Day 13 July 18/14 Torrey, Utah 3870 kms

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July 18th 2014

Published: July 19th 2014

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A DAY OF CONTRASTS

Leave Salt Lake City 1.5 millions people Contrast: Austin's Chuckwagon Motel: here we come! Yee ha! Location: Torrey, Utah. Population 182. Claim to fame: 2nd stage of Utah's premier cycling race Tour de Utah.

But why stop here? No particular reason, other than we are making our way south and found on the map the neighbouring Capitol Reef National Forest.

To recap this day of contrasts:

Usual: on the road by 9, ends up being 10. Contrast: Earlybird gets the worm! We actually managed to get up at 5 am and be on the road by 5:30, to beat the predicted 100 degree heat. No snooze button temptation today!

Contrast: NO interstate! After the nudiustertium's navigation debacles, I was charged with finding a route to this quaint, tree-lined one street town avoiding interstates at all cost. Which made getting out of Salt Lake City in a timely fashion as slowgoing and painful as taking the Nanaimo bypass to bypass Nanaimo. Red light. Red light. Red light. For 15 miles, through a sprawling Salt Lake City saturated with contiguous strip malls the entire way. The stop go torture ended with a choice between

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Interstate 15 or the Pony Express route. I had it all figured out. Pony Express, here we come. Regrettably, it was a short-lived ride on a pony-sprint-length side road running in the shadows of the interstate, and 15 minutes later we were met head on again by the interstate. Nope, we are not going on. Thanksgiving Way it is instead. And thankful I was to have another 15 minutes of quiet empty side road, this time with a Route 89 sign welcoming us at its terminus.

Now to find the worm. Apparently, people here don't eat breakfast out very often! We had to ride 95 miles south on route 89 through the barren, rocky brown inhospitable windy Manti La-Sal mountain range where the temperature dipped to 14, forcing us to tighten up jackets and vents. We bumped out into Fairview, Utah, where the temperature in their contrasting very green valley shot back up to 28 in a few short miles. We discovered what appeared to be the only diner in town, the Home Plate Cafe. It was well worth the long ride, and clearly we haven't yet learned to only order one item to share.

Usual: pulling into

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our destination alate afternoon, dinnertime. Contrast: Back on the road, we are well ahead of schedule, originally anticipating an arrival time of approximately 3 pm into Torrey. At this fast pace, we will be there by 1 pm. This section of Route 89 through the valley was very pretty, home to many a cattle and horse ranch and roadkill along the side of the road. Wonder why they haven't renamed this section?

Austin's Chuckwagon Lodge. Lovely loghouse cabins, and a newly built log motel. Contrast: we are in on of the four RUSTIC ORIGINAL LODGE ROOMS. BUT with an extremely comfortable bed. Good thing we are only there to sleep! $61! Gotta love that.

Usual: arrive, exhausted, unload, initial prep for the next day, eat, bedtime. Contrast: Time for a swim and downtime. Bud Lights by the Pool, even through the thunderstorm.

Usual: where did I pack my book anyway? Contrast: read iBook for the first time on this trip.

Usual: dinner yesterday on a misted deck at Gracie's in Salt Lake situated on a busy downtown street polluted with noisy rush hour traffic. Contrast: Today's highlighted contrast and something I thought I would never do

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(and enjoy): dinner at the Saddlery Cowboy Bar. As I said, yee ha! Saddle seats at the bar, bison heads on the wall, guys in cowboy hats, and an overabundance of meat choices on the menu. Oh dear. Clearly, we haven't yet learned to only order one item to share. I have enough leftovers from my chicken dinner with two sides to last for the next 5 days.

Yesterday we were listening to the togetherness of Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Contrast: Full blown country and western shake your boots 2-steppin' band, sporting cowboy hats, plaid shirts, boots, big buckled belts, playing Johnny Cash (where are you, Jim?). We had one dance and called it a night.

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