Pit stops, Detours and Tourist Traps

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Fri May 21, 2004 2:23 pm

BYU: If you're not married after three semesters, you get your money back.

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Fri May 21, 2004 2:24 pm

Damn I'm stupid. It's http://HOME.Comcast.net/maggiemayday

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Fri May 21, 2004 2:25 pm

Delete button, whither hast thou gone?

Damn I'm stupid. It's http://HOME.Comcast.net/~maggiemayday

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:13 am

I'm a bit lost on where you will actually be connecting to I-80. However, if you are on I-80 in Western Nebraska and Wyoming then I can suggest a couple of stops.

In Sydney, Nebraska there is Cabela's. A hunting/camping store with a duck pond, horse corrals, a decent cafe, and hotels nearby. The hotels aren't cheap. The clothing in the store is very good playa wear. You can buy pants and have them hemmed to fit at no additional cost. Have lunch while you wait. We stopped there both on our way to and on our way home from Burning Man last year. It was a good place to get off the road, feed the ducks, and go bargain shopping for camping supplies and clothes. Some of it was just ogling the cool very expensive tents too. It's a big store with aquariums in it too.

I think it was in Nebraska that we drove by the Military Vehicle Museum or something like that as well. We didn't stop, but I've seen stuff about it on tv and on the internet. If seeing old helicopters and tanks is your thing, you might check that out.

In Wyoming, we stopped at the Lincoln Highway memorial. The highest point on I-80 or something like that. Not a lot to see, but a good place to stretch your legs and read about local history and the old Route 30 that is still around in pieces, which preceded the I-80 days.

In Utah, there is of course Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats. At the Wendover exit, rest area, I saw some posters for the Idaho state fair that looked like they were straight from the 1930s or something. Very um... "come see our cow patties" type stuff. I was rather amused, unfortunately the tourist center was closed and my pictures didn't come out very well because of the glare from the glass case they were in.

I'd be interested in hearing other ideas too. We'll probably be taking I-80 most of the way ourselves.

Dustdevil · Post by **Dustdevil** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:25 am

The military vehicle museum is in Lexington, NE. It makes a nice stopping point. The best food in that area will be in Kearney. Lots and Lots of good places to eat. Grandpa's Steak House is a little upscale, but USA Steak buffet is good. Also, on Friday evenings from 5:00 to 9:00 PM the Holiday Inn has a really nice seafood and primerib buffet. Also along 80 in Elmcreek, NE is Chevyland, a small auto museum featuring only Chevrolets. Both museums can be seen from 80.

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:32 am

Dustdevil wrote:The military vehicle museum is in Lexington, NE. It makes a nice stopping point. The best food in that area will be in Kearney. Lots and Lots of good places to eat. Grandpa's Steak House is a little upscale, but USA Steak buffet is good. Also, on Friday evenings from 5:00 to 9:00 PM the Holiday Inn has a really nice seafood and primerib buffet. Also along 80 in Elmcreek, NE is Chevyland, a small auto museum featuring only Chevrolets. Both museums can be seen from 80.

OOOHH... Is USA Steak Buffet an "all-you-can-eat steak" place? Hmm... may try to fit that into the schedule if it times out right.

Dustdevil · Post by **Dustdevil** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:34 am

Yes it certainly is! AND it really had good food. One would expect tough pre frozen meat that the dog would always finish, but that wasn't the case at all.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat May 22, 2004 11:15 am

http://www.sltrib.com/2004/jan/01142004/utah/129024.asp

Link goes to a recent story in a local Salt Lake Tribune about the spiral jetty. It's pretty damn cool. Not the paper, the jetty.

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Sat May 22, 2004 11:32 am

Dustdevil wrote:Yes it certainly is! AND it really had good food. One would expect tough pre frozen meat that the dog would always finish, but that wasn't the case at all.

I believe Kearney, Nebraska also has a Cabela's, although it's not as big as the flagship store in Sydney.

Guess it's time to start a list of potential detours and stopping points!

For anyone coming from New England, on I-90 on your way to I-80, I've Mr. C's in Ohio is a good restaurant too. It's right in the Ohio/Pennsylvania/New York stretch. We stayed overnight at a hotel nearby and went to the Flying J's in the morning on our way home. It was a good place to stop right before coming back to the real world.

Post by **AntiM** » Sat May 22, 2004 10:41 pm

Just remembered, there's a cool little aviation museum at the Wendover airport, the Utah side, not the Nevada side. This is especially of interest to history buffs; during WW2, this is where the Enola Gay was loaded up. Creepy, but significant, I also have seen exhibits in Japan and got the strangest feeling having physically been at both ends/sites of nuclear death. Maybe morbid, but sometimes you need to visit the ugly to appreciate the beautiful.

