Couldn't keep myself away. Anyway, no rock climbing nor water boating for me. But I can look at the Perseids meteor show, good until Aug 26. Have to wear my sunscreen, spf 200. And my wide brim hat. Wheeeeee !
(I know its late, darn IRL steps in again) I loved your side trip Schmet. We are going to have to get a trailer full of those chairs so we can use them at various points on our trips. We can stock a cargo bay on Gero's Airship with the for the SPRING ROAD TRIP (by Airship) 2020!!! Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!!!! We have spent our first night in Salt Lake City, Utah. This morning we have toured Temple Square, with the main Mormon Temple and the Tabernacle in it, the architecture is amazing. We have visited the Utah State Capitol Building and the Salt Lake City Main Public Library. This library is a 240,000 square foot curving, 6 story walkable wall that embraces the public square. It houses more that 500,000 books and other materials. It has shops and services at ground level, reading galleries above, and a 300 seat auditorium. There is a roof top terrace that is entirely glass and offers a 360 degree view of the Salt Lake Valley, there are also a number of beehives on the roof top terrace that are tended to by the Library Beekeeper. There are spiraling fireplaces on 4 floors of the library that when viewed from two different streets outside resemble a column of fire. More than 1% of the interior wall space is dedicated to public art. The library is connected to City Hall by a granite water wall that provides a cooling atmosphere and flows into a wedge-shaped garden at the base. The library also has on the North Side, The Plot. The Plot is a community garden with beds tended by local area residents who are selected via an annual lottery. The Plot is a learning laboratory for Library patrons to sow, grow, and share using sustainable gardening practices in an urban environment. This afternoon, we are visiting Bonneville Salt Flats visit one of the most unique features in Utah stretching for over 300,000 acres. This is where people go to attempt to break the sound barrier. Additionally, a lot of folks go out here with their custom made muscle cars and try to obtain land speed records. We will be leaving here soon and porting to Syracuse, Utah to visit Antelope Island State Park. This park is home to a multitude of wildlife including free-ranging bison, mule deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn (antelope), and many other desert animals. Millions of birds congregate along the shores surrounding the island. The non-biting Brine Flies currently line the shoreline of the lake which of course is saline, its not real warm water so you can take a swim if you like salt water. I have the Cabana Boys and the Chefs on hand to give us a Barbecue and Cocktail hour and S'mores of course on the Island at one of the Primitive Campsites so that we can do some Stargazing before we head back to our hotel for the night. Since I had to pop back to the bad place earlier today, I went ahead and bought us 4- 24 inch refracting telescopes, so now on our ROAD TRIPS if we are camping or glamping or just out at night in somewhere dark we can gaze if we like!!! *points to the table next to her which has large stacks of hats with buffalo, mule deer, bighorn sheep, or pronghorn antelope on them, tells everybody to take one of each, stealth over and puts a new hats on Ttobey with a big buffalo on it before stealthing away, casts the group speed buffs, checks the time delays and adjusts them just a bit so we have a bit more time at Antelope Island State Park before relocking the security cover, and shouts* Alright ROAD TRIPPERS, rally round, its time for us to head to Antelope Island State Park!!!
and this is a very good example where I dug up some places and Cyrrena went into detail . Nice presentation I knew that library was cool , but you made it look really amazing. And that little trip into the Narrows was one of the things most people do in Zion and I had forgotten that there is a nice paved path all the way to the back of the ravine. I Germany we got Slot canyons called Klamm , there people built in wood walk ways hanging on to the side high above the high water mark so you can walk through high and dry . I think walking in the river , that in the narrows is mostly shallow maybe up to the knee is nice on a hot summer day .
