Wendover, Pilot Peak, Danger Cave

We made cookies and delivered them to Grandma Pat for her St. Patrick's Day birthday, then took our green selves on the trek west toward Nevada. I knew we were headed for something weird when we found this sign at the first rest stop.

When we passed the turnoff to Iosepa, we were as far west as I've been on I80 in ten years. The air and sky were soon an unholy color and the visibility was very limited. I liked driving on a causeway through the southern reaches of the Great Salt Lake because I think it's pretty in a bizarre way. I wanted to stop at the Tree of Life, but the signs say emergencies only.

It was really windy, so we were on the watch for tumbleweeds, migrating sand dunes, and weaving semi trailers. The air cleared out eventually and all of sudden, there were mountains in front of us and the Bonneville Salt Flats to our right. We stopped to walk up to the edge of the lake and stick our fingers in.

 

 

Isaac is the photographer.

 

Jovie is the photographer.

 

 

 

Ikey said, "It's the longest SUV I've ever seen!"

We went to the Wendover Army Air Base Museum just on our side of the state line.

Our favorite part of the museum was the old airplane near the runway. It was so windy and the airplane was so shaky and creaky, it felt like it would take off any time.

Did you know that the Enola Gay and Col Tibbets were stationed at Wendover in the summer of 1945? We were tempted to climb the red and white control tower, and we made it up the first red section, the first white section and the second red section which put us way higher than the two-story museum building. I then invented a story that the museum worker told us not to go any higher. Oh my gosh it was so scary! The stairs and landings are made of delicate-looking metal mesh with plenty of space for a 2- or 4-year-old to fall through. It was so windy and Jovie didn't want to hold my hand anymore so she was trying to go up while Ikey was trying to go down and I was trying not to cry. We held it together just long enough to get down. The creaky airplane seemed totally safe after the control tower so we went back there.

We went into Nevada to Pilot Peak, which was a oasis for people crossing the Utah/Nevada desert without SUVs. There's a ghost town around here somewhere, but we didn't find it on this trip.

Our next stop was back in Wendover to check out a casino. Montego Bay was smoky as soon as we walked in, and the kids asked if they could "play a game". I told them the games are just for grown ups. Jovie said, "We want to watch you play a game." We walked through the sky bridge to the Golden Nugget. Ikey said, "Let's go back to the first place because it's ceiling is party-er." We had breakfast for lunch at Paradise Grill at Montego Bay.

We took a short drive back into Utah to find Danger Cave on a dirt road. We were disappointed, but not surprised, to find this important archaeological site was spray-painted and gated in.

We made it back home just in time to enjoy corned beef and cabbage at Mitch's house. I didn't tell the kids about pinching this year, because we're trying to get out of the habit first. Happy St. Patrick's Day.