As far west as we will get

Is Salt Lake City. We arrived here VERY early this morning, from here on out, we will be heading back east on our 14 day trip home. So far we have traveled about 4800 miles since leaving on May 30. Unfortunately, today was also the day Cory had to return home, I am sure that Adam and Lucky missed her while she was with us. It was great being able to share the driving and the stories and thanks to her photography, we have never before seen pictures from the back seat.

Yesterday we started at 4 corners (Cory has all the photos). Without having to do much work, we were able to visit 4 states. We all took our pictures standing on the marker where all 4 states (Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona) touch. Then we went shopping. There were kiosks around the outside of the monument filled with jewelry, my favorite! We ended up with a lot of different turquoise necklaces that were from the area and local artists. As we were leaving, there was a huge lightening storm (which after watching the Weather Channel, turned into a hail storm that left 6 inches of hail in its wake). We tried to capture it on film, well Cory did, but we were unsuccessful.

Onto Utah. As we headed through Colorado into Marcello (I think this is the name) we went to a visitors center thinking that we would find something to do as Cory would be leaving in the morning. Upon entering, we were greeted by one of Utah's worst ambassadors. After asking what we could see, everything was not on our way, out of the way, or would take too long to get there - so he couldn't recommend ANYTHING. What gave him the power to determine what was along our way, or worth the trip, I have no idea, but even after asking multiple different ways, he gave one recommendation, Arches National Park, which another visitor had said he wasn't too impressed with. So cross that off our list and onto the next thing, oh that's right, that was the complete list.

Cory found a movie museum at Red Rock Lodge, I never knew so many movies had scenes or the entire film made in Utah: a bunch of John Wayne movies, Forest Gump, Back to the Future II and III, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; television commercials and print ads. The lodge was spectacular nestled along the banks of the Colorado River.

Then onto Salt Lake City, we found a hotel right near the airport so we could get a couple of minutes extra of sleep (we got in at 2 am and had to be at the airport by 6 and still needed to repack). I was sad to see her go through the doors, but very happy that she was able to spend 4 days with us on our journey. We were up so early, we were able to see the sunrise over the mountains.

Ma and I slept in (I love late checkouts) and then headed to Temple Square. We took a tour of the Tabernacle and some other sights on Main Street. It took me a hour or so to figure out the street naming convention - all blocks are numbered from Temple Square out east and west. Try putting that into your GPS, it isn't easy.

I didn't really think through the whole, Sunday in Salt Lake. With the rain, we really didn't want to walk through the city, and even if we did, EVERYTHING was closed. We tried visiting a copper mine, but the rain turned to thunder and lightening and they closed early for the safety of the miners - so we will try again tomorrow.

We ended up eating at a local restaurant, Melvale Mining Cafe. The food was really good and I highly recommend it! Thankfully there is a hotel right next door, so we were able to settle in for the night and watch some tv and post to the blog. Until tomorrow.