Trip to Zion

Amanda was finally done with Paul Mitchell late last week. Dad, Grant and I drove to the UT to bring her on home. We left mid-day Wednesday. It took us a good twelve hours to get to Provo due to road work along I-80, much of it in and around Reno. I knew Amanda needed assistance moving her life back to Sac Town so I was prepared to make the trek. That drive to UT is one I have ALWAYS dreaded. The last time we had driven that lovely stretch of highway was nearly twelve years ago. I had been lucky enough never to have driven it other than that one moment in time. It's not one I'd ever like to do again. However, we enjoyed ourselves as much as we could and made it home in one piece, safe and sound. Here are some highlights from our journey:

First, let me show you what we were up against. Between the orange barrel thingies blocking one of the two lanes, semis galore, and a 55 mph speed limit, we never had a chance to make anything close to resembling "good time". Hi 12 hours! Personally, I think they purposefully left those orange barrels there as their "money makers". Seriously, I never saw any construction going on and yet the barrels were left out. You know that traffic violations within construction zones are doubled! It's all a scheme...


Here is a snapshot of our state of mind just four hours into the trip...


In our travels, we came across this, I've never experienced such a HUGE BM!!!!! hehe...


For entertainment, we went to a place called Cabela's, which I think was the Fry's equivalent of an outdoors shop. Here's Grant trying out the tent cot thingie...


We stayed at some very good friends of Dad's, the Richey's. Here we are playing in their backyard:



I must say that Zion certainly has a great variety of different eateries. Twice, we at ate a place called JCW's which is a burger joint but also has GREAT milk shakes and a variety of other items. LOVED IT! For dinner one night, we ate at a placed called The Pie near "The U" in Salt Lake. Excellent pizza and "Zappis".

Here is Dad and Tom Richey with their two pizzas:

Here is my pepperoni Zappis:

Before going to The Pie, we stopped at Sister (Sharon) Richey's. Dad stayed with Sister Richey before and after his mission as he was adored by the Richey family. It's in the blood! See, I come by it honestly!

Here we all are with Sharon Richey herself. She was DARLING!:

Here is a shot of Dad, Sharon Richey, and Tom Richey:

She happens to live down the street from the Mount Timpanogas temple which was right next to a corn field. Here's a pic. The corn fields always remind me of the Hitchcock film "North by Northwest".

Thursday night my friend Melissa and my new friend Joni came down from Idaho and we went to dinner at the Cracker Barrel. Cute little eating establishment! We enjoyed ourselves while catching up on life.

Here's Amanda and I during our drive home. Thankfully, it only took us 9-ish hours to get home. Thank goodness!

Overall, it was a decent trip. Many thanks to the Richey's for letting us stay in their beautiful home!