Grand American Tour Day 19: Boise

Today was a relaxing day, just hang out with the dogs and horse, clean the car and enjoy the mountain top breeze. So nothing much.

Grand American Tour Day 18: Salt Lake City to Boise

The drive out of Salt Lake is fairly interesting. As we were driving into the city, we were moving away from the canyon desert scape into the salt lake area. Driving out, it was interesting to see that the land began to turn into lush parie with tall grass on moist land over rolling hills and the old western wooden barns sprinkled over the landscape. Livestock like cattle grazed casually all over the mountains. It was full of life, not like a tropical exotic jungle, but gentle, subtle and relaxing.






Stopped by a Mexican restaurant which happened to be television featured, excellent food!

The land really changed as we got into Idaho state. The same prairie, the same farm land with cows grazing, but the rocks are different. From ancient and solid canyon red rocks, the Idaho land consists mostly of young volcanic rocks formed from lava that cooled down not that long ago. Of course, that’s a relative term. To humans, everything is very old.



The rocks are almost black in color, but painted with vibrant colors from algae and other plant matters. In a way, it is more colorful than the single-hue red rocks in the Utah canyons. The canyons here are also different. Lots of rivers cut into the rocks forming gorge, although not as grand as the grand canyon, offers opportunities for every one, especially the locals, to enjoy the nature. I mean, how often do you get a majestic waterfall as a city park?













Driving across Idaho also teaches about the American agricultural industry. On one side of the highway, there are the free grazing cows on lush green. On the other side are industrialized farm land where cows eat from troughs and live on their own crap. Over the landscape are also gigantic machines, long pipes on wheels that spray chemicals onto the vegetation in a circular pattern. There were very few people on the field, if any, and everything is automated.

There is also pretty high concentration of Mexicans all over Idaho. It’s no El Paso, but close. City parks and pockets of neighbourhood. I guess agriculture brings workers, and Mexicans are handy folks. That said, other than grocery store cold sandwiches, Mexican food were the next most food that I’ve consumed on this trip.

Then I was closing on my friend’s place. He said he lives in the mountain only accessible by dirt road. He said he has elk and wild turkey visiting him every day. He said he’s got two loving golden retrievers and a horse, and a Porsche Boxster. Sounds damn good to me.



Getting off the free way, there’s 19miles of road to cover before I will get to his place. 19 miles of winding roads along the river in the beautiful gorge of Snake River. This is more like a place where I go for the weekend, I can’t believe that this guy lives here! So there it is, on top of the mountain, two loving golden retrievers awaits.


Neighbour's dog.




Daily visit from wild turkeys.

Grand American Tour Day 17: Salt Lake City and Bonneville

There are what we call Mecca places for car enthusiasts. First is the Nurburgring which I am dying to go. The second is the Bonneville Salt Flats. So what’s Bonneville Salt Flat? It’s basically a large dried flat plain of salt as a result of dried salt lake. It’s flat and seems endless, ideal place for speed record breaking and simply…. hooning.

I don’t really know what it will be like. Will I be able to drive onto the salt flat and have a go or will I just be allowed to stand on the side and take photos of practically nothing? How will the salt be like? Will it shred my tires or will it just be wet and sleek? How will be the surface be like? Bumpy or smooth?

Well, I am about to find out.



So after 1.5 hours of driving west of Salt Lake City, we turned off at an exit. This exit only goes to one place, the Bonneville Salt Flat. The road takes you miles into the salt flat, then it ends. There was no building or structure, just a sign that tells you that you are there, and warning against the use of fireworks and glass containers. There it is, the Bonneville Salt Flat. Without thinking, I drove down the little slope onto the salt. The first bit was bumpy. I guess the traffic gets heavy thus the bumpy surface. Then as I went further, the surface becomes smoother, the salt became whiter and cleaner, and I was like a dog unleashed in a dog park.

Foot on the gas pedal, well, not to the metal though. I quickly realized that it’s not as easy as I thought. Taking the car up to 60mph, I started to feel uncomfortable. Will I hit a pot hole that I can’t see? Will I lose traction and spin out? Will I bounce on a bump and flip over? All these questions means I should play it safe. After all, I still have to depend on my car for the miles I have ahead. It’s not the end yet, and I should not play like it is.









However, I did do one thing that I can’t on regular roads or parking lots. Spinning out. It’s a front wheel drive car, so I can’t do regular donuts, but I can make tight turns to kick the back end out and have fun with it, and I did.

Of course, the biggest reason why I want to come here to badly is, this is also the place where glamor car photos are taken. It’s stereotypical, iconic, old, or whatever you call it. I just know that when I was doing car renderings, we always render it like as if the car is either in the desert or on the salt flat. So here I am, experiencing the real thing, with my own car, and taking photos of my own car in this iconic setting. One more box checked.

