Salt Lake City
(Photo credit unknown)

I’ve decided to make a run for it at first light tomorrow and drive I-15 south To I-70 East and stay tomorrow night in Grand Junction, CO. They’re calling for some good snow in Western Colorado but they’re calling for snow during the next couple of days. My car is fully stocked in case I get stranded but I need to find chains to fit my tires. There are several passes in both Utah and Colorado that have dual axle chain requirements. Problem is, I have some 17″ aftermarket Z rated tires and haven’t been able to find a tire dealer that has chains to fit them. Shcuck’s sold me some that were supposed to fit but didn’t and when I walked back in, they refused to let me return them even though I’d had them all of 5 minutes. If I can’t find the appropriate chains tomorrow morning, I will be forced to head south to Las Vegas and Arizona, crossing over through south Texas and up through there.

Also, I only slept about 3 hours despite being awake for over 30 straight and driving for 20 of those miles.

Those complaints aside, I’ve been impressed with Utah. All highway exits are well marked with services available (unlike Idaho) and they had an incredible amount of snow plows and salt trucks on the roads. Even though I’ve been here during the dark and dense fog, the city looks well guarded by the impressive Wasatch Mountain Range. With a little luck, I’ll get some good pics on my way out.

For the latest on my trip, check out my twitter page.

Technorati Tags: Colorado, Driving, mountain passes, Salt Lake City, Snow, travel, Twitter, Utah, Wasatch Mountains

Orem, UT

Long story short, I’m thinking this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

Trip data from my GPS:

Miles: 914.83
Average speed: 50.33 mph
Moving time: 16 hours 29 minutes 49 seconds
Stopped time: 1 hour 38 minutes 51 seconds
Maximum elevation: 5,788 feet
Minimum elevation: 244 feet

Going to sleep for a long time now, will post more when I wake up. Pray for LESS snow.

Technorati Tags: Driving, Orem, Snow, travel, Utah

Well, I’m finally leaving now and should be in Salt Lake City sometime after midnight tonight. If you want to track my progress, check out my Twitter Status Page (see tabs on the top of this page) or go to http://www.twitter.com/gigamike.

To view my timeline on my Twitter page, you’ll need to have Adobe’s Flash 9 browser pluging installed which you can get for free HERE.

Tomorrow, I will leave for a short term assignment in Indianapolis, Indiana. It’s a consulting gig for a company that consults and provides major equipment for Cingular (er, AT&T) and should be fun though it will be very hard to be away from my loved ones for so long. I was hoping to hit the road tonight but getting everything together (finances, etc.) took longer than I had anticipated and even though I’d been working on getting this job since the day after Thanksgiving, it just became a real option this morning. The company had flaked out several times on me and I had pretty much written them off sending them an e-mail on Friday night asking for them to not contact me.

On Saturday morning, I got an e-mail literally begging me to join the team with a note saying they’ll do whatever it took to secure my services. So on a whim while getting ready to go on a hike with Amy, I sent an e-mail asking for a ridiculous sum to be wired to me before noon PST, no questions asked. Not an advance either. I was sick of the way they had been yanking my chain for months and if they were serious, they would make this happen. I sent the mail, closed the lid to my Mac thinking that was truly the end and went on my hike.

Well, the money was in my account by noon (I had given them wire instructions) and I received a contract via Fed Ex. LOL. I actually feel embarrassed now for what I had asked. And it’s not that I’m some hotshot engineer, this company is just in a pretty tight bind and wouldn’t have time to find someone to replace me. So the scrambling began on my end.

The drive will be 2,443.87 miles and should take me at least two days. I spent lots of hours talking with AAA, watching the weather channel and scouring state highway conditions via the web and have decided to head south and then east via I-90 through Denver. The Rockies are expected to have good weather this week so I shouldn’t have any problems.

I should leave late tomorrow afternoon and drive straight through to Salt Lake City. Here are the highlights and the link to my actual itinerary:

I will be posting very frequent updates via SMS on my Twitter page.

Technorati Tags: Cingular, Google Maps, Indiana, Indianapolis, AT&T, Seattle, travel

(press play)

Sleeping Lessons by The Shins off their new album Wincing The Night Away

A very appropriate song for me right now and something I think you’ll enjoy as well. Plus, I needed an excuse to showoff the new embedded Flash mp3 player ;)

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