If you're dropping by the spiral jetty, that would add about an entire day to the trip; I-80 runs the south end of the Great Salt Lake, while the spiral jetty is at the north end. The roads on the west all al dirt, but quite drivable, even with a trailer. The Sun Tunnels are on the western side too. If you have time to spare, go for it.

You know, Genius, now I'll have to keep at least one jetty shot up on my site now instead of all the Synorgy stuff. Oh wait, I posted the link first elsewhere didn't I? I can be contacted off eplaya for more pictures if anyone has a real interest. Although they're all pretty much the same ...

anti m

Dustdevil · Post by **Dustdevil** » Sun May 23, 2004 9:00 am

As long as we're in Wendover now, the Bonneville museum is interesting if you are into racing. It has the Blue Flame driven by Craig Breedlove and other record setting vehicles from the Salt Flat record attempts.

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Sun May 23, 2004 11:33 am

Dustdevil wrote:As long as we're in Wendover now, the Bonneville museum is interesting if you are into racing. It has the Blue Flame driven by Craig Breedlove and other record setting vehicles from the Salt Flat record attempts.

Any online links to the Bonneville museum? My ex-step-father raced motorcycles there in the late 1960s I think. Maybe it was early 1970s. I haven't been in touch with him for a while, but I might pass on the info to my brother or something.

Last year driving through the salt flats I was surprised by the SMELL! I didn't expect it to stink for some reason. I guess there must be a waste treatment facility or landfill or something near I-80 in that area.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Mon May 24, 2004 5:44 am

We overnighted in Wendover last year....I took a liking to the heavily-graffiti'd mountain. We made the CARDINAL ERROR of NOT topping the tank before crossing the Big Salty Nothingness, and rode in literally on fumes.....Make sure you can go 100 miles or so without refueling when you hit that patch of road, especially at night like we did! Yow.
The Cabela's in Nebraska is the flagship store, so I was surprised at how much smaller it was than the one south of Detroit- It has a whole indoor mountain populated with taxidermy, representing a whole ecosystem! A fully stocked trout stream! Best of all, it has a big BARGAIN ROOM with closeouts and damaged goods that just cry to be playafied! (The Nebraska one did, too.) They post the GPS co-ords for their stores on their website, and I skipped I-94 and found them "overland" by instruments, stopping at Irish Hills (Mystery Hill! Prehistoric Village!) and the Michigan Space Museum in Jackson. (Run down!)

Post by **AntiM** » Mon May 24, 2004 6:01 am

Last year driving through the salt flats I was surprised by the SMELL! I didn't expect it to stink for some reason. I guess there must be a waste treatment facility or landfill or something near I-80 in that area.

That fragrance along I-80 was not waste or landfill, that smell is well-known to Utahns: LAKE STINK. That big expanse of salty water is full of plant and animal life which grows and dies, and in the heat of summer you get wafts of that lovely aroma called lake stink. Something like the smell of the ocean, but staler and trapped in a mountain valley.

We even get it up here on the benches when the winds are right. That's how you can tell it is really summer.

Anti M

Icepack · Post by **Icepack** » Mon May 24, 2004 4:14 pm

The 2 seem to be an hour or two apart, which would be the better stop for a good meal and a cheap hotel?

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:24 am

Icepack wrote: I think it was in Nebraska that we drove by the Military Vehicle Museum or something like that as well. We didn't stop, but I've seen stuff about it on tv and on the internet. If seeing old helicopters and tanks is your thing, you might check that out.

Any mechanical mules?

Ranger Genius · Post by **Ranger Genius** » Tue May 25, 2004 8:43 am

There's also a great museum at Hill Air Force Base, lots of historical airplanes and such. I-15 exit 341, less than five minutes off the freeway if you're on your way from I-80 to the Spiral Jetty..and it's free.

Release Me · Post by **Release Me** » Tue May 25, 2004 10:28 am

Great stop, small detour off I-80 in the great state of Nevada!
Northern Nevada

Sand Mountain Recreation Area, Fallon
Sandboarding, Sandboarding

NV
Description: This area is becoming a haven for sandboarders who are soaring over the recreation area's razorbacks and steep runs for extreme thrills. Sandboarders share the dunes with off-highway vehicles (OHVs), so shredders are advised to keep a sharp eye. The Bureau of Land Management oversees this 4,795-acre area formed thousands of years ago from quartz particles created by ancient glaciers grinding away Sierra granite. The basin below the Stillwater Range formed a natural trap for the airborne sand particles. While carving the nearly 600-foot dunes, sandboarders can hear the "booming" sounds of the shifting sands, which have given Sand Mountain the nickname "Singing Mountain."
Directions: 25 miles east of Fallon on U.S. 50
Information: BLM, Carson City District Office, 5665 Morgan Mill Rd., Carson City, NV 89706; 775-885-6000;
Web site: http://www.nv.blm.gov

Central NV, 25 miles east of Fallon/600 vertical feet/4,795 mystical acres

Been there, bring your snowboard![/img]

hageymon · Post by **hageymon** » Tue May 25, 2004 11:51 am

Damn, Aaron, you're a walking ENCYCLOPEDIA, man! You musta had some good teachers!

