FF2: Filling in the Suburbs

[krigl]

Today – more trips from Idaho into Utah.


Still in or around Pocatello, Idaho.




No weigh. Weigh.


Wow…


Okay, making for the border now.




Taking a break.




Entering Utah once again.


Plenty of farmland on the Utah – Idaho border, it seems.


Approaching Logan, north Utah.


Plaster and Sons. Nice to meet you.


Back in Idaho for the last time.


We’re picking something up at a rest stop on Route 30 somewhere near Montpelier. Pretty sure I was in Montpelier not long ago, but it looked different. More… French. Anyway.


Hi there.


Needed some gas.


This is the scenery town of Montpelier, Idaho.


There’s the letter M. I know I said last time that the letter was all that remained of the whole name of the town, but the rest had fallen off because of age? I lied, because I didn’t think you were ready for the truth.


The letters were actually placed on those hills all around the land by JFK and Martin Luther King before the Deep State took them. If you write all the letters down in the only correct way there is, you get a message warning us against CRT, 5G and the Vaccine. They knew, brothers.


Yep, there it is again, M. First letter of Mortal Danger.


IF, and only if, you visit all the cities listed in the message in the order of the letters, while drinking your own wee 3 times a day from the emptied magazine of an AR-15, Jesus will protect you from Mask Mandate Armageddon and BLM antifa. Word.


Sorry, got carried away. I did this trip a couple of weeks ago now, and I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t have any cargo with me. Oh well, whatever.


Heading for the border once more.


My notes for this place are ‘town near the border’. Sorry. Maybe it didn’t have a name sign.




And that’s it for today. Next time we’ll be visiting the beautiful Garden City and Bear Lake on the way to Logan.
Dan

[krigl]

Today we have a highly picturesque trip from ‘Town near the border’ to Logan via Garden City, which is more-or-less as pretty as it sounds.


Leaving ‘Town near the border’.




Border reached. That’s it for Idaho for a few months. Hopefully only a few months.


Bear Lake, in the NE corner of Utah.


And on Bear Lake sits…


Garden City.


It’s really nice here, so I took a lot of views.






If there are gardens in Garden City then…


…there must be bears by the lake. Here’s one.




Looks like a ‘wagon trail museum’ or something.


Garden City is really nice, yet has no jobsite or garage, like many of the scenic gems in Utah. I really wonder if this was deliberate – to create realistic individual locations unspoiled by game assets that you can see everywhere and all look the same.


Or was it just a time and budget thing? I mean, they could create garages and jobsites that actually blend in with the environment. They don’t have to use a Truck Headquarters everywhere. Why do you have to be able to drive inside? And why do there have to be giant green floating icons? Marks on the ground and an icon on the HUD map would be far more immersive. Well, maybe one day.


Anyway, we’ve left Garden City behind us and are continuing on to Logan once more. Just checking out the rest stop. Still no cargo. Free as the wind you get from cowboy beans.


Details, details…


This is Rick’s Spring. I suppose the spring is somewhere in the cave.






And here’s Logan.






The end for today. Next time we pay a visit to Wyoming.
Dan

[Bernhard_]

Garden City seems like a pleasant city. I like the recordings. Thank you!

[krigl]

Thanks Bernhard!!!

New post from a new state – Wyoming.


Spent the night in the car park outside NAMIQ near Rock Springs.


The next morning, we headed onsite to pick up a cargo of cement. Thought this was salt, but it’s actually trona, a source of sodium carbonate. Never heard of it before this day.


This facility is one of the most spectacular I’ve seen in-game, so I took a bunch of shots. Hmm. Why are there "speech marks" around the word "SAFER" on that sign?




Here to pick up ingredients.


One of the best bits – this guy throwing the box in the dumpster over and over again.




Got the cement. They need it in Utah.






Okay, we’re on our way to Utah now, through a brief stretch of Wyoming.










These fences, or whatever they are, seem to be a ‘Wyoming thing’, at least in the DLC, Seen them several times near the border already.


Into Utah now.


Perhaps in real life there’s a need for this, but in-game the slope here is nothing special. Probably due to the scale, it got averaged out or something.


