CrusherChronicles

Today we shop. PTCC wants to find a tote bag to carry her things in. (I call it a purse but that’s too girly for her). So we go to the Layton Mall to shop at JCP. We don’t find the one she saw online but we look around for other stuff. Eventually we walk into the mall to continue our search. This is a smaller mall about the size of the original Fashion Square in Orlando. We go from store to store looking at whatever she wants. This was probably the most enjoyable time I’ve ever had shopping with her. Usually I get nothing but an attitude when we shop together, something like I’m so out of touch with what’s cool. Eventually she finds some cool tennis shoes, a tote bag and we have lunch at Chick-Fil-A which she has been missing since we left home.

Then we go to Dollar Tree to look for some signs and stuff we’ve run out of, then over to the Walmart that we will have our oil changed at on Saturday before our trek to Yellowstone.

We are both missing CC and can’t wait for him to come back. It’s been weird sitting in one place for so long after traveling 3000 miles in 2 weeks. We have kept busy but I want to move on.

We met a nice couple from Panama City tonight while walking around the park. They full time 8 months of the year and have been here the same amount of time as we have. We talked for awhile about where we are going and doing and what we should see. They’ve been the first people we have talked to except for the managers because no one is around during the day. It seems weird with all these RV’s here and no one is ever home.

Today is LCC’s birthday and she is going to spend it in a cave.

I got breakfast in bed from PTCC. Only it’s not what you think. She was supposed to set her I-Pod to wake her up but she turned the volume down so when I woke up at 6 am she was still asleep. When I woke her up she got up and brought back some OJ in a bottle and a homemade concoction of granola bars and cereals in a bowl. Then she jumped back into bed and pulled the covers over her head. So I got up and made the coffee and some orange rolls and saw what she had worked on last night. She had strung red mini lights and Happy Birthday banners all over the RV. The table had all my Wildlife WebKinz and gifts from her, CC, and the G’s on it. I opened everything and then ate breakfast. CC called to wish me a Happy Birthday before we left.

By 8:20 am we are on I-15 going to Timpanogos Cave when the G’s call. I can’t talk because traffic is moving so swiftly and I don’t know where I’m going so we will talk to them later. We make it to the cave by 9 am and buy tickets for a cave tour at 10:30am. The brochure says it can take most people about 1.5 hrs to walk the 1.5 miles uphill on the path to the cave. We start out and it immediately becomes a tough uphill walk. The path is paved there are no stairs but it is tough. The trail is marked with ¼, ½ ¾, and end markers. It seems forever till we get to the ¼ mile mark. There is lots of snow on the rocks above the trail. PTCC had snow on her birthday in April and now I get it on mine in May. Will we ever get to warm weather? We stop a few times to take pictures and read the signs on the way. If I knew at the beginning they had a cell phone tour I would have called in to hear what it said but we didn’t notice it until about ½ way up the trail. We finally make it to the top in about 40 minutes and use the last chance bathroom before our tour. We are sweating and will now go into a cave that is 45 degrees. After everyone makes it to the top I notice the Ranger who will lead us. She looks very familiar to me. When I heard her speak I knew I had seen her before. I asked if she taught skiing at Snowbird and she said yes. I asked if her name was Nancy and she said it was. I told her she taught PTCC to ski 7 years ago when we stayed at Snowbird. A very small world it is.

Our tour starts and we get to go inside. We are paired up with a family of 3 generations that were in town for a wedding, a group of about 12 people plus us. The tour is very interesting but I don’t think CC would have liked it because of his size. There were many narrow cuts and low ceilings to get around. The cave runs beneath a fault line so it runs north to south. There were many formations that were beautiful to see. The main attraction is a large stalactite called the heart. They have lit it up with white and then red lights. Back in the 70’s they used to let people touch certain parts of the cave but no more since they have studied what it does to the formations. We finish our tour and get back out in the heat (70 degrees) to thaw out. The walk down is harder on the balls of the feet and my knees. None of the path is level you are always sloping toward the bottom of the valley. We make it to the bottom in 30 minutes and go into the Visitors center so PTCC can finish her Jr Ranger book and get her badge. We watched the movie and looked around in the bookstore. Then we got the picnic stuff from the car and walked a nature trail to the swinging bridge picnic area. This was a really nice lunch area. The American Fork River was gurgling nearby while we ate. It was nice and shady with the walls of the canyon above us and the river below. Miss Nancy had told us that this river had once flowed through the caves. It had to be a really long time ago because the distance between the two are so great now. We walk back to the car after eating and my phone dings signaling a message. I actually have 2-one from my brother and one from my dad, both wishing me happy birthday. I wait to call them back until I get out of traffic. We make it back around 3 pm and PTCC can’t wait to go swimming again. So we pack up and head for the pool where I call everyone back. After talking to my brother, father and the G’s, CC is calling to find out how our day has gone. I told him his package for me had arrived in good condition. He knows what I like. Inside the package was some dark Ghiradelli Chocolate as well as the Duke NCAA Champion T shirt and some new movies to watch.

