Bonneville Salt Flats and Beyond!

September 23, 2017
Bureau of Land Management Land is amazing! No services, but no people either, and it is free! We camped two nights along the edge of the Bonneville Salt Flats, near where they do the land speed record racing.

Rocky ridges and mountains behind us- a never-ending view across the flats to Salt Lake City and the mountains beyond. We hiked up in behind and found a huge meadow surrounded by the mountains/hills.

 
Now we are at Rockport State Park- Juniper Campground- the junipers are small trees here and the air is filled with the scent. We are on a resevoir on a small lake. Spent a week here with weather varying from 30 degrees all night long to almost 70 one day.

Derek is deploying on Sunday- first to Fort Bliss, TX for another month of training, then off to the Middle East-the exact location is classified. Although, it looks like he and about a dozen others are being moved back to Artillery after training in Infantry for the last 6 months. His Artillery job- Fire Directon Control, using a computer to direct artillery where to shoot- hopefully a slightly safer job than infantry. We spent several days with Derek at the campground around the campfire and in Salt Lake City. The departure ceremony was short and (bitter)sweet as stated, however the whole process took 5 hours from soldiers arriving, the ceremony, waiting for the plane to arrive and then the boarding ceremony. This gave us more time with Derek, however was also very stressful for families, especially children saying good bye to a parent. Derek’s father and his wife were there, too. The pic of the stuffed bear? well, an organization called Operation Gratitude supplied them. Some soldiers took them as Cuddle Buddies, others gave them to their child. Derek (no surprise here) did not want his, and was okay with me giving it to a family with two children but only one bear. So, an almost newborn will have a bear while he waits for his Dad to come home in a year- the Mom was very appreciative.

 
And we are off again- to Colorado- and oddly enough to by a new rig. We have always been researching and thinking about what the next “Home” would look like…and it kind of fell into our laps with an offer to good to refuse. This is a 30ft. travel trailer, heavy duty for off road, and bigger fresh and grey water tanks, and many other features that we are ready for. The manufacturer (small company with not many dealers) found the exact model with the most of the options we want in Poncha Springs, CO. They made us a good deal on the trade-in and options, so here we go!