Aloha kakahiaka! Good morning! Suzette and Owen were on their way an hour earlier than our time, and this is what greeted me when I got up and hurried to my computer:

“Utah!! Happy New Year!”

So already the two of them had been in Oregon, Idaho, and now Utah.

About an hour and a half later, they were on I-84 east out of Ogden, headed toward Wyoming. I can’t read what the exit number is…too blurry.

This is the part I was really enjoying, because I’ve never been this far east before. And only about ten minutes later, this was the view alongside the road. I texted Suzette, “You are sure “eastbound and down, loaded up and truckin'”. I told her that it was snowing here but that I didn’t think it was going to stick. In the meantime, Suzette and Owen hadn’t been out of snow since The Dalles! What a gorgeous view!!

And no, in case you’re wondering, I still couldn’t catch them on any webcam. This is what my monitor looked like.  See all the webcams? I was trying to stay a little bit ahead of the big yellow truck so that I could capture a screenshot as they showed up in the camera. Only of course, I couldn’t.

In the meantime, Suzette and Owen were “likin’ this blue sky!”

I sent her a photo of what it was looking like here. The snow was coming down hard.

I asked Suzette if they’d be able to get to their new home tonight, and she said that if the roads continued to be good, she thought they might. It was a long, long, trip…I checked. It was almost exactly 1200 miles in two days! I don’t know if my ʻokole could’ve handled that! They were grateful for the lumbar pillows they had, though.

I went into the kitchen and decided to take some photos from our lānai across the pasture, but I saw something down there that looked alarming. I got the binoculars out, and sure enough, one of the horses we board was lying still as could be down at the bottom of the pasture. So I had to take a webcam break immediately. (I’ll write a separate post about the rescue…Ricky is okay, but it was a pretty scary time…I thought he had died.) I was able to keep texting Suzette while I took photos of the rescue.

I asked Suzette if they’d be able to see the Great Salt Lake, but she said no, that they turned east before that. Sorry, I can’t read this exit sign either.

They were now in Wyoming; they’d fueled up in Evanston and were now heading toward Rock Springs. It’s funny how little snow was on the ground here.

Wyoming! The only times I’d ever been there were when we’d gone to Yellowstone. So I was really enjoying this part of the road trip, seeing sights I’d never seen, views I’d never seen, and riding virtual shotgun with my friend. I was so grateful for all of Suzette’s texts and photos…of course it never occurred to me that I might not have unlimited texting! I was too excited about being with her!

They were almost to Rock Springs now. “Just wide open space! Looking for antelope”, Suzette wrote.

This was at Green River. And nope, still no webcam screenshot. The sign reads, ” Expedition Island – National Historic Landmark.”  Cool!!! And since you know how I adore historic stuff, I Googled it.  You can go here to read more about it.

K’den, I need to go read more about this place. I didn’t think that this road trip would be so long, but I’m having fun writing it and figuring out which photos go where and seeing so much of our wonderful country.

Mahalo for riding shotgun with me riding shotgun with Suzette and Owen!