Day 1: I made it!

It was a looong day, but I finally made it to Utah and my first campsite.  Except for some pictures with my iPhone, this was pretty much a travel day.

Mary Jo drove me to the Detroit airport where I caught a direct flight to Salt Lake City.  I knew there wouldn’t be many people in the airport, which made going through security extremely quick, but I was actually surprised how empty the airport was. I had read that airline travel is slowly picking up, but it sure didn’t look like it here!

Empty airport

Selfie while waiting to board

My flight on the other hand was full, which was also surprising even considering that Delta leaves all the middle seats open.  I felt very comfortable on the plane from a Covid-19 standpoint: everyone wore their masks religiously, and overall I was impressed how Delta manages the issue.  I was a little apprehensive about wearing a mask for 4 hours on the plane (my glasses fog up easily).  However, it wasn’t too bad, and I actually got used to it.

 

For most of the flight I watched a couple movies, but as we got closer, I opened the window shade to check out the view. I’m not a big fan of pictures taken out airplane windows, but the sky was incredibly clear and the views were amazing — I couldn’t resist.  So, I took a bunch of shots with my iPhone.

 

On approach into Salt Lake City (SLC).  Rocky Mountains are in distance. 

Interesting feature along Great Salt Lake (which is ginormous)

The Great Salt Lake

On approach into SLC...more interesting scenery

On approach into SLC...amazing mountains!

Mountains along the Great Salt Lake, in black & white

Somewhere in the middle of Iowa

Alexandra from the campervan company met me at passenger pick-up after I collected my checked bag (by the way, the Salt Lake City airport was much busier than Detroit...not sure why, though it was later in the day).  I expected that we would drive somewhere where she could go over things in the van, like how to turn on the heater or stove, but she just mentioned a couple things very quickly — and I mean quickly — and said the keys are in the van! 

 

I headed off to buy food and other supplies, which included stops at Costco, Walmart, and a couple dollar stores (I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on certain things, like condiments and paper towels).  This took WAY longer than I had wanted, and I didn’t actually hit the road south until about 4:30.  This put me smack dab in the middle of rush hour traffic (aren’t people working from home here too?), which was compounded by construction an two accidents.  Ugh!

 

The traffic jam on I-15

There are not many dispersed camping areas until you get far, far away from Salt Lake City, but I had hoped to find something that left me with less than a 2-hour drive in the morning to my first photo spot.  However, it got dark quick, which made it hard to spot any turnoffs that might be BLM roads and potential camping spots.  Eventually I decided to just drive all the way to the campsite near my first photo spot.  Consequently I didn’t get in until very late.

 

I took me a little bit to figure out how to operate the heater (remember, there was no real tutorial), but once I did, I grabbed a quick bite to eat (and a beer) and hit the sack.  It got very chilly in the night (I’m writing this the next morning), but zero degree sleeping bag worked awesome!  Unfortunately I woke up early, likely due to jet lag and other factors.  So, it was time to start the day!