Tuesady, July 29, 2008

We started driving with the destination of Salt Lake City in mind, but Michael while perusing the map noticed we’d be going right by Park City, Utah where they held the 2002 Winter Olympics. We decided that would be a fun detour. We drove up to the Olympic Sports center which sits up on one of the highest points in Park City, with a great view all around. We were able to watch Olympic ski freestylers practice their flips and turns into a swimming pool. We took a toboggan ride down the luge course, and we all got to take a wild zip line ride down the same course Olympic ski jumpers go. It was a fun day for us.
Salt Lake City still lies ahead of us, so after a late lunch at Panda Kitchen in Park City (Trenton’s new favorite place) we’re back on the road again. We arrive down town Salt Lake at about 4:00, ok so not the best time, but we think; “How bad can it be?” Michael had read about a campground on Antelope Island just north of the city right on the Great Salt Lake, which boasted white beaches and great swimming, so we deicide to camp there for the night. Pretty soon it’s clear we’re going no where fast. It seems like the entire town is immersed in grid-lock. There is construction everywhere and cars jammed in huge lines of traffic for as far the eye can see. Michael used his GPS with real-time traffic data and we tried every available route to no avail. We literally sat in the same spot for nearly 2 hours. (Later that night on the 10:00 news we found out a huge tanker had overturned and damaged the highway we were on and that’s why the massive gridlock, but all the construction couldn’t have helped either)

We finally reached Antelope Island after 7:00pm that night, the wind was just howling all around us, sand was blowing and we were not prepared for such a desolate, uninviting campground, but we decided to make the best of it. We tried our best to ignore the smell of the stale salt lake, ignore the bugs, and make our way down to the shore of the Great Salt Lake. Well, when we got there we weren’t any more impressed. The water was soooo thick with salt, it left a crust on the boys’ skin and the stench of water and bird was just too much. We quickly washed up at the back of the RV and called it a lost cause and stayed at WalMart that night. Even 5 miles away from the lake we had to sleep with the foul smell of it all night. Win some, lose some.