So I left you in Centennial, WY, having crashed there with my buddy Jay for the night. After breakfast at the local greasy spoon, I thanked Jay for the incredible hospitality and drove up the mountain a little ways to get a morning hike in. I hiked for only an hour or so (I had to get on the road to Utah), but it was a beautiful and quiet hike, I never ran into another human. Check out this cactus, bet you didn’t know they had those in Wyoming, eh?
It was time to hit the dusty trail to Ogden, Utah, a quick six-hour drive across most of the rest of Wyoming (file under #fail in the planning column, John). Jay had given me directions to the interstate, which winded through about twenty miles of dirt back roads, causing me to question my direction many times. Finally got to I-80, set the cruise control, put on some Drive-By Truckers, and got this journey underway…
That last picture was taken just before arriving in Ogden. I had to pull off the road to take a picture of this truly bizarre rock formation. It is aptly named “Devil’s Slide”.
Whew, finally arrived in Ogden. At least the drive had been (mostly) pretty. I was playing that night at the Slackwater Pub with Brett Turner, a musician to whom I had been introduced to via the internet, but not yet in person. The food at Slackwater was delicious, and they really treat their artists great, beautiful people. If you find yourself in Ogden I would highly recommend it.
Brett played a great set of upbeat outlaw-country. Well, I’m not sure that he would classify it as that, but it had all the edgy balls-y-ness, I loved it. Brett is one hell of a nice dude, as well. He put me up for the night at his place, and we went out for some drinks that night. Ogden seemed like a really cool town, an old-time railroad stopping place steeped with sinful, gangster (Al Capone!) history. Unfortunately, nowadays the state of Utah likes to sell 3.2% beer and water down your drinks. Evidence: I drank four whiskey cokes at the bar we went to and didn’t really feel anything.
The point here, though, is that I really enjoyed talking music with Brett that night, and the next morning over breakfast before getting a move on. A totally devoted artist, and I love his business-minded ideas, two-thumbs up, check out his music.
On to Moab the next day, but first, I do have one serious Ogden regret. I didn’t get to visit The Sandlot. I think every boy who grew up in the nineties would list this as one of their favorite movies of all time, *sigh*, next time.