2 Girls and a Dog

We left Salt Lake City and drove through the Wasatch and Utica mountains. BTW, Todd, our SLC tour guide, told us that over 2/3 of the population of Utah lives along that Wasatch “front” or at the foothills of the mountains.  That explains why one can drive through Utah for long stretches without seeing any population.  As we passed through the mountains, the trees are just starting to change colors with pops of orange, yellow and fuchsia.  It is beautiful and must be quite a sight when the trees reach their full fall colors.  After the mountains, we moved into verdant rolling hills and vast cattle ranches and alfalfa farms.  Most of the harvesting is complete with giant rolls of hay spotting the fields.  We stopped in Evanston Wy. for gas and realized we were on the Lincoln Highway!  The members of the Winey book club who are following us will recognize it from a book we read and discussed by the same name.  Michelle was probably much more thrilled than was warranted when we discovered this fact.  The hotel in Cheyenne was barely tolerable and caused us to discuss the fact we needed to upgrade the level of hotels we stay in for our future road trips.  That’s one of the beauties of travel, you live and learn. 

After checking into the hotel, we were (no surprise) starving.  We asked the front desk where we could find a dog friendly restaurant and they pointed us to The Office which was just a few miles down the road.  We call ahead to confirm that Eddie will be welcome. We are so glad we went there as the food and wine were excellent and Tyler, our server, was delightful.  Of course, Eddie made friends with the little girl at the table across from us.  Apparently, Eddie’s arrival was greatly anticipated. Most of the food servers (and their manager) made at least one appearance to greet Eddie. Some came much more often. Kids at nearby tables also came by to visit our little ambassador.

I like the little girl. She drops lots and lots of mac & cheese. She likes me.

She didn’t drop them for you, sweetie. It’s just what kids do.

No! She did it for me. She knows you don’t feed me anymore.

Don’t tell people that! We feed you all of the time. Schedules are just different on the road.

I’m starving and you don’t care.

We’re not going there with you.

I did lots of tricks for her. Thank you! Thank you very much!

Winding down and getting ready to return to our hotel, we happened to make the acquaintance of the gentleman at the table next to us and came to find out he is an E9 in the army and a recruiter and was celebrating his 18^th year in the army that day. For those of you not familiar with the military ranks, E9s make up just 1.25% of all the enlisted people in the army.  Even more impressive, Edmundo is a relatively young man.  We told him we had both served, gave him due respect and had a great conversation with him.  As we’ve said before, one of our great joys is meeting people while we are on the road.  Back to the hotel and bed as we would be headed for Omaha in the morning.

Little Elvis, wait Little Eddie has left the building.

OK, one thing to know about Wyoming is that the wind is fierce!  We thought we were pretty immune to wind given that we live in the wind tunnel of the Coachella Valley.  Truly, not so much.  The wind speeds the next morning in Cheyenne was a sustained 40 MPH and gusts up to 50 MPH.  During her morning outing, Eddie became a magnificent airborne kite. It’s a good thing Eddie was on her leash, or she might have flown off without us.   Whew! At any rate, we managed to get gas and hit the road without flying off to Kansas. 

Wheeee! I can fly! I see Toto flying by.

Come on back down now Eddie.

I-80, out of Cheyenne and into Nebraska crosses the Platte River and that area is called Chain-O-Lakes.  The water table in this part of the country is not very deep (only 12 feet down in some places) and the soil is sand and gravel there is perfect for road construction. So when I-80 was created and as it is improved, the department of transportation creates small lakes in the places where the sand and gravel are mined.  The result is a series of beautiful lakes along the highway. 

We passed lots of corn, alfalfa and cattle being grown and stopped in North Platte for gas and hydration.  The attendant was very funny and a bit of a trickster – we were reminded of the coyote characters in the southwest.  He was a true contrary. We arrived in Omaha in the late afternoon and opted for a simple Subway salads and rest and relaxation until bed time. 

Tomorrow we head for Iowa and a gatherings with friends. 

After a truly spectacular drive up the center of Utah, we arrived in Salt Lake City, starving as usual.  We found a dog friendly place called The Garage on Beck.  On Beck Street.  How hard could that be?  For those of you who have never journeyed in Utah and Salt Lake City, know that the streets are set up on grid system.  GPS won’t work because all of the streets start with a cardinal point letter (i.e. S for south) then a number in the 100’s followed by another cardinal point letter.  These numbers can go into the 1000s.  GPS freaks out and can’t manage it.  Also, most have a street name in tiny, tiny print that is cute, but useless.  The moral to this shaggy dog story is that it took forever to find the restaurant (which was really a bar that serves food as opposed to a restaurant that serves alcohol).  We barely recognized it as it was located pretty much at a refining plant.  The food was fine, drinks helped.  

Wait!  All I got was water.  Where was my special drink?

Eddie, you don’t drink.  Quiet please, we’re blogging.

Anyway, we finally squirrelled our way back to our Airbnb and crashed.  Actually, we watched a bit of Batwoman first.  

All of the next day was wonderful.  After a quick breakfast of granola we left the confusion of the SLC streets and headed out to the Great Salt Lake itself.  It is huge, much larger than expected and really, really salty.  Only the Dead Sea is saltier.  This doesn’t surprise anyone, but it’s fascinating still.  A visitor center tour helped us learn all about the lake, and how it was formed from a much, much larger lake in the past.  Most of the fresh water left but valuable minerals were left in abundance.  They continue to mine there reaping tons and tons of copper, gold, molybdenum and silver.  The smelter there is almost as tall as the Empire State Building.

