RT - Day 4 (Utah to Colorado)

You guys....

Holy Mother of God!!! This morning I went back to Tulie for a breakfast to go and had probably the most amazing food I have EVER eaten in all my years of eating food! Seriously...like the best thing I've ever had!! They call it Toast with a soft boiled egg and shaved parmesan - I call it HEAVEN. I even took a picture!!!! I've tapped into my Asian-roots (don't we all have roots in Asia at some point?) and taken a picture of my food! LOL

Dear God, Kelly here...please greet me in heaven with Toast from Tulie. Thank you, Amen, Kelly.

Words cannot explain...there were two, but the first one didn't make it long.

Do you see how huge those bites are?!?!!?

So, my drive out of SLC, Utah towards Grand Junction, Colorado. This is what I think...

Utah is bipolar! The land can't decide what it wants to be! Heavy traffic, empty roads, cool, snow, dry sand, rain, overcast, barren, mountainous. All these thing happened over only 330 miles.

A score of pics...just keep scrolling...:-)


11:57am - Clear and beautiful mountains

                                    12:49pm - Winter Freakin' Wonderland! Out of nowhere!

12:56pm - Wasn't expecting this! Ran into other travelers with flip flops on

1:21pm - Now we're super warm again...no snow.

1:35pm - Sand! Heat! Looks like the Vegas desert! This canyon was awesome!

2:48pm - Nope...now we're too hot and it's time for some depressing rain and gloom.

3:15pm - All better! Back to the warm sun and cool breeze in the mountains!

3:45pm - Barley a bush to be found. However...the first signs of life! Cows! And a blue-ish sky.

As soon as I crossed into Colorado (like mile 4), Colorado said, "HELLO, welcome! We have trees here...see. We're so glad you've come! Here's a beautiful double rainbow to celebrate your arrival!" I love Colorado! Then the trees lining the meandering Colorado River were all turning yellow with the mountainous background. The pictures just don't do it justice!

 

My Airbnb place is perfect for the night. There are two girls from Austria staying in the other room. They're traveling from Colorado to Texas and back for two weeks. I love Europeans! They are so friendly and fun. We chatted outside for a while and were laughing and comparing travel stories. Great girls.

Good night everyone! It's chilly here...but the beer I drank earlier is still warming my belly so I'm happy as a clam.

XO,
Kel

RT - Day 3 (My Day in Salt Lake City)

My Full Day in SLC

Okay...I had this AMAZING breakfast at the Lazy Day Café where they make lemon pancakes that taste like a shortbread lemon cookie and a pancake had a baby...and then drizzled that baby in caramel sauce. Words cannot explain how delicious this pancake was!!! I guess the cooks boil butter and maple together down into a reduction, then right before it starts to turn into caramel, they pull it off the heat, pour it in a little cup and call it pancake syrup. I love whoever invented this.

SIDE NOTE - There is something about the Big Boob Dilemma that the lucky women of the Tiny Titi Committee will never understand...How to Go About Eating Yummy Foods that Drip from Plate to Fork to Mouth. There is an art form to this problem and it's real! I failed miserably today and ended up with drizzle ALL down the front of my shirt. Lucky I'm driving around with clothes in my trunk. Okay...here's the situation. A big boob gal has a few options: 1) Scoot the chair back really far and then lean over so the boobs go mostly under the table, or at least giving a gal more face to plate contact; 2) Grow a giraffe neck during the meal and try to crane your neck out over your boobs, while not moving the boobs too close to the plate...otherwise you giving your boobs a bath in your oh so yummy meal; 3) Never order anything with sauce; 4) Wear a lobster bib during ALL meals; 5) Have an extra shirt in the car at all times and just say "fuck it" and chow down like you did when you were five. Yum. :-) I was #5 today. :-)

Drove to Antelope Island which is in the Southeastern corner of the Great Salt Lake. Okay...to put it into perspective lets compare Lake Tahoe to the Great Salt Lake.

