Big Little City

We awoke in Gallup to find that it had not snowed overnight after all.

We quickly took off westward to see if we could beat the weather to Flagstaff. Indeed, we had perfect driving conditions all the way. As we neared Flagstaff, it began to look like a building snowstorm in front of us, so we made an abrupt turn northward and motored to Utah via the Glen Canyon Dam. Incredibly scenic drive through the painted desert and some inspiring rock formations before arriving at the Dam itself.

In many ways, this is at least as impressive a canyon as the Grand Canyon itself - not as wide but very dramatic.

We then motored on through a small piece of Utah and Arizona again, to arrive at Mesquite, Nevada for the night. The usual cheap hotel and casino just over the border. Great buffet.

In the morning, we left on a direct route from east to west through Nevada, in a large part on the Extraterrestrial highway (look it up if you don't believe me). It does not appear that a lot of people go this way this time of year as we encountered a total of 3 vehicles in a 150 mile stretch through the desert. A pretty cool road to drive - narrow two-lane, 70 mph speed limit, with the odd open range cattle wandering about. Not sure where the aliens were though. The weather throughout the day was perfect - a bit cool (around 10C) but blue sky and sunshine the whole way.

We are now staying at Harrahs resort and casino in Reno for a few days to rest and recuperate from our long drive thus far. The weatherman says we may have a couple of days of light rain here as the next storm front makes its way from the Pacific.
It is strange how when you have come this far just how much it feels like we are home now, even though we still have a ways to go.