Advertisement
On the skids
Cooling down and waiting to be strapped down.It's depressing that today is our last day and we have to return to reality, but I think a part of us is also glad to get off the bikes and return to the comforts of home, some consistency and a home cooked meal. We got up this morning and packed up the items we'd be shipping home with the bikes, and rode back over to the shipping depot to drop off the bikes. It was a 9 mile ride today which is by far our shortest riding day. We spent about an hour at the shipping depot letting the bikes cool and then having them strapped to the shipping skids. Everything went well and the guys at the depot were extremely nice and helpful in getting the bikes inspected and strapped down.
From here, Gary the dispatch manager gave us a ride to the airport and dropped us off to pick up our rental car. It was really nice that everyone there was so helpful and we got a lift to get the car. We booked a 'wild card' through Thrifty, which would guarantee us at least a compact car, and while I tried to negotiate a convertible, it
turns out that Thrifty doesn't have sports cars in Salt Lake City, but I did manage to get a Nissan Xterra, so we got to drive around in a nice SUV. We went to a few more stores today for dad to pick up a duffel bag and consolidate his stuff for the flight home, and grabbed a light lunch at Costco while we were there. We didn't eat too heavy since we were having a final dinner of the trip would be at a Brazilian steakhouse.
From here, we just headed back to the hotel to have a few relaxing hours. No bikes, no car, nothing. It was good to just sit back and relax again.
Dinner tonight was at Rodizio Grill, what they claim is the original Brazilian Churascuria here in the US. It's all you can eat appetizers, salad bar, and grilled meats that waiters bring to your table on skewers and carve tableside for you. It was really good. We had glazed fried bananas, some different breads that they make, salads, and then whole sirloin, top sirloin, tri tip, wild boar, marinated chicken, turkey wrapped in bacon, roasted tomatoes with parmesan cheese, beef with
parmesan cheese, and glazed grilled pineapple. Of course, we also had chicken hearts as well, which were pretty tasty. After dinner, we walked around Trolley Square, where the restaurant was located. It is the location where the streetcars of Salt Lake City used to be housed in the early 1900s, and now is a shopping area with restaurants. We stopped in at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got caramel and chocolate dipped marshmallows for desert, which was a great way to finish the meal.
On the way back to the hotel, we filled the tank on the car so we don't have to stop for gas in the morning, and picked up beer from the convenience store. We sat on the back patio of the hotel chatting about the trip for a little while, and will call it a night early since we have early flights home in the morning. We'll be up around 5:30 to grab breakfast, head to the airport, drop of the car and get through security, but it shouldn't be too bad. Since I had earned some vouchers last year from all my business travel and they were going to expire, we're lucky enough to
The Goldwing
Ready for the trip to NJ. be flying first class, so we'll have meals and a comfortable seat so we can catch some sleep on the way home. Dad will have it really nice since his plane has first class suites, so he should have a lay flat bed on his way home.
This will be the last blog for a few days, but once we're back we'll likely post one more with some finishing thoughts and details about our flights, but for now, we hope you've enjoyed keeping track of our trip, and want to thank you for reading.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.07s; Tpl: 0.015s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0283s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
