This 'N That In Utah

*Critters we’ve seen on our 2011 trip so far: yellow-bellied marmot, mule deer, bison
*Birds we’ve seen on our 2011 trip so far: mountain bluebird, golden eagle, Indigo bunting, Lazuli bunting, Say’s Phoebe, yellow-rumped warbler, Western Tanager
[Click on any picture to enlarge…then arrow back to the blog]
After our little incident, we were back on the road again making our way to Salt Lake City, spending the first night at a Wal-Mart in Springville, UT, getting new tires for the Saturn in Provo, and along the way passed some beautiful scenery as well as the Young Living Lavender Farms (http://www.youngliving.com/en_US/company/farms).










The next night was spent in the parking lot of Cabela’s (http://www.cabelas.com/) in Lehi, UT, and if you’ve never visited one of these stores, they’re definitely worth a sightseeing trip. Similar to Bass Pro, they each have their own theming from the moment you walk in the door and are geared towards hunting, fishing, and camping. There are huge displays like Big Game Country, a Gun Library (for buying and selling plus museum pieces), two large aquariums, lots of taxidermied wildlife, and an indoor mountain that seem to bring the outdoors inside.














We spent the next few nights in the Camping World parking lot in Draper just south of Salt Lake City trying to get an estimate on the body damage and an idea of how long the process would take. We had a lovely view of the mountains from our RV, and with several shopping centers nearby, this was a prime opportunity to catch up on some of that fast food we’d been without for the past 3-1/2 months, and not just your run-of-the-mill McDonald’s or Burger King that you can get just anywhere. We dined on In-‘N-Out Burger, Weinerschnitzel, and even tried Five Guys Burgers (similar to In-‘N-Out but pricier).

Since we were in Salt Lake, a visit to a Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsal was definitely in order. During the summer, rehearsals are held in the Conference Center at Temple Square, and across the street from our parking space was a magnificent looking building that we later learned was the historic McCune Mansion (http://www.mccunemansion.com/) built in 1901.

While waiting for the theater doors to open, we took a brief tour of the facility which included an impressive view of the Salt Lake City skyline from the roof as well as Salt Lake Temple.

As it turns out this evening’s rehearsal was actually a dress rehearsal for the next day’s Pioneer Day Commemoration Concert. Since we had attended a rehearsal a couple of years ago, we were pleased to learn that this would be something totally different. The theme of the program was extremely patriotic and featured guest artists Brian Stokes Mitchell and Linda Eder, both stars of Broadway and the small screen. What an incredibly memorable evening and performance.

Our last stop in Utah was about 35 miles back south to Springville for a scheduled front end RV alignment at Sid’s Alignment Service Center (http://www.sidsalignment.com/), which you may remember that we mentioned in a previous blog. We met Sid at Capitol Reef, and now having experienced his expertise, workmanship, and outstanding customer service, we would highly recommend his shop for your service needs should you be in the area. An added bonus to this stop is that he called his friend Kayleen who we had also met during that trip (and who I consider a newfound friend), and she and her grandson, Ty, came by for a short visit before it was time for us to hit the road again.

The parts for the RV body damage were going to take 3 – 4 weeks to arrive, and though Salt Lake City is a nice area, we decided we didn’t really want to spend a month just hanging out there. Instead we chose to go ahead with our original plans and head to Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone.