Thursday morning, October 18, we got on the road pretty early for the long ride to Salt Lake City, Utah, on Interstate 80. Unfortunately, I had a migraine almost all day, so the majority of the ride, I was laying in the bed with my head covered up. But Jim did make sure to stop at some highlights along the way that he knew I'd want to photograph! :)
This "Tree Rock" below has survived over the years growing in the crack of this rock. According to the sign, locomotive firemen "gave the tree a drink" from their water buckets when the trains moved past. This tree was the favored subject of many early photographs and postcards.
Also along the drive, we stopped at a memorial to President Lincoln. Interstate 80 was part of the Lincoln Highway, which connected the east coast to the new west, back in the day. We also saw Jim's brother, Ronnie, working on the roads and stopped for a quick photo as he waved. The random fences placed out in the area are to help direct the snow drift! Lots of wide open spaces on this drive!
Friday, October 19, was a busy one! Aunt Karen flew into Salt Lake City the night before from New York and came to pick us up at the campground so that we could go and visit Andrew (Jim's nephew) and his family. Andrew is a senior this year in high school and a standout on the football team. The four of us toured around downtown and took pictures of the The Salt Lake Temple ... a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You have to be a member of the Temple to go inside it, and then that's only for special occasions. But we did get to go in a nearby chapel and saw where the Mormon Tabernacle Choir performs.
Still on our tour, we also went to the nearby shopping area downtown, which is a really cool mall with a roof that is open until it snows and then they have a retractable roof that seals the top shut. We ate there at the food court and then headed out for a little sightseeing in the mountains and some short hikes. Gorgeous weather!!!
Friday night we met up with Sherry (Andrew's family's mom) and we all went to eat at a local favorite Mexican restaurant, the Red Iguana. It was a little bit of a wait to get in, but the food was fantastic! The green chili over pork is so GOOD!! I don't know why it's so hard to find back in Georgia. After dinner, Aunt Karen had bought all of us tickets to the Utah Jazz NBA game as they hosted the Golden State Warriors. The Jazz lead the game the whole time and had a ton of 3-pointers, but the Warriors pulled out the win in the last three seconds of the game.
With Andrew being a senior this year, he needed some senior photos made, and of course I had just about my whole photo studio packed up in the RV! LOL! So on Saturday, we met up just after lunch and went to his high school and around the area for some photos.
Sunday, Aunt Karen, Jim and I, went on a hike that she had found on her "All Trails" app. It was just above a residential area and was a nice hike through the trees and up on the mountain top. There was a bit of elevation climb, but we took breaks and did the whole walk! Another picture-perfect day!
Sunday evening, Jim and I drove out to the Utah Motorsports Complex for a dinner hosted by his Ford Raptor Assault School, which he was going to attend the next day. Dinner was good and we got to see some of the specialty Ford vehicles and Jim got some more information about the next day's activities.
Aunt Karen came to pick up Jim early Monday morning (early) to take him to his Raptor Assault School where he and his fellow classmates learned more about the Ford Raptor trucks and got to drive on off-road courses to practice everything the truck could do. He enjoyed it a lot!
Meanwhile, Aunt Karen and I went on another hike. This one was through a city park and dogs were allowed to run free in there too! It was a really pretty walk right along a stream and shaded pretty much the entire way. The last third of the trail was pretty slim and almost washed out in places, but we kept on! Sometimes we were climbing over trees or carefully walking along a slippery edge. It was exciting and for sure an adventure! We also drove around the Capitol and enjoyed the afternoon!
Our campsite at the Salt Lake City KOA was great too! We had a beautiful shady spot, were able to wash our laundry (Yay), had a fantastic little Mexican restaurant on the corner, and I rented an electric scooter for the first time and it was a BLAST!!
