Day One (08.23.09) Through Montana and Idaho, by the time we reached the Utah border it was late into the evening. By that point Dave and I were fairly quiet, enjoying music and making predictions about what the landscape looked like that we couldn't see. I remember Dave selecting a lot of R.E.M. tracks.
All of the population in Utah is practically located in the corridor surrounding Great Salt Lake, which gives the illusion early on that you must be close to Salt Lake City (if you're not used to the drive). In reality, by the time we reached Ogden, we were still a ways off from our destination, and with midnight rolling around we were feeling beat.
Bursts of rain continued to hit us randomly and then stop, on and off several times throughout the day. I remember this becoming more treacherous as we neared Salt Lake. The dirt on our windshield combined with the lights of oncoming traffic and buildings made for one blurry mess. In any case, we made it to Salt Lake City, spotting the giant temple from the interstate and looping around the international airport several times in our effort to find our hotel. By the time my head hit my pillow I was out.
Day Two (08.24.09) We awoke the next day intent on exploring downtown Salt Lake before heading south to Las Vegas. We parked kitty-corner to Temple Square and took a casual walk around the complex, spending extra time to take pictures of ourselves mimicking the statues. If there is one thing I could say about my impression of Salt Lake, it's that the place was immaculately clean and well landscaped.
We followed the Salt Lake Temple with a trip up to the State Capital Building, taking more random photos with statues and pictures of ourselves sitting on the steps. 'I'm Just a Bill' from Schoolhouse Rock was sung (by me anyway, haha).
The entire time I was trying to contain my enthusiasm, not because of any single thing we saw, but because I knew that this was just the beginning of our road trip. We could have easily spent several days exploring Utah, but instead the brief stop actually helped to justify the distance we were covering for the sake of the things we were going to be able to see and experience.
It was upon leaving Salt Lake City that the clouds from the day before finally started to break up. Heading south to Vegas the sun suddenly appeared, giving everything a golden colour and revealing the incredible transformation from the green and grey of Montana. It was as we passed Provo that afternoon I remember quipping, "this is where the road trip really begins".
Day One (08.23.09) Crossing the border from Alberta into Montana wasn't that big of a deal. But as we sped to reach Salt Lake City before 1am we did get to see the first evolution of the landscape. Over several hours the prairies started to disappear and rolling foothills replaced them.
In contrast to the Alberta Rockies around Banff, I was surprised to realize that we had actually reached the mountains at first. That's not to say they weren't beautiful, but with the gradual ascent it was more like driving around peaks than being dwarfed by towering monoliths. Mind you, this was just the impression from the interstate.
Dave and I cruised south listening to everything from the Top 40 to a crazy Christian radio show where the host had the guts to go on and on about the supposed end of the world in 2011. Everyone was really friendly when we stopped for breakfast food in the afternoon in Great Falls, but stereotypes about how red of red state Montana was were easy to spot. It's kind of exactly what we had hoped for to keep the drive interesting. Montana was awesome.
Nearly running out of gas once (thanks for keeping an eye on that Dave) Montana was an otherwise fairly relaxing (if not relatively familiar) way to start off an ambitious road trip. The first day of the week long excursion had been spent, amounting to over 12 hours in the car.
It's been months since my friend Dave and I found ourselves in Southern California lounging in the desert, which is why it's great to finally have all this footage edited and ready to share. The wait and process of revisiting this footage after a few months break makes this feel brand new to me also. There's not much to say about the introduction because I explain everything within the video. For all of the edits that follow I'll explain a bit more of the back story, how we came to be in each spot, and my reactions to the destinations within these blog posts. My goal is to paint a picture of the journey as this wasn't about taking a vacation, it was about experiences. So, care to go on a video road trip? This is Indio Outio.
