Back in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake

Saturday, May 17, 2014

We are enjoying perfect weather here in Utah.  After a leisurely morning we headed over to Camping World.  We had a very productive visit.  For one we finally scored the doormat style step cover like Penny has that we've been coveting for a year.

AND it's coordinating door mat!

We also got a new shower head that will save us gallons of water (according to the labeling).  But perhaps our biggest score was a new camp chair for Simon.

We brought it inside for him to get used to it.  Of course the addition of his Bath & Body fluffy throw didn't hurt.  We put him in it several times and he would just step off it and go lay in his regular bed.  But after we stopped watching him and started minding our own business we looked up and he had climbed in and settled into it.  Since then he hasn't gone back to his regular bed.  

Success!!!!

Afterwards we took a drive to see what the old homestead looks like.  We moved to Oregon in 1988 and this valley has grown beyond belief.  So we weren't optimistic about the survival of the little cottage where Dave and I started our life together.  However it looks about the same as it did when we left except for a little fence around the front yard.

When we lived in this little two bedroom house it was a rental and the owners had a nice newer ranch home next door.  We had a nice corral and hay shed for our horses out back and bought hay from the landlord.  We learned from several folks in the area that it was one of the original houses built out in that far southwest corner of the valley and the farmer who lived there raised ten children in that house.

Yikes!

Well it was a perfect little spot for Dave & I to start out.  Across the street was a good sized horse operation where they bred race horses.  We learned a lot from Wayne & Janina who lived there.  And we would watch the place when they took their horses out of town.  We could also ride our horses across the street, up our neighbors driveway and be up in the bluffs within minutes with endless space for riding.  But mostly we rode the horses - and walked the dogs - along the tree line next to the house.

The tree line is also as it was.  These alfalfa fields are owned by the LDS church, so it's not a surprise that they have survived the encroachment of suburbia.  There are miles to walk along these tracks.  It was great to see this part of our past still intact.

We also got to meet up with Alena and her husband Andy and daughters Janessa and Ashley.  What a cool family.  Those girls are nice AND funny.  And just plain lovely.  Which is no surprise given that's exactly what their mom Alena is like.  They introduced us to Famous Dave's BBQ.  I was sitting next to Andy who gave me good info on the offerings.  It was a good experience and let's just say I have some ideas for mixing things up next time I make mac-n-cheese.

Today we are meeting up with all three kids and all their kids for a bbq at Travis and Bridget's place.  Sure to be a good time.  

Adventures with technology

Friday, May 16, 2014

Today we arrived in Salt Lake City after a not-too-long drive across the Salt Flats.  Once we reached the western edge of the Salt Lake Valley the adventure really began.  Our destination was Mountain Shadows RV Park in Draper.  Draper is in the southeast corner of the valley and we were entering from the opposite corner.  No worries, we have "Gypsy" our state of the art Rand McNally Good Sam GPS. It seemed to have us routed on a western belt route that would bypass the melee of I-15 and skirt around on the west side then sweep east at the south end of the valley and deposit us right where we need to be.  But then things started getting a bit off kilter.  First Gypsy had us heading way west to avoid some road construction.  I mean WAY west.  Like we thought we may end up in the Kennecott Copper Mine.  It seems Gypsy really dislikes crowds and had us taking quite the circuitous path around the valley.  Between us making our decisions and Gypsy's directions we did end up on the aforementioned belt route that took us neatly into Draper.  Then things got REAL wiggy as Gypsy directed us into a condo complex.  You know the kind that has one lane roads winding through a maze of condo's with metal parking covers interspersed throughout?  At first we thought it might be the access as we could see RV's just on the other side.  But no, we were caught in an RVer's nightmare.  And we weren't the first, almost every parking cover we passed had a scar from a tall vehicle colliding with it.  I was sweating like some kind of farm animal - and I wasn't driving!  Dave piloted us safely and calmly until we found a maintenance guy who gave us directions out.  And added, " I can't believe you've gotten this far with that thing." Nice.  We made it out and the 100 feet to the entrance to Mt. Shadows.  This is a nice park - clean, lots of grass (Simon gives it a tail up and a wag).  Which is a good thing because as far as we can tell it is one of TWO RV parks in Salt Lake Valley.  It does have kind of a strange feature though.  They have the pull-through spots aligned so two rigs share a common utility strip which means you pull in from opposite directions.  Seems to make sense, except it means your front door is facing your next door neighbors front door across a grassy lawn area.  And in our case that's a pretty skinny strip.  And our front doors end up aligned directly across from each other.  The good news is we have a really pleasant couple next door who just left Zion Nat'l Park and gave us some helpful info.  Thankfully we don't have Cousin Eddie (National Lampoon Christmas Vacation) parked there.

