This is day 3 of our 41 day, 10,000 mile Road Trip. In this episode we leave Balanced Rock Campground in Idaho and head east to our end destination in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On the way to Salt Lake City we make a few pit stops. Our first stop in in Jackpot, NV. We go into a small casino with big hopes. Although we didn’t win a fortune in Jackpot, it was a still worth checking out.
We wanted to visit the Bonneville Salt Flats since it was directly on our route. As it turns out the best access to the Salt Flats is on the Westbound side of I-80. This was inaccessible from where we were without adding at least 90 minutes to our drive. We opted to pass, but we were able to snap a few good shots and shoot a couple of good videos from the eastbound side.
Once we go to Salt Lake City we headed to our hotel. A hotel that we were both really looking forward to, and a hotel that we eventually couldn’t wait to leave. Aside from being covered in filth and mildew, the hotel required a $100 cash only deposit. Luckily we had cash on us, but other travelers were not so lucky and had to go search out an atm machine so they could finally check in. The hotel that we slept at also makes it’s guests check in and out their television remote when they come or go. Apparently those remotes are hot items in Salt Lake City. We ended up bringing in our own bedding.
The saving grace of day 3 was Vertical Diner. Vertical Diner is an all plant-based restaurant. Their menu includes pizzas, sandwiches, burgers, and so much more. The food there was amazing and the staff was ultra friendly. Although we weren’t happy with our first hotel of the road trip, we were more than happy that we stopped in Salt Lake City to eat at Vertical Diner.
Our truck is a 2018 Toyota Tacoma SR5. We bought the truck on Inga’s birthday, 1/6/21.The color of the paint is called inferno. It was because of this, that we named the truck Dante, after the famous 14th century writer. The truck has an insulated Leer shell which covers the 6.2 foot truck bed. We wanted this Toyota Tacoma specifically because of the extended truck bed. This allows us both to lay down comfortably on our memory foam mattress without out feet touching the closed truck bed door.
With our bed inside the back of the Tacoma, we use the back seat for the majority of our storage. We store our clothing, food, collapsible canopy, cooking items (pots, pans, jet boil, propane stove), and more. When we are driving we fold up the bed in the back about a quarter of the way, just enough that we can store our 5 gallon water container and ice chest. The ice chest gets stored in the front passenger seat when we are parked in spots that are known for bears or anything else that will get into the food.