Our Day Trip to Salt Lake

This time of year, it's easier for us to drive the 4+ hours to
Salt Lake City then it is to drive the same length of time to
Denver since we don't have to go over the mountains. It's a
long day trip, but not overly taxing as it' broken up in two halves.
It's a beautiful drive, with 2/3 of the trip through desert, very similar
to that around our house. The roads are good and not crowded
and the last third of the trip has beautiful views of the snow
covered (this time of year) Wasatch Mountains that are really
close to the city. Of course we made our obligatory stop for
lunch at the In-N-Out Burger in American Fork. I don't
think I'll need to go back for a while since I probably ate
enough food to last a couple of weeks!


Since we're still trying to find a few last things to spruce up our
house this spring, going to Salt Lake City works out well since
it's also the location of the nearest IKEA (actually in Draper) to
our house. We visited an IKEA store a couple of years ago in
Tempe and we decided then that when we wanted to get some
items for our house, we'd make the trip to IKEA. IKEA is known
for its inexpensive furniture and we found exactly what we were
looking for. As fun as it is to shop there, three hours later, I was
pretty tired of shopping at IKEA.


On our way out of town, we stopped by a new grocery store that
we like. It's called Sunflower Farmer's Market. There are locations
in Colorado, but not in Grand Junction. Half the store is filled with
fresh produce and they have a huge bulk food section. We stocked
up on some healthy food to take home and the next four hours
were spent enjoying the pretty drive home.

Headed Home

Before we left for home, we stopped for lunch at a great
Mexican restaurant named the Red Iguana. It's been rated
by most as the best Mexican restaurant in Salt Lake City and
has even been featured on a favorite television show of mine
called Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The food was awesome!
It was the first Mexican food I've had since coming back to
the States (Taco Bell and Taco John's doesn't count) so I was
especially enamored by the food. They even make seven kinds
of Mole from scratch. We tried the Mole Coloradito which is
made from Pine nuts, almonds, peanuts, dried chile chiuacle
and guajillo chiles, blended with fresh chile poblano and
Mexican chocolate. It didn't disappoint. We will definitely
go back to the Red Iguana again.

Salt Lake City

I've been home two weeks and Lynn and I decided on a
change of scenery! Yes, we both still have the travel bug,
but we're taking trips close to home this summer. We headed
to Salt Lake City, which is about 4.5 hours away from home.
Along the way, we stopped at the new In-N-Out Burger in
Draper. In-N-Out is a regular stop of ours in California, but
now we have one only 4 hours from home! Good thing we
don't have one in Grand Junction because it certainly would
not be good for my waistline!


We checked into our hotel in downtown Salt Lake City and
it's a cute little mom and pop style motel, called the City
Creek Inn. It's located only blocks from the center of the
city. Salt Lake City is set in a beautiful location, with mountains
all around. Much like Denver, if Denver had been built right
against the Rockies instead of on the Plains. Right against
the mountains is the University of Utah. We drove around
the campus and saw Rice-Eccles Stadium. This is where the
opening and closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics
were held.


Before we came back to the hotel for the night, we drove around
the downtown area. Salt Lake City is the home of the Mormon
(Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) religion. Salt Lake
City is to the Mormons like Vatican City is to Catholics. The
centerpiece of their faith. The Temple itself is very pretty and
is especially so at night. We can't go inside though since we
aren't Mormon. Overall though, Salt Lake City is very welcoming
and there are lots of things to do here. We should have a good
time seeing the sights over the next couple of days.

And Away I Go...

Ready to start season number 10 on the Ice, I started my trip.
Today was a long day. Lynn dropped me off at the airport
in Grand Junction at around 11:30 and immediately drove
off for Denver. My flight left at around 12:30 and after about
40 minutes, I was in Salt Lake City.


The plane from GJT was pretty small...about 25 people, but this
plane from SLC was about 75people. Quite a bit bigger. I sat
next to a woman from Israel who was going around to cities in
the western US selling body muds and salts from the Dead Sea.
Interesting.


When I landed in Denver at around 4:45, Lynn was waiting for me
and had been there about an hour. Amazing that it took her less
time to drive than it took me to fly.

Crossing The Desert

Of course this photo is staged. If it wasn't, someone else would
be writing this blog entry as Lynn and I would be too busy
counting our money!


Our hotel, the Red Lion Hotel and Casino in Elko was awesome!
Really really nice and although we aren't gamblers, it was fun to
have a casino in our hotel. It also had a Starbucks right inside
the casino (we did take advantage of this). I guess they want their
gamblers to stay wide awake so they can gamble longer.


Elko is a nice town. We're not looking for a different place to live,
but if we were, Elko seems like it would be a good place to live.
We stopped at the Visitor's Center which is actually an old ranch
house built in the 1800's that was moved into Elko and now
besides serving as the visitor's center, also doubles as a small
museum to the family. Very interesting.


As we crossed through the last 2 hours of desert and mountains
of northeast Nevada, we came to the towns of West Wendover
Nevada and Wendover Utah. This big sign of "Wendover Will"
greeted us as we entered West Wendover.


These towns struck me as being rather odd. Pretty much the only
reason West Wendover exists if for gambling. I could not see a
single house in the town. Only casinos and other service related
businesses. Crossing into Wendover Utah there doesn't seem to
be a lot there either except Lynn said she did see a few houses and
there is a school, firehouse, etc. I'm guessing Wendover was a tiny
place until they decided to build West Wendover to lure gamblers
from Salt Lake City.


After leaving Wendover, we began the crossing the the Great Salt
Lake Desert. Almost immediately we came to the Bonneville Salt
Flats. What a cool place! Definitely middle of nowhere, it's also
a destination in it's own right. Bonneville is a huge flat expanse
of...Salt! For miles and miles. It looks just like the Ice sheet at
McMurdo in it's stark whiteness. It's also a place where every year
land speed records are set by very fast cars. It was fascinating.


In about an hour, we came to the Great Salt Lake. We'd been to
Salt Lake City before, but never had a really good view of the lake.
it reminded me of an odd combination of a Great Lake and an Ocean,
although it's actually 3-5 times saltier than the ocean. We did see
a sailboat out in the distance, but I read later that there are no
fish since it is way too salty.


We like Salt Lake City. It's a city that has great parks,
transportation, friendly people etc. etc. If...we wanted to
live in a big city. We took a drive through downtown since
it had been almost 10 years since we've been here.


We missed our turn off of I-15 to shortcut it to I-70 and as
a result drove though one of the most beautiful interstate
drives in the country. The San Rafael Swell, west of the town
of Green River, is truly amazing. Huge red rock formations,
great vistas and just plain interesting scenery. We plan to
go back and explore the area further.

Goodbye Denver...Hello SLC?

The other day, I found an interesting map, detailing how
each area of the country is influenced by a nearby city.

The Commoncensus Map Project

In Grand Junction we live almost equidistant from both
Denver and Salt Lake City. If for no other reason than
family ties and a "connection" to the Front Range, we go to
Denver when we go to "The City". However, the Colorado
State Senate has just passed a law stating that they want
to charge each car traveling on I-70 from Floyd Hill, outside
of Denver, to the Eisenhower tunnel, a $5.00 toll fee. $5.00
is not a huge amount of money, but it's the principle more
than anything that is disturbing. The Western Slope is
tiring of giving the Front Range it's water, and it's money
from it's natural resources. Maybe it's time the Western
Slope gets to keep it's money at home...or at the very least,
start looking westward.