Left Baker City headed for Salt Lake City on I-84 driving through a lot of open country. Made a stop in Hagerman, Idaho to visit the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Park and learn about the evolution and extinction of the horse in North America. Unfortunately the fossil beds are not open to the public due to safety concerns related to mud slides. We did drive out into the park to see one of the remnants of the Oregon Trail ruts. In this area the trail was not later used as an automobile road so it still exists as a single rut trail. Also while we in Hagerman we spent some time in the Minedoka National Historic Site. It tells the tale of the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. After that interlude we hit the trail and arrived in Salt Lake City around 6PM and enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal including homemade apple pie made with apples from Uncle Jack and Aunt Flo’s backyard.
It was an incredible experience to actually walk the streets of Pompeii, once a bustling resort town in the Roman Empire until 79 AD when an apocalyptic explosion buried it under 20 feet of volcanic ash. Archeological excavations since the 19th Century continue to reveal evidence of a thriving community.
Once the largest cruise ship in the world, Allure of the Seas will be our home for the next seven nights as we cruise the Western Mediterranean and explore the eighteen decks of this behemoth.
Our recent travel misadventures seriously curtailed our time in Rome pre-cruise but we did get to visit the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel before making the trip to Civitavecchi for an overnight in the port city of Rome preparatory to departing on Allure of the Seas tomorrow.
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