After being at the Oregon State Park I continued on to Salt Lake City, which took most of the day. It was a mostly uneventful journey with the exception of the amazing scenery zooming by my car. I will say that having traveled both though the Northwest and West, it is an increasing dry place. I have heard the reports on the news saying there is not much rain here, but it’s another thing to see it first hand. I hope that trend changes because as much as Americans are building here, it doesn’t bode well for the long term sustainability of the region.
When I got Salt Lake City, I got lost despite having good directions from my host. After being on the wrong side of town from his house, I finally got the way the streets worked and got to his place. All the streets are number and don’t really have official names, so for example you can live at 1100S and 900 E. It made finding his place a lot easier once I figured out where I was on this massive grid.
I met Joel, the guy I was staying with and learned a little about being a young attorney. He was also a really interesting guy just in his own right with a lot of interest in environmental law and it sounds like he’d recently gotten into disability claims which I made the mistake of getting confused with liability and suing for malpractice.
I crashed on his floor that night and headed out toward Colorado by way of Temple Square. It was a pretty building and the Mormons do a lot to make it look pretty. Apparently we weren’t allowed in the Temple itself, but I did get to take a picture of where they regularly had services and stuff. They had a lot of visitor centers and a museum about The Church of Latter Day Saints. I was most unsettled by the fact there was a lot of people about my age or younger just standing around there to welcome you. I figured they were all on their two years service. They bothered me with how they all looked the same with their nametags and their super neat appearance. After that initial observation I realized that if I was doing something full time, like greeting, I would probably look the same, so I decide to cut them a little slack.
From there I spent the rest of the day in the car with the weather turning hotter and hotter as I headed toward Colorado. I managed to pass the day pretty well between calling people and listening to the radio. It was still a long trip and I need to find something else to either listen or do to break up the time. I arrived in Denver and met my hosts Dave, Dan, and PJ who were really cool and gave me my own bed to sleep on. They also had a really cool dog by the name of Dante that made me wish I had one. They were a nice group of guys and I like just chilling with them for the time I was there.
When I headed into Denver the next morning, and I had intended to see a good chunk of the city and the art museum, but I unfortunately I didn’t get to the museum. I spent so much time chilling and walking around the city I got to the museum about a half hour before it closed. The city itself is pretty neat with a lot of shops and restaurants. The thing that visually makes it for me though is they’re big about getting people to create public works of art. That means there are these massive sculptures throughout the city not just the same statue throughout painted differently. There is also all these mountains all around so the scenery is cool and the people are nicer then on the East Coast.
The next day, after biding adieu to my hosts I headed over to Boulder just to check it out for a few hours. I only really had time to see the resort section and see a few things. I can see myself in the future headed back there for at least one trip. The mountains were there just being begged to be climbed in all their glory. I did take the time to see Celestial Seasonings, a tea company that has really cool pictures on their boxes. It was neat to see their factory and see how the tea gets inserted into bags and then sent to the consumer.
My only real complaint with Colorado was the lack of water both it in large pools on the ground and the lack of it coming from the sky. I’m not saying that its something they can fix, I’m sure if they thought they could get more rain they would be doing it. It was just emphasized to me by the fact it was so dry the whole time I was there. It was plenty hot, but it was so dry with no humidity that I really didn’t ever feel like I was sweating, I got dehydrated way to easily.
I managed to get into Nebraska late that night and decided to spring for a hotel because after checking the State Park list I thought there wasn’t any near the highway. As it turned out there are numerous state parks along interstate 80 in Nebraska (I’m writing it down so I’ll remember in the future). Even if it broke the bank it was a good time and refreshing change of pace; I really enjoyed having my own space and bed. I didn’t get out that early this morning because I was just enjoying lounging and now having put a lot of miles on my car I’m finally sick of driving.
I did manage to stop though Omaha today and truthfully its older sections are really depressing. There isn’t really anything in the downtown section other then a few banks and some businesses that have chosen to stick with the place. The two I noticed were ConAgra and Union Pacific, which are big names, but can’t really keep an entire city employed. Omaha has seen better days and I hope it can be looking up some day.
While in Omaha, I stopped on the outskirts and checked out a Cracker Barrel for some books on tape. It was weird being back in one, since I hadn’t been back since I stopped working at one two years ago. It might have been the one I worked in Mass. it looks exactly the same with all the merchandise in the same spot. I was able to rent a book on tape for $3.50 a week, but I had to put in a deposit for how much the whole thing sells for that I’ll get back once I return it to another Cracker Barrel down the road. I got a copy of David McCullough’s new book John Adams, it’s been really interesting and a breath of fresh air to have something to listen to while driving, I should have done it sooner. I hope I get more then one book done by the time I get home.
I also made good time going across Iowa and only really made one stop in Grinnell IA. It is home to a college of the same name that was mentioned to me when I interviewed at Kenyon. It is a small liberal arts college about the same size and locality, they both are in very rural settings, so it makes sense I might have applied there. Now having seen the place, it would have been cool to throw an application at it, not to suggest I would have changed where I went now that the hand has been played. I was just surprised it impressed me.
I’m breaking the bank yet again tonight and staying at a hotel in Davenport IA and hopefully will be headed to Chicago again to see my Aunt and Grandparents. Nite!!
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