Travel Day #10: Utah

You’d think that the summary “600 miles” would tell you exactly how our day went: sitting in the RV, sitting there some more, buying gas, and sitting in the RV even more. Well, I suppose that’s true, but it didn’t really feel all that monotonous and boring. First of all, there was plenty of good scenery, and we made a couple of stops that broke up the trip quite nicely.
We left the campground a little bit earlier than scheduled because the first stop was not on the itinerary: a gun store about 3 hours away that would let Sean use it’s basement range. We rented a .22 revolver and a .22 rifle, bought a box of bullets, and paid the range fee, all for less than $40.The revolver was probably a poor choice, because the dual action trigger was pretty hard for him to pull. He did well with it, though, but once we switch to the semi-automatic rifle, which was built to look like a military style AR-15, he really started to have fun. He burned through a box of 50 shells in no time, hit a couple of bulls eyes, and basically just wore his index finger right out. On his way out the door, he scooped up some of the various brass lying on the floor as a souvenir. On our way back to the highway, we dropped Mom at Super Walmart to buy more things we probably don’t need, and then I had a week moment and allowed the kids to get some fast food. They’d spotted a place called Carl Jr’s which they’d heard tales about on YouTube, and wanted to try. We got 2 buckets of soda and two sacks of greasy goodness for the road, and rushed back to pick up Mom. (I do try to avoid eating fast food, and, besides, the less I eat, the easier it is to stay awake on long drives.) We timed the scoop in front of Walmart nicely, so that we wouldn’t block the parking lot, but we’d later find out that Mom may have left one of her bags of items at the checkout, because she had to eat cold cereal out of a plastic cup instead of a paper bowl the next morning. Anyway, back on the road, the lunch bags opened, and I’m pretty sure the boys enjoyed their cholesterol/sugar/calorie pellets, because there were an uncharacteristic 3-4 quite moments in a row, and no complaints or leftovers.
The speed limit back on the highway was 80mph: Interstate 15 in the “Las Vegas” direction (330-something miles away). I couldn’t help but wonder if the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce made a big donation to the LDS church to have the mileage countdown to Sin City start so far North? Anyway, it kept us occupied taking note of each sign, but I did have to insist, for the first time, that every help me stay awake by coming up to the front and playing a game of Uno with me. They may have let me win just to get the game over with, but it took away the drowsiness. I also kept us as close to the speed limit as conditions would allow, just to keep things moving (literally and figuratively). That worked until I had to make a gas stop, anyway. Stopping at a convenient Texaco station, I was at first a little displeased that the choices were 85 and 88 octane, as opposed to the typical 85 and 87 I’d been seeing lately. I’m not sure anyone actually buys the 85 octane. The first time I saw it, I realized it might just be there to provide the station the opportunity to put a low price on their roadside sign, as they all only show 2 prices: diesel and lowest unleaded. It wasn’t until I had already spent most of the $100 pump limit that I noticed the sign that said “10% ethanol.” I really don’t think it was just my imagination that the rest of the day was like driving with two flat front tires, the loss in power was so noticeable. Ugh.
However more slowly, we eventually made it to Cove Fort Historic Site, which is a stone encampment built in the 1870’s as a stagecoach and telegraph station safe from Native American attack. The location was chosen at a 30 mile interval along a well-traveled route – so well traveled that, apparently, it’s now called I-15. In those days, though, 30 miles was about as far as a stagecoach could go in one day, and it’s also about as far as a battery powered telegraph signal could reach. The fort was impeccably restored and maintained, with many authentic artifacts or realistic recreations. Every visiting family is given a private tour, and in a very short time, we really felt transformed to a different time and place, partially because we were in the midst of our own long journey, too. The fort was built at the request of Brigham Young and financed by the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints – I knew this before we got there, and, fearing lectures and conversion attempts, I almost aborted, but I trusted what the always-accurate internet said about how the tours are simply the history lesson. the internet did prove mostly trustworthy in this case. Our guide, who introduced himself with his church title (Elder) and last name, instead of his first and last name, did ask our permission to give a little bit of a sales pitch and a copy of the Book of Mormon at the end of our tour. As someone who’s college major was Philosophy, I’ll admit that he’d piqued my interest enough to be willing to take a copy in case I ever have a free minute to read a few pages and see what so many people have found to be so compelling. Mom, on the other hand, asked, with obvious disgust, something to the effect of whether polygamy was still practiced. Our guide was happy to inform us that God told the LDS president, coincidentally around the time the US government declared the same thing, that polygamy was no longer allowed. Therefore, those that do still practice it are in violation both of the law and the church. He also told us that several important biblical figures had multiple wives, and we wonder if this is true; we haven’t had a chance to research, yet. All four had some interesting conversations for quite a few miles thereafter, until we couldn’t resist talking aobut the scenery, instead, when it became so striking as we got closer to Zion and our campground for the night. We arrived with enough light and energy left to cook some hamburgers and hot dogs on the Coleman grill, shower, and head to bed.