Vacation 2010 - Day 15

Today was pretty much a travel day. We were going down to St. George (UT) since we will be visiting Zion National Park tomorrow, and St. George was the closest city where we were able to get a hotel. That's a trip that is roughly 300 miles long.
We got up at our usual time and started to get ready. By 10 am the truck was all packed up and we were ready to leave. So we took US Route 191 North until we reached the junction with I-70. We followed I-70 to the junction with US Route 6. We stayed on I-70 and followed it west.
I-70 is way more interesting to drive than the I-15, as the areas you drive through are way more diverse. There are a couple of view points along the freeway and we checked them all out. 2 especially were standing out: Black Dragon Canyon and Bottom of the Sea. Black Dragon Canyon is a mini version of the Grand Canyon and therefore very impressive. Bottom of the Sea is, like the name suggests, the former ocean floor and quite an impressive site as well.
The only thing that you have to consider when traveling the I-70 is the fact that you should make sure you have enough gas. I didn't fill the truck up at the junction with US Route 6 and you have only 1 chance to fill up for about 106 miles.
I wasn't sure if I was going to make it to Salina, so I got off the freeway and drove to the little town of Emery (UT), what is about 12 miles from the freeway to get gas. That was quite an adventure. First of all I haven't seen gas pumps that old in quite a long time. Secondly you have to pay inside, as there is no option to pay outside with credit or debit card. The last time I have seen that had to be more than 8 years ago. So we filled the truck up and headed back to the freeway.
We probably could have made it to Salina, but it was better not to take chances. We got off the freeway in Salina anyway and had lunch at Denny's. We got back onto the freeway and continued to head south-west until we hit I-15. we got onto I-15 and headed south. At the next rest stop I let Kenny take over the driving, since there is no reason for me to drive all the way. Besides that I had already been driving for over 200 miles, so letting Kenny drive the last 100 miles seemed to be the right thing.
The further we got south the hotter it got. So far it hadn't been that bad... It has been around 85 all day long. That changed during the last 30 miles, when the temperature went up to 100. Pretty toasty. At 4.30 pm we had finally made it to the hotel in St. George (UT).