Delayed farewell to Salt Lake City

That's our campground in Salt Lake City - we'll miss the mountains

These 2 dogs live in the RV with their owners - pretty sunset walk

Great Salt Lake

Salt produced from the lake

Driving to Nevada

Murray taking photos of 3 girls on the Salt Flats

Fordyce on the Cottonbelt Salt Flats

Creating a map of Australia on the Salt Flats (didn't forget Tassie!)

The stunning snow capped mountains were about to become a thing of the past as we were driving out of our campground in Salt Lake City. One last stop to say goodbye to the campground hosts, and we would be on our way. As Murray bounded back to the RV to drive us westwards, he noticed our right front tyre was looking a bit flat. He checked it with his gauge, and sure enough, it had a lot less pressure than it had only a few hours earlier when he tested it. Darn. Being a Sunday, the main tyre businesses were closed, but fortunately a truck stop was able to help us out. It turned out some dust or ice must have affected the valve after Murray checked it early in the morning, but by the time it was checked, and re-checked, it was found to be ok and there was no puncture. However, as it all took time, we ended up checking back into the same campground.

The next day we headed west for the Nevada border. Before we got there, on our right for many miles, stretched the Great Salt Lake itself. We drove past the big salt producing mine and reached the Bonneville Salt Flats where the speed race for the 2005 movie 'The World's Fastest' Indian' was filmed.

Once you pass into Nevada, as well as having to turn your clocks back one hour (we are now on Pacific Time) you notice most towns have a casino. One dusty little town had a service station, a few houses, and a casino - that was about it. We drove on to the city of Elko - it has a population of about 17,000 and it has 5 casinos. We found one that had its own RV park, right in a central location. It cost less than half the nightly rate of the other two full service campgrounds, yet it had 30+ cable channels and free wifi. The restaurant in the casino is well patronised, and as luck would have it, today is their TBone steak dinner special. A 10 oz T Bone with choice of potato (baked, mashed, or fries), vegetables, baked garlic, and salad for a whopping $7.99. Afterwards we checked out the slot machines (pokies for us Aussies), and when Murray had won his $5 back with $2 extra, we went home.

We aren't noticing as many RV's on the roads this year - I think I may have already mentioned this. Instead of losing money, the campgrounds seem to be making up for it by accepting a lot of permanents who work on projects such as road works or pipeline construction in the vicinity. Owning a caravan/trailer or motorhome, workers can follow the job around and take their home with them.