A Drive Home and a Dog

I was so excited to hit the road after such a nice flight to Salt Lake that I forgot to even take pictures of the airport once we were down. This is the road leading from the Tac Air FBO to the road that will take me to the I-215 freeway. Does that count for anything?

The freeways were clear and fast-moving for most of the 1.3-hour drive. I called my Mama to let her know that I was on my way in the rental car. I warned her that I may stop for lunch before I got there, since they had already eaten.

This is the curve just south of Santaquin towards Mona. Mona was the other little town that came to my high school, so we are only about fifteen miles outside of Nephi now!

Look at that haze! It was like this (or worse) the entire five days that I was in Utah.

Luckily, the roads were clear, too. They hadn’t had a snowstorm in a few days, and I had checked the weather ahead to see if any storms were going to visit during my stay. I hate to say it, but this wimp wouldn’t have driven down to Nephi had a storm been forecasted.

I hate hate hate driving on slick roads.

But I’m so glad that things were cold nice enough to let me come down to visit my family!

That’s right. I’m from a town that has a whole three exits from I-15! Read it and weep!

We’re kind of a big thing…in central Utah.

When I was a kid, I loved going underneath this main overpass. It meant that we were that much closer to home! I opted to take the second exit, which is closer to my parents’ home, rather than take the first exit to check out town.

If you have never been to the Ute Stampede Rodeo in Nephi, then you have something to do this very July. It happens the second weekend of every July, so now you can plan on annual attendance. It is a fun, three-day rodeo/parades/car show/craft fair/Texas Tornado Lemonade event that the whole family will love.

And, as you can see from their website, it is run by a bunch of technical wizards.

As I passed the first exit, I got to see some of town outside my window for a few miles. This big building was my high school (go Wasps?), which was completed my sophomore year. We were all so excited to get a new school! It was such a pretty building.

And it fit us all…we had about six-hundred kids in the entire four grades attending.

I’ll let that sink in for a moment. Six-hundred kids. In my entire high school.

After exiting the freeway, I drove on snowy roads towards the house that my parents built seventeen years ago. I was just a cute little teenager back then, and I remember how excited we were to move into a new house, too!

New houses. New schools. It was like Christmas everyday growing up here!

But probably the very best thing about my entire drive home was seeing this. My Mama outside in the frigid temperatures, waiting for the first sign of my arrival.

Isn’t she awesome?!

Though I had warned her that I would stop, I was just too excited to waste time eating during the drive down. I lucked out, because Mama was making soup for that evening’s dinner. And the fresh, homemade bread had just come out of the oven and was still hot.

Pretty lucky kid to arrive to a gourmet meal already!

The soup was delicious and hearty with some veggies and barley. Mama was so mindful of my healthy goals, so she even got carrot sticks and blueberries for me to munch on this weekend while others enjoyed potato chips and M&Ms. Isn’t that thoughtful?

I am happy to report that I didn’t eat a single M&M. Of course, it helped greatly that they were the Cherry-flavored ones. Yuck.

The guest room was all made up for my arrival, and I even had a welcome sign from my little brother. How can you not feel welcome with all of this food and signage going on?!

This is Rosie, who has been a member of the family for seven years. She is a sweet yellow lab that simply adores my Mom and follows her from room to room.

Rosie gave me a warm welcome by trying to give me a high-five.

And as you can see, I wasted no time in getting into comfortable clothes. Here are some sweatpants and slippers to prove it. Don’t worry…this is not what I wore to work!

Did Rosie just think that my joke was funny?!

She is a sweet dog and part of the crew now. We never had a dog growing up, so I was surprised when I found out that my parents had gotten her. But they rescued her from an abusive situation, and she has been happy and healthy in their home every since.

Aren’t they great people?

They are, just so you know.

It has been so cold and slick on the roof that my step-dad hasn’t even been able to take down the exterior Christmas lights!

And I was juuuuuuuust fine with that.

It was fun to peek around the neighborhood in which I grew up. But I was safe behind a door that was keeping the cold outside. Did I mention that it was cold?

As you can see, this year has seen plenty of snow! I am tickled that they won’t have as bad of a drought this summer.

Now that we made it to Nephi, we get to enjoy four days of fun-filled family time! I am so excited!

A Flight into Freezeville

I had known about this trip for over a month and was pretty stoked. Not only was I returning to the airport in which I trained for my Private Pilot license a few days years ago, but I would also have time to drive an hour south and spend a long weekend with my family!

My Mom called a few days earlier to warn me about bringing winter clothes. I searched my house from top to bottom and then remembered…I purposely don’t own any of those any more.

After a killer week in the forties, it was almost bitter-sweet leaving home today. Which will get up to seventy-two degrees. And in about an hour, I will realize how much I really love seventy-two degrees in January.

Because my high temperature for the next four days would be around twelve. Degrees. My fingers are still a little frozen as I write this now.

Who does that? Twelve degrees?!

At least my mind was kept busy from the temperatures as we flew over some beautiful landscapes on our flight north today.

What is that white stuff down there? Does anybody know?

Here is Sedona, though it’s a little hard to see. The airport is in the far right-hand corner, and town is just above that. Can you see it?

This was my view of the Grand Canyon today. Isn’t that gorgeous?

I don’t know how to put this in writing, and I’m sure that fist fights will ensue, but most people in Utah grow up thinking that the Grand Canyon is ours. Isn’t that silly? I think that we get it confused with Lake Powell…which we certainly do own. But the Grand Canyon? Well, that belongs to the Grand Canyon State. Not Utah.

I hate being the bearer of bad news. It was a hard blow to me when I found out, too.

Here is the state line crossing from Arizona to Utah! I love the red cliffs of southern Utah. I spent lots of my childhood there, so I have fond memories of hikes in these parts.