Needless to say we were ready for a beer after our harrowing arrival.  Once we got set up we headed out in search of a suitable spot for lunner and happened upon a place with wings and microbrews.  What luck!  And there was a Smith's (where we can use our Fred Meyer points card!) right close by.  And to top things off there is a Camping World about a block away from where we are staying.  Life if good!  Even in Utah!

Ya gotta love the Wasatch Front.

(Sorry for so few pictures.  It wasn't a picture-taking kind of day.)

Day Three, Post Two

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

Since my last post we left our spacious, albeit sparse, accommodations in Lakeview and headed east on highwy 140.  Those of you who have driven this route know it's nothing to write home about.  Thus no post yesterday.  The road from Lakeview, OR to Winnemucca, NV really goes through no other cities, towns or villages.  Unless you count Denio, but then you are surely living in denio/denial.  However it does sport some darn impressive passes.  Not all that fun when your home is behind you and you have a well equipped kitchen on board.  Here's a little bit of nostalgia for those who have passed this way

Yep, that's a long way down looking out the passenger side when you're at the top.  Did I mention the lack of shoulders on this highway?  We had quite a little excitement when we apparently got whacked by a dust devil.  Fortunately it was on a flat section.

Anyway that long, long, long day of driving brought us to Winnemucca, Nevada.  I have a very early memory of Winnemucca that involves a family vacation in the very early 60's in a Ford Falcon station wagon when cars had vinyl upholstery.

It was the middle of the night and it was over 80 degrees and my mother wasn't happy.  Despite that I loved those family vacations when we'd hit the road and I would have this wonderful "nest" in the back of the station wagon.  I'm sure it's what planted the seed for this whole RVing thing I love to do.

Okay, back to the present.  We checked in at the Hi Desert RV Park which was just fine.  However Simon gave it a tails-down because he couldn't find any grass, which for him is like a good wifi connection.  We found a good spot to eat.  If you find yourself in Winnemucca check out The Pig BBQ and Pub. I really enjoyed the Pulled Pork tacos and Dave & Simon (tails-up and wagging) enjoyed the house special Pulled Pork sandwich.  And a big advantage of being in Winnemucca was a wide open horizon to watch the full moon rise.  

This morning we hit the road, Interstate 80 specifically.  And I took the wheel to give Dave a break.  I can't express how much I appreciate his great driving skills.  But a gal's gotta do her part.  So I took the wheel for the straight, flat leg ahead of us.  Well, actually there's several grades to pull, but more annoying there was construction.  I'm not good with constricted lanes.  But I got through it for about three hours.  Meanwhile Dave was able to take this picture as we drove through Battle Mountain.

I'd like to have been at the city council meeting where they decided to put a big "BM" up on the hill.

Just so I could say-

 "Really?"

In their defense all towns and cities in Nevada do this.  It's just Battle Mountain's bad luck that their initials are what they are.

Tonight finds us in Wendover, NV.  Mind you we drove across town and bought fuel in Utah earlier.  But we were sure to drive back to NV to buy beer.

We of course were welcomed to town by Wendover Will.

Will is the far more evolved version of the cowboy we saw in Lakeview.  But can anyone tell me what the heck are the white things hanging from the corners of his mouth?  Are they feathers?  Did he just eat a chicken? 

Now we are enjoying a nice breeze under the awning with mediocre Nevada brewed beer as we look over the Salt Flats.

Tomorrow we will drive out across this famous proving ground for fast vehicles.

At 65 mph.

On Our Way

After an extra long tax season that saw me working up until 3:30 Monday, we are finally off on our adventure.  Dave, Simon and I are taking a leisurely tour of Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce National Parks.  But first we are stopping in Salt Lake City to visit Dave's beautiful kids and grandkids.  So today we headed out on Highway 140.

We waved good bye to Mt. Mick (McLoughlon) and headed east to our first stop

in Lakeview, OR.  I always love a town that beautifies it's water storage devices.

To be specific, we are over-nighting at the county fairgrounds rv park.

This guy is all over Lakeview.

We ran into him at Safeway too.

Turns out he's got a dark side....

We sampled the local fare.  In this case we were craving burgers and beer.
Apparently that left us with Papa Dan's at the bowling alley.
An excellent bowling burger I must say.  Simon enjoyed his immensely.

We found a very cool rock outside of Booner.

Dave of course had to have fun with it....

Definitely a no-frills park here.  But after being in the usual close quarters
at most rv parks, the wide-open space was kinda nice.  We put out the awning,
set out the chairs, popped the tops on a couple of coldies, turned on some tunes
and waited for some armadillos to walk by.  Not that there are any armadillos in Lakeview,
but the whole scene reminded us a bit of Tin Cup.

And there's a cool exhibit of old farming and mining equipment right next to the park.

We had fun checking that stuff out.

All in all a good start to our adventure and excellent first day of vacation.