*blushes* Thank you Schmet… Good Morning ROAD TRIPPERS!!! Its Tuesday already!! Our last day in Utah, lets make it a good one!!! At 9:00 am, I have scheduled us for the Salt Lake City Scavenger Hunt Adventure, this should be a blast. We can enter as one team or break up into multiple teams as long as each team has 2 members. After the Scavenger Hunt, I have booked us a visit at iFly Utah, for those that wish to Skydive without jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Then I have scheduled us for the Natural History Museum of Utah. With how I have set our time delays, this will take us until noon local time when we can break for lunch and then begin our afternoon. For our afternoon, I have scheduled us at the Wheeler Historic Farm, Pioneer Memorial Museum, and the Clark Planetarium which was formerly the Hansen Planetarium, they have an iMax theatre in here so I did not jam pack the afternoon. It is recommended to spend 3 hours at the Farm and the Pioneer Memorial Museum and a minimum of 4 hours at the Planetarium so even without our time delays this would be a full day. I have scheduled cocktail hour at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7:30 pm at The Grand America, the hotel we are staying at. The have a 5 Star Steak House and Mixology Lounge and we have not even tried it during our stay so I figured tonight was the night!!! Then we can try the amenities we have not been here to try, they are all available until midnight except the indoor pool which is open 24 hours a day, and the main bar which is open until 2 am. Tomorrow morning, we will be porting back to Colorado to finish our explorations there in Estes Park. We did see quite a bit in our one day there, but we can spend one more day in Estes Park, then move to another location and explore a bit there. Have we decided upon Burning Man yet? If yes, that begins 25 August so we will need to be in Nevada on that date which is this coming Sunday. Rosy, Schmet and I all know someone that is a performer at Burning Man, he does fire hooping. *passes out new hats to everybody which are black with light up meteor showers on them, asks Schmet if she will stealth over and put Ttobey's new hat on him, opens the security cover and resets the time delays and then closes the security cover and relocks it, casts the group speed buff, and then shouts* Alright ROAD TRIPPERS, we have Scavenging to do. Lets get to the starting location and decide how we are going to play this, as one large group or are we going to break down and compete against each other. I think my choice will depend on how many non-Norrathians are playing against us!!!!
A Voice Off Screen asks, "What are you doing Gero ?" Be vewwy quiet, I am hunting Scavenger Hunts. They are awound heah somewheah ! Oh look ! Bwutterflies !
inspects her bat wings , hmm this gnome who fixed this said they should work now he said he used plenty of wire and duck tape " o hi there Geo " straps on wings and walks into iFly . " I am here for my special session " . ok signs like 30 pages of wavers . Ok yes it's my own fault if I break my neck , not that that would not have happened before when I walk of a cliff or fall down from Maj' Dul. Walks into wind camber and hears big fans start up makes sure one more time that the helmet is on secure , the one with the pink bunny on top . Ready !!!!! and they open the floor below me and . . . . . .. woooooooohhhhhooooooo yay this is great I am battonga only flying is better , wait a moment I am , " quick open the roof I want to fly outside ' owe the roof can't be opened o well but this is still fun and better than a flying squirrel suit . no , NO NOOOOOOOOOO don't turn it of . Man this was fun . but all good things have to end . O hi ttobey , I guess your next this is really fun , and no you can't use my wings whispers to him I am still not sure they are save , but the suit they give you works too. Runns upstairs to the gallery to watch ttobeys flight.
Gero gets next iFly after ttobey. "I wanna be a birrrd ! Flying along not singing a song, likely couldn't be heard anywaaaayyyy !" That was fun. Sniff. I smell Ice Cream !
