Utah Trip Day 4: Doggy Wheelchairs Kid, They're Gonna Be Big!

Day 4 of our trip to Utah was another travel day as we made it to our ultimate destination: Salt Lake City! As such, this may not have been the most interesting day of the trip, but hey, at least it will be a shorter post right? We'll see.

7:53 a.m. - The morgue otherwise known as Room 202 at the Comfort Suites in St. George is silent. Nothing moves. Oh how we wish that we could sleep for another 2 hours. But the free breakfast again awaits and we must not miss that. So I get up.

8:40 a.m. - We make it down to breakfast. Not all of us are presenting ourselves in the final version we will go with today, but we are close enough. As with the day before, breakfast selections are awesome. Convince Logan to try blueberry syrup (Logan's first instinct is to hate everything up front. That is also his second, third and fourth instinct as well as hamburger, peanut butter and at times cheese have found their way onto his banned substance list). He likes it. Of course I told him it was candy flavor. I think that helped.

8:46 a.m. - They have The Price is Right on in the dining area. It has been how many years since Drew Carey took over for Bob Barker? And he still sucks. Based on his emotional reactions, I couldn't tell you if a contestant has just won a car or been kicked in the groin. It is time to start a petition to save this American icon and see if we can't get a better host.

9:32 a.m. - I am now loading the van for the third time in four days. I believe that we are starting to suffer from too many people in too small an area syndrome. Shannon told the kids to dump the ice bucket. They do...over the side of the second floor railing, as opposed to say...the sink.

9:36 a.m. - Hear my children screaming as if one of them is facing imminent death. Find they are actually fighting over how they are going to play on the elevator. We discuss how no one is going to be playing on the elevator.

9:48 a.m. - We are ready to go. Except I have not yet had a Dr. Pepper. Therefore even though we are only down 1\16 a tank of gas, we will be stopping for gas.

10:01 a.m. - After the previous day's experience of carrying Kate everywhere, we both agree that buying a cheap stroller from Target is in order. Shannon wants to stop and do it now. I want to get on the road because we are 20 minutes behind the schedule I arbitrarily decided upon in my head that morning and we have to make the time up. We both express our opinions on the matter and it ends with me saying, "I just don't want to stop! Period!!!" Shannon counters with, "And I do. And that is the difference."

10:08 a.m. - We pull into Target in St. George and Shannon runs in to purchase a new cheap stroller.

10:16 a.m. - Now we are on our way. As we are getting ready to get back on the freeway, we see a restaurant called Chuck-a-Rama. Shannon makes a good point that maybe a restaurant owner would want to rethink that name. I understand it makes reference to pioneer or old west times and the Chuck Wagon. However, with each passing year, more and more people are unaware of that connection. They are probably however, aware of the phrase to up-chuck or to chuck your lunch. We're just saying.

11:32 am. - Hit first section of freeway where they are experimenting with a new speed limit of 80 miles an hour. As a male form of the species who is obsessed with making good time from one point to another, I have just reached a new level of nirvana. However, I discovered that I have my own personal speed limit. It is 83 mph. I wasn't aware of this before, but as I was cruising down the I-15 at this breakneck speed, I realized, I'm good. Part of me was disappointed in myself.

11:49 a.m. - Stop in Meadow, UT for gas and bathroom breaks. In the window of the Conoco where we stopped was the following sign: Fresh Doughnuts and Cheese Curd Today. I can honestly say I had never really put those two together. Maybe that is my loss. It still remains a loss I am willing to live with.

1:58 p.m. - Drive into Provo, UT. We drive by BYU, the MTC and the Provo temple. My kids' reaction? "Dad, why wouldn't you stop at that water park we passed five minutes ago?"

