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Published: August 19th 2011
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After leaving Caldwell, we headed on down to Salt Lake City. The drive was fairly uneventfull and really not all that scenic. Most of Idaho has been having fires, so you could always see the haze of the smoke and in some places, even see the fires. There was a really flat section where the wind would sneak up on in gusts...one time it nearly blew us off the road and into another vehicle. Most of the scenery was either brown, flat, burnt or all 3....very little green due to the dryness....we think we had a draught in NY??? not even close! We could see, what we soon found out were little mini dust cyclones. But at first from a distance they looked like weird cloud formations straight up from the ground into the sky.
As we entered further into Utah, the scenery got more green & mountainous and pretty. But there was still a haze as you got toward SLC. We found out from Sue later that is basically smog that due to the elevation can't leave the valley areas until it rains. There were a lot of highway signs about the air quality and such.
We arrived
at Sue's house in Salt Lake City around 7:10pm MST (Tuesday 8/16/11). She lives in a neighborhood called Sugar House with her husband Tom. I have been here before once when Sue & I went to Maui together, but this was my first time meeting Tom. Sue & I were SO excited to see each other, it so awesome to finally be here!
We made little pizzas at Sue's for supper and just hung out & relaxed. We met her 2 dogs, Bibbles and Vita. Bibbles & Ginger got along fairly well, but we think Vita just wants to eat Ginger for a snack. So, needless to say, we have limited the contact between the 3 dogs.
Yesterday, we got up and left the house around 10:30am and Sue, Larry, Ginger & I headed out & toured the Uinta Mountains. Our highest elevation was 10,759 feet! Larry & I didn't really notice too much shortness of breath like people sometimes experience, but ears kept popping a lot. I found myself yawning a lot too. We are thirsty all the time too…the air is just so dry here.
Where is had been quite hot down in the valley
around the city, it got quite cool up in the mountains. I think I noticed the lowest temp to be 64 degrees. It was well into the upper 90's down in Salt Lake City.
We saw some pretty cool stuff along our travels...like some cowboys (& cowgirls) herding cattle along the road side. There were a couple of trucks in the road to slow down traffic (there wasn't much traffic) and even blocking vehicles in a couple spots where the cattle had to actually be in the road. It was pretty cool!
Larry caught the glimpse of a bull moose along the side of the road and went back to take pictures. You have to really look close at the picture of trees to see him, but he's there...Kind of like "where's Waldo?" 😊
We stopped in a camping area where Sue & Tom like to camp out and walked around there for a bit. We walked in the creek stopped to take some photos there too. There was an old pump well near the sites for campers to get their fresh drinking water, and public bathrooms with natural composting. Very simple, very beautiful camping environment.
We arrived back at Sue's around 5:15pm, dropped off Ginger, then headed back up the hill to Park City (where the Olympics were held in 2002). One of Larry's high school classmates, Mary Barone Coyer and her husband, Dane live up there and they invited us to hang out while we were in the area. Thank Goodness for Facebook or that connection would have probably never have otherwise happened! 😊
We went to Deer Valley Ski Resort with them and sat at a local musician’s' jazz concert and had a picnic dinner that Mary made...which was a delicious pasta & beef salad with yummy sides. We didn't stay too long because the music was kind of loud and difficult to visit & chat and catch up on old times.
We went back to Mary & Dane's house for the rest of the evening. On the way back....sort of, Dane drove us through Old Towne Park City and took us up the mountain to the site of the Olympics. It was too late to see all the summer activities that go on up there, but still very beautiful and impressive.
There was sat, all 4 of us from
upstate NY (Dane is from Oswego), visiting in their back yard in beautiful Park city. We sat at their gas fire pit, since they can't burn open fires around their due to the high risk of forest fires. Their home is simply gorgeous. I would surely have gotten lost in it if Mary wasn't showing us around. Mary was telling us how they frequently get moose visitors in their back yard. It would have been so cool to see that!
What an awesome time we had!
Today, Thursday, we left the house shortly before noon and Tom drove my truck and headed out to Bingham Canyon where copper mine is. It was a pretty impressive site to see as it's an open pit mine. Those humungous trucks down there look like Tonka toys. But in reality, they are about the size of my house and can easily pick up a full sized pick up in its claw like it's nothing.
We had some lunch then headed out to see the Great Salt Lake. Yes, the water is salty...and it's like 10% or something like that, saltier than the ocean! There is NO marine life in it except
brine shrimp. That's it! Nothing else can survive in it! It's this huge beautiful body of water, with beautiful islands in view....and nothing lives in it or around it! There is a public beach, and just a hand full of people utilizing it...there is a marina with some sail boats docked in it, but not one vessel in it! Tom said in all the time he's lived here, he's never really seen more than few boats in it at a time...it's not like you fish in the lake or anything, and no one really wants to swim in it...so what's the sense I guess?
We all came back to house for a few hours and chilled out. Tom & I both took an hour long cat nap! Big shocker, huh? For dinner Tom & Sue took us to this really cool Italian restaurant. It reminded me of one you'd see in a Mafia flick and the food was delicious!
Well, that's about it for now. I think I have you all caught up to speed. We aren't sure when we are leaving here...either Saturday or Sunday morning. We haven't decided yet.
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