Lake Tahoe - Sooo gorgeous, lots of surrounding trees, practically visible from the drive around the lake, 1644 feet deep
Great Salt Lake - Is about four or five TIMES the size of Lake Tahoe, totally flat, no trees, can't see the lake unless your practically standing next to it, and totally awe inspiring, even though you can't see hardly any of it.

Being on Antelope Island...I had to drive 45 minutes outside of Salt Lake City just to get to the only access road to the island. It was $10 to get to it and it was DEAD QUIET. I only saw like 30 other people, at most, and I could hear my footsteps. It'd be the perfect place to meditate. No trees, just some bushes. I saw a coyote and four bison. No one swimming, no stirring life happening on the island. It kind of made me think that's what Iceland would be like...only colder.

I stayed for about 30 minutes and then went back into town to visit Temple Square - where the Mormons live. ;) JK. It was neat, beautiful, and had great landscaping. I loved the stonework on the temple, which I wasn't allowed to go into. So, I went over to the genealogy building next and that was pretty cool.

Then a burger and amazing root beer float at this SLC oldie called Hires Big H, before back to the Airbnb to change to go out again. At 9pm I left to go into town again at a place called Tavernacle, which has dueling piano night! It was so fun! There were about 25 people at the very most, but the pianists played joyfully and took our requests. I got a beer, settled into my seat and before I new it I had made friends with a group of people near me who were celebrating a birthday. She turned 41 and came to this place every year. They were so fun and so sweet for inviting me to sit with them. We chatted, sang and it was great company. If you're in SLC I'd suggest going to this place. Apparently Fri/Sat nights are crazy! Reservations are in order.

The more I think about SLC the more I figure there is to come back to. I could see this being a great four day weekend kind of trip for me a companion. Time for bed!

Sugar House Park - Dusk tonight...so pretty!

Night y'all! I'm off to Grand Junction, Colorado tomorrow morning. The drive is supposed to be lovely through the mountains and I'm really looking forward to that.

XO,
Kel

RT - Day 2 (Nevada to Utah)

Day 2!

Today the drive was out of crappy Nevada into Utah. The second I crossed state lines there was salt on the ground and that made Utah instantly cooler and more interesting than Nevada. :-)

Side Note - I stopped off at a Dunkin' Donuts in NV because I'd never been to one before. I wasn't even hungry or anything, I just thought "what the hell, I'm trying new things on this trip". So...it sucked! LOL! Krispy Kreme is way better! I got two donuts. Took two bites out of the first one and threw it out the window while merging on the empty freeway. Nope...that doesn't need to get stuck to my thighs. The second one, same thing. One bite, then licked of the frosting hoping that was better, but it wasn't so it too went out the window! I looked in the rearview mirror and saw the donut break apart into little crumbs as it hit the pavement. I'm not sure if that's technically littering since something will come along and eat it. But there are no cars around to hit the somethings that go for my donut so I'm not losing sleep over it. ;)

Utah - the Salt Flats were pretty cool! I thought the air would smell like salt though, but it didn't. This dummy actually picked some up off the ground to see if it smelled...it didn't. People left cool little rock formations on the salt so that was neat. Hearts and names and stuff. I saw part of the work FUCK on there too. I mean, come on, what are teens supposed to do around there. That was probably the most exciting thing that happened all year! Where do these kids go to school anyway?

The mirage on the horizon during the drive was SO COOL! It was in all directions! It looked like part of the surrounding mountains were just kind of floating around. Neat. Got gas at $2.95....that was the best!

So...nothing...driving...salt...nothing...mirages...salt...nothing...then BAM I'm merging into three different freeways, there are cars all around and it feels immediately like I'm back in Sac merging on the I-80 where I-5, 99, Watt Ave, and Bus 80 all meet to confuse everyone who doesn't live directly downtown. I was like!!! What the fuck!!!! Where did all this come from! We're all driving too fast to merge like this! Everyone's going 75-80mph! It was intense.

I checked into my Airbnb, nice lady (who has friends she visits all the time in Nevada City, come to find out), her dogs are not well mannered, but that's okay...it's a great price in a cool neighborhood.

