I'm so truckin' happy!

Leaving Tahoe, we headed east across Nevada and drove along endlessly straight roads through a vast barren landscape of nothing in particular. Sometimes it was grassy nothing, sometimes hilly nothing and sometimes dead-flat salt bed nothing, but essentially there was lots and lots of bugger all. In a whole day of driving we passed just two trees. This meant that, with nothing else to look at, we found ourselves becoming strangely fascinated by the traffic and, in particular, with the huge trucks that thunder through this geographical vacuum. We were amazed to see juggernauts pulling three trailers. Then, when this became commonplace, we started seeing wider and more absurd loads – trucks carrying other trucks or gigantic pieces of unidentifiable machinery or sometimes whole houses. Then we realised that sensory deprivation had turned us into truck-spotters!

We had almost driven right the way across Nevada when we decided to hang a left and headed due north to Idaho. Claire had spotted something called the Hagerman Fossil Beds on the map and I got all excited that we might get to see some dinosaurs or something. I shouldn't have got my hopes up. The fossil beds have been harvested of their fossils to such an extent that there are now no more fossils. Instead there are lots of signs going on about the "Hagerman Horse", some sort of prehistoric zebra of which they seem to be very proud. We drove to the nearby town of Hagerman itself and visited the information centre where we came face to boney face with one of these horse skeletons. And that even turned out to be a replica. Sensing our disappointment, the ranger behind the counter tried to rouse our excitement by showing us the toe bone of what they think might have been a giant camel. It wasn't exactly Jurrasic Park.

South then to Utah and Salt Lake City, epicentre of the Church of the Latter Day Saints – commonly known as Mormons. We found an RV park in the south of the city where the owners offered us a free shuttle bus into town which seemed jolly nice of them. What hadn't been explained to us was that we were being taken to Temple Square and had been tricked into receiving a tour by Mormon missionaries. We were met by Sister Perez and Sister Christensen, a couple of 21-year-old girls who were so happy with life that they seemed unable to speak without smiling. They showed us around the impressive temple while I asked them lots of awkward questions about arranged marriages and polygamy. They were very friendly girls and they even let us hear the echo inside their tabernacle! We were shown around the immaculate grounds before being taken into a building that had paintings on the wall depicting the moment that Jesus had supposedly appeared in America – apparently in front of some bemused-looking Aztecs going by the painting. Finally, we were led up a spiral ramp to a chamber containing a large statue of Jesus in front of a painted backdrop of outer space. It was here that Sister Perez started sobbing as she told us of the moment she'd found God while Sister Christensen, after further questioning, guiltily admitted to having a boyfriend. They were sweet girls, if a little naive and innocent. But, there was no hard sell, no bid to "recruit" us and we left with warm feelings toward them and their odd beliefs.

Back outside we wandered past a lot of pretty Mormon brides – the temple is such a popular place to get married that there's an almost production-line-like procession of weddings in and out. Along with Temple Square, the rest of Salt Lake City itself is also very neat and tidy place with near-spotless streets and a very visible affluence. It felt safe and welcoming (a policeman let me try on his hat!) and where Sacramento had felt nothing like a State Capital there was no question that SLC could be anything less. We met more Mormons during our time in the city and have to say that they are all very friendly, courteous and happy people who dress very smartly and lead seemingly wholesome lives. In fact the only negativity on display was being directed at them by some protesters purporting to be "true" Christians who had a problem with the Mormon interpretation of The Bible. It was odd that these protesters thought a version of events written 180 years ago should be any more fictitious than, say, a version of events written 2,000 years ago. It seemed a bit uncharitable to me and very un-Christian-like behaviour.

Just south of Salt Lake City is the Bingham Canyon Copper Mine. At two and a half miles wide and three quarters of a mile deep, it is the largest man-made excavation in the world and can apparently be seen from space. Ironically, on the day we went to see it there was a snowstorm and fog so we couldn't even see it from planet Earth. We returned the next day, when it was a lot sunnier and clearer, and drove up to the enormous crater. It is, on the one hand, a mightily impressive testament to man's engineering ingenuity but, on the other, is also a whopping great scar in the middle of a beautiful mountain range. This moral conflict weighed heavily on my mind for a little while but then I saw one of their gigantic trucks and got all distracted. Because the mine itself is so huge, the trucks seem quite small – a bit like those Tonka toys we had as kids – until you see one drive past a car or dwarf a bus. These things are enormous. They have 12 foot high wheels and a staircase up the front of the radiator so that the driver can ascend to the cab. They cost $3.5 million each and can carry 320 tons of rock in a single trip and… oh God, I've become a truck-spotter again!

BURGER OF THE WEEK
We found a little burger joint in Salt Lake City which had on its menu a Macaroni Cheese Burger – a half pound burger topped with elbow macaroni, creamy béchamel cheese sauce, chipotle mayo and bacon pieces. It was strangely enjoyable if a little sloppy. The menu said it was "Crazy amazing!" and, about half an hour after eating it, it seemed to have a crazy amazing effect on my stomach.