Finally on the road!

Today we have access to internet, so we post our adventures so far!

Thursday the 17th of July we got up early to take the Greyhound to Spokane, to be right on time at the Alamo car rental at the airport. We were a bit scared something would go wrong again, after the diver-event so we made sure nothing could go wrong. On the bus we met another nice and talkative American from Mississippi, who has lived with his parents in Spokane for the last 3 years after Katrina destroyed all he had. And the insurance only covered ordinary floods, no 'surge floods'...
At the Alamo office, it turned out that, still, everything could go wrong. For a reason we will not explain in detail, the order to get the money of my credit card was set twice, and therefore my credit card limit was reached and the payment could not be completed. And because I had to pay myself, by creditcard, I had a problem. I had to call Rabobank myself to find out what had happened and what could be done about it (they did not know how to call international) and after 2,5 hours, finally a solution to the problem was reached and we could drive off with our (by the way extremely fancy and American) rental car. Pfffff!!!!
Although we had some delay in our schedule, we decided to go on the road anyway. We drove in the direction of Boise and stayed in some motel just across the border with Oregon. Extremely 'ongezellig', also because we had to eat at Mc Donalds because we were so late... But the road to Boise was really beautiful. You really could imagine Indians living in those hilly landscapes, cut by beautiful rivers and canyons.
The drive the next day, to Salt Lake City, was less beautiful. Flat, agricultural areas with shabby little towns and trailerparks scattered across. But near the border of Utah the environment changed: more nature and mountains, less buildings. Really, Americans do not seem to know how to make a town 'gezellig'!
Salt Lake City is located in a really nice mountainous area, reminds a bit of Corsica (for who has been there). We stayed at a lovely campsite in those mountains, which was a relief after being on the road, in a motel and at Mc Donalds. It seems to be normal to have a barbecue place on your own camp site, but Americans seem not to do dishes while camping so we had to improvise on that one.
After two nights we headed towards Bryce Canyon in the south of Utah. Extremely beautiful, not only the park itself but all its surreal surroundings as well. We stay at the most breathtaking camp site you probably ever can imagine. It is located deep into a national park next to Bryce, and has only 24 sites. It is extremely quiet and all kinds of desert animals pay us a visit every once in a while (rabbits, ground squirrels (Knabbel en Babbel), prairie dogs (which are not real dogs, more a kind of squirrel) all kinds of weird birds). Fortunately, we have not seen the poisonous spiders, snakes and scorpions that we are warned for at the camp site.
We are planning on staying here 2 more days or so, before heading to Blanding. Hope we will find internet then so we can inform you about what we see over there!

Greetings,
Lineke en Jan

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