Well we have now returned to Salt Lake City (SLC) and are headed to Arches N.P. Yellowstone and Grand Teton are just a memory – best forgotten. After all they are Brokeback mountain territory – and out in the canyons a guy gets pretty lonely. After 3-4 long hours of trekking the wilderness your sole partner can start to look pretty good. Oh, the shame. 'Tis best forgotten.
Food on the prairie is something not forgotten. Each meal is enough for two – even if you skip the 28 oz steaks and go for the lady-size 10 oz-er. Of course these come with plenty of beans (in a BBQ sauce), Cajun corn, and coffee – just like the the old cowboys had out on the prairies (on a good day !). Real men don't eat chicken. Woe betide any visiting vegetarians, and (to a lesser extent) tea drinkers.
We have met quite a lot of Mormons. Nice people – a bit like Dorothy's family (from the Wizard of Oz). Their temple square complex in SLC is quite spectacular although one has to convert to get into into the centrepiece – the magnificent SLC temple. However we did see a bit of music rehearsal in the famous tabernacle.
The Mormon influence and morality can be seen all over Utah – even in restaurants. At one nice place I ordered a beer – a Polygamy Porter as a pre-dinner drink. I could not be served it whilst browsing the menu – the meal had to be ordered first. I liked the motto on the Polygamy Porter bottle – Why have only one – so said I would like to keep it. The waiter insisted on removing the bottle, washing it, and returning it to me in a sealed paper bag. It seems NO amount of alcohol can be removed from the restaurant !!
Lots of interesting drives and scenery in the Wasatch mountains next to SLC. One – the Skyline Drive – rises to 9000 ft and overlooks the salt lakes some 4000 ft below. But the narrow dirt road, with precipitous drops was the scariest road I have driven on. A little like the crazy death roads in the mountains of Bolivia.
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