Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Howdy from Salt Lake City

Bryan graciously allowed us to use him computer.  We arose at 5 am and everyone else is still slumbering.  Yesterday was an a nice travel day.  Idaho Falls received no precipitation whatsoever overnight so at 530 am we decided to make a "go" of it.  We proceed to pack by flashlight and essentially put everything together before dawn.  The city's water guy came around right after 8 am and turned off the water at the street valve.  We spent the next 90 minutes blowing out the water pipes and putting anti-freeze in the drain traps.  We left about 9:45 on a nice and dry interstate highway with lots of blue sky and sunshine.

We talked to Ogden Bob and he said it was raining in Ogden.  Bryan said it was snowing hard in Salt Lake City.  Somehow, we felt the front would move east by the time we arrived in the Salt Lake Basin.  It was a happy moment to crest over the hill at Tremonton and be able to see 40-50 miles south with nary a speck of rain or snow in sight.  It was easy to find Ogden Bob's place, we completed our errand there and then began hurrying to get to Bryan's place before the early part of rush hour set in.  Salt Lake City rush hour generally begins about 3 pm and peaks about 5 pm before tapering off around 6 pm.  The drivers here are nuts.  Luckily, we had no problems running the maze of highways to get to Bryan's place over by the University of Utah, arriving at 3 pm.

We wishes we would have had time to visit the Browning Museum but doing so would have put up smack into the middle of rush hour, a MAJOR no-no in these parts. Not long after we arrived at Bryan's place, it started snowing and continued off and on for the remainder of the evening.  We were able to sneak into this storm system without being affected by it.  Sweet!

We visited with Bryan until about 8 pm.  He's such a delightful friend and a real gracious host as well.  He bought some fresh Alaskan salmon that had just been flown into Salt Lake earlier in the day.  He complimented the fish with perfectly done baked yams and streamed broccoli.  It was a great dinner there at his classic1924 home between Yale and Harvard Streets in Salt Lake City's historic university district.

On Bryan's advice, we plan to depart about 9:15 am.  He says there's a magical sweet seam that opens up in the southbound lanes right about that time.  He expects we can scurry out the south end of this gauntlet within an hour is we leave then.

Everything is functioning well with the vehicles.  We traveled slower than usual because we knew we wer driving into a storm.  As a result, Susun's Nissan got 28 miles per gallon, the highest fuel efficiency it has recorded in years.  Meanwhile, the big truck logged over 14 mpg, which is very good considering is has a loaded camper and is towing a loaded Samurai.  There's no particular hurry today to cover our planned 400 miles.  We're taking the "flat" route so we expect to continue to get really decent fuel efficiency today, too.

Looks like there's another, stronger storm sweeping in Friday so we will be able to get to Rimrock ahead of it.  Nothing much else to report. n Life is good.

Have a great day & Many Cheers, jp

PS--The Twitter account seems to be working well.  Of course, there's a strong cell signal along any given interstate highway.  We don't expect much in the way of cell signals this afternoon since we will be on a lesser traveled route.  We will Tweet now and then when we have a strong cell signal.

Below is today's morning Flagstaff NWS Forecast Discussion.  The little graphic inset is a cropped snippet from the screen of today's QPF forecast.  It shows the amount of precip we're likely to get between not and Monday morning.  Good thing we're getting in ahead of it!

WINDS ALOFT CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THURSDAY NIGHT AHEAD OF THE 
  TROUGH WITH LOCALIZED GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 40 MPH POSSIBLE AT MOUNTAIN 
  TOP LEVEL AS WELL AS AREAS DOWNSTREAM OF HIGH TERRAIN FEATURES. 
  STRONG SOUTHWEST WINDS WILL SPREAD ACROSS ALL OF NORTHERN AZ DURING 
  THE DAY FRIDAY AS STRONGER WINDS ALOFT MIX TO THE SURFACE. 
  WIDESPREAD WINDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 40 TO 45 MPH ARE 
  EXPECTED AND WIND ADVISORIES WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED. THE STRONGEST 
  WINDS WILL LIKELY BE ALONG THE LITTLE CO RIVER VALLEY WHERE GUSTS IN 
  EXCESS OF 50 TO 55 MPH ARE POSSIBLE. BLOWING DUST WILL BE POSSIBLE 
  OVER THE LITTLE CO RIVER VALLEY AND LOWER ELEVATIONS OF NORTHEAST AZ.

 
  IN ADDITION TO THE STRONG WINDS FRIDAY...SHOWERS WILL DEVELOP ACROSS 
  NORTHWEST AZ IN THE AFTERNOON AND WILL SPREAD ACROSS THE STATE 
  FRIDAY NIGHT AS A STRONG COLD FRONT PUSHES EASTWARD. THE PERIOD OF 
  HEAVIEST PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED FRIDAY NIGHT THROUGH EARLY 
  SATURDAY. SNOW LEVELS WILL BE DROPPING RAPIDLY BEHIND THE FRONT TO 
  4500-5500 FEET. A FEW INCHES OF NEW SNOW ARE POSSIBLE GENERALLY 
  ABOVE THE 6500 FOOT LEVEL WITH LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS ABOVE 5500 FEET 
  POSSIBLE. SHOWERS WILL TAPER OFF SATURDAY BUT VERY COLD TEMPERATURES 
  WILL SETTLE IN AS COLD AIR POURS INTO THE REGION. SATURDAYS HIGHS 
  WILL BE THE COLDEST WE`VE SEEN THIS SEASON AND THE COLDEST NIGHT OF 
  THE SEASON WILL LIKELY FOLLOW SATURDAY NIGHT UNDER MOSTLY CLEAR 
  SKIES AND LIGHT WINDS.
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2 comments:

Kirsty said...

Say hi to Temple Square for me! That's where we got married :) Hope you have a wonderful time in SLC. Glad you got there safely.Stay warm :)

Marti Spudboater said...

Looks to me like you may well be at 2CR now. Glad you had safe travels and nothing truly epic or eventful. I hope Joshua likes his kayak. It was a real classic "deal dude" find and glad I could help fuss out the details with you.