PTCC is making dinner tonight. She worked up a menu on the computer that was completely in different foreign languages. I got to chose what I wanted to eat from appetizers to entree to 2 separate desserts. I think this has been a great birthday except CC wasn’t able to spend it with us.

Today we head out for the Utah State Capitol situated a a very high hill. This is the most beautiful building I have seen in a good long while. The entire building inside and out is marble. It was designed after the US Capitol. After seeing the FL state capitol in TLH this one puts it to shame. The entire building is open to visitors without having to go through security lines to ruin the look. There are wonderful murals of the Mormons moving West painted on the walls and ceiling. Even the elevator was made of marble and glass. After looking around to our fill we depart for the Temple Square. The walk down was nice because it was going down the hill. After 3 blocks we come to a beautiful block with the Temple as its centerpiece and various buildings around the square. The flowers are in bloom, water is running in the fountains, all is right in the world. We look around and go into the South Visitors center and take in how the temple was built. The Mormons put in a lot of backbreaking labor to get it done. We walk across the square and get stopped by some female missionaries that want to tell us all about their religion and the different buildings in the square. We talk for awhile and then move on to the Assembly Hall and then the Tabernacle where the choir sings with an organ that has 11,683 pipes. We move on to the North Visitor center which tells the story of Mormonism through vignettes and statues as well as 2 one hour films. We play around with the family history computers by looking up my mom and my older brother both who died within the last 2 years. They were both in there as well as millions of others going back about 100 years or more. After that we decide we are hungry so we head back to the car which we left at the state capitol. We have to walk at about a 45 degree angle up 3 blocks to get there. Utah is no place for a flatlander like me to drive. We must have gone over at least 4 blind hills today.

I tell PTCC that we will eat when we get to the Olympic Park. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and they were doing road construction so where the GPS wanted me to turn there was no way to do it. So after 3 tries of finding it we gave up and headed to This Is the Place.

It is a state park where it details the journey of the Mormons and the community they built once they were here. We visited several of the buildings that had interpretive speakers in them. We visited a family cabin, shave shop, mercantile, hotel, stable, blacksmith and the schoolhouse. They were having a big March of Dimes event so we were lucky we didn’t get there early because it looked like parking would have been a problem, since cars were parked all over the curbs. We talked to the young lady who was in the schoolhouse for awhile about the settlement and how they grew crops.

After that we decided to give the Olympic Park one more try. PTCC finally saw the cauldron we were looking for. It was just a matter of getting there. After one more go around we finally make it into a parking lot. It looks like the former Olympic Stadium now belongs to University of Utah. The flame stand was there but there was no flame or water running down it. And the Olympic Arch looked kind of sad as well when it’s not turned on. Hopefully the University lights them up for their games in the stadium. PTCC and I went into the building and saw a short movie about the 2002 Winter Olympics and then walked around and looked at the displays in the lobby. After that we decided we’d had enough for today and went home. Our Nuvi took us down this very industrial path to get us back to Redwood Rd. I really thought we were being lead down a wrong path but it worked out in the end. Stopped in the office to check to see if my birthday package had arrived, but not yet. I will have to wait until Monday it seems.

PTCC couldn’t wait to get to the office to play on the computers so LCC took a short nap and then went to the office to see if PTCC wanted to swim. The temperature is still around the mid 60’s but the sun is shining so it seems hot if you are out of the wind. So I sat near the pool while PTCC swum and then we came back to fix dinner and end our evening.