R & R In Evanston, WY

Getting into my fourth night here at the Prairie Inn, in Evanston Wyoming.

It is a great place with incredibly wide corridors, secure steel doors, real glass tumblers, almost an industrial launderette for clients, and the motel has an even bigger set up for its own stuff.

As said, the super 8 in Rock Spring, was a great place, but a bit expensive for me to spend more than one night. Also, due to all the coffee I had drunk en-route, I did not have a relaxing morning at all, but after a few hours rest, I got up and went looking for a bar! Well, just behind the Super 8 in Rock Springs, is a real Bar! Almost had sawdust on the floor. It was called WINGERS, and not only do they serve good ale, their burgers were brilliant. I am not very big, and I hate wasting food. In some places, if you order a Burger, they somehow pile on tons of stuff, that I never asked for, and cannot eat anyway. At Wingers it was a medium rare burger and a side of onion rings. The meat was probably an inch thick, awesome ! I cannot remember if I actually got a photo of that first meal, after the ride ? I will have to ask Christine.

Ah, yes, on the photography note, not having Christine behind me, with her 3 kg brick of a camera & lens, I have to do it all myself. We could have got some good pics of those 18 wheelers, on their sides, but not on my own. Also it very quickly became apparent, that the 14 mm pancake lens on my Lumix GF3 was not up to certain parts of the job. I was overjoyed to once again see the snow-clad tops of the Wasatch mountain range, the western edge of the Rockies. I thought that would make a great picture. So I stopped the bike and snapped a couple of piccys. Well, I put the card in my notebook, and it brought up the piccys. I use Picassa 3, because I am not very clever with digital stuff and Picassa was obviously designed with that in mind !
Well, I looked at all the piccys, and I couldn’t see any of the snow-clad peaks. Bugger ! Obviously I need a zoom lens. So Christine & Google & myself, had a conference.
We ended up agreeing that I needed to use some of the cash set aside for motels, on something better, or the blog would suffer, since momma wasn’t there to do the piccys.

First we looked at the Lumix 45 – 200, but once we saw the reviews twixt the 45 – 200, & the 45 – 175, we decided on the 45 – 175. Yes it is almost twice the price of the 45 – 200 but it was a lot smaller, and the zoom is internal, as opposed to the long sticky out thing, on the 45 – 200.

So I asked the manager of the motel in Evanston if I could stay another night, and yes, no problem.I phoned Adorama, in New York and they sorted an overnight delivery; brilliant. Ha, another days rest for the old bones.

Well the lens arrived here at around 1500. Christine was struggling to stay awake back in the UK, but I asked her to stay up, until I had taken a series of piccys, and we had looked at them. Well, it went ok, So I am reasonably confident that I will get some decent piccys for you all to enjoy.

Tomorrow, I will be leaving Evanston Wyoming, and crossing into Utah, staying off the Interstate.

The new lens and route planning

I will be going down 150 South, to Park City, then possibly over a few miles of dirt road, to Brighton, then through the scenic road, East Cottonwood Canyon, to Cottonwood heights, just for the scenery, then back to Heber City, and on down the 189 to Provo, where the road number changes to 6 / 89 all the way to Gunnison.
From Gunnison its 177 miles to Kanab. Total miles from Evanston Wyoming to Kanab Utah is 461.

So, twixt riding, and piccy taking, let us see how far I get. I do have a tent & sleeping bag, so as long as its warm, I am not bothered about motels. Guess I should think about buying some water & tinned food..

OK Perky People, time for me to close this down, and start packing the bags.
I hate having to pack everything the next morning, so I give myself a head start by doing some of it now, before going to bed.
Take Care Out There.