Day 33 - Salt Lake City to Wendover

Well well well. Turns out the Bonneville Salt Flats really are tougher than Costco.

The salt flats are where the land speed records are broken because you can drive for miles in a straight line really fast.

Or, you can if you don't get stuck in the mud. I kind of went the wrong way, instead of going to where the lovely dry stuff was I ended up going to where it looked lovely and dry but was actually soft and sticky. After a couple of miles my car slowed right down and eventually stopped. This meant that I was stuck in the desert with no way to move and way too far to walk anywhere civilised with the water I had.

I tried getting unstuck but couldn't so decided to call 911 to ask for help. They were really nice but couldn't really say when someone might be able to come help me.

Fortunately on my way out onto the salt I had spoken to two ladies who were waiting for the wind to pick up  so they could kite buggy. They saw that I had stopped and decided to walk the three miles to come check I was ok - I guess talking to strangers does pay off. They were unbelievably kind - after seeing how stuck I was they walked back to their car, one went to get a snow shovel and the other drove to the nearest garage to enquire about towing prices ($1000!!!)

While they were gone I clawed my car out of as much mud and salt as I could - it's funny what you can get done when you really need to. I must have been clawing away for a couple of hours (my hands are pretty sore now) when eventually the sheriff turned up, realised he would get stuck if he drove out to me so called the fire department. They came with a quad type vehicle (ATV) and thankfully were able to drag the car out and tow me back to the road.

The firemen were really nice guys (volunteers, the best kind!) and took me out for a drive in their ATV which was really fun - especially because we went the right way this time! (check out my muddy salty wiggly toes in this video)

Reading this back it all sounds a bit dramatic but it was actually quite good fun - I spent a lot of the time I was stuck out there giggling to myself about what a prize idiot I can be sometimes. I think my godmother in Massachusetts actually had the worst time of all - I rang her to let her know I was going out (you're supposed to do this in case you get stuck) so when I called her to tell her I was stuck I think she wished I'd stayed home. She was very calm and helpful though and didn't tell me until later that she'd felt a bit sick when I told her I was stuck.

All sorted now, I'm staying in a casino in Wendover (class!) all safe and sound