A Story In Pictures

My trip from Boise, Idaho to Salt Lake City, Utah

By Ernie Hernandez

As I hit the road this morning, this is what Interstate 84 South looked like.



This was my view out the passenger side window.



And this is me, happily motoring my way down the road.



Where did all those chins come from? (Note to self: hold the camera up next time)

Next:

As you can see, there is not a lot between Boise and Salt Lake City. (You read the screen from the bottom to the top)



This gave me plenty of time to listen to satellite radio. Thank goodness for satellite radio.

Is Nirvana considered dinosaur rock now?


But I listened to more than just the latest tunes. Sometimes I'd head over and check out what all of those flaming liberals were talking about on XM Public Radio. Not that I'm against flaming liberals, mind you. While perhaps not flaming, certainly my spouse would be considered a smoldering liberal. Perhaps possibly even a simmering liberal. At times, you might even see a little smoke, there. So I try to stay on the good side of those flaming liberals. (OK... at this point, I have to admit that every single time that I've typed liberal (including this last one) it's come out liveral. I wonder what my sub-conscious has against them?)

I even check out the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Today they were discussing the American democratic process and taking calls from listeners around the world. Apparently, people in other countries have more faith in our democratic process than we do.



This is the freeway sign that told me that Interstate 84 was closed and I had to take Interstate 86. This probably added about 60 or 80 miles to my trip. But I was in no particular hurry, so I didn't really mind. (If my camera would actually take a picture when I press the button, you might have actually seen the sign, instead of mostly sign post, with just a little bit of sign)



And, as you know, pictures never do landscape photos justice, unless they are taken by amazing photographers with amazing cameras. Neither of those apply to this photo, but I had to throw it in anyway. There really was some beautiful scenery along the way.



Okay... I admit it. I am easily amused.

Here is a picture of a chunk of ice that latched on to the windshield wiper and stayed there, tenaciously, until I finally operated the wipers to fling it callously to the side of the road.



Still trying to stave off boredom, I decided to document the outside temperature. I missed the low of a moment before by one whole degree. How could I have been so careless!

(Editorial: At this point, Blogger elected to refuse uploading pictures. So I had to go do some other things. I will return to finish this post. If you came and read this, please come back for the exciting conclusion!)

(Editorial PS: Blogger is now allowing me to upload pictures again, so we return with our story in pictures)



I didn't really take this picture to show you how fast I was going. That just happened to be caught as part of the image. The speed limit in this part of Utah is 75 miles per hour, so I was only exceeding the speed limit by 4 miles per hour. I don't think that is enough to get arrested over.

Continuing with our story, sustenance is a necessary part of any road trip. Unfortunately, while trying to minimize drive time, maximizing culinary experience is not high on the list of priorities. So here you have an idea of my lunch.



But, you can't have lunch without dessert, right?



But, as I approached Salt Lake City, I was totally taken aback by graffiti on an old concrete seemingly abandoned building. Kind of like what you might see in East LA. I mean, this is Utah, right? Somehow the idea of Mormons and graffiti didn't go hand in hand. But as I drove past at 79 miles per hour, I had to turn around and go back for some pictures.



I actually got off at the next exit and came back around to take that picture.

NANA WELCOME HOME

What kind of graffiti is that? Apparently it is Mormon graffiti. Now you see why I had to circle around to get a picture. No one would believe me if I tried to describe it!

Now I had to drive about five miles north to get to another exit to turn around and go back. But it was worth it. Check out this gigantic blade that I saw cruising down the road!



Plus, I had to pull over to the side of the freeway (safely well off to the side of the road with my hazard lights blazing away) to get another shot of the Mormon graffiti from the other side.



I wonder if ELDER ZAKK MCKINNEY knows that his name is emblazoned across the side of a building north of Salt Lake City? And "YO BLAKE IS BACK". Is it legal for Mormons to even say "Yo"? And apparently Mormons were never taught that the alphabet can be written in both upper and lower case. Those wacky Mormons...

As I neared the end of my trip, I was so struck by surprise by a billboard that I saw, I just gawked, and didn't even have time to react. Then I saw another one not thirty seconds later, just like it! Quickly I grabbed my camera off of the passenger seat, pointed and shot. But this is what I came up with...



What you are looking at is primarily the "A" pillar of the new 2009 Nissan Murano that I'm driving (a very nice vehicle if you happen to be in the market for a well equipped midsize crossover), with a very small portion of blurry billboard in the background, that if you look carefully, you might be able to make out the word "achiever". What was so profound about this billboard, you might ask? Well, since you did... for those of you that know my alter ego on the Natural Designs in Scrapbooking forums, I am known as the Ogre over there. So I went digging around on line, so that you, my loyal readers could get a better look at a proper representation of this billboard. It looks like this:



I'm not really sure who is responsible for this wonderful representation of Ogre-dom, but I like it.

And then I got to Salt Lake City and checked into my hotel after stopping off at a Super Wal-Mart to buy some new pants. When I left Boise this morning, (well, yesterday morning now, since I had to come back to finish this post, but you get the idea), I discovered that I left my slacks hanging in the closet in the hotel in Boise. I've left slacks hanging in closets literally all over the world, including a very nice hotel in Dubai. They have all been very gracious, and sent them back to me, (generally for a fee of course). (Although, the hotel I was at in Boise didn't ask for my charge card number to ship them back. They're probably coming back COD!) Did you know that you can get your hair done at Wal-Mart? And your nails at a separate nail salon. Who knew? (And if you were prone to leaving your slacks in hotel closets wherever you went, you'd probably buy the cheapest slacks you could get too, wouldn't you?)

Now this little story is really over, but I couldn't let it go without adding just one more picture.

On the memory card that held all of the above pictures (save the real Ogre Achiever billboard picture), I discovered some other pictures that I forgot that I had taken. Amongst them were a series of pictures that I had taken of Noah and Grayson. I forget which movie it was that they were watching, but there was a part of this movie that frightened them. But they couldn't bear to not watch it. And they didn't want to hear it either. So when this particular part of the movie came on, they went outside and watched through the window, and covered their ears!



It is a horrible picture that is out of focus and makes them looks like ghosts, but perfectly captures their thinking of the moment.

Stay tuned for the further adventures that are my life!

Oh... and this is what I look like without all those chins, and without the glare shining off of my glasses, in my hotel room in Salt Lake City.