2:11 p.m. - Get minorly lost in Provo. It isn't that we don't know where we are. It is that we can't believe that in a decent sized college town, we can't find a single decent place to eat. I know they probably exist, but they certainly eluded us. We drive frantically by a KFC hoping Abby doesn't see it. She loves that place. Shannon and I and our digestive tracts? Not so much. We finally decide upon Burger King. Ugh. But wait, all is not lost. They are having a Twilight Saga: Eclipse promotion. I have to wonder when we got to the point in our society when we started thinking it was ok to give kids' meals to 4 and 5 year olds that promote a PG-13 movie that centers on a love triange between a human idiot (sorry Bella fans), a vampire and a werewolf who is 17(18?) years old but has 40+ year old women gushing over his beautiful abs which are never covered by a shirt. It almost made me wish for Sponge Bob Squarepants. And I don't say that lightly.

3:40 p.m. - Pull into SLC. I have to unplug Abby's movie (she was on her 3rd viewing of Percy Jackson) to use the GPS. She was highly incensed. I really should get my priorities straight.

4:01 p.m. - Check into our hotel. Can't figure out how to make the elevator work. There are few things in this life that can make you feel more stupid than having your family of six and all of your luggage blocking a perfectly good elevator all because you can't figure out how to make the elevator work. I finally jerked all of our family off the elevator along with our luggage to recompose myself. I watch the folks that had been waiting for us get on and use their room key card to activate the elevator. I feel incredibly stupid.

5:00 p.m. - Discover our hotel not only has free breakfast, but has free dinner M-Th as well. SCORE!!!

5:43 p.m. - Decide to set off for Temple Square. Jerry informs us it is 6 blocks away. Do we want to drive? He seems skeptical when we choose to walk. That would be because 6 downtown SLC blocks are much larger than 6 downtown Phoenix blocks. Much Larger. And all uphill. I have to admit that I am stupid at this point as my wife was clearly right about just getting the stroller in St. George. Of course I don't say this out loud and my wife is wonderful enough to not rub it in...too much.

5:57 p.m. - Walk by Jerry and Kirt's condo building. It is a refurbished tire factory. That is a common trend in urban areas to refurbish industrial buildings into apartments or condos. I think Thatcher should get in on this trend. We could take Wesley Taylor dorms and refurbish them into something livable.

6:16 p.m. - Arrive at Temple Square. We are in SLC. At six o'clock at night. And I feel like I am walking across a frying pan. How did we manage to pick the one week where the whole country is in the grips of a heat wave to come to SLC. If we were in Phoenix, we would not have noticed any difference. But here, I had higher expectations. We look around and get the kids excited to come back the next day. Unfortunately, we now have to figure out how to get back to our hotel, which probably means walking. Thankfully Jerry tells us that the light rail in downtown is free. We are so there.











6:39 p.m. - Arrive back at Jerry's apartment. Braden immediately zeroes in on the fact that Jerry and Kirt have Super Mario Galaxy 2. At this point, we say goodbye to Braden. Jerry introduces us to Stella and Stanley, there two dogs. Stella had her back hip go out and requires a little wheeled contraption to get around. It is actually quite amazing. Kate is quite taken with it which means we now have to make sure she can't get too close to it.





6:47 p.m. - I can't recall why I had to hold Stanley, but I did. Stanley is a very nervous dog and I can feel his little body quaking as I take him. He lets me know with his barking that me holding him is not his first preference. Then he seems to calm down. Finally Jerry is done doing whatever it was he had to do and I hand Stanley back. It is now that I realize Stanley has peed on my new Zions park shirt. Of course. Shannon assures me that pee washes out of things and points to our sons' bed sheets as an example.

8:00 p.m. - Kirt arrives home and we visit for a little bit and then we realize that in spite of the still lingering daylight outside, it is getting close to 9 p.m. That is just stupid. I am sorry but it is. We tell them goodnight and look forward to seeing them the next day and off we go back to the hotel.

8:59: p.m. - On the way back to the hotel, we recall that Jerry told us our hotel has an up-scale shopping mall on one side and a homeless shelter on the other. Think on that for a moment...You done? Ok. We realize we are not on the high end mall side so we quicken our pace to get back.

9:52 p.m. - Get everyone ready for bed and get them down. Kate decides that...no she is not done. She is unhappy and is going to let us know it.

11:30 p.m. - Kate finally decides she has had enough and goes to sleep. We've had enough too and call it a day.