After all the fun, what I did not realize is the amount of salt that gets suck onto the car. Under the mirrors, the wheel well, suspension, chassis… you name it. The first thing that I did when I got back from salt flat was head to the car wash. Blasting the salt off the car isn’t hard, but trying to clean every bit of it was really something. It got into every corner, corners that I could not reach or see. It took several washes down the road to get rid of all of it. It was nasty. But was it worth the trouble? Absolutely! All I have to say is, if you want to drive on the salt flat, don’t do it with your own car.



So back to Salt Lake City. What’s there? My impression of Salt Lake City is the Utah Jazz, the glorious days of Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek making it into the finals against the Chicago Bulls, against the mighty Michael Jordan. However, they will always remain as those who didn’t get there, although great, not the greatest. I personally have great admiration for these three players. While the field was all about rock stars and one-man team, Karl Malone, John Stockton and Jeff Hornacek were playing solid old school basketball. They were consistent. They delivered.













So other than streets that are named after Karl Malone and John Stockton, what’s there in Salt Lake City?

Churches! To be specific, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which is more commonly referred to as the Mormon Church. So our friendly personal friend, who’s a Mormon, told us that Brigham Young led Mormons to settle in the area and thrived. The LDS Convention Center in downtown Salt Lake is like the capitol of the Mormon Church where international broad casts are made. It’s a grand operation, much more than I can imagine. In a big way, it’s like running a country, only much more effective and efficient. Right beside the convention center is Temple Square where the outdoor ground is opened to the public, as well as visitor centers. Religious factors aside, one thing that was very evident from the construction of the buildings as well as the conduct code of the church members is determination and dedication. I don’t think I can find better words to describe the spirit of the Mormon Church.







A part of being a Mormon for many members is mission. Guys go on a 2-year mission while girls have 18 months. Being on the church ground, I’d say 50% of the people within sight were missionaries, girls to be specific, stationed at the church ground to talk to people. All good intention, but I have a suggestion. I think all visitors should receive a tag. Once the visitor have been approached by a missionary, he can put the tag on him so other missionaries know he’s been approached before. Otherwise, it gets negative after a while of repeated approaches. I mean, we had to start to avoid them.

Like all major cities, there were homeless folks asking for help, only this is right outside the church targeting visitors. I guess the world is a complicated place. Chinese temples also tend to have beggars because of the visitors. I really don’t know whether to mix these all up. Sympathy, greed, compassion, exploitation… I guess, I was just find the complexity when there’s such intersection of promise and despair.



Outside of churches, Salt Lake City is a very clean city. Very well maintained scape with beautiful historic houses. The weather is beautiful too, reminds me of the mid west… the good version of the mid west. Surrounded by mountains and ski resorts helps too!





More photos HERE!!

Grand American Tour Day 16: Arches National Park

MOAR ROCKS!!!!!

So far we’ve been looking at rocks. Rocks, rocks and more rocks. Arches National Park is where you see some really animated rocks. Rocks that come in all forms of shape, most of them monumental in size, some more corny than others. The rocks are formed by erosion from both wind and water. It’s a wonder how nature builds and destroys at the same time, yet produces beauty no matter what the process is. I guess beauty is defined in human terms. Perhaps the lizards just don’t give a shit.





The arch formations are indeed impressive. They are massive, often forming an amphitheater effect creating echo as we shout against them. Other than rocks, the trees, much like those in Monument Valley, are extremely organic. I don’t really know what they are. They have needle-like leaves and form like a mini bonsai tree… except these are full sized. There is no logic to how they grow since many plants tend to grow towards where the sun light is. These just don’t seem to be following any rule.









Two of the most iconic arches in the national park are Landscape Arch, which is the biggest in the world, and Delicate Arch for its iconic shape. Well, the day was hot. Even though the hike to Landscape Arch is only a mile, it was not really all that exciting because the arch, since we cannot get close to it, was not as impressive as we’d expected.





The hike to Delicate Arch is a relatively long one. It involves climbing over this huge rock, and we don’t get to see the arch until the very last turn…. And I mean the VERY LAST TURN! Is it worth it? Well, the hike is actually rather enjoyable. The arch itself…. Well, I think it looks like someone’s butt and legs, but it’s up to the individual to imagine what it looks like. After all, I took some shots as the sun was setting, but we were in a rush to get the hell out, trying to make our way to Salt Lake the same night.





What was more interesting was the town of Moab. I guess I should have known better, it’s the capitol of mountain biking! It’s actually a lot more than that. Moab is the capitol of outdoor sports. Sky diving, ATV, mt biking, dirt biking, white water rafting, jeep, Humvee rides…. You name it! It’s a shame that I am always in a hurry and can’t spend more than one day at hot points like this. That’s life, got to take what I can get and enjoy it the best way I can.





Double Arches

Drive in Arches








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