6-23 (Wed)


Gary's roommate, one of the security guards, and a friend of ours has had it with his job. Tonight is his last night so Nancy and I are taking him out to dinner and for wine tonight. Last night we got out my photo printer to print a picture of Yellowstone for the front of his going away card. First we printed another picture and then we worked on the computer fixing the picture for Dan. When we got ready to print his picture we couldn't find the cord that connected the computer to the printer. We spent 45 minutes looking for it. Our room isn't that big . . . we looked under the beds, in both closets, in the bathroom, under the covers, in all the drawers, in our backpacks, everywhere and some places twice and three times. Finally Nancy remembered that we didn't use a cord, we used the SD card!!!! Oh my gosh, how dumb was that?





Today is payday and tomorrow we are going to town! We're very excited (about town!)

6-21 (Mon)

Nancy and I walked the stagecoach road to Gardiner tonight after dinner. It was a five mile walk. When we were almost there we came upon an elk. Since we were out in the open with nothing to hide behind we were a little leery. We climbed up on a ridge to avoid it. We hitched back with a couple of guys who had just finished a 22 mile hike from Hellroaring Creek to Gardiner.

6-18 (Fri)
Heavy, heavy frost on the cars this morning. By the time we went to breakfast it had all melted. It looks like it is going to be a bright warm day. I'm off on a hike and Nancy is off to work. Tonight we're planning to go to the rodeo.

6-17 (Thurs)
It was snowing when Nancy and I walked to breakfast this morning! Today is my day off but it is too cold to do much and the sun isn't out so it isn't good for taking pictures.

Last night Nancy and I went to the Map Room in the hotel to hear the author, CJ Box. He writes books that take place in YS and the surrounding area.

Friday night we're going to the rodeo.

There is always something going on to keep us entertained.

6-15 (Tues)

Two buffalo came down off the hill around noon. One of them stopped in front of a cabin and looked inside since the door was open. I thought he might go on in but he didn’t.

Nancy and I were going to walk after dinner tonight but it started to rain. A bunch of us were standing outside when we saw an elk corner a young girl up on the hill. Gary was yelling to her to get behind a bush. Matt who was on duty went up the hill to try to scare the elk away. He got chased into the trees. Gary went out in the rain to try to help. He talked the girl from bush to bush. When the elk wasn’t looking she made a run for it but Matt was still stuck in the trees. The Rangers finally showed up and went up the hill after Matt. They were banging shovels and finally got her attention so Matt could get away. The elk had a calf nearby.
Tonight we sat in the lounge and socialized. There was a real cute girl from Bulgaria who kept us entertained.

Gotta room for me?

I didn't like that room anyway.

It's time to scare a few tourists.

6-15

I haven't written for awhile because I have been too busy. First I was as stressed this year as I was last because I couldn't remember squat when I got back here. I had a day and a half of remediation and then it was back to the phones. Now I'm fine.

Sunday, Nancy, Gary and I explored the upper loop of the park. We went to Roosevelt, Canyon, Lake and to Fishing Bridge. We had a great time. We even played in the snow.

6-5
The Mormons don't seem to have any idea that there is a recession. We couldn't believe how much building is going on in SLC and how elaborate their buildings are.

Utah State Capital


Ziplining

6-5 (Sat)
We hated leaving Little America this morning. We left our car there and took the trolley back downtown. We walked up State St. and went into the Capital for a look around. We were very surprised that there was not one security guard inside. We had the run of the place. Occasionally a few other tourists would come in and leave. We headed out of town to go back to Park City.
When we got back we went to the Olympic Park where the 2002 Winter Games were held. I rode on the Ultra Zipline which goes down the winter freestyle hill. It was so much fun that I went on the Xtreme Zip which they say is the world’s steepest zipline. You ride up to 50 mph along the K120 Nordic jump hill. They were both so much fun and I was so excited and happy that it did it.
Tonight we ate dinner in old town Park City at a place called Easy Street. The meal was fabulous!