I could write so much about my impressions of Salt Lake City. I cannot believe how beautiful this city is! It's flat, yes, but it has mountains all around and the most gorgeous parks I've ever seen. Seriously! I've been around the world to so many cities and SLC, hands down, has the most lovely parks. They're all over too! I bought a totally delicious sandwich from a place called Tulie (must go if you're in SLC - they make their own ciabatta bread in house and it's amazing), and sat under a perfect pergola overlooking a beautiful pond at Liberty Park. If I lived here, I'd be exploring a different park every weekend. They are gorgeous.

Went out for a drink at Fiddler's Elbow (sports bar with three oversized couches at the center of the bar all facing the largest bar TV I've ever seen) and then called it a night.

I'm impressed with Salt Lake City. I can see myself coming back here again. Flying of course! :-)

XO,
Kel




RT - Day 1 (Cali to Nevada)

Day 1 Bitches!!! :-) Hahahahaha!

DAY 1 to Elko, Nevada is complete. NEVADA....yuck! There is like NOTHING HAPPENING IN NEVADA! The best part about it is the 80mph speed limit and minimal cars! :-) Traffic is not a word Northern Nevadans need to know. There's nothing that anyone is going towards anyway.

When I did pull into the sleepy town to choose a motel for the night I thought I'd make the best of it and head off to see the Lamoline Canyon. The motel guy said it was a beautiful spot and only 20 minutes up the road. Okay...after six hours of driving you'd think I'd be done, but I got a break and didn't just want to sit in a little motel room alone for the rest of the night. So I drove...20 minutes...and the damn road was closed! WTF! There is already nothing to do in the town and the only thing that is of any interest is closed! LOL!!!! I mean, I could have gone around the signs and down the road anyway because no one was there, but the rule-follower inside didn't let me. Haha. My rebel doesn't come out often. What did I think would happen? Did I think this was Mexico and the policia were going to arrest me and shuffle me off into some dingy Mexican prison cell with no phone call?! - - - - - - - I should have just gone around the signs. ;)

Night!
Kel

Road Trip to Nashville!

Hey y'all!

I'm going on a solo road trip to Nashville, Tennessee for a few weeks to see if Nashville is a place I might want to live while I try to get a job working for Dave Ramsey. Along the way I will get to see some more of our great country.

Here's my route - mostly...

Grass Valley, CA
Elko, NV
Salt Lake City, UT
Denver, CO
Oklahoma City, OK
Memphis, TN
Nashville, TN
Austin, TX
Santa Fe, NM
Sedona, AR
Grass Valley, CA

Okay...……………..here I go!!!!!!!!

Love you all,
Kel

Playtime is Over

Dear Anonymous Reader,

Well, today is the final day of the 30 Day Blog Challenge. There were times when it was hard to come up with something to write about, and times when I couldn't wait to put fingers to keyboard.

Today I have nothing to write. LOL.

So, I'll just say thank you to all the writers who participated in the challenge.

Now, I'm off to the pool for some playtime in the water.

Bye A.R.!
XO
Kel

Playing Hooky While Unemployed?

Dear Anonymous Reader,

Is it even possible to play hooky when I don't have a job? Even though I haven't had a 9-5 for four months my days have been scheduled and full most of the time. Today I woke up, nothing on the calendar, and thought about what playing hooky would look like for me.

Turns out it looked like driving the backroads of HWY 49 to Apple Hill for an apple donut, some apple wine, and perusing the arts and crafts isles. It was a beautiful day today. After my leisurely time in beautiful Apple Hill I drove to Folsom and walked around the outlet mall for a bit. I even went into the Coach store...a place I have no business being in after my shoe splurge yesterday! LOL! I'm not even a fancy label kinda gal.

 Then I came home, meditated, watched an episode of "Ghost Whisperer" and made dinner. It was very relaxing. And yes...it did feel a little like playing hooky.

So, what are you doing on your hooky day, A.R.?
XO
Kel