several posts have been made to the ability (or lack of) of cleaning off
the salt once it is on your car...
In '94 after the Pro, a Pro rookie, Marc Underwood, and myself went to vist
that National Park known as the Bonneville Salt Flats. Our rental car was a
generic Japanese thing, 4 cyl, automatic transmission and air conditiong
... oh 4 doors too. We went to the National Park site and noted that there
was a ramp provided to get onto the salt, absolutely no signs of "Keep Off"
or any other such warnings. So we did what the most curious "Griswalds" may
have done and drove a distance on the salt ... heading north ... following
the black lines ... full throttle .... for a couple of miles ... then for
a couple more miles with the a/c off ... yes, you can raise the mph a tad.
Well that was fun, time to get back and head to SLC for a flight ....
except that it is so vast out there we couldn't tell (other than the black
lines) which way to go. Obvious, follow the black lines back toward the
entrance ramp .... uhhhh, the black lines are gone now, is it here? No.
Here? Not sure. Well lets drive the same direction we are going and we're
bound to see some sort of clue, like the National Park sign ... or
something. Well, the next clue was the highway ... ok, we went too far
south, we better head a little west so we don't miss the entrance ramp ....
ok, too far west now, follow the access area back to the ramp ... boy that
was fun.
Now we are a little short on time to make the flight so the thought that we
can stop at a car wash before we return the car is fading and the thought
is are we going to miss the flight? We get back in town in time, but no car
washes can be quickly found.
Return the car and get a scolding from the rental car person about our
driving on the salt flats and how they charge $50 to clean cars that have
been driven there. Well, yes we did visit one the the Nation's National
Parks and no, I don't remember signing anything that said we couldn't go to
any National Park in the rental contract. There certainly wasn't any sign
at the National Park that said "No Rental Cars" ...
Still mumbling he just charged us what we owed and said something about not
being welcome in the future (yeah, like a rental car attendant will be
there still next year ...)
Moral of the story:
Make sure you take plenty of time to wash the rental car IF you visit one
of the better known National Parks in the Wendover area.
Jim Rohn
(aarrrgh another post, am I still on the top 50???)
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