two east coast kids on the west coast: days 8 & 9 - moab, utah to san francisco, california (1600 km!!)

When we developed the itinerary for the trip, we were under the impression that the drive from Moab to San Francisco was doable in a day. According to Google maps, the trip should take about 14 hours. However, after talking to a lot of people in Moab, we were left with the impression that the trip would take more like 18 to 20 hours…so, plans changed.

We left Moab on August 18, not the 19^th as we had originally planned. We left immediately after Chris rode the Slickrock rail and planned to drive as far into Nevada as we could in the one day. The highlight of this drive was seeing the Great Salt Lake and Bonneville Salt Flats.

After 8 hours of driving, we stopped for the night in a place called Elko. Not very monumental, but it was just after we crossed into Nevada that we entered the Pacific Time Zone. And that’s when we felt very far from home.

Up early at 4:30am the next day, we left Elko, only to experience a 2-hour delay 20-minutes into our drive due to a desert fire.

The drive ended up being quite scenic, taking us through Reno and Lake Tahoe. The two hour, 5000 foot, narrow, twisty decent into Sacramento was quite nerve racking for Chris. Aimee somehow slept through lots of it. After some slooowwww traffic jams in San Francisco, we finally made it to the Hotel and what a room it was. Overlooking Union Square from the 11^th floor of the Westin St Francis is pretty posh for us but after the last week of driving, we deserved it. We were in bed by 9:30.