We continued on our tour of the Great Salt Lake to Antelope Island, a referral from our recent chat with Colby and Hunter.  This is a huge island in the Lake connected to the mainland by a very long causeway.  Incredible numbers and varieties of birds are there.  The island is also home to antelope (of course), bison and big horned sheep.  We saw all but the sheep.  

I saw a sheep.  

Where?

On the island with those giant black dogs.  

Those were bison, Eddie, not dogs.  Also, are you sure you saw sheep?

Pretty sure.  Maybe.  Maybe.

Anyway, we stayed most of the day there, then headed back for salads at Firehouse Subs and home.  More Batwoman.  

Thursday, and our final full day in SLC, started with breakfast at Café on 1^st where we three could eat.  By the way, “first” actually means “100” according to the locals.  Even they don’t follow the actual signs.  Regardless, breakfast was a local’s place and Michelle loved her Matcha Latte.  We rested some of the remaining afternoon catching up on laundry and packing a bit.  Our real day began later.  

About 4pm we were at the Radisson Hotel (1 mile and fourteen turns later) to meet for a bus tour of SLC and the opportunity to watch the rehearsal of the Tabernacle Choir.  Before we began, we noticed people in unusual attire.  Apparently, it was the beginning of FanX, a science fiction convention.  Ewoks, Captain America, Princesses, Swords people and more crowded the hotel and the streets.  Thousands and thousands of them.  It was fabulous!  Young and old.  All were there.

Our bus tour slowly eased around all of these fictional characters come to life, while Todd, our tour guide, regaled us with information on the history, geology, and growth of the city.  We went up to Heritage Park, the University, the Medical centers, the old Fort.  Fascinating.  We ended at the hall where the Tabernacle Choir practices every Thursday evening for their performance on Sunday.  We watched for nearly an hour and listened to their beautiful voices while watching the conductor adjust the performance.  A true delight to see and hear such harmony and beauty. 

A quick meal back at the hotel, a picture with Slime from Ghostbusters and then home to bed.  Tomorrow, on to Cheyenne.

Welcome friends and family, friends who are family and family who are friends. Well, you know who you are. Welcome to our first Blog Blast!

Blog 1 – September 2023

We finally left home and our dirt choked air in our beloved Coachella Valley about 11am. The road began in its usual way. We’ve driven that well worn path to Las Vegas so many times that there seemed nothing new. Once through Las Vegas, it all became virgin territory. Literally. We hit the Virgin River territory and it was magnificent! We started through the towering walls of the Virgin River Gorge. Tremendous uplifts blotted the sun. We poked ourselves in and out of the sunlight, twisting and turning through the mountain.

Show me the way to go home.

Wait, is she singing back there? Eddie are you singing?

And I’m tired and I want to go to bed.

Eddie, why are you singing?

I had a little drink about an hour ago.

You did not have a drink. You went to the Vet and had shots – rabies, not vodka. You had benadryl to keep you nose from blowing up. You have not been drinking.

And it’s gone right to my head. Zzzzzzzzz.

Silence. Thankfully.

Anyway, back to the drive. The Gorge was longer than we expected and ended by exploding into an open basin surrounded by mountains. The colors reminiscent of watermelon – greens and red. Truly lovely.

We arrived in Saint George, UT after touching 4 states (CA, NV, AZ, UT) and one time zone in 6 hours. We were starving. After checking into our Quality Inn (quality being a descriptor, not a judgment as to its characteristics) we found a restaurant where Eddie could join us. George’s on the Corner. Discussions are still being had regarding the delicious Heritage Tomato BLT and the Tostada Salad. Also, and thankfully so, Utah is not dry.

It was a stunning evening with colors gradually shading the sky. We ate and chatted and discussed the three men behind Michelle. We were fairly convinced about their family status (another check in the plus column for Utah). Eddie broke the ice by sneaking over to their table for petting. Leave it to our little Ambassador of Travel to break the ice for us. Easy exchanges became full conversations and we are now introduced to Hunter and Colby and their friend Logan. We shared another happy hour chatting and learning about them and getting hints as to what to see in Salt Lake City.

Actually, you trained me to troll for friends.

We did not. Go back to sleep.

Zzzzzzz

The evening finally caught up with us and we headed back to our hotel and our not so comfortable bed. Before sleep, Hunter texted us with an invitation to breakfast. We jumped right on that train and made plans. Day 1 – what fun!

8 am and we’re at St. Helen’s Cafe with Hunter and Colby. Interesting men and the conversation rolled along. We asked them why there were so many saints here knowing that the LDS church does not do saints. Apparently, St. George was founded by Catholics and were originally the majority group here. That is no longer the case, but those Saints just kept rolling on.

That’s all for now. We’ll keep you posted periodically. Salt Lake City next!

A traveling we will go…and you can follow us! 

Many of you know that Sandy, Eddie and I are about to take a driving tour across the U.S.  I’ve set up this blog so you can follow us as we travel this amazing, fascinating and beautiful country.  I’ll use Facebook to let you know when I create new posts.  If you prefer to be notified via email, send me your email address either through a message or text.

Your vagabond friends,

Michelle, Sandy and Eddie