6-4 (Fri)
We tried to spend another night in Park City but the hotel was full. We heard on TV that on Sat. there is going to be a Harley Davison rally and a Gay Rights Parade in Salt Lake City so we decided to go to there today and return to P.C. on Sat. We went to a Tourist Center in PC and got info on what to do etc. The woman suggested several hotels. One was Little America. We thought we might like to stay at a Holiday Inn Express so we stopped at one before going into SLC. The guy was really nice. He couldn’t find any rooms so we asked him to check Little America. He found us a room there. When we saw it we thought, “this will be okay for one night.” Well . . . You wouldn’t believe this place! It has gold doors, a doorman, marble floors, art work to die for, gorgeous chandeliers, valet service, boutiques, cereal for $8, massage for $170, pedicure for 80 . . . Are you getting the picture? We have been walking around with our mouth hanging open. When I tried to check in at 11 a.m. the guy said the room was ready!!
We hopped on a free trolley and headed downtown to Temple Square. These Mormons don’t miss any opportunity to try to convert you. Our first tour, conducted by a girl from Hawaii and one from Peru, gave us some of the history of the church. I think they said that there are 53,000 missionaries working in the field at any given time. The girls have to commit 18 months of their lives and the boys two years trying to convert people. They took us in a couple of buildings and finally back to the Tabernacle. They wanted to send us all kinds of literature etc but we said, “No, thanks.” We went into the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and had lunch up on the top floor. It was lovely. One thing for sure, the Mormons have a LOT of money. The buildings are so elaborate and ornate.
After lunch we went up to see the rooftop gardens on top of the conference center. From there we went over to the genealogy section and researched our ancestors. That was a lot of fun.
We had a tour of the Beehive House which was Brigham Young’s home. I thought it would be a log cabin, but no it was a BIG fancy house. Two girls took us through there . . . One from the US and one from the Ukraine. I can’t believe how many people they have converted from all over the world.
I thought it was pretty hard to get answers out of them that we could understand. They talked really fast, skipped over the parts that were questionable and sometimes seemed a little disturbed when I asked something they didn’t like . . . “tell me the significance of the undergarment you wear?”
We ate dinner at the Lion House and then took the trolley back to Little America.

6-3 (Thurs)
We left Nephi headed for Park City. When we drove through Provo we looked for Donnie and Marie but didn’t see them. Provo is such a beautiful city and sits at the bottom of several mountains. When we came to Sundance we decided to drive in and see if we could see Robert. No luck there either.

We drove over the mountain - switch backs at 10 - 15 mph. We came to a National Park and heard about the Timpanogos Cave. We decided to hike up to see them. You have to buy a ticket $7 and then they give you a time for your tour at the top. They allow you an hour and a half to make it to the caves. We took a little longer but they still put us on a tour. We needed to bring a jacket because it was 45 degrees inside and we were inside for about an hour. The thing they forgot to tell us was that it was straight up!!! I mean straight up! There were sheer drop offs, narrow trails, and you must be careful of falling rocks. They have red lines painted in several areas which mean don’t stop, you’re in an area of great hazard to falling rocks. They also had signs saying we were in rattlesnake territory “stay on the path.” The caves were cool and wet. We had to bend and crouch in several places to get through some of the small chambers and passageways. There was a giant cave formation called the Great Heart of Timpanogos which actually looked like a giant heart. We didn’t get off that darn mountain until 4:00 and we started out at 12:30.

We drove on to Park City, UT and checked into a wonderful Best Western right next to Walmart!

We went to the old town of Park City to have dinner and walk around.

We're in Salt Lake . . . I got converted!

Red Canyon near Bryce

5-31 (Mon)

On our way out of the Bryce area we stopped at Red Canyon and did a hike. I was also a beautiful area.

From there we headed on down the road to Zion. We had to retrace some of the same territory we traveled yesterday.

We found a hotel, the Driftwood Lodge. I asked if they had any discounts - only if you're 62 or older. Thankfully Nancy qualified and we got $5 off. The room was beautiful, all black and white. The bedspreads were white down comforters. We didn't dare sit on them or put any of our stuff on the beds.

We settled in, did email etc. We were exhausted. About the time we were ready to go to bed we noticed our A/C wasn't working. I called the desk and told the girl we couldn't sleep because it was too hot. She came down to check it out. I had it on 68, she cranked it down to 62 and cold air came out. As soon as she left the darn thing went off. I called her back again. she said she didnt know how to help us. I asked if we could change rooms. She had to talk to her manager. She called back and said she's upgrade us. I asked if the price would be the same and she said, "yes." I had on my pj's but we threw everything in the car and went to our new room.

5-30 (Sun)

We arrived at Bryce about 10:30 and after saying, “WOW” at least 100 times we headed down into the canyon to do the sunrise/sunset hike. It was so beautiful and the sky was so blue it was almost black. It took us 2 - 2 ½ hours to do the loop.
We had a scrumptious lunch at the lodge. From there we took the shuttle to Bryce Point and then Inspiration Point. We hiked a little at both places but nothing major. We saw some girls hiking in their stiletto heels! How weird is that?
We checked into our hotel, Ruby’s Inn, did laundry and shopped in the gift shop. We walked across the street to some shops but all they were selling were rocks and we weren’t interested.