On the Road Again 2014: Coast to Coast Almost: Never Judge a Book by its Cover

Monday

July 21, 2014

Today we wake up in Salt Lake City, Utah. We are as George says, "smack dab in the middle of town." Yes we are. When the town was created Joseph Smith wanted the Temple to be in the middle so, all streets are North, South, East, West, and numbered 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000 North, East, South or West. Hmmm. We are situated at 2000 West.

We have a tour of the city booked at 9:00. We are picked up promptly and off we go. We are in a small group again. One lady from Oregon and one from Massachusetts. Our guide is very knowledgeable of the city. We drove through an old cemetery and the driver alerted us to the deer that lived there. We saw around 10 deer just lazing around in the shade. He said they used to come down and spend the winter there but now they live there year round. They are almost tame. They did not seem to mind at all our van coming through. Driver said sometimes the lawnmover man had to shoo them away so he could mow.

We make two stops on our trip. One is at the state capitol building. It is absolutely beautiful. It is all marble with beautiful murals in the rotunda. I will post a picture.

We then stopped at Temple Square. The flowers around in the gardens are beautiful. A mixture of all kinds and colors. They are watered and very lush. We went to LDS visitors center for a bit. One could spent many hours in there looking around. We then rode around Salt Lake City and enjoyed the sights. I was a little frustrated that our trip was so rushed. He kept talking on his cellphone and getting calls. Later he received a phone call and from his end of the conversation I deduced that someone in his family was quite sick. She had received her test results an the insurance company was calling him. I then felt bad for him and whispered a prayer.

After our tour finished at 11:45, we were lucky to get to go to the LDS Convention Center and hear an organ concert. They offer two concerts each day free to the public. A different organist each day with a different repertoire. The convention center looks just like a church. Had a huge choir loft and tremendous pipe organ. Reading the brochure, I found that this organ has around 78,000 pipes. George said one side of the organ had over 100 stops and it had 5 keyboards. This was a special treat that we did not count on. The organist was very talented and played a couple of songs I even recognized.

Soon we left SLC and headed to Capitol Reef. After a little interstate race driving at 80+ mph we got on a more sedate highway. This road wound through a lush valley with lots of farms. Irrigation was everywhere, therefore, green! As we neared our destination, we began to see beautiful red colored cliffs and mountains. We drove for miles to get to Torrey and the red cliffs lined the landscaped along the highway. We arrived around 6:00 PM. I am doing the laundry. :)

Tomorrow more exploring at Capitol Reef.