o well I had this around might as well just list it . Utah towns some places to see Wendover : this town is really small and in the middle of the desert but there are at least 2 interesting things to see . " Bottle Tree " quirky old tree covered in tokens , cans and bottles of wishes . " Metaphor the Tree of Utah " tall futuristic looking sculpture of a tree with orbs as leafs scattered pieces of those orbs are on the ground like leaves that fell of that tree . the tree is near I 80 , so it's easy to get to . ( the artist went back to Sweden but still wants to build a visitor center ) . " the Republic of Zaqistan " proto micro nation with no permanent residents ( just an interesting fact not really anything to see besides a border guard booth with a toy robot as guard. " Sun tunnels " sculpture for the sun and the stars If you feel like a dip in a pool or a all you can eat buffet you can always go to West Wendover and visit a casino on the Nevada side . you might even go on a " CEV Mining Adventure " . Vernal : " Fantasy Canyon " Rock formations with fantastic shapes , some look like giant coral " First Lady Dolls " doll collection of handmade dolls to remember the women in the White House . Ogden : " Eccles Dinosaur Park " about 100 dinosaur replica on 8 acres of the park the entrance to the park also includes the Elisabeth De Shaw museum a collection of the newest dinosaur finds in Utah and from around the world . " the stump spring " a spring that began flowing out of a tree trunk it still is flowing today . Panguitch : " Butch Cassidy's Childhood home " " Quilt Walk Memorial Park " This is a very interesting story . The winter of 181864 was particularly brutal. The town of Panguich was low on food , so 2 groups headed out to the nearest other towns to secure some rations . one of the groups had to give up and return . The other group had to leave behind their oxen's and carts and move on , on foot , they kept on sinking in to the snow drifts making progress hard. They pulled out their quilts they had brought for warmth and put them down on the snow to pray for guidance . Very soon they realized that on the quilts they did not sink into the snow , so they used the quilts to walk on laying them down like a path and made it to the next settlement and secure food for their town to make it through the winter. Since 1998 , this event has been celebrated and remembered with displays of quilts all over town . ok I am running out of steam the rest I will post tomorrow.
Time for me to be in the Catbird Seat! Whee! And what's a CEV Mining Adventure, Schmett? Sounds intriguing... ;-> Uwk not terribly keen on real heights (like as in, jumping out of a real airplane), for a kerra...will don a pronghorn hat (not tempted to try going for one, they're too fast) and definitely a meteor hat!
I don't really have an idea what CEV stands for , but what this guys offer is tours with four wheel drives to remote locations to see ghost towns , natural treasures , and panning for gold visiting any of their mines and so on . this trips include transportation overnight combinations ( glamping or camping ) and food they cook at the camp fire I am sure.( or on a truck mounted propane cooker ) more Utah towns Lehi : " Thanksgiving Point museum " opened in 2000 a $ 230-million complex with gardens , a working farm a children's museum and " the Museum of Ancient Life " this museum contains 60 mounted dinosaur specimens and claims to posses the largest collection of mounted dinosaurs. The collection includes , two Tyrannosaurus Rex skeletons , the world's most complete Stegosaurus skeleton , ultra - rare specimens of Cerratosaurus and Gorgoyleosaurus , a Quetzalcoatus with a 40 foot wingspan and a 120- foot long specimen of the largest dinosaur ever found the Supersaurus. The museum is also known for it's lovely dioramas and miniature dinosaur tableaus. The brainchild of Cliff Miles - the man who named the Gargoyleosaurus , Hesperosaurus' and Minotaursaurus and was the advisor for Jurassic Park movies . The facility also features an IMAX 3D theater and a working paleontological laboratory. "Hutchings Museum" the collection of an amateur naturalist . Orem : " Roots of Knowledge Stain Glass " an absolutely beautiful 200 foot stained glass installation , traces the evolution of knowledge. Monticello : " the Hole in the Rock " a house blaster and carved into a rock face with 14 rooms , a 65 foot tall chimney drilled through the solid sandstone, a French fryer and a bathtub carved out of the rock . the house was lived in by a family and they ran a diner here for as long as they lived the place is not lived in anymore but you can still take tours. Delta : " Trilobite Quarry " this is a U- Dig Fossils busyness the fee includes tools and the average visitor finds 10 to 20 trilobites in four hours bring your own gloves and food and drink . " Topaz Museum " this is the site a concentration camp for American citizens of Japanese descent. this museum houses art works of prisoners and a replica of a barrack Japanese Americans were given mere days to take care of their affairs before they were transported to one of the detention camps with only what they can carry . Life in the camp was harsh . when internees began arriving , the structures in the camps were still under construction . The shoddily built barracks let in drafts of dust during the summer and snow during the winter in Topaz temperatures in summer frequently exceeded 100 F and in winter average temperature was below freezing . So the internees were conscribed to built their own prison . No furniture was provided , so they had to fashion their own with scraps of wood the army threw out. The perimeter of the camp was lined with a barbed wire fence and guard towers. From 1943 to 1945 Dave Tatsuno used a film camera , smuggled into Topaz to shoot home movies of what life was like inside the camp. Herriman : " Kennecott Utah Copper - Bingham Canyon Mine " Largest man - made excavation on earth , the mine is 2.3/4 miles across on top , and 3/4 of a mile deep and can be seen from space . A visitor center is on site and guided tours are available . I been there and there is not really any way to explain how humbling it is to be driven down into the operation .
