Diary
Picked up the photos and grabbed a couple of money-off vouchers for Raging Waters. The wind got up very strongly and Oz had the dreaded lens attack. Things were looking bad as the clouds rolled in. Still, we caught the bus and headed to the slides. Two English lads got off the bus with exactly the same thing in mind as us. This would not be the last we would see of these two.
Once in the park and armed with our tyres we tried just about everything. The wave pool, the serpentines and lots of other things with strange names I can't remember. Oz did a bit of Acapulco cliff diving and after a bad start finally got it right. The thinking-about-sex rate was particularly high today especially where the female lifeguards were concerned.
Killed a bit of time walking around town and drinking in the Salt Lake Brewery Company. Funny lot these Mormons. Don't drink but they have a brewery. Still you'd be pretty hard pushed to get legless on the stuff. Went to the station, sorted out the photos and then a miracle happened - the train was on time. Spent the night trying to sleep in the downstairs luggage rack because the b%$t4rds had removed the viewing carriage which was to have been my bed for the night.
2011
"The dreaded lens attack". We both wore glasses and contact lenses. I'd been wearing my lenses since I was 16 (though obviously I did take them out each night) but Oz was a much more recent convert I recall. Through uni he was famous for his squeals and contortions whenever a tiny bit of dust got under his lens. On a one month inter-rail trip he managed to lose a lens early on, had no backup plan and spent the month travelling around with one good eye and one bad eye. And he only took 3 pairs of undies for the month. He did turn them inside out when appropriate though.
I'd had major back surgery at the end of 1990 and was still finding it difficult to sit for long periods so I tried to avoid sleeping in a sitting position hence the effort to crawl into the luggage rack.
Diary
Well, we went to Salt Lake City to go to the Great Salt Lake but even the tourist information people said it wasn't worth going to. So we didn't go.
Walked around the Temple Square area of town, found a cheap pizza place to eat and put two rolls of film in for developing. We then did a tour of the Mormon (the official title is something like Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints) temple aided and abetted by our French guidess. Our awe was not at all inspired by a pretty dull temple (and it was covered in scaffolding) a couple of big organs (don't....) and a statue to some some seagulls. Even polygamy is out nowadays so it didn't seem much different from your average common or garden religion.
"I wonder how subtle they'll be in trying to sell it to us ?" asked Oz. Ever been run over by a truck ? The tour ended with a big screen advertisement aimed at good-looking, white, middle-class unbelievers who would be simple enough to be taken in by all the crap. Thanks, but no thanks. We weren't interested. But we did decide that Chris, Graham, Howie and Edders might be.
Next we decided to trace our family trees but there can't be much mormonism in our families as we seemed to completely evade the the computer and it's cd-rom. I think it spotted our skepticism as it kept crashing out. We walked up to Capitol Hill and looked around. A few beehive statues, a statue to someone who was supposed to have invented TV and not a lot else. Next stop the planetarium where we soundly thrashed two American girls on the geography of Europe and the US. Ate in the Rio Grande Mexican cafe at the station.
2011
We filled in names and address for Chris, Graham, Howie and Edders and dropped the cards in a box. Apologies boys if someone came knocking on your door.
Americans seem to quote Philo Farnsworth as the inventor of television even though we all know it was John Logie Baird. The research I've just done seems to show Farnsworth transmitting pictures in 1927, two years after Baird. Typical American re-write of history. Apparently Shakespeare is from Stanford, CT.
Diary
The husband of the hostel manageress drove us out to the Colorado National Monument in his brand new 5 series BMW (we were expecting an Oldsmobile or a Lincoln). He was a doddery, slightly deaf old man who appeared to have been one of the US's chief geologists in his younger days. We did a good tour of the park and were even mistaken for people from Montana - my American accent must be improving dude, gimme five.
Set off to go swimming at Lincoln Park in the heat of the early afternoon. Went the wrong way and Oz looked as if he was going to die. Yet again we'd arrived in town when a special event was on - no, not a dinosaur rally but a swim meet. Unfortunately this meant that we couldn't use the pool but we made do with the slide which twisted and turned like a.....well, you know what.
Clouds came over so we headed back to Ponderosa to fill up for the journey to Salt Lake City (where the grass is green and the girls are pretty.....). Just managed to avoid the rain and get to the train station where we chatted to a German girl and some Americans. Her English was probably clearer to most Yanks than mine and Oz's. The train journey went through some amazing desert/badlands scenery and the equally amazing town of Thompson, Utah. One horse town would be a major exaggeration. And we almost went there so we could get to one of the National Parks. Thank God we didn't. Arrived in Salt Lake City at 1am - the obligatory hour late. Hiked around and finally got a bed at the Ken-dell motel.
2011
We struck lucky with the old geologist as we'd tried to book a trip to the National Monument but none were running that day we were there. The old lady owner heard us talking about what we wanted to do and offered the services of her husband for a small fee. We didn't know what we were agreeing to and fully expected some old guy in an old car just to whizz us there and back but what we got was a luxurious vehicle and probably the most qualified person to discuss the geology of the park. It was like having David Attenborough take you round the local zoo in his new car.
Thompson is about 36 miles from Moab, the funkiest town in all of Utah and the gateway to Arches NP and Canyonlands NP. Christy and I drove round a lot of the national parks in California, Nevada, Utah and spent a great time in Moab. Still happy I didn't go to Thompson though. You may know this part of the world from this.
*Update - Just realised that 4th August 2011 is the 25th anniversary of me starting work at Ferranti in Edinburgh. This was part of my degree and was a year of my life that I'd like to get back if I could !
