25 June 2016 - Road trips and Utah roadside attractions

My bucket list of things to see is so long that some days I think I should sell my house and just wander about in an RV. It may happen, you never know. But today, I checked several things off my list. 

Lists are a good thing. I have lists of places I want to go birding and lists of places/things I want to see. Sometimes I can combine them into one trip. Today, for example, my plan was to drive up Butterfield Canyon and down the other side, which is Middle Canyon into Tooele. In order to get to Butterfield Canyon you have to go through Herriman, which has been on my list because that is where the Up house is.

Bangerter Homes got permission from Pixar to build a replica of the house from the movie, Up.  It was great fun to see this little house. It is so charming, not to mention true to the original house.

My only gripe is that such a cutie-pie house with all the lovely Victorian details is sitting smack dab in the middle of an absolutely boring subdivision of cookie-cutter houses all in the same beigy-tan stucco. Yetch. You'd think that someone with the vision to make this little gem come to life would or could create a neighborhood of interesting homes. No such luck. Nevertheless, it was great fun to see. 

After descending Middle Canyon on the west side of the Oquirrh mountains, I thought I could just drive out I-80 and see the Tree of Utah. So I did. 

Okay, I admit this is just odd: an 83 foot tall sculpture called Metaphor: The Tree of Utah. It is illegal to pull over on I-80, but I did anyway. And another car followed me off the road. Fortunately there was not a lot of traffic. It is huge and stands out against the blinding white salt flats. And it definitely is the closest thing to a tree for many many miles in all directions. 

The statue has four crescent shaped pieces that surround it. They remind me of a seed pot that has split open. Perhaps the seed sprouted and resulted in this tree. In the nearest crescent, if I were to stand by the high end, it would be several feet taller than I am. It is hard to imagine the scale from this photo. In the photo below, the fence surrounding the base is easily 12 feet high. 

Without the tree, this is what you would see in all directions. It is a good distraction against the unrelenting brightness. It helps that you can see the tree from 17 miles away. 

There is a lot of guerilla art on the salt flats along I-80. People stop and leave messages, hearts, flowers and other art work created from rocks. 

Since at this point I was so close to Wendover, on the Utah/Nevada state line I had to continue on. When I was a kid, one of my favorite places driving west on I-80 was Wendover's Stateline Casino. The Casino spanned the state line and inside there was a line painted between the restaurant and the casino. The casino was on the Nevada side so you could step over the line and gamble after eating on the Utah side. I always thought that was fascinating. Just step over the line and be in another state. 

In addition, the Stateline Casino had a monstrous sign that I was and still am enamored with. Wendover Will is 63 feet tall. At night he is all lit up with neon, even down to the glowing tip of his cigarette and his arms would wave. I also loved that his pedestal had messages on it. If you were traveling east towards Salt Lake City it said "This is the Place."  And if you were traveling west to Nevada it said "Where the West Begins." 

I haven't seen him for 40 years. Imagine my surprise to find there is no longer a Stateline Casino. But, the new owners of the Stateline (now called the Wendover Nugget I think) donated the cowboy to the city. The city then raised a lot of money for renovation and Wendover Will now stands in the middle of the road welcoming people to Wendover.  His arms don't wave anymore, but he is such an icon that I am thrilled he is still on display. Isn't he something?  Notice how small the car driving by is in comparison. When I last saw him, he was wearing a yellow and white checked shirt. Guess he got updated in the renovation. But he still has the Bull Durham tobacco in his pocket...see the little yellow tab hanging out?  All cowboys used to roll their own...

Oh, and now there is a Utah/Nevada state line painted on the road. This is funny. The Montego Bay parking lot is on the Utah side, but the casino is on the Nevada side. Guess it still works. 




It was a very long day, but wow, what a lot of fun!