James Christopher Hall

600+ mile day today! We said good bye to Mark, and got on the road in search of vegan coffee and breakfast. We ended up in a town called Burley because google maps said there was a Starbucks there. Well it turns out it was one of those Starbucks that’s inside of a grocery store and John wasn’t down for that. Since he was driving I looked up another local coffee shop, it was clsoed, so I looked up another, it was also closed, this was when realized that it is Sunday. I finally found one called Nostalgia Cafe.

It didn’t look it, but it was actually open, and John ordered a vegan coffee and a vegan breakfast sandwich. I had a strawberry lemonade scone. While we waited I saw this cool poster that embodied the two most important traits of my ideal woman: loyalty, and the ability to assemble a Norden bombsight.

It was at this point that we started our turn south towards Utah. It is an extremely desolate part of the country. I didn’t take many photos because there isn’t much there, but here is one

During this stretch John and I chatted about how his smart, independent, and hot girlfriend is backpacking in Nepal and how his loins burn to be reunited with her. They ended up FaceTiming like an hour later, after we crossed into Utah, in the parking lot of our first true culinary destination: In-N-Out!

I haven’t had In-N-Out in probably 15 years, and I was shocked when we walked in and it wasn’t a complete zoo, inundated with throngs of hungry southern Californians. Our cashier, Rubi, was shocked that I was shocked, I guess she’s never worked in SoCal before. John ordered his vegan burger, and I ordered a 4x4 animal style (translation: 4 patties, 4 cheese, pickles, “sauce”, and grilled onions. I’ll let you guess which burger is mine…

While we were eating a dude pulled up in an Audi S5 like my own, except a few years newer. I chatted him up, and learned he had just bought the car, so I shared with him how to “launch” it. I hope he has fun with that.

I enjoyed Ogden, it felt very similar to Wallowa County with the mountians so high and close by.

There is not much of note for the next 400 miles. There were some cool rock formations. It was pretty hilarious though when we crossed into Wyoming from Utah. Right across the border there is a small town that is pretty much just liquor, weed, adult video stores, and fireworks!

In these high plains there isn’t much happening. We saw a lot of what must be natural gas, and oil rigs out in fields. We mostly talked about relationships, children, getting older, the plague, Mount Rushmore, and travel. We spent most of the day driving at >7,000’, with our highest right before we came down into Laramie.

After we got to our hotel in Cheyenne, I tried to scope out some running spots. Unforatunely, like in Jerome, hotels are not positioned next to scenic running routes, so I wasn’t able to run in either place. I did however get to workout in the gym’s fitness center, so that justified my In-N-Out order. Bulking!

For dinner, in honor of John’s beautiful girlfriend, we went to a Nepalese restaurant where we got to try paratha, a special layered fried bread that I heard about on youtube. I chatted with our waitress and she gave me their recipe so I could make it myself. She also caught me dancing to the indian music while seated in our booth. I must have been a good dancer because she brought us a free chilled mango dessert! I wondered aloud to John if this is what women feel like when they get free drinks…it felt good!

Driving back after dinner I took a wrong turn because I couldn’t figure out how to turn on the headlights. So we pulled over into the parking lot of an old fire station and we both got out of the car and just looked at it trying to tell if the headlights were on, this car has so many lights it’s hard to tell! Finally I met a truck driver in a conveniece store who is a UW fan (I was wearing my UW sweater). I think he thought I was a truck driver too, because he kept saying how you don’t find many truckers who went to college. Oh well, I just wanted some advil! Finally, I went for a quick soak in the hotel hot tub, while John went to the room to sleep.

Tomorrow’s departure time: 6AM