. Drinks, fries and burgers, the dinner of champions, or better, weary travelers. Back to the room, a hot jacuzzi and we collapse on the big puffy bed. A little over 9 hours left to Danville, we plan to sleep in, but here I am awake at 5. Well I can’t get on line so now that I’ve caught up with the blog maybe I can get a couple more winks in. California here we come.