Detouring Toward Home

We left Las Vegas and were quickly out of town, driving northeast across the desert.  I remember thinking when I lived in Phoenix that it was like an island — a city surrounded by empty space, and you have to go quite a way before you get to something else.  Las Vegas is like that too.  

We passed three huge solar farms before we left Nevada.  I tried to get a picture of one, but they don’t look like much in the photos.  But in person they’re impressive.  It’s hard to judge from the road, but each one looked like several square miles of energy-producing panels.

We just came up this road a couple of months ago.  It looks a little drier — a beautiful golden brown — but otherwise it is the same.  We are definitely on the homeward leg — just hunker down and cover distance.  Today was more miles than we like, and we lost an hour crossing into Mountain Time, but the 80 mph speed limit through most of it helped.

We met a local family at the charger in Nephi.  He said they’d gone up to Sundance to see the fall colors, but there had been so little rain the leaves just looked dirty rather than colorful.

We’ve been reading about the fires in California and the snow in Colorado.  We’re happy to be splitting the difference.  So far it has been gloriously clear.  Today it has been a little cooler than it was in Nevada and Arizona. 

Tonight we are in Provo, Utah.  At supper, I was asked for ID when I asked for a beer.  I know Utah has weird liquor laws, but sheesh.