smog, wind and the long arm of the utah law

day one of the trip is behind us. leaving la behind me and heading off into the unknow woke up emotions and feeling that i have not experienced for many years. freedom, untethered joy and the wonder of the great unknown.

driving out of the desert and into vegas almost ruined the first day for me. my son being to young to remember the vegas of the seventies had no clue. and my most recent visits had come from the hoover damn side and i was not driving so there was a lot i missed. following rte 15 i came to realize how much a city which was never great in the first place had been over commercialized, overbuilt and overpopulated.

the traffic sucked.

the over crowding sucked.

and the air sucked worst of all. in la. my eyes watered. my throat burned and i wondered aloud to my son who in their right mind would want to live here. a nasty, nasty place. of course i will visit again for a day here and there. all that money has created art exhibits that never make it to la.

after crossing the nevada we began a long, long stretch of desert. i am not a desert person but my son the future paleontologist/geologist was in his element. rock formation of every size, shape and color dominated the horizon. cliff faces with colorful geologic era's stratus reflecting the sunlight.

of course my imagination is a bit more vivid than my sons and some what i saw embarrassed him to no end. at least he pretended to be but he did not hide his amusement very well.

soon we came upon one of those famous desert sand storms which quickly reduced the visibility to less than one hundred yards.

it was at this point that one of utah's finest saw fit to flash his lights and pull me over. i was beyond clueless i had no idea why i was being pulled over.

seatbelts on, check.

lights on in sandstorm, check.

registration current, check.

suffice it to say that i was beyond shocked when he informed me that i was clocked at 99mph.

i glanced at the sandstorm rocking my car, the lack of visibility and brown glow of my headlights and thought to myself what the hell is this guy thinking.

outloud i said officer if i was clocked at 99mph than there is something wrong with my speedometer.

the speed limit on the highway was 75mph and i doubt i was making that. he just shook his head and asked for my liscence and registration.

even my son was aghast. dad there was no way you were doing 99mph he is crazy.

of course the fact that i was driving a '95 dodge neon should have given the officer of a clue. i doubt there is a stock neon around doing 99mph on the open highway. just the weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee (thanks to sparky for the high tech special effects)sound of a little engine straining to keep up with the big guys.

the long arm of the utah law soon returned with my ticket to sign. it seems that the money they are making off speeders was put to use for in car printers and computers as the ticket was computer generated.

once we were sent on our way cristian observed that the only reason we were chosen from the masses was because of our california plates. smart kid if i do say so myself.

we ended the day at a koa campground in grand junction colorado. after driving over seven hundred miles i should have been exhausted and fallen immediately into a deep sleep. instead i lay beneath the infinite sky wondering where this seemingly new darrell had come from. footloose and stress free on the nations and hiways and biways.