The good news is that the bad news is not much worse than usual.

This was a definite day of good news/bad news. I don't think I've ever before really recognized such a distinct pattern of one after the other in a single day.

Bad news: Last night when chatting with some folks I loaned a pen to someone and forget to get it back before I left.
Good news: Enjoyed a nice final breakfast on the Grand Canal as I waited for the train to Rimini and found two pens sitting on the tray when I boarded the train.
Horrible news: Just after leaving Bologna, our high speed train apparently hit someone on the tracks. I was in the third car and it felt and sounded like one was driving over a piece of road debris on the interstate, or when a tire suddenly goes flat, as something was bouncing along undercarriage. I wouldn't know if it was suicide or unintentional as the trains do travel at about 100 MPH and can get to you before you react if not paying attention. We had to sit there for two hours as the police finally made it out to the middle of nowhere and dealt with clearing, and cleaning I suppose, the scene.
Good news: Finished my first audio book of the trip, 'The Gunslinger' by Stephen King.
Bad news: Arrived in Rimini too late to take the bus and tour San Marino. I had originally planned to get in much earlier so to check out San Marino and then take the overnight train (with a few track changes though) to Naples. So my late arrival left me with no plan or lodging.
Good news: Found the tourist information place near train station right before it closed. Got a list of hostels and with the aid of the GPS and map, found one less than a mile away as the crow flies, but since this crow had to walk around the train compound, it ended up being a bit further.
Bad news: I walked a good distance with everything I owned (on this continent at least) to make it to the it to the Jammin Hostel in hopes they would have available space.
Good news: The place was about empty (tourist summer season hadn't started yet). The cost was only about 15. That price included free wi-fi, sheets, small breakfast, and even bicycle rental! Since barely anyone was staying, there were plenty of bikes to be had, so after setting up my stuff, I headed out towards the beach. The bike was key in being able to enjoy this little city today and I was able to see a lot that I would have otherwise missed due to the distance. I went by the Titus Arch, rode on and along the open beach, ate at a nice brewery/restaurant called Booty, and stopped by a supermarket to pick up some fruit and supplies.
Bad news: Although pretty much the entire place was empty, the staff placed all the residents in one room to save on cleaning time/costs. So it seems 6 of us were in the entire place, all of us were in one room.
Good news: No one snored!

♪♪"Crashing, in a small airplane, Don't think I'll be coming back again"♪♪

After doing about everything that I had wanted to do on this trip, I decided to head home from Vegas a couple of days earlier than planned. I was a bit drained from all the activities and events and didn't really feel like hanging around any longer; so Southwest was able to get me a new flight booked early. I figured that I had a bunch of things to do for work and also wanted to help a close friend move some stuff before I started work during the week. After dropping my travel companion off at the convention center, I headed downtown a bit to hit one of my favorite geocaches as well as quickly check out Fremont Street during the day. After a few pictures I drove down the strip one more time and stopped by one of my favorite stores, Fry's Electronics, before heading to the car rental place to drop off the car prior to catching my flight. Unfortunately, after arrive in Houston I learned the flight to Tampa was delayed for over 2 hours, so all I could do was listen to my 'Angels and Demons' audio book and read some of my tech manuals. After an uneventful flight home, I was ready to get some much needed rest and recovery in my own bed. Ahh, the simple things in life, there is nothing bigger.

I always take life with a grain of salt, ...plus a slice of lemon.. and a shot of tequila

After waking up relatively early, I was quickly on the road and heading to Salt Lake City. My first planned stop for the day was the site of the Timpanogos Cave National Monument. Already the NPS Pass has been great since it gains me access for free to all the park that charge and entrance fee. I bought the annual pass last year for the California trip, so it has certainly more than paid for itself in savings. Just getting into parks like Yosemite, Yellowstone, or Zion can cost $25 each with other monuments, and parks charging anywhere from $3-10 dollars.

Since I was traveling solo and I got there early enough, I was able to get a tour ticket for one of the early excursions. This is a very popular area, especially since it is so close to a major city, that tickets can be sold out for all a day's tours within a few hours. I had to quickly gear up and head up to the caves, over a mile and a half up the mountain, however after a bit of determination, I was able to make it. The hike had a great view of the canyon area for pretty much the whole climb and had plenty of information plaques to give one an excuse to rest for a moment. The cave itself was interestingly enough, though it wasn't really that much different from any other cave I have explore in the past, but it was still interesting enough as it is always neat to see all the different formations.

