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Today we went from Bakersfield, California to Heber, Utah. Along the way we briefly stopped in Baker for gas. In Nevada we stopped at Las Vegas, not the flashy Sin City Vegas, we went to the surprisingly simple Vegas. By this I mean we went to a suburb of Las Vegas. There we found cheap gas and a BLM office with a historic trail stamp. It was interesting in that you could really see how the recession has hit the area. Lots of empty strip malls and houses up for sale.
From there we went to St. George for a quick stop to try some of Nielson’s frozen custard (imagine really thick ice cream). To know how thick it truly is, you have to know they have this big knife thing that cuts it from the machine that it comes out of, but it is really good:
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We got back on the road and went all the way up to Cedar Breaks National Park. (From St. George it’s about an hour to the visitor’s center.) A truly stunning sight, we got another stamp and a new annual pass. At the park we met some people from London, England. I asked them if they had anything thing like Cedar Breaks and they said no, all they had they said was a lot of old human made things like Stonehenge. In case you,re wondering how deep the canyon is, imagine 14 Statues of Liberty standing on end of each other. I am glad to have witnessed such beauty.
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The trip was not over however, so I turned on the computer to confirm our route and I got “”hard drive not found””. Our laptop is insured, but the content on it is not. I figured I could fix it but I needed a screwdriver. It turns out Denise used to live and work in Cedar City and so we quickly located a Flying J Store (trucker store). A few twists and pulls with the screwdriver and the laptop was back in action.
Almost to our destination we stopped in Nephi for dinner. We went to this “”Mexican”” fast food place called Taco Time.
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Ok, I realize I am far from Mexico in Utah, but really, how hard can it be to find someone in Utah who can cook Mexican food?!! Utah, after all, did used to be part of Mexico. Denise got a veggie burrito that consisted of a whole wheat (!?!) tortilla with white rice, sour cream, beans, bell peppers, and get this, seasame seeds!!! My “”Sonoran”” style chicken burrito was a breaded fried chicken strip with sour cream, white rice, and cheese. I once read that Champagne, France was suing all these wine makers for using their name withou their permission, I thinking Sonora needs to get some lawyers on retention stat. As if it wasn’t a strange enough meal I happened to see that for an upgrade of 60 cents I could have “”Mexican French Fries.”” I have been to Mexico numereous times, living there for four years, and surprisingly have never seen “”Mexican French Fries”” on any menu. Thinking I had just discovered a lost Maximillian delicacy I paid my 60 cents. This is what I got:
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I have discovered things are different in Utah, but I could of sworn those were called Tater Tots. No wonder they are no longer on the menu in Mexico. I am not sure about this, but this might of been why Mexicans shot Maximillian. If I were a Taco Time executive I’d change the name back to Tater Tots, before anyone else finds out about this. I have to interject here that Denise told me she liked her food, I guess you can’t take the Utonian out of some people.
After our “”Mexican”” meal we continued to Heber.
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We arrived late but we can already tell you there is plenty of wildlife here in Heber Valley camp. Having only been in camp about an hour we have already nearly missed a doe, and killed some sort of low flying bird (I am hoping tomorrow morning I can look at the car grill and see what it was). This is our 4th family reunion this year. It is the only one with a theme. The theme is “”live strong.””
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