We have been having a great time in California. We had a fun day in beautiful San Francisco even though thick fog completely engulfed the Golden Gate Bridge. On the plus side, driving across the bridge in the fog was pretty cool. Tomorrow we drive to the docks and drop off the car with the shipping company. They require the car to be washed, inside and out, so that’s our next task today.

We are having a great time in Linden and will be heading into San Francisco today. Pictures soon. We miss everyone back in Chicago!

As Darlene mentioned, this off-the-beaten-path excursion was our favorite of the trip.

We heard there was a ghost town outside of Wells, Nevada but we didn’t know much more than that. We also knew that this was an unique ghost town because it was not your average old timey cowboy ghost town, Metropolis was founded in 1910 and didn’t make it much past the 1930s so the remaining buildings are more recognizable as “modern” buildings.

Our only hope was to find a Wells local who could point us in the right direction. There weren’t too many locals to be found, Wells is practically a ghost town itself. We found a friendly welder who had been to Metropolis many years ago and did his best to describe the route to the town that has been almost entirely swallowed by the desert.

We got lost almost immediately, at least we thought we were lost because the roads are barely roads and street signs have never existed. We drove deeper and deeper into the void and wondered if we would ever be able to find this needle in the 100 mile haystack. Using the limited information Google maps would provide on our cell phones we found a road we believed to be “Lower Metropolis Rd.” This was a good sign!

We drove and drove and drove for about 45 minutes into the never-changing scenery and were about to give up when we spotted something in the distance that didn’t quite match the surroundings. As we drove closer we saw the unmistakable silhouette of a building. Part of a building at least.

It was truly an eerie place. When we got out of the car I realized I have NEVER experienced silence like that before. It was the quietest place I have ever been. The only sound was the occasional buzzing of a fly, other than that, nothing. No wind, no traffic, no airplanes, nothing. The total absence of sound made this failed town feel even more tragic.

The only remaining buildings are the school and what was once a modern hotel with running water and climate control, the Hotel Metropolis. The whole atmosphere was creepy and somber, in exactly the way you want a ghost town to be. This place felt like it really did have ghosts watching our every move.

As we were following the little blue dot on our phones during the last ten minutes of our cross-country trip trying to find Phil’s house, we both came to a realization about the journey. Four days of driving, 2100 miles and being alone with each other, 24 hours a day, somehow went too fast. We were a little sad as we pulled into the driveway, knowing that our little adventure across the country was over.

But, this is really getting too sappy, eh? EH!? Sorry, I never type eh. Honestly, I couldn’t be happier about our trip. Even though the goal was to just get us, our stuff and the car to California, we ended up having a lot of fun and I think it was the adventure that we hoped it would be. We made it safely to California, we are happily at Phil and Kristine’s house, and the beer and pizza last night made everything feel right with the world again. There are more adventures to be had, no need to wish the trip wasn’t over yet, right?

So, back to Salt Lake City. The Metropolitan Inn was not the snazziest place around, but it did its job. We spent very little time in Salt Lake City after leaving the Inn so we could get on the road. We had 11 hours of driving ahead of us and we wanted to get an early start. Well, what gets momentum going better than stopping? We stopped about 20 minutes out of the city and posed on rocks like high school seniors for their senior photo near the Great Salt Lake. By the way, the Great Salt Lake smelled… like poop.

Wells, NV was our next stop. We planned on getting lunch at the local grocery store, but decided against the sushi. I just had a feeling that it wouldn’t be that fresh. Sometimes, I have to trust my instincts. I went for the beef jerky instead. We were going to need the energy for our next adventure: The Metropolis Ghost Town. I will let Kent take the story about Metropolis from here  – I will just say that we both agree that that our little Metropolis adventure was our favorite of the trip.

After the two hour Metropolis detour, we tried to focus on the drive. We only made one stop between Wells and Linden – in good ‘ole Winnemucca, NV. Don’t ever go to Winnemucca. They believe in the combination of sexy-man-photo borders, sexy man posters and country decor in women’s restrooms, steaming their ribs and don’t know how to fry fries. Come on, can’t fry fries? I am judging all Winnemuccaians based on our experience at The Pig and plan on never, ever going to Winnemucca ever again.

The drive through California went fast and the scenery was stunningly beautiful.

This trip taught us a few things – that we didn’t get to experience nature enough in the city, that we love to spend time together, that leaving family and friends is really hard, and that Winnemucca doesn’t know a gosh darned thing about BBQ.

We made it safely to Linden California! Although we drove 2100 miles, it seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye and it’s hard to believe the road trip is over. Today was our longest drive, so we decided to give ourselves a break and post photos and stories tomorrow. Goodnight.

“Date Night” is NOT a good movie. Kent would like to “punch this movie in the face.” Also, Thai-Japanese-Chinese-Korean fusion from Rice in downtown Salt Lake City is basically very expensive garbage. We just checked in to the classy Metropolitan Inn in Salt Lake City. For some reason, we had to beg the front desk for locks on our first story windows. They acted like we were being divas but eventually secured the windows with tiny screw things. Totally normal.

The good news is that we are now safe and sound in our little bunker here in the south side of Salt Lake. Today started off with good food. No, I take that back – GREAT food. I would say that it was the best diner food I have ever had in my life. I had a real sausage, cheese and egg biscuit sandwich and Luxury Potatoes, which were basically O’Brien potatoes but about 300% more luxurious. Really. Now let me go back to that biscuit sandwich. The biscuit was awesome. It was huge and fluffy and had no remnants metal or the metallic flavor you get from using canned biscuits.  The sausage is made by the owner’s grandfather (by hand) daily and he only uses the Laramie County Fair’s 1st Prize Pig and 100-year old recipe.*  Kent had amazing corned beef hash and some other food that I really didn’t pay attention to since I was fully enamored with my biscuit sandwich. The best food of our lives was thanks to Luxury Diner, connected to the Wyoming Hotel in Cheyenne. It was perfectly located between our hotel and the entrance ramp to 80 West.

The car has been giving us a little sputter-business when trying to start, so we decided to call up the local mechanic to see what the heck was up. We had the nice teen boy check our battery and after being told we were over 50% good in that department, we got on the road and started on our way through vast, beautiful big-sky Wyoming.

Our first stop was the nation’s smallest town, Buford, WY. It has a population of uno and consists of a little house and a big authentic Buford town sign. The best part was a guy named Buford pulled up and wanted us to take a picture of him in front of the Buford sign. Only in BUFORD!

Our second little stop was the nation’s favorite roadside attraction: The Wyoming Frontier Prison. They keep portions of the rope that they hanged people with underneath glass cases next to photos of the unfortunate inmate. It was creepy. There were dusty photos and confiscated shanks and barbed wire and a little gift shop.  There was also a frame made entirely out of Camel cigarette packages, using no binding material. We took some dumb pictures and got the hell out of that prison!

We stopped for Subway in Green River, got misinformation about how long the drive would be from there to Salt Lake City (3.5 hours) and got to Salt Lake City in about 2 hours. We don’t think that the Subway girl has ever left Green River.

*This sentence regarding the origins of Luxury Diner’s sausage has not been confirmed.

Kent has been working on the photo gallery while I write this. His contribution:

“And now here’s a thousand pictures of clouds.”