Another Trip, Same Road, New Beginning

In the course of my lifetime, I have made a certain road trip more times than I can count, literally. It is the road from Central California to Salt Lake City Utah and Pocatello Idaho and back again. Until now, I would describe this trip as mundane, boring, tiring, and lonnnngggg! This time around, I have a different outlook.
My second daughter, Clair, graduated from University of Utah a few weeks ago with a Bachelor of Science in Communications/Print Journalism. I couldn't miss this once in a lifetime event for her. So, we packed up our aging auto with a few suitcases, food, pillows, blankets, music, books...... You get the picture. It is about 800 miles and roughly 10-11 hours of driving depending on how fast you speed; I mean drive. Luckily I don't have to be the driver. My good husband mans that job quite well.

I decided to take pictures of anything and everything of interest to myself and the other occupants of the aging auto, my husband and my daughter, Ariana. Yes, take pictures so I could then describe this trip differently. I think it worked. There are a lot of interesting, even beautiful things between here and Utah. Even desert can be beautiful.

The Sierra Nevada's were my first picture source.

I've always wanted to take a picture of the sierra railroad structure that runs along the mountains. It has always fascinated me. I took this from our moving car; doing 60 mph. That is fresh snow in May!

I'll always love the rugged beauty of the Sierra's. There's no view of rock and tree quite like it.

The sun was just coming up as we headed east on I-80. Makes for a beautiful morning drive.

The Truckee River is always an adventure to follow and watch as you wind your way through the canyons. There were still patches of ice here and there.

And on we went into lovely Nevada!!

I love to watch the low lying clouds and the deep shadows they cast on the hills.

The clouds seem like some heavenly animal or alien waiting to trap you. Clouds are mesmerizing to me.

The skies above the mountain tops were all covered with snow and snow clouds like this one.

Another distant, snowy peak with grey skies above it.

The left side of the picture is a snow storm in progress. The mountain range goes on but you just cannot see it because of the thick snow falling. It did this all the way across Nevada, snowing in 'spots'. I've never seen anything like it.

We then come to one of our favorite spots.....The Tunnel!! Of course we have to honk our horn at least 20 times before the end of the tunnel.

We passed into Utah and captured these cool cloud shadows near Tooele.

Clair's graduation ceremony was awesome. I was so proud of her.There were over 1000 Bachelor of Science degrees given in this ceremony. They had it down to a 'science' (haha).

Clair's name was read somewhere in the middle of the 1000 + names!

It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon but it was only about 60 degrees. It snowed the day before.
Here is Clair sporting the UofU red diploma!

Then after the important person, Chad Hubby, we all had to pose with the graduate!

I was so excited to get to see and hear bagpipes. What a way to begin a ceremony! Only a true Scottsman would appreciate it!!

We then did what all humans do when they celebrate. We gathered together at a convenient location and ate something good and visited.

Here is the group minus one. We missed Cody! This was taken at Nichole's house. I was so honored to be the only grandparent or adult for that matter that Brielle would let hold her other than her mama.

After visiting at Uncle Brian's and Grandma Adam's house for a few hours (I didn't get any pictures there.....Sorry Brian and Grandma), we then traveled up to Pocatello, Idaho to visit the Budge clan.
We took Tracy's parents out to breakfast, always a treat but something I ate gave me a headache, yuck.

It just so happened that one of Tracy's nieces graduated from Idaho State University the same day that Clair did from UofU. So we got to attend a barbecue in honor of her and visit with Tracy's sister, Deb, and her family. They are a sweet, friendly bunch of people.

Lori, Deb, Tracy, Tracy, Stuart, Leeanne and her son, Sherman, Dawnetta and her husband Mathew.

I had fun watching this little bird. It had a nest in the roof of the picnic pavillion. It was nervous with all the people so close and kept looking at us like we were trying to steal it's peace and quiet.

I captured these tulips that were growing in Elaine's front yard (Mom Budge).

We then drove out to a spot called 'Blackrock Canyon' and went target shooting. Tracy brought his guns and his dad contributed a pistol and we had a grand time. Ariana and I had as much fun as the men.

View of the canyon.

Setting up a target.

The terrain was pretty scrubby.

Elaine scavenged junk while Keneth worked on targets.
I kept myself busy looking for pictures to take while the guns were getting unpacked and loaded.

Then we just had fun shooting and shooting and shooting.

Early the next morning we were on the road again....back to California.

We stopped at a rest stop and I noticed this huge birds nest. It was in a relatively low spot for such a big nest.

Then I watched this guy for a while though he didn't belong to the nest.

We then met up with Chad and Clair in Elko and ate a late breakfast. Ariana rode the rest of the way home to Modesto with them so Tracy and I could stop in Sacramento for our three appointments there the next day.

Ariana took this one of Clair while she was listening to Tracy.

This day was Mother's Day; a strange day to be on the road. But that's the way it worked out. So I thought of my mom and my step mom.

These were taken at Nichole's two days previous.

I had gifts from all my kids.  And to complete the day, Cody called me while we were on the road.

I captured a few more unique, odd, and beautiful scenes as we neared the end of our trip.

In the middle of nowhere, just one other car in sight, we came upon a stoplight.   And it was red.  Now that was weird.  So we stopped and waited for a long time and we finally saw the other car at the other end.

While we were waiting I discovered these two horses keeping each other company.  They were quite a ways out in the distance from the highway.

Another beautiful Nevada desert landscape. Again, a lot of snow for May.

Our driver, my Honey, looking good!

Ariana joined him while waiting for the car to fill up. She always brings extra smiles to a moment.

Some more great cloud formations.

As we neared the Sierra's again, it was snowing off and on. There was a lot of new snow on the mountain tops.

This area was one that had been hard hit with fires a few years ago.  Still beautiful.

So there you have it.  The same road, a new beginning of sorts for Clair, a new beginning for me in how I perceived the I-80 corridor through 3 states, and a memorable trip filled with all of these memories.