Day 17 – Salt Lake City UT

It was an amazing and fun day. We were up at 7:30 for coffee and breakfast. Base Civil Engineering came by to work on our electric hookup post. Our 50 amp is fine, but the guy next to us keeps blowing the breaker on the 30 amp. So we had to shut down while they worked on it. I don’t think they ever got it to work, but they turned us back on, and we got on the road to Salt Lake City at 10.

We made it the 30 miles to downtown Salt Lake with no problems and got parked right at Temple Square. I got my photos of the Mormon Temple, and then we walked to the North Square Visitors Center. The exhibits were well done and not preachy. Two 20-something female missionaries approached us. One was from Arizona and the other was from Norway. We had a nice little chat, mostly about Norway.

Then it was time to go next door to the Tabernacle for the noon organ recital. Richard Elliott, one of five full-time organists at the Tabernacle, gave the recital. It was a half hour long and luckily included a Bach piece. It was awesome, and I am so glad we went!

We came on back to Hill AFB and went to lunch at a local spot called Holy Smoke BBQ. It was an interesting place. I had the beef brisket which was excellent. The sides were interesting. The platter came with a decent corn muffin, and a tiny container of green jello (I have no idea!). We also had some beans which weren’t bad, and an interesting applesauce with chunks of apple. A pleasant meal.

Then it was on to Antelope Island, just west of Hill AFB over a 7 mile causeway into the Great Salt Lake. In addition to giving great views of the lake, they had an interesting visitors center with barn swallows and nests everywhere. We drove the 7 miles of paved road south on the island and saw lots of buffalo that were introduced to the island in 1893. I was disappointed that I didn’t see any pronghorn – one of my favorite animals. But it was a beautiful drive and high enough to get some neat photos of the lake. We even saw what I can only describe as salt water spouts on the lake.

It was a warm drive, but it was well worth it. We came back to the base to get some bacon and lettuce for BLTs tonight. We had no sooner gotten back that a big wind storm came through with just a little rain. It was gusting 40-55 mph, but it quickly passed.