This was my first real vacation in probably close to 20 years. The last big vacation was as a kid when we’d go forth on huge family vacations with everyone. I’ve done many other trips since then, but they have been for family, for work, or for friends. This was the first trip that was just for me and a destination that I had been very excited to see!
I was blown away on how well my car did. A total of 2,048 miles covered, some huge mountain ranges to cross, I basically filled the tank only four or five times total, we easily did the drive in eight or nine hours, and easily maintained 75 to 80 miles per hour, most of the way. The trip there was a blast to drive; I could have easily driven another four hours. The trip back was just as nice, but I didn’t get as much sleep and there where a few times where I couldn’t wait to pull in to a rest area and take a break.
Billy and Ed are avid fishers, one of their highlights was to go out and try the latest fishing spots. Since Ed is a resident of this area he took Billy out to the local reservoir to see what they could catch. They started their fishing day off with an early morning trip at 5 am. I really did want to go and watch, but when the alarm when off and I got out of bed I realized, this wasn’t going to happen. However, later that night they both decided to venture forth and see how the night fishing went. (These shots were all taken at night, and why some pictures are brighter than others is beyond me. That’s one dang good flash I have is all I can guess.)
Saturday we headed off to Salt Lake City.
We’d stayed outside Ogden near one of the ski resorts. Since we had made the trek down to Utah, we couldn’t just leave the area without making a trip to see this great capital. One of the big highlights for me was to stop and view the Latter Day Saints Temple (aka Mormon Temple) called Temple Square. Incredibly impressive and awe inspiring. You don’t have to be a member to see the area, the grounds are open (the temple itself is not). They have some incredible visitor areas filled with not only religious information, all of which is brilliantly laid out, but some great pieces of history. A must visit for anyone in the area.
The final big moment of the trip was a trip to the Hill Aerospace Museum. As we headed back from Salt Lake Billy noticed this flight exhibit off the freeway. They had all these old (and new) air force planes outside. It looked pretty cool. So the next day we gathered Ed and his kids, and headed off to check it out.
Let me tell you. In many ways it blew away Boeing’s Museum here in Seattle. One thing that stood out to me compared to Boeing was that it wasn’t so sterile feeling. The planes where right there where you could touch them and it had a nice friendly atmosphere. Add to that it was free and hosted well over 50 planes. For the kiddies, they had several space simulators and for the larger kids, they could play on several computer game based toys. Ed found them incredibly addictive. Unfortunately, three quarter of the way through my camera ran out of batteries so I didn’t get to capture all the pictures I would have liked.
An incredible and relaxing trip!
The panorama shot below was my place to sit and watch the world each night. I only turned on the laptop to download pictures from the camera and watch a couple movies with Billy and Ed. Otherwise I spent all our time, when back at the condo on that porch, watching the world go by. I’d do it again in a heart beat and can’t wait for my next road trip.
August 2007