Laketown… hope we won’t encounter a dragon here.


Hmm. The similarities are not immediately apparent.


Don’t tell me that’s the lake!


Ah, here it is.


Well, okay, I guess ‘Laketown’ is justified as a name. Garden City is nicer, though.


And it’s Garden City we’re approaching now, which means the Laketown lake must in fact be Bear Lake.


Into Garden City.


A part of town we haven’t seen yet.


Very nice! And we’re done for today. Next time we make two more brief trips to Wyoming – Rock Springs again, and Evanston.
Dan

[Bernhard_]

Great shots. Naturally. Always a pleasure to see. Many Thanks.

[krigl]

Cheers Bernhard!! Have a good weekend!

A second set from Wyoming today.


Picking up a trailer from Sell Goods in Evanston.






Leaving Evanston. It’s just a short hop to the Utah border.


Buy goods from Sell Goods! You know it makes sense.


Oh! And there’s the border again, with lines of those strange fences.


The Echo Point of Entry and weigh station, near Ogden, Utah.


Real horse meet iron horse. How do you do.


Still bringing the picturesqueness, the DLC is.


I tooted and the driver waved at me. The driver waved!


Nearing Ogden, which lies between Logan and Salt Lake City.


Here it is.




The delivery point is near the station.




Back in Rock Springs for one more Wyoming jaunt. Getting a repaint overnight.


A rather more humble Avalanche Steel than the last place. I think it was Avalanche, anyway.


Respect the wildlife! Even on the highway!
I always do, buddy. I gather it up gently, dust it off with the greatest of care, make sure it’s dead, throw it in the back respectfully, take it home, skin, prepare and cook it tenderly.




Driving south to the Utah border.






Cool, a different sign. Dinosaurs this time! The previous signs featured rock formations and skiers. That’s got me a bit worried because rock formations and skiers definitely exist. And that dinosaur looks pretty lifelike.




There’s a viewpoint here, so I pulled in to take a look.


Nice! Next time we visit a bunch of places and kick things off in Colorado.
Dan

[krigl]

Today we finally reach Vernal from Rock Springs, Wyoming, and then make some trips from Colorado.


Shortly past the rest stop and view we find the Flaming Gorge Dam.


What can I say, it’s awesome.








Many pictures, no regrets.




Nearing Vernal.


Here we are. Vernal is a cool place with lots to see and do, but we’ll leave it till later.


Dropping off the cargo. Time to ZZZzzzap over to Colorado now.


Picked up these cars in Rangely, Colorado. We’re leaving town, and immediately find a sign labelled Dinosaur, 10 km.


I’m positively frothing with excitement, wondering if it will be a real dinosaur, or maybe a huge fossil sticking out of a cliff. So much that I almost missed these sucker rod pumps.


Ah, so here’s Dinosaur. It’s a small town. So… where’s the Dinosaur, then?


Not here? I think there were some model dinosaurs or something, but we’ll visit Dinosaur properly when we tour Colorado.


Deer Crossing. Hmm.
Honey, is that a deer?
Y-yes d-darling, now stand very, very still. Maybe it won’t notice us.


Flash! What was that? A photo? You used a flash? Oh noo….
But it’s only a deer.
Ruuuun! It’s not a deer, it’s a velociraptor!


Why are you running slower than I am honey?
Just keep going. Don’t look back, just keep running, no matter what you hear, okay? I love you baby.


Honey, I think there are a lot of them, at least five. Honey? Is that you behind me?


Vernal again, just in time. The thread was about to get a PG rating.


Dropped off the cars. Let’s get back to Colorado again.


This time we’re at Grand Junction, the second of three places in Colorado with roads leading into Utah. They are all quite close to the border, so we won’t be seeing much of this new DLC state.


Heading west.


Bypassing this time.


And we’re at the border again. Looks like we may be out of dinosaur country. That’s it for now, more next time – Moab in Utah, and Durango and Cortez in Colorado.
Dan

[krigl]

Back again for more Colorado-Utah border-related shenanigans.


