West Valley City UT
March 31, 2014
Today we headed for Moab, Utah to see one of America’s natural wonders, Arches National Park. We had no idea what to expect, but our son Ryan went through the area three years ago when he moved to Texas and gave it raving reviews. We’re lodging at the Castle Valley Inn for the night.
As we left the Salt Lake City area, Vern and I made the following observations and decided that you might find these of interest.
The people with whom we interacted were smiley and helpful.
A couple of cheerful young ladies at the hotel’s front desk didn’t seem to understand the meaning of “bless you.” I was overjoyed by their helpfulness when they printed a map to Moab for us while sharing their own travel stories. My way of saying have a great day or take care is to say bless you. They stared with blank faces at me. One looked nervously at the other.
To save time, we chose a department store with few cars in the parking lot at which to do a little shopping. Then we stood in line with a few items and waited. The lady who purchased the cherub statuary caused a fifteen minute delay. The smiley salesperson blushed with embarrassment.
I kept expecting to see moms with their large entourage of children, you know four little toe heads in a four passenger stroller and two darlings beside her. But I only saw average family sizes and only twice. Perhaps my stereotyping is from movies I’ve seen of this part of the United States. Time to ditch the stereotype.
We topped off the gas tank at $3.35 / gallon for regular, a savings of 45 cents. We paid around $3.80/ gallon at our last stop.
Along the interstate between Salt Lake City and Provo, Vern was impressed by the number of large commercial projects under construction. From one point on the freeway, we saw six cranes at the same time on different building sites, two redi-mix trucks ahead of us and a concrete pump at another site. And newly built commercial buildings with walls of glass dotted the landscape.
We saw all of this from inside our Cadillac as we zoomed along the interstate at the slow speed of 71 mph. Other motorists shot by us at 80 mph or more—80 is the legal speed.
The mountain ranges on both sides of the freeway corridor are stunning in their fresh coats of snow.
Numerous canyon walls and rims fill the landscape
beyond Provo. Vern and I snapped loads of photos, trying to capture their grandeur, beauty and scale.
Further down the road, we stopped in Price, Utah. Since Vern’s mother’s maiden name is Price, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a look at this small town 118 miles south of Salt Lake City. We stopped at a diner for a late lunch, enjoyed a visit with the owner and learned a shocking bit of history. To be contented in our next post.
Blessings to you~
Pamela and Vern