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Show 163 1-80 changes from Salt Lake City to wide open nothing pretty fast, and ten minutes from the entrance there is only space divided by Wendover billboards advertising The Streamline of fun is minutes away! And, Hotels at $45 per night! We took the frontage road off Exit 88, which was all the information we had. We hoped we could just figure it out from there. I recognized the basic area because there was a salt processing plant the next exit up, and I once had a part-time job there packaging salt. The frontage road wasn't paved and Tamara apologized for the shakiness of the ride. She wound past a makeshift train station consisting of a few trailers, a generator and some metal Union Pacific signs, then pulled in front of a locked gate that prevented cars from crossing the train tracks. We parked the car and walked around the gate. We could see car tracks in the mud and followed them guessing that they might have been left by whatever vehicle had to drive out and pick up Steve's body. It was colder now and the rats made by the tires were solid but full of water. I looked in all directions, as if searching for some kind of answers to something that I understood with my bones and nervous system already, but wanted to piece together with my eyes. There weren't many shadows out there. Except for the salt plant to the west, as well as some leftover rusting equipment that was used before the new plant was built, the land was mostly flat and consistent. Shotgun shells were part of the water were part of the sand were part of the mud were part of the railroad were part of the sound and the atmosphere and the cool breeze on your skin. |