After leaving the caves I headed to Salt Lake City and stopped by REI in order to get some climbing rope I'd need for canonyeering and fuel for my stove. I also ran by an IKEA store since I tend to hear a lot about them. This place was huge and looked like a super Bed Bath and Beyond store that had triplets. The place even had its own daycare facility and sit-down restaurant. I lopped through a couple of times and can see why some people are excited about seeing a couple of the stores open in Florida over the next couple of years. Ikea is like an indoor theme park, where shoppers are encouraged to pick up a map and a yellow shopping bag and follow a winding, one-way path from the upstairs showroom to the downstairs marketplace. After their selections are made, shoppers proceed to the self-serve furniture warehouse to pick up unassembled items and then to the checkout counter. After a stop at a NPS administration office in downtown Salt Lake City to pick up stamps for the Oregon National Historic Trail [NHT], Mormon Pioneer NHT, Pony Express NHT, and the California NHT, I meandered over to take a gander at the Mormon Tabernacle. I only briefly checked out the exhibits, however I did enjoy the landscaping and architecture of the grounds. On the way out I did see a strangely named domain for a supposed car dealership. You be the judge. I wanted a chance to go swimming in the lake just to experience the additional buoyancy caused by the extra salinity, however I just didn't have time.



I didn't have too long to hang around as I really wanted to make it to one more site for the day before closing time. My next destination was Golden Spike National Historic Site in Promontory, UT. This was the site where railroads from the west coast and the east cost met to create a complete rail line from one side of the country to another. This may not seem like a huge deal now to most people, but it was then one the same level of the Eagle landing on the moon in the 1960s or a human expedition making it to Mars in our future. It was a pretty long drive from SLC and I just missed the last demonstration of the day as the locomotive on site reenacted part of the golden spike ceremony. The ceremony was a big to-do back then with the bigwigs from each railroad company and plenty of festivities around the country once the feat was announced. I was abl eto get to the visitor center in enough time to get my stamp, of course, and take a look at some of the displays and the last bit of one of the films.

Fortunately the outside areas were open, so I had plenty of time to walk around and check out the site. After getting a few pictures and reading the plaques outside I decided to head out and try to cover enough distance to get me ever closer to Yellowstone and was able to get pretty far past Idaho Falls. I hit several caches along the way when I had light so I could drop off and pick up various travel bugs right along the roadway that as served as a quick way to stretch legs or break up the monotony of driving. Once I got within the boundary of one of the national forests I was able to find a side road with a dead eand where I could set up my tent for the evening.

With all the driving, I finished the Alice in Wonderland series and started on an old classic that I hadn't red since middle school, "All Creatures Great and Small". The books really do help time go by a little faster.

I am the highway.

I got up about the same time as Suzana was heading for work. After a quick shower, since I didn't know when I'd get the next one, and filling of water bottles and pouches, I headed out. I stopped at a grocery store to pick up provisions such as gallons of water, fruit, pasta, lunch sandwich stuff, etc. The camera stores didn't open until 9AM, so I had a little while to play. I drove down to the strip so I could get in some early morning photographs of some sights when the traffic and heat were still low. I hadn't been to Vegas in several years, so it was nice to drive around a bit and remember the last trip and sites visited. After getting the things I needed at the camera shop (they fortunately opened the doors about 10 minutes early, I hit the interstate and headed north.


My first quick stop was at a Bureau of Land Management office in St. George Utah to pick up an 'Old Spanish Trail National Historic Trail' stamp since it was just off the interstate. Part of the plan for the trip was to pick up as many of the National Park Service stamps as I could along the way for my park passport book. After that I headed to the Kolob Canyon entrance for Zion national park. Kolob Arch is the second largest arch in the world, however viewing it would involved a 22km round trip hike that I didn't have time to do. I grabbed a Zion NP stamp at the VC and then took the scenic ride up. The drive was a great way to see the sheer canyon walls that that I remembered seeing in King's Canyon in California last year. There were plenty of pull-outs that had sweeping views. at the top I took a 1.2 mile trail to a sweeping vista as a means to get acclimated to the altitude a bit and enjoy the area.


After taking off I headed back north to Cedar City UT for a stop for another 'Old Spanish Trail NHT' stamp (there would be a lot of these along the entire trip). After a bit of backtracking, I got off the interstate and headed to Cedar Breaks National Monument. I picked up my passport stamp at the visitor center and headed to the main overlook. This area is a basin full of hoodoos much like the well known Bryce Canyon but sits at a higher elevation. I spent quite a while here just enjoying the view and lack of major foot traffic and tried to hit all of the available vistas along the way. On the way back north I check out the Brian Head area that is a fairly popular ski area in the winter. There was a nice drive up to the top of the mountain that had some nice views as well.

After a good bit more driving, I finally pulled off at some random exit and looked for a place to crash. At first I was just going to find a side road on which side I could set up a tent, but I hadn't taken into account the extremely hard clay that made up much of the desert area. I finally found a gate and fence line somewhere that met at a 90 degree angle and set up my hammock tent.

After getting out of Las Vegas, I pretty much started to listen to audiobooks for most of the rest of the trip. I had started 'Alice in Wonderland' a while ago and finally got a chance to finish this as well as 'Through the Looking Glass'. If you ever wanted to know what goes through the mind of a child with seemingly extreme ADD, then this book would be a good revelation. Wow did the story ever jump around!