Berkeley to Cheyenne Wyoming - Happy Easter!

Headed out from our lovely sojourn at the Claremont to hook up with the I-80 to cross the Sierra Nevada through the Donner Pass

Before leaving the topic of Berkeley I just want to say that throughout my experience with this town, it has always had some of the best food I’ve ever had. It has a long history of having innovative restaurants — I had my first craft cocktail here more than thirty years ago. This trip didn’t disappoint - we had dinner at Acre on College, which is in the spot where an long time favorite of mine, Oliveto’s, used to be. Had an amazing pizza, Harry had a lovely arrabbiata pasta and our friend had fat asparagus and a beet salad — all very good. In the morning I met my friend at Souvenir coffee shop, on Claremont, and again had an amazing avocado toast and a croissant that was just so good. Simple things prepared well.

Back to the Donner Pass. First of all, I am struck again by the notion of people crossing this terrain in wagons. The Donner Pass is really high, 7000+ feet at its peak, and in bad weather it’s wild. And the bad weather can come in unexpectedly. I know that because we had bad weather — winds, snow, poor visability in places, treacherous. Harry drove and did a great job! Wikipedia says that the Donner Pass got its name from the Donner party “who overwintered there in 1846.” Wow, that sounds like they were lodging somewhere with a hot springs. There have even been modern instances of people getting stranded in the Donner Pass due to severe weather - in 1936 750 motorists were trapped by a blizzard (seven dead) and in 1952, 222 passengers aboard a train were stranded for three days until cars could get through to rescue them.

But we lived to tell the tale and came out the other side in Nevada. We spent our second night on the road in Elko, Nevada, a small town that has risen and fallen on the back of gold prices. Oddly, there are at least three Basque restaurants here and we had breaded pork chops from one for dinner and they were darn good.

We woke this morning to snow. I am the morning person vis-a-vis walking Kojak and Sammie and I was one unhappy camper but I dealt with it gracefully. And then we were off to Salt Lake City!

Entering Utah is a shock. As soon as you cross the border from Nevada you have the salt flats stretching off to the horizon on both sides of I-80. Way off to the left is the Great Salt Lake Dessert, and then on both sides there are the Bonneville Salt Flats, 46 square miles of crusted white salt, 5 feet thick in some parts, and 1 inch thick at the edges. I was surprised to learn that one reason the Donner party ran into their difficulties in then Pass is because they took an untested short cut across these salt flats and the wagons got stock in the salt causing that fateful delay.

We spent one night in the Salt Lake City area and then headed out Friday morning for Cheyenne, Wyoming from where I now write. Waiting for my lunch. “The Cowboy Bowl” - shredded pork carnitas, crispy potatoes, scrambled eggs, cheese, avocado and Mexican crema. That should tide me over.

We did everything we were supposed to do before heading out from Salt Lake City - checked the weather to our destination, filled up with gas, put cold weather gear within reach, etc. But that wasn’t enough to keep us from getting caught in blizzard conditions on I-80. Remember how I said once we crossed over to Utah the landscape flows away on both sides of the road to the horizons? Know what happens when you are caught in a blizzard on the I-80? it’s like you are riding in a narrow valley that comes up on both sides of the road - a two lane tunnel. That wind ripping across the road causes “white-outs” so you are doing 25 miles an hour with splashes of zero visability. Harry was driving. That man has nerves of steel. He was looking disconcerted but not like we were in death defying conditions. After a while I pointed out to him how there were no more cars or trucks on the road around us thinking that was strange but not unduly alarmed. It wasn’t until we got safely to Cheyenne that we learned the I-80 had closed down, evidently right after we got on.

We are spending two nights here because we have things to take care of and we are in this very nice “resort” called Little America. I had coaxed Harry along the last 50 miles through the storm by telling him how close we were to our destination and a warm dinner. The odd thing is that legend goes Little America was created by a man who in the 1890s had been trapped on a January night in a terrible storm with no shelter and he resolved to build a place to provide such a shelter as a haven for travelers, complete with a crackling fire, good food, and a warm bed, and Little America is all of those things.

It was startling to open our door this morning to be blasted by a sun shining so bright we thought we must have dreamed yesterday’s storm.

Next stop - Spearfish, South Dakota. Happy Trails.Read more