Welcome to the Beehive State

Well, I've moved on from Idaho and am now in Utah. Utah, the Beehive State (*that* is what the odd iconagraphy they use for road signs is.. really..) Utah, the state where Home Builder billboards that indicate "All new homes include complete food storage" make sense -- but you have to think about it. Met up with some friends in Orem to grab a beer and chat; Utah, where the local brews are tasty, but can't exceed 3.2% alcohol by law. Ah, Utah, so wild and crazy..

The area from centreal Oregon to central Utah is the vast northern expanse of the Great Basin desert (of which Nevada -- all of it essentially -- is the primary contributor.) But there is a certain ruggedness and beauty to it, and irrigation does allow extensive farming and ranching. I have posted up a third Gallery covering my time in Idaho. I did see something odd though... Irrigated pasture (pasture, with cows on it, not hay fields) with a sign saying it was for "grass fed organic beef". Hmmph.

One thing I was warned about would be that I might be under-estimating the distances in effect on my itinerary. To the contrary, everything seems a lot closer that I'd think. Maybe it's the long, straight roads with 75mph limits, or maybe the area just isn't as big as I expected. So here I am in Lehi, UT, and I'm only 300km from my next target (Arches NP.) And I'm 1-2 days ahead of schedule already, which is good since it will allow me to spend a bit more time in Utah. Maybe I will have time for some 4x4 adventuring in Moab or something, who knows.

And I have to say one thing.. Love them or hate them, Starbucks and 2 free hours daily of wifi access at (almost) every location, and they're pretty much in any town over 100,000 now, means I can easily pop in and log on to research or reserve something en route. Yay Starbucks.