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Assembly Hall
Mormon Square in Salt Lake City Today was our last real day of riding and while we didn't put a ton of miles on the bikes (c'mon, haven't we done enough already?), we did see a lot of different things.
We started the day a little later than normal, hitting the road around 10:00am after breakfast. We started by heading downtown to Mormon Square to see the Mormon Temple and a lot of the other buildings and sites in the downtown area. We started by visiting the assembly building which was like many other churches inside, but had an enormous organ. We wandered around and took some pictures, and then stopped into the John Smith Memorial Building to visit the Family Search Center to see if they could help Dad find some information about his parents and grandparents. It was really interesting. We spent about an hour there browsing Ancestry.com with their staff assistance and found a lot of information from the 1910, 1920 and 1930 census. It's something Dad will continue to look into after he gets home to try and find more information through other sources. We also chatted with a lot of great people there, and everyone was genuinely nice without preaching. It
was a great morning.
We then stopped by the shipping depot to get a few questions answered before dropping off the bikes tomorrow. They'll likely be able to give us a ride to the airport after we drop off the bikes so we can pick up our rental car, and we'll be able to leave some of our non-critical gear in the saddle bags on the bikes, so it helps us fly home without needing to check bags.
After that, we went to Antelope Island State Park. It's the largest island in the Great Salt Lake and is now the home to a bison herd of over 600 animals. They roam the park for the year, and are corraled once a year for vaccinations and record keeping. It was neat to learn that they use a helicopter to assist with the buffalo herding. We saw a lot of the herd out near the eastern edge of the island as we rode by. The view of Salt Lake City and the mountains from the island was beautiful, and we got a lot of great pictures. It was also a great ride back off the island along the 7-mile causeway,
Mormon Temple
No tours are available and you're not allowed inside. with a reflection of the mountains on the water.
On the way back to the hotel, there was a large plume of smoke over the mountains to the south, and we learned that this was a wildfire burning just over the closest mountaints south of the city. By the time we had finished dinner though, it seemed like it was mostly under control since the smoke was already gone. It's been a very dry season out here, and Utah has been having a particularly bad wildfire season.
We felt like pizza tonight, so we found a traditional Neopolitan pizza place here called Settebello. Dad had the Settebello pizza which has fresh mozzarella, crushed tomatoes, pancetta, roasted onions, roasted mushrooms and roasted peppers, and it looked like a great pizza. I had the Diavola, which was peppered salami, roasted peppers, crushed red pepper, crushed tomatoes and fresh mozzarella, and it was really good. We then went next door to the gelateria that they own, and finished off the evening with some great gelato. Dad had amaretto, and I had hazelnut and ricotta fig. The ricotta fig was something I'd never had before, but it was very creamy and tasted
Bird at Antelope Island
They had built mud nests in the rafters and were keeping eggs warm. great.
Our last stop for the evening was at Dick's Sporting Goods to pick up a duffel bag so I can pack up all of my gear for the flight and leave my motorcycle luggage on the Harley and have it shipped with the bike. I was proud of what I accomplished here. They had a duffel bag that I had seen at a Walmart earlier in the week, but the price at Dick's was $35, when it was only about $20 at Walmart. I asked if they would price match it, but the only pricing I could pull up on my phone was online pricing and the bag was $13.59. I got them to honor this when it's their policy to only honor printed advertisements for store pricing. So I now have everything packed up for only $13.59, and my luggage will be dropped off with the motorcycle tomorrow.
With our last big day of riding over, we end the trip with nearly 6,500 miles completed on my bike, and over 7,000 on Dad's (his odometer is running a lot faster than mine, so he managed to rack up an extra 200 miles somewhere!). A few more
miles tomorrow to get to the shipping depot, and then we fly home Saturday. Only a few more blogs left, so I hope you've enjoyed it and are looking forward to the last few.
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Paula
non-member comment
Well its 6 A.M. and once again I'm enjoying my morning reading. Don't know what I'll do next week when I won't have a blog to read. Glad you're still having a safe and enjoyable trip. Can't wait to hear more about it Saturday although the blobs and calls have been great. Jason, you've become a great bargain shopper whether for motels or luggage. Both of you have another exciting day.