Eee, better you than me, Schmett...for all my Celtic roots, I'm not that keen on being inside a mine. Visited an old one in Europe, in the Alps, that was only "working" for the tourists; had a VERY "narrow gauge" railway inside it (when they said, "Keep your arms, legs, head, etc. inside the cars at all times and don't stand until it comes to a complete stop," they meant it... ), but the main thing that freaked me out was being under SOLID ROCK in a place that had literally undermined it. :-/ Celts my ancestors might've been, with a lot of mining history under their Bronze-Age-back-then hats, but I'm born and bred Southern Californian, and you just don't DO that kind of thing there. The ground is treacherous. :-/ Uwk who finally understood this whole "basement" thing ("You deliberately undermined your house's foundations?! ") while watching a very spooky thunderstorm coming straight at our farm in the Midwest... :-/
Celt eh ? I grew up in some open spaces in Texas, well, we did have trees. But imagine my shock the first time I traveled to a pine forest. Eeesh. Too bad I don't know the names of some of my ancestors; Norway, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Norman Penninsula, and Texas. I do know some of the ones in the U.S./Texas. I much prefer outdoors as well. We had a crawl space under the house, no basement. Had tornados to.
that copper mine is just a big hole no ceiling no big load of rock on top , they dig out the ore with giant machines and bring the ore out on ever moving convoys of trucks with tires that are taller than a regular truck and the dump trucks operating in the open pit mine are the size of a two story house.
I still remember their radio ads from the '60s, "Kennecott copper is good for you!" I believe you pass it on I-80 between Salt Lake City and Wendover... or else there's another large mining operation out there!
"I have scheduled cocktail hour at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7:30 pm at The Grand America, the hotel we are staying at. The have a 5 Star Steak House and Mixology Lounge and we have not even tried it during our stay so I figured tonight was the night!!!" Weird, as the bus full of Misfits waits for the lounge to open they notice reflected in the window a bright yellow light fast approaching from behind! Get out of the way! It's a meteor! SAAAA MAASSH ! Too late. Half of Utah is gone. Down the now molten freeway bounces a former bus tire, rolling and melting until there is nothing left.
You would destroy Utah just to get us? What a waste...of Utah. ;-> We're onto you, Ttobe; you really thought that was us? Silly rat, 'twas just a holo-projection. We're masters of time travel, and were already in the Lounge; pity there's not much road left in front of it, but now we have a more interesting view. And thanks for letting us know your plans; all we have to do now is have Gero fire up his vehicles and divert the meteor before it hits. ;-> Uwk
lol ha , ha , ha , good one ttobey did not see that one coming I was wondering if you took over for Cyrrena , but you invited us for dinner so nicely that we all eagerly ported there. Somehow I picture ttobey wearing a helmet with wings on it and shoes with wings too like Hermes. now theres an idea for a mount. To bad about the bus , there goes another one , but there are more where that one came from ok Geo we need another robot driver . And there is only one giant copper mine like that in Utah correction in the world .
Ttobey I think lives by the motto if at first you don't succeed try try again. And I'm sure he will. I am glad though his plans keep going awry. We have a crawl space (sorry reading all the posts so going back a few LOL) I hate it!!!!!! There are spiders, spiders suck, spiders do not deserve to live. I hate spiders they are all creepy crawly and ugly looking. Did I mention I HATE spiders?
We need spiders. We need bats. We need snakes. We need all the icky, ugly things that most people don't like, simply because they're our first line of defense against things like dengue fever, the Zika virus, bubonic plague, etc. :-/ Just let me know when you find one, and I'll be there to scoop it up and get it out. Uwk
