The snow shower we woke up to here in
Cedar City is over, and slowly the sky is starting to clear. It was
quite a surprise after the warm temperatures of the last few days,
but the roiling clouds over the mountains and the strong winds on the
way here yesterday were an omen already. Briefly the truck
thermometer showed +17 after we left the Diamond Fork area, but the
higher we climbed – up to 2,200m on one pass – the colder it got.
We'll be in Arizona by this afternoon, and then, for sure, we can put
mittens and hats away for a while.
It's hard to believe that we left home
only a week ago. We have seen so much interesting country already,
slowly moving from winter to spring, and the two hot springs were
lovely, especially with snow all around: there was a lot of it this
winter, and at these higher elevations it is only now starting to
melt.
Two days ago we had an easy drive-only
day, not unwelcome after the hike and long drive after to Pocatello,
Idaho, the day before. 'Easy' didn't quite apply to the drive through
Salt Lake City; that is always a bit stressful because of the huge
traffic volume, even at non-rush hour times. We escaped the confines
of this busy city unscathed and were glad to leave it behind,
together with the worst of the pollution that sits over the valley
like an ugly yellowish blanket. Johann had booked a place in
Provo-Orem, just south of SLC, and hadn't realized that this
'Spacious & New Guesthouse' was not a hotel but an AirBnB. He had
drawn a plan how to get there (we don't have a phone plan for the US
and work with motel WiFi and Whatsapp), but not the exact address:
the sign would tell us when we were there. We got to the area easily
enough, found the two streets between which it was supposed to be
located – but nothing to indicate which of the houses in this
residential neighbourhood was the right one. Johann still had the
information on his phone, thankfully, so it only took a few minutes
to get there. Now the next problem arose: there was a doorbell, but
nobody answered. Johann walked around the corner of the house and
found another door where he was able to summon a man who then showed
us the key to the numbered lock, the house and our room. He spoke
only Spanish ...
Once all the initial hindrances were
out of the way we could really appreciate the place, a very new, very
clean house with five rooms with a well equipped kitchen. The view
from our window, although a bit hampered by houses on one side and
apartment buildings on the other, still was very nice: Salt Lake only
across the University Parkway that ran close by, and the mountains on
the other side. To stretch our legs at least a bit we wandered up to
the Utah Valley University a bit up the hill, its campus deserted
because it is spring break right now. Big trees and generous green
spaces, together with the spectacular surroundings with mountains and
lake made it look like a very attractive place to study.
 |
| Not the worst president to share a bench with! |
No comments:
Post a Comment