Hitting a Wall – Not Literally

I am 18 days into my epic road trip and today the amount of driving and the amount of driving left to go really hit me. Also, an examination of my finances revealed that California was way more expensive than I really had budgeted for—and by budgeted for I mean just guessed in a vague way. So tonight, when I pulled into Wendover UT, I decided to contact the people I was supposed to see in the Teton’s and let them know that after I hit Salt Lake City I just need to head east and not take an extra full days travel to go up to see them. I’m sad, because my “uncle” Peter is the man I’m named for and I haven’t seen him or his wife in nearly 20 years and because I was really looking forward to the whole intense Tetons/Wyoming beauty thing. But I just don’t have it in me right now.

Now would be a good time for a travel companion!

So, the revised deal is that I’ll be meeting my friend Kris for brunch tomorrow in SLC, then will hop on 80 east and settle into a long 36 hours of travel to get to Rhode Island. I may, ironically and depending on the timing, even spend a night in my apartment before heading to New England. To be honest, the prospect does not thrill me—the travel, not the apartment, nor the heading to New England. Like I said, now would be a good time for a travel companion.

I was planning on going out about 10 miles from town to take pictures of the sunset at the Bonneville Salt Flats, but even that seems beyond my capabilities tonight. Instead, I’m doing a small load of laundry here at Motel 6, will upload some pics from the last few days, and then try for an early bedtime. The trip to SLC is only 2 hours so I should have time in the morning to get to the Salt Flats for some picture taking. Probably not as nice as it would be tonight, but thems the breaks.

Overall the trip has gone well so far. A few bumps here and there and some unwelcome tensions between myself and a couple of friends, but until tonight I’ve been enjoying both who and what I’ve seen along the way and the prospect for the road ahead. Tonight I just feel like the next several days will be days of tedium and endurance and that I can’t wait to get the travel part over. Hopefully I’ll snap out of this mood and feel more refreshed tomorrow. Still, it’s going to be a long few days ahead.

I’ll upload a few pics of today’s travels through Nevada to my [Flickr](http://flickr.com/livingtheliminal) account and try to keep you updated with more news—and hopefully a better attitude—soon.

Ciao.

Road Trip 2013 – Taquitos

A quick update. I’m in Grants NM at the TravelLodge ($49 +tax and I sat in jacuzzi for a while.

I’ve been pretty good about just eating the food I packed for the trip, I broke down and got some taquitos with fresh (and moderately spicy) salsa from Laguna Burgers.

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I am spending money way too fast and realized I could have planned things a bit better to only need motels for two nights instead of three. With the cost of gas and the fact that I need to make it back across the country in a couple of weeks, I need to be *very* careful about how I spend money when with people in CA and on my way east.

Still and all, the trip is going well. Though I still wish I had someone with me to make it more of an adventure and also wishing for more camping, especially now that I’m under huge open vast skies.