Utah is a great place for hikes. In these parts.

This is the Colorado River winding its way towards the Grand Canyon. I’ll stop mentioning that place now, since I’m sure that some of you are still crying from my above statements regarding rightful owners.

Life can be cruel sometimes, you know?

Well, hello, Moving Map. This is how I knew that we were crossing state lines. You can see the Kanab airport to our left, and Page to our right.

By the way, this is certainly the way to travel to Utah. After this trip takes about forty-five minutes in Gladys, why on earth would anyone want to drive eight hours?!

See how snobby spoiled I’ve become with this job?!

We were cleared to Bryce Canyon for the QWENN 3 RNAV Arrival into Salt Lake City today. How fun! It flies right next to Mount Nebo! Maybe I’ll see my hometown?

But first I got to wave a big hello to my sister in tiny Annabella. I personally doubt that they saw me waving. It’s about six degrees down there now. Why on earth would anyone be outside waving back at airplanes in that kind of weather?

Is that white stuff chalk? I just can’t figure it out.

Holy cow! This is the best view that I’ve ever had of the little town in which I grew up! This is going to be fun!

Levan was one of three small towns that attended my high school in Nephi. It is “navel” spelled backwards because it is the exact center of the state. As you can see, that mighty information didn’t exactly draw lots of residents. But my best friend growing up lived in Levan, so I couldn’t make fun of it too loudly.

Ah, Nephi. We moved here when I was six, and my parents still live here! This is where I am driving once we land at Salt Lake in a few minutes. It’s a Thursday afternoon, and I don’t have to leave until Monday!

It will be a great weekend visiting family…for work.

It was such a treat to see my hometown today, since everything else was rather clouded over and fogged up. Maybe I was allowed to see this so I knew where to drive later?

As you can see, most of our northern flight provided views like this today. Lots of fog, haze, and mist. With such high pressure, this stuff was being forced to stay put down in the valleys between the high, pretty mountains.

I’ve never put “30.65” into the altimeter on our descent checklist…that is high pressure!

(29.92 is normal, yo.)

Here is the northern tip of Utah Lake near Provo. It’s hard to see much today…with this haze. But there is a Chuck-a-Rama Buffet out there somewhere. I can just feel it.

And here is the Point of the Mountain this morning, dividing Utah Valley from the Salt Lake Valley. I doubt that any hang gliders are flying today, though.

And who can blame them? Did I mention that it’s minus fourteen degrees Celsius on the ATIS (airport weather frequency)?

I wish I could say that Draper and Sandy weren’t as hazy, but no such luck.

We temporarily had decent visibility for a few moments as we descended towards the ILS for Runway 35. But then it dropped again, and we didn’t actually see the runway until about a mile out!

Because we were soon in this little haze layer. Nobody likes to be in a haze layer, let me tell you!

Down there somewhere is Salt Lake City. Or so I’m told.

We landed safely, but that didn’t make the haze disappear. Can you see how yucky it is out there? I was all for just turning around and flying back to the warmth of home at this point.

Little did I know that my cold fingers were just beginning…

In the distance, I waved to the passenger terminal. We get to go to the southeast side of the airport today to drop off our passengers. None of this “terminal” stuff for us.

Because that’s how we roll.

Delta Airlines has a hub here, so they also have gigantic hangars in which to work on airplanes during the cold winter months. You can also see Salt Lake Tower in the hazy distance.

Enough of this! Let’s get into a rental car and drive an hour south for a great weekend with family!

A Sauce-y Date Night

If I’m not out on the road for work, Hubby and I try to do a fun Date Night every Friday evening. It usually includes a yummy meal, and recently we even tried eating somewhere new.

In freezing-cold weather, by the way. I’m pretty sure our high that entire week was in the 40s. I know that some of you are choking on your scrambled eggs as you read that, but for some of us, that is ridiculously cold.

Yes, I used to live in North Dakota. But my blood has thinned quite a bit from my glory college days.

We had a coupon about to expire, so it helped us make our decision to eat at a local pizza and pasta eatery called Sauce. I’ve always wanted to try this place, and I am happy to report that it was just as yummy as our bellies were hoping!

I’m also happy to report that we tried the bruschetta. And that it was absolutely divine! Hot, buttered toast underneath chunks of fresh Buffalo mozzarella and tomatoes with a sprinkle of basil pesto and balsamic vinaigrette.

Holy cow, this was good. We each got two little pieces. I think that we would order two next time…it was that delicious!

Of course, my handsome date for the evening was this guy. And, despite what we may all wonder from this picture, he was completely sober! Maybe he was just tired after a long week at work?

He’s still handsome, even if he was tired.

So once we had successfully slurped up our appetizer, our individual pizzas arrived. I decided to get a pepperoni pizza with caramelized onions…one of my favorite things in the entire world.

I tried their signature flatbread crust tonight, while Hubby got the thicker, hand-tossed crust.

The employees seemed to be really proud that they also had a gluten-free option that was brought in from California every day. Hubby and I are actually quite happy with gluten, so we just smiled and nodded and then ordered exactly what we wanted.

Here is Hubby’s pizza with sausage and peppers. I had this crazy idea that we would just take any leftovers home.

Let’s just say that we had none to box up, mmmmmmkay?

Being the nice man that he is, Hubby even shared some of his pizza. And I shared mine, since he ate the last half when I was full! These came from a wood-burning fire oven, and the whole place smelled magical!

And I also loved the prices.

If you’re in the Valley, might I suggest giving Sauce a try? They have lots of locations out-of-state, too.

Tonight, we’re going waaaaaaaaay outside the box by trying Thai food! Considering that sometimes ketchup burns my mouth, this should be pretty scary exciting.