Release Me · Post by **Release Me** » Tue May 25, 2004 12:34 pm

My education consisted of nothing but the finest of intellectual content and the most sought after educators this planet has to offer. My financial managment education was so important to me that I was accually educated by someone not from this planet!

hageymon · Post by **hageymon** » Tue May 25, 2004 12:43 pm

Hey, Aaron, THANKS! Thank GAWD I'm NOT "from" this planet, not do I ever intend to be really "on" this planet, either. I LIKE being crazy!

Simply Joel · Post by **Simply Joel** » Tue May 25, 2004 1:09 pm

Route 50 in Nevada... just some interesting vistas... obscure out of the way places with real obscure poeple.

robotland · Post by **robotland** » Thu May 27, 2004 10:57 am

As a public service to anyone out my neck of the woods, I'll occasionally throw out a detour from Southwest Michigan.....

SUNSET JUNK
Between South Haven and Saugatuck on Blue Star Highway, West(Lake) side of the road...
Part antique store, part architectural salvage company, part urban archaeology museum, SunJunk spawls over two acres and contains a remarkable assortment of weird stuff.....stained glass windows, gypsy wagons, yard art, road signs, and my personal favorite, many of the giant Scary Monsters from Farmer Friday's Haunted Market tourist attraction that, sadly, closed a few years ago. (You used to be able to buy rubber monster masks that hung over the meat case!) Giant spiders and such lurk in the big and spooky tree that dominates the property, and the main building where the money changes hands would do as a stand-in for the general store in Texas Chainsaw.......A demented hit of visual Windowpane in a vast sea of Lighthouse Paintings and Pewter Seagulls On Driftwood that makes up too much of what we Michiganders call "The Blue Coast".

itsallbrite · Post by **itsallbrite** » Sat May 29, 2004 9:48 pm

Well if ya happen to take the southern route through vegas there's a few interesting places to stop along the way. There's Ryolite, an old ghost town by Beatty (Hwy 95, 2 hrs north of vegas). There are some really cool artitic things on the main street of Rhyolite before the actual ruins of the town. Then on hwy 95 just an hour north of vegas is the Temple of Goddess Spirituality a Wiccan (Dianic) temple that it unique and interesting sekhmettemple.com . I know a lot of people who like to take the northern then southern route if they have the time.

Have phun!

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 8:34 am

itsallbrite wrote:Well if ya happen to take the southern route through vegas there's a few interesting places to stop along the way. There's Ryolite, an old ghost town by Beatty

Ya know, a few weeks ago I found a website of ghost towns all over the west. (I think that they had Pony, Wyoming, for instance.) I don't know if I still have the link, but it was pretty cool with pics and videos of now and historical pics too.

Of course this means I have to find it.

Post by **AntiM** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 8:52 am

This is a cool link to Nevada ghost towns .... actually, there's quite a few good sites.

http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/nv.html

Sounds like so much fun ....

Anti M

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:21 pm

Yup that's the site. http://www.ghosttowns.com/
will get you to other states and to Canadian provences. Hey, ruins are cool!

(btw--I no it makes me suspisciously "pro-moop" but I gotta wonder what the archeologists of the future will make of the playa. . .)

Release Me · Post by **Release Me** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 12:48 pm

I 've been very suspicious of your pro-moopness for quite sometime now...it's all coming together...

theCryptofishist · Post by **theCryptofishist** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 3:38 pm

Uhoh. Flushed out of my disguise of 37 feather boas, a forest of potted trees, a sequined dress, and hair full of glitter, I have been exposed as the queen of moop who randomly strews bits of broken plastic and the corners of foil packets all over the playa in a pathetic attempt to remember my way home. . .

BAS · Post by **BAS** » Tue Jun 01, 2004 6:49 pm

...and here I was thinking of just bringing a really large ball of twine, tying one end to my camp and one to me....

Pit stops, Detours and Tourist Traps

tourist traps

Steak buffet?

Kearney, NE and Ohio

North Platte or Kearney Nebraska

Re: tourist traps

Sand Mountain

Sand Mountain

Southern Route

Re: Southern Route