11-15-08 Saturday (Mormisney)

Today we drove to Saltair. Saltair was closed for the season. I've included some history (listed in blue) about Saltair. Skip it if you'd like. We wish we did.

The Saltair Resort is considered an important culture symbol of the Salt Lake Valley. In 1893 the Mormon Church built Saltair on the south shore of the Great Salt Lake, located about sixteen miles from downtown Salt Lake City. Architect Richard K.A. Kletting, a renowned architect famous for his work with the Utah State Capitol Building, chose a moorish style design for the resort. The church owned the building until 1906 when it was sold to a group of private Mormon businessmen.

Over the next century the resort suffered through its first devastating fire in 1925. After Saltair burned to the ground Raymond J. Ashton and Raymond L. Evans designed a new pavilion similar to the old with hopes of restoring the popular Utah attraction. Due to the financial stress of the Great Depression and another costly fire in 1931 the resort closed during World War II only to be reopened after the war.

In 1970 the resort once more burned to the ground and was forgotten until 1981 when a new pavilion was built around the original site. Throughout the 80's Saltair experienced trouble with flooding and the lake's shifting water levels. Finally in 1992 the resort was purchased by the local Great Salt Lake Land Company. Restoration headed by the Salt Lake attorney and real estate developer Walter Plumb was finished shortly thereafter and the resort complete with a new concert stage for local and national artists was dedicated in 1993 during the resort's one hundredth anniversary. The remodeled resort also hosts a private club with liquor license.

It was ugly. An ugly building, no landscaping, just ugly. The surrounding area, yep, ugly too. We drove up a bit further to a State run marina and wasted $2.00 on a half hour of our life we'll never get back. The only aquatic life that survives the high salt content is brine shrimp. The brine die this time of year and are washed ashore. The odor in some spots made us gag. Anymore and I think we would have puked. We left after that.

We thought we'd try to offset the icky trip by visiting the Mormon Temple. It was very pretty.....in a brain washing type way. We took a tour. Tours were every 15 minutes and were headed by 2 "Sisters" as they are referred to. They spoke about their beliefs and their history. It was all very creepy to me. Some of the displays around made me feel as though I was at the Mormon Disney. I couldn't wait to leave. I could hear It's a Small World in my head. Get it out! Make it stop! I'll be OK.

All the tourguides carried The Book of Mormon and wore name badges prefaced with "Sister" before their last names. I felt like I was on the backlot of The Stepford Wives.

I did find out something I didn't know. It is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Their "bible" is The Book of Mormon which was written by someone with the last name of Mormon. They're really not "Mormons", that's more of a nickname for their religion. I also found out it took 40 years to build the Temple.

Here's a video recap of our day.

The trees outside on their property had Christmas lights on all branches. It looks like it would be beautiful to see at night. Jim asked if I wanted to come back at night. I rather stay away.

On a different note, I wanted to share with you, a Wal-Mart bingo card that Nancypants shared with us. I edited it a little bit due to 1 spelling error and a very racial spot. It's funny.

11-14-08 Friday (Get Bent)

Omigod, I'm so tired of Salt Lake City! I miss the RV. Jim called Bountiful RV and spoke with Darren. We were hoping to have it for the weekend. Darren said the gutter/drip rail came in bent and another was due in today. We never heard back from him. Tomorrow they're open until noon, so I guess we'll be spending the weekend here again.

I know there's still so many things to see here. I guess we've just become lazy with the absence of the RV. I'm not quite sure what our problem is. Jim had a headache all day, and napped a lot to try and get rid of it. I did the laundry and played video games. By 7pm he still didn't feel that great so I went onto Wal-Mart by myself. I had to get some more meals and other supplies. I think we've been to Wal-Mart so much because we forget things. In the RV we have a wipe erase board that we add things to as we need them. Also we hold back on what we buy, expecting to be out of the hotel in time. I've gotten a few comments (email) about us loving Wal-Mart. I used to hate Wal-Mart when we lived in Florida. Most of that was because the store was dirty, messy and the lines were excessive. Since we left Florida, those 3 problems don't exist. Most of the time, cashiers are waiting for a customer. Strange. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer Publix, Smith's, Kroger, and a lot of other stores we've been to. Wal-Mart's bakery and deli is weak and untasty. As I've said before, it's mostly about the expenses. Keep them low, extend the trip.

