Friday, September 13, 2013

Salt Lake City Utah August 19-25 2013

My first week long road trip started from California to Salt Lake City Utah. I bought groceries for a week, packed my clothes, filled up the gas tank and hit the road. I have never been to Salt Lake City.
I have a cousin that has lived there since 1978, so I thought why not visit them and break in my van.
It took about three months to get the van ready. I took my time building it to fit my needs.
I decided to drive to Fernley Nevada and spend the night at the Pilot travel center parking lot.

 I'm 20 minutes into the trip and my CHECK ENGINE light lights up bright red. great I couldn't believe it. I knew my van was in great shape even with 215,000 miles on the speedometer.
I pulled over and didn't see or smell any problems, I called my mechanic and told him what was going on. I also said I have a 13 hour drive ahead of me. I thought my road trip was over just 20 minutes into it. He told me don't worry about it, there is a 100 things that could trigger the light to come on. It could be a sensor, If you don't tighten the gas cap hard enough it could set it off.
Ok I'm feeling a little better.
He was 100% right, No problems at all with my van.

I drove to Fernley Nevada and spent the night, met some very nice people that were there resting from there drive from Utah, they were going to the burning man festival, (very cool) seems like that would be lots of fun.
My first night sleeping in my van was great, the bed was comfortable and I ate a turkey sandwich for diner, I was set for a good nights sleep. I slept good, woke up a couple time from big rig trucks pulling out of the parking lot. Hey it's a truck stop.

Morning comes I'm back on highway 80 east, Cruse control set to 68 mph, I'm in no hurry there a lot of highway ahead so might as well enjoy it.

Eight hours later I'm passing the great salt lake, Very beautiful seeing the white salt as far as the eye can see, Once I get to Salt Lake Im going to look for a place to park and rest spend the night. Ended up at a McDonalds parking lot with free wifi, I went inside to eat and ask the manager if I could rest in there parking lot? He was very nice and said it would not be a problem. It's always best to ask for permission.



1 comment:

  1. David good luck with it all and travel well - looks like you are set up with the necessities and are open for the modern gypsy life like you say. Don't forget to pick up an instrument - it'll def. keep you company even if you just pick it at here or there. i recommend an accordion myself. I found the blog from the previa group on yahoo - i'm a multiple previa owner myself and love those vehicles and love to travel too. my family and i drive a rialta - not sure if you're familiar but its a hybrid eurovan winnebago and it really has all of the amenities one could possibly want in a small package. google it! take care and be well, Tony

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