I like to think of this as Chapter 1. As in Day 1. Technically, Darren set off from home with the Basecamp 3 days before me, so we could start there. But as I wasn’t present, it’s kinda difficult for me to write about. Should that part ever be written (over to you Darren), it can be The Prologue.

This being the Friday of Labor Day weekend, the traffic was heavy around Salt Lake City as Darren picked me up from the airport. He thrust his phone at me, on which he’d already set the destination as the campsite he’d left the Basecamp at on nearby Antelope Island. Along came the first navigational challenge (some might say common sense challenge). There were a few choice comments from Darren that we seemed to be going on an odd route, to which I agreed, but I zoomed in on the phone map – looked reasonable to me. The roads got quieter as we reached a near deserted industrial estate and I had to agree it was unusually quiet for a bank holiday. It was about this point, we were told to head down a narrow dirt road, actually more of a track.

I got ‘a look’ from Darren. A look that said without even speaking ‘I made it a thousand miles on my own without getting lost. And now this’. Darren grabbed the phone and soon realized it was directing us not only on 4 wheel drive roads but also onto a causeway that didn’t exist. I breathed a sigh of relief that at least we weren’t towing the BC. Could be worse! Apparently, there’s only one causeway that leads to Antelope State Park and it’s all the way north. We were heading south. I’m not sure where Google Maps was getting its information from but it was totally fake news.

Suffice to say, we arrived at our camping spot a tad later than expected, but nevertheless, I was so happy to see the BC, and enthusiastically excited at being on holiday. What a cool spot!

An open site with a view over an expanse of grassland down to the Salt Lake (10x saltier than the sea). Mouth watering aromas of chicken on the bbq. Beer in hand. A warm evening, with an amazing sunset. And over two weeks still left to go on our trip 🙂