Adventures with Liz

And Now, a Word from the President

Road trip days 11 & 12: Salt Lake City, UT to Pueblo, CO and Pueblo, CO to Mount Rushmore, SD.

Yesterday I was abducted by the Mormons. Since I was in Salt Lake City, my mom insisted I must go see Temple Square, and since I probably won't be back there for a long time and I didn't want to regret not going, I got up early and headed into downtown SLC. The city is beautiful; it busy but peaceful and sits at the base of a mountain range. I found Temple Square, grabbed my camera, and headed into quickly check it out and take a few pictures. I was immediate stopped, however, by the nicest young Mormon missionary from China. She told me about a free 30 minute tour starting soon, and I figured I had half an hour, and it might be nice to have a guide to know what I was looking at, and she was so enthusiastic, I just couldn't say no. Two hours later, I was rushing out of the city toward Colorado. My 30 minute tour of the grounds turned into almost an hour, followed by a tour of the gardens on top of the convention center that lasted another hour. It was totally worth it though. My tour guides were so nice and so passionate, as was EVERYONE we encountered on the walk (someone even told me that "blue was such a pretty color on me!" in reference to the shirt I was wearing), and the tour was very informative and interesting. I got to see the tabernacle where the Mormon Tabernacle choir practiced, and view the Temple from the outside (there was a wedding going on!), and see a few rooms in the convention center, along with a bunch of original, one-of-a-kind paintings. So it was a well spent two hours, despite the fact that it got my journey off to a VERY late start.

The state of Utah, beyond the desert, is really pretty, and the drive was lovely. Wyoming was just ok... I feel it's sort of at a disadvantage following Utah, and even more so coming after everything else I have seen. I'm sure it's pretty in it's own right, I'm just biased now. There were a bunch of wind farms, which made things more exciting.

Colorado was a huge disappointment. Denver is lame, not at all like I pictured it... it's just another city. And the path I took was extremely populated, with lots of traffic and construction and suburbs. After being out in the wild west for so long, with it's rolling hills, majestic mountains, and 75mph open freeways, civilization was somewhat of a shock. Anyway, I was still managing to make good time despite my late start when suddenly, traffic came to a dead standstill in Colorado Springs. As in, people were walking around on the freeway outside their cars, because we were parked there, not moving. After about 15 minutes, the guy next to me got out of his car to stretch. I rolled down my window and asked if he could see what had happened, since I had heard police sirens. He said no, but he had just talked to his wife, who had turned on the news to see what was going on. Do you want to know why we were sitting on the freeway for 30 minutes? The President of the United States of America, Mr. George W. Bush himself, was landing at Peterson Air Force Base, and in order to transport him to wherever it was he was going, they decided to shut down the interstate. So... the president messed up my road trip. Mom says it's payback for that time I drunk e-mailed the White House. Oh, GW, how I will miss you.

I finally made it to Beth's and we spent the night catching up and talking about all the amazing things we have accomplished (Beth climbed a real mountain... over 12,000 feet!). We woke up this morning and enjoyed a breakfast of typical Pueblo Mexican food... meaning everything covered in green chili. Yes, for breakfast. Apparently everything is better covered in green chili. Kind of like melted cheese (ha ha, Emily. Oh, if you're reading this... I saw a sign for Taco Time in Wyoming!)

Heading toward Mount Rushmore, I drove back through Colorado, which is actually not so bad in the sunlight after a good night's sleep and without good ol' George mucking up traffic. Wyoming was also lovely, all green and open in the sunlight. South Dakota was not impressive. The Black Hills are awful. Unlike the sunny mountains of the southwest, all these inland northern mountains do are attract a thick oppressive gray fog, which I drove in the entire way to Mount Rushmore. It was to foggy to even see the monument, so I wandered around the area looking for a place to stay. Hopefully tomorrow I can see it before I head to Iowa.

Home in 2 days!

posted by Liz @ 11:34 PM