11-13-08 Thursday (Can't You See?)

Jim recovered the RV door header that is at the bathroom to living area entryway. We did that in the brown that is on the booth trims. We'll probably go to the RV tomorrow to check on the status as well as install the doorway header.

Fabrics from left to right: Possible fabric for window frames, dinette cushions, dinette side trims.

Opinions?

We stopped into Eye Masters to find out about getting exams and what our insurance would cover. All of them there were so nice. (Brittany, Fawn and Alissa) I'm probably spelling their names wrong. They were able to take us in fairly quickly without an appointment. While we waited, we picked out new frames. During Jim's exam, the doctor discovered that Sam's did not make his glasses the correct prescription about a year ago. This is assuming his glasses prescription is the same as his contacts. Jim held off on glasses until he seeks resolution with Sams. Our insurance pays for either contacts or glasses. I used my allowance on contacts and we'll decide the rest later. During my exam, I found out my prescription was too strong. With a sample pair of contacts, I was able to get 20/10 vision!

Me goofing off with the largest lenses I could find.

With getting a late start, and being at Eye Masters a long time, we came back to the hotel afterwards. Tomorrow and this weekend we plan to see some of the sights that JD was kind enough to tell us about via email. Thanks JD, you put a lot of time into that email.

11-12-08 Wednesday (Wake Me up)

Sorry, not an exciting day. That's what happens when we're "trapped" in this city for too long. I'm hoping the RV will be ready before the weekend and then we can move on to a new city.

We did manage to get to Joann's today to get a fabric sample for the window trims. Our staple supply had run low so a trip to Home Depot was also in order. I guess all of that shopping made us hungry and unable to wait 30 minutes to get home, so we stopped at Chili's. We ate so much, but needed desert so we walked over to Smith's Supermarket for brownies and icecream. (Did I just hear a pig squeal?).

Turnovers. See the pan. The irony.

See, I told you it wasn't exciting.

11-11-08 Tuesday (It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This)

We extended the hotel stay another week. I foresee out of pocket expenses in our near future. The insurance max is $750 and it's running us $380 a week. Tomorrow will be the 2 week mark. One of the Bountiful RV owners wants us to come and take a roadtest with him. I think it's pretty useless. If you can't drive at 65mph and feel the vibration and the constant steering play, then you need to go into a different line of business. In my automotive experience, a roadtest was very useful for intermittent concerns. We've called him, and we're going to meet him now. It's about a half hour away.

We roadtested with Darren who feels that the steering is a little loose but not excessive. He thinks a new gear box would only make a slight improvement. The vibration felt in the steering wheel is also normal for that Ford chassis. It's not the first time, we've been told our RV is fine. We'll just deal with it I guess.

After dealing with Bountiful RV, we went to Antelope Island. This island is one of several in the Great Salt Lake. A 7 mile drive on the causeway lead to this nice little island. It was pretty empty, probably due to the time of the year. They have a marina, campground, cafe, and lots of bison. Actually they keep around 500 bison and sell the remainder each year. Strangely, bison aren't native to the island and were brought in years ago. The weather was cloudy and cold today. Even if the weather was nice, I'm not sure we would have seen anything more than we did today. The video below is a large file so it will probably say "buffering" for a few minutes before you can start it.

Jim and I have noticed that State and National parks thrive on their natural beauty but forgo safety precautions. A so many parks we've been to, wild life is all around and often dangerous, yet no cages or barriers exist. It's awesome. If it was Disney, we, or the wildlife would be behind glass. Aside from wildlife, sometimes there are cliffs with pretty far drops below. A lot of times, there's no guard rails. I'm glad though, it would certainly detract from the natural beauty.

I've had so many people ask me how the oil pressure sending unit worked out. OK, so no one asked... hey I'm just trying to keep the conversation rolling. It's not like you're helping it any. Where was I? Oh, it seems to be working fine.

For dinner, we are at Marie Callenders. It's much like a Perkins. We both had chicken dishes and they were very good. We found a buy 1 get 1 free printable coupon on line.

The next 3 days here are supposed to be rainy. Argh.