I am a logger. Whenever we travel further than an hour's drive I get out my driving log and mark in it. It helps for later on whether to use for a memory or a reference guide.
Friday, June 11th we started out very close to the time we agreed upon. Amy, my granddaughter, made everyone homemade french toast. So we started on a full stomach. Amy, Diana (Salome's Mom), Lizz and I are in my car. Steve, Salome (his wife), Destiny, Jeffery, and Christopher are in their family van. It is quite a comfortable ride. The first day was the longest. I didn't realize how far away Mesquite, NV was! Plus we like to stop at odd things and learn. We got on hwy 166 by Santa Maria and drove east to get the 99 then hwy 58. Along the way we were looking for the Borax Visitor center.
Instead we found the air force space museum. It was great. They had a computer that had a flight simulator. The kids & adults took turns trying to land a jet. What kind? You'd have to ask them. I only watched.
Then we walked next door to the 20 Mule Team Museum. We didn't stay long but it was interesting to see old stuff. Turns out the Borax museum was still closed after their strike even though it was over. Back into the car and down the road to Yermo where we stopped for pie & shakes at Peggy Sue's Diner. Yes, it was a 50's style diner. It didn't really look like much from the outside but worth going into.
Out back they had a grassy area with long ponds where there were turtles, carp, ducks, and other water creatures. The ponds aren't big but they connect. A tree is in the middle of one. Hanging from the branch is a pirate holding onto a rope like he's climbing it. No it isn't real but we all did double takes. They also had dinosaur statues and one gorilla. Go figure.
We drove to Vegas and decided to stop and eat on Fremont Street. For those who haven't been there in years as I hadn't, there is now a covering over the street. It is above the buildings and hotels. It's called the Fremont Experience. Every hour the ceiling of the covering has a light show and music. It's of the old bands. We walked up and down, ate dinner at the Four Queens, and after 3 hours (!) left for Mesquite. We made it to Mesquite by Midnight with a few minutes to spare. Whew. I won't do that again. But we all had a great time.
Saturday, June 12th, we got up, ate breakfast, and left on time as planned. It turned out to be a rainy day on and off. When we came to Cedar City, UT, I told everyone we had to stop at Taco time. It's a tradition with me. They make fried burritos. I bought one for everyone to try. They too are fans!
Even though it sprinkled, was clear or poured we planned on stopping at a car show in Parowan, UT. When we arrived to the off-ramp it was no longer sprinkling. It was a small car show with a few booths. Some sold odds and ends others had home baked goods for sale. There was a bounce house and food truck. By time we finished the air got colder and the clouds covered what little blue sky there was. As we drove out of town, it sprinkled again. Ain't God good!! We were going to stop at the Bingham Copper Mine but the traffic was slow going through Orem, UT because of an accident and not all of the construction so we missed the time frame. Just as well, we got to Phil's house in time for a spaghetti feed. Him and Gayle (by the way, Phil is my brother), made home-made spaghetti sauce and garlic bread to die for. I hear that the way he dips the bread in the butter is theee best way to do it. Well it sure tasted it, burp. Oh, we were all so full. After we walked off dinner, we went to bed, tired but full.
Sunday, June 14th, was the big day. We woke to find Christy and Aaron, two of Phil's children preparing the patio with and extra awning. Jeffery, and Christopher helped set up tables and chairs while Steve, Lizz, Amy and I went to Burger King to use the "free" but very slow internet. Lizz wanted to start blogging and putting up pictures but their internet was sooo slow. When we got back people had already arrived for the barbeque.
Here's the line-up.
Phil has 4 children, all adults: David, the oldest with his wife Kristen, Lisa with her husband Brad and their 2 children Majestic and Shawn (not sure how to spell it),
Christy with her husband Jeff and their 14 month old son, Ben, and last but not least, Aaron. So we had his 12 family members and my 9 all together having a wonderful time. We ate, talked, ate, played cards, ate, watched our favorite family movie, Galaxy Quest and ate some more. Then one by one people left. All the Utan's had work the next day. We too finally hit the hay. It didn't take us long to be out!
I am now up to date to today, Monday, June 14th. We left Phil & Gayle's home in West Jordan, UT and decided to try to get in to the Bingham copper mine. success. This is a very interesting place. It is the world's largest man-made excavation of copper.
After we left there we drove to Hwy 80 and managed to stop by the Great Salt Lake. Wow, it's big but stinks! We drove on to West Bountiful where we thought we'd stop at another Taco Time but CostCo came first. We filled our tanks with $2.799 a gallon gas and drove on to our next gas fill-up. We mostly drove the rest of the day. We got into West Yellowstone at 8pm. We dropped everything in the room except the food. We had bought sandwich fixings at CostCo and a super WallyMart earlier and planned on having sandwiches for dinner. We took it with us into Yellowstone. It is only 30 miles to Old Faithful but at 35 & 45 mph it takes a little longer than usual. By time we got there it was 9:30 and missed a gush by 10 minutes. We didn't mind because we had stopped to see elk, bisson, and lots of other interesting things along the way. You have to understand, this is a higher lattitude place. At 9:30pm it was still light out. We brought our picnic to the benches and waited until the next spout. It was cool. We had finished our sandwiches, cleaned up, and were sitting around chatting when whooosh and spitting sound happened. By this time it was darker, the moon was a crescent shape with a very bright star just above it. You could see the outline of the spray of water and the sound was awesome. It seemed to last at least 5 minutes. We thought we were the only ones around but we heard others clapping with us, and cheering! We drove back to our room and decided tomorrow we will start our day at 9am and go around the same loop only continue through instead of turning around. By 8pm we'd like to get back to town, eat dinner, and go for a swim in the indoor pool. We are all eager for tomorrow.
Night,
Charlene
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