We’re in Utah pulling something like a ‘road train’ towards Moab, having departed Grand Junction in Colorado.


A very desert-like area again. Lucky, I wouldn’t want to be pulling 3 trailers through a succession of urban areas, haven’t got the nerves for it any more.




Wait! That’s a dinosaur! Seems I spoke too soon. This is Moab.


We’ll tour it later. Let’s just drop this off.


Done. Back to Colorado, Durango this time, last of the new places for me.


And here we are in Durango. Actually, Durango isn’t new for me, we visited when touring New Mexico. Ah, well. I was squinting so that I didn't see too much of it before touring Colorado, just as I am now.


Quite a boring setup with the truck and trailer this time, sorry. Work is work.


After all that desert to the north and west, and with New Mexico to the south, it’s strange to see so much green around here. On the way to Cortez.


Nice area.


Arriving in Cortez, Colorado, to be greeted by a ton of billboards.


Great. Those mountains are eerily similar to some visible from Provo, Utah. I wonder if it’s the same massive model, copy-pasted in there. SCS wouldn’t do that these days… would they?


Cortez is another nicely-realized scenery town, plenty to look at as you pass through. Like these two cloned oak trees, ahem, cough cough. Forgot to rotate one of them, I guess.




I’ve just realized that what I wrote at the start of this tour – that Utah adds new content in the border regions in five states – is complete and utter nonsense. Some of those states did not exist when Utah was made. The additional content appeared with them when they were added. God I’m dense sometimes.


Nevertheless, I like this concept for the tour – driving into Utah from all around. The fact that 2/3 of the roads in the state actually lead out of it (or into it) still holds true, and it’s been a great tour so far.


Stopped for a break before leaving town.






On the way out of town, we were asked to visit a weigh station. It wasn’t completely clear where it was.


Drove in here, but it seemed very much abandoned, and rather creepy.


Nope, no gas to be had, and no truck scales.


Eventually we located the way to get to the spot where it should be – the green icon on the HUD was roughly there.


But when we got there, there was no icon or option to weigh our truck. Very strange.
Next time – Cortez to the scenery town of Monticello, Utah.
Dan

[krigl]

Okay, here we go with the last set featuring Colorado for a while.


Leaving Cortez after attempting, and failing, to get weighed.


The game didn’t seem to mind.


The route to the border actually heads mainly north, before veering east to cross the border. Monticello and our destination rest stop is just beyond that.


Plenty of these yellow flowers and mildly arid agricultural scenery on the way.


House on a hill.


Well, it’s a bit greener than Nevada.








That soil is really brown.








Last time heading into Utah from Colorado.


Even browner soil in Utah, then.




A bit of a Nevada feel here.


We’ve arrived in Monticello.


We’re going no further today.


Next time we’ll be heading from Farmington, New Mexico, and Kayenta, Arizona into Utah. Back to the hot rocks again.
Dan

[krigl]

Hello again. We’ve dealt with three sides of the awesome square-shaped state of Utah – the west, the north and the east. Now it’s time for the base.


Here we are in Farmington, New Mexico. Bizarrely, we’re sporting a Christmas paint job. That’s because this and the next four sets were actually made first, not too long after Christmas.


I decided to leave them till last and do Nevada first when I realized that these sets were actually better than those from Nevada.


We’re in New Mexico, not Arizona, because I think I missed this route when touring those two states. Or maybe Utah added it. Whatever.


So, we’re driving west from Farmington across the border into Arizona, destination Coastline Mining near Kayenta.


Not sure where this is, some small scenery town.


Still in New Mexico right now.




Dry, dry, dry driving.




This place is called Teec Nos Pos. I’ll say that again: Teec Nos Pos. And we’re into Arizona.




Nearing Coastline.


Dropping off the cargo.


Let’s go and have a quick peek at Kayenta.




This is…. a farm? A farming equipment seller? I’m not sure you can farm anything but rocks in these here parts.




North to the Utah border.


We’re near Monument Valley, one of the most iconic locations in the whole USA.




Utah. Home of badass scenery.








That’s it for now. Next time we head back to Farmington via Utah and Colorado.
Dan