Apr 29 - A Sunday Drive to SLC

• Move from Yuba Lake St. Park to North Salt Lake City
• Route: UT-28 to I-15 (Nephi) to I-215
• Miles Today: 117
• Total Spring12 bus-house miles : 1,763
• Total Spring12 toad miles :  829
• Tonight's camp: Pony Express RV Park in North Salt Lake, UT.  elevation 4,200
• Weather: morning low 34f, high 60f,  a sunny bright day.
• Notables:  An enjoyable drive followed by a relaxed afternoon.
• Link to photo album for today.

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We're packed into the Pony Express RV "Resort" (I guess a gate, a pool, a playground, and a horseshoe pit qualifies as a "resort" to some people?) in the community of North Salt Lake, UT... just a little north of downtown Salt Lake City. We chose this place strictly for location... and some reports that it's a relatively neat and clean RV park. Not wanting to blow the budget, I opted for a second level site ($35 after discounts and taxes per night... ouch!) which is smaller... shorter and closer to neighbors than the premium sites. We'll make it work for the two nights, but we're slightly hanging out into the road both front and rear, and if the next-door neighbors ever show up we'll get to know them real well... quickly. In fairness, I should add that it is a well maintained and very clean joint, so we're not doing any version of "hard duty" here. It's just a little... close.

Of course, we're here to primarily see the Utah State Capitol... our 22nd out of 50. On our drive up I-15 this morning it was visible standing proudly just to the north of the nest of taller buildings in downtown SLC. Generally speaking, and with a few exceptions, these are some of the most magnificent buildings in the USA... and symbolic of the blood sweat and tears that went into turning a raw territory into a State of the Union. That was something to be strived for, and celebrated once achieved.  Somehow, things seem different today.  But that's the subject of another post on another day.

We'll probably also visit the Mormon Temple grounds, which a number of people have told us is very nice and worth the time. I also have it in the back of my head to run out to the Bingham Canyon Open Pit Mine, the deepest open pit mine in the world. The operators, Kennecott Utah Copper, have a visitors center there and we might find some good photo opportunities with our new big telephoto mini-camera I wrote about a couple weeks ago. In the meantime, we're enjoying a very agreeable afternoon... reading the Sunday paper, nursing a beer, and soaking up some warm rays on this cool day.

The drive up today was enjoyable and relaxed. Snow-capped mountains on both sides of the valley provided plenty of entertainment. Many miles of I-15 were being totally rebuilt in the Orem/Provo area, but since it was a Sunday, traffic wasn't hard to deal with. We only had to deal with lane-shifts, narrow lanes, and much shorter than normal merging ramps.

Let's make a date to meet here... same place... same time... tomorrow.