Nah, this ain't no baseball game--but we are indeed safe at home.
We left Nephi at 7:40 am and arrived at Exit 118 in Idaho Falls at 1:10 pm for a 5.5 hour elapsed time.
We took a tour of The Eagles and The Falls and 11th Street and arrived home at 1:30 pm sharp. It was great to see our little bungalow sitting all covered with frosty snow.
Thanks to Jeff S. our place was intact. Jeff came over many times while we were gone and kept the two oil-filled electric heaters trimmed out just right. The house was 55 degrees when we arrived! The coldest part of the basement was only 41 degrees.
THANK YOU JEFF!
We immediately set about checking the pipes. We did have two frozen ones but Thank God they weren't frozen to the point of bursting. They are the two pipes that feed the kitchen faucet. Luckily, Jeff had opened the cabinet doors and positioned the heater nearby. If he hadn't done that, we would have been totally out of luck. We would have undoubtedly had two burst pipes and therefore no water in the rest of the house. Whew, we dodged a real big bullet on that one.
Well, anyway, we got a trickle going out of both hot and cold water and soon the flowing water thawed out the ice blockage and full flow returned. What a break, eh?
Then it was off to the Post Office to get our mail. Turned out to be two full USPS crates full of mail. Quite the ton of stuff. Next, I rushed off to WINCO and spent $75 to restock our totally depleted larder. I bought some goodies, too like shrimp and deli roast beef and some blue cheese and fresh salsa, etc. I also got some great poblano turkey sausages.
Then we returned home to fire up the snowblower and plow out a place to park the big truck as well as attack our driveway. We feared our 1994 Nissan would be stranded in the garage as it appeared the door was permanently iced shut. Luckily, there was a layer of leaves beneath the glacier and we could therefore pry off the ice blocks and free the Nissan. We salted the sidewalks and stowed out gear and finished all this mayhem at 5:10 pm.
Of course, we then had to take a breather and, gee, it's now almost 6 pm. How flies time, eh?
The drive north was mostly uneventful except I took a wrong turn on I-215 and so we had to eddy out and backtrack. Actually, that was a good thing since we needed to clean the windshield. On the 13 mile Legacy Parkway, there were fewer than a dozen cars in the northbound lanes for all 13 miles. What a great piece of civil engineering!
We did do the obligatory stop at Harbor Freight in Pocatello and loaded up on tools that we left in Arizona. About a hundred bucks later, we headed north to our Idahome.
We're really glad to be back--three of the neighbors stopped to give us a warm and hearty welcome. Chuck, the retired Coast Guard guy kept our walks snowblowed. He's going to play his bagpipes at midnight tonight. He's so cool. Jana ran into 12th Street oblivious of traffic to give Susun a great big hug. Kenton was delighted to see us and invited us for a toddy soon.
We are very happy to be tucked back into our little niche here. We love this place! I will post some photos later on--maybe tomorrow morning. Just wanted our loyal readers to know today