Salt Lake City, Utah

7 July 2013

We left Long Beach on Wednesday, July 3^rd and spent our first night on this summer’s adventure in Las Vegas, Nevada.  It was 116 degrees when we arrived about 5 pm.  I have never been in such hot weather! It was over 100 degrees inside the travel trailer and had only cooled down to 84 degrees by 10:30 that night.  Miserable. Fortunately, the A/C continued to cool down so that we were in the low 70s for most of the night and could sleep comfortably. We found out that you can’t run the A/C, the refrigerator and the water heater on electricity in this kind of heat – the circuit breaker kept popping.  Fortunately, you can switch the refrig and water heater over to gas, so that took care of that problem.  And we really didn’t need to have hot water; the cold water was pretty warm for our showers.

The second day, we traveled to Beaver, Utah, about 200 miles north of Las Vegas on I-15. The weather continued to be hot, in the 106 to 108 region, until we encountered some thunderstorms. Then the temperature dropped down to the low 70s in less than 10 minutes.  That was pretty amazing.  There were some periods of downpours which were a bit intense driving-wise, but Russ handled the whole thing with aplomb.

The third day was a relatively short drive to Salt Lake City. The countryside is pretty dry, with several large burn areas. We are staying at the KOA near Temple Square; everything is very convenient, especially a grocery store named Harmons.  Very similar to a Whole Foods, including a whole section of every kind of exotic salt you can imagine.

We spent Saturday at the Family History Library, the world’s largest genealogy library.  There are a bunch of volunteers so I got started right away with one. Right off the bat, I found the immigration papers for one of my 2^nd great grandparents from Ireland! I was able to fill in a few holes and I found out that there is a regional ancestry library just about 3 blocks from my house!  Who knew?  Certainly not me. We spent the evening at the movies and saw the Lone Ranger.  I know that the critics panned it and it didn’t open with large ticket sales, but I enjoyed it immensely.  Johnny Depp being Johnny Depp in a Western – hilarious.

We walked around Temple Square on Sunday.  Beautiful gardens, immaculately maintained.  The buildings are also gorgeous.  And while we can’t go into the temple, the visitor center had a cut-away model of it and videos describing the rooms. Years ago, we toured the temple down in San Diego before it was consecrated and so we have a reasonable understanding of the grandeur of the building.  Very impressive.

Decided to explore a rather unique store called Scheels – it is like a Bass Pro Shop and Ikea blended together.  A food court, several gaming areas and a Ferris wheel along with pretty much anything you would want in sporting gear.

Tomorrow we turn east and head down I-80.  Lots of wide open country ahead. Don’t fence me in!!!

 

Our favorite Las Vegas campground!

 

 

Heading into the Virgin River Gorge, just south of St. George.

 

 

A hint of the stormy weather we would encounter.

 

 

The world's largest genealogy library.  Four floors of family info - all for free!

 

A mural in the library lobby portraying the LDS emphasis on family.

 

One of the many sculptures in the Temple gardens. This one depicts the Mormon trip to Salt Lake.

Some of the beautiful flowers in the Temple gardens.

This is a model cutaway showing what the inside of the Temple looks like.

Front view of the temple.  It was opened in 1893 and took 40 years to complete.

The organ in the Tabernacle. This is where the Mormon Tabernacle choir performs.

Utah State Capitol building.  It sits on a hill overlooking the city.

 

A Ferris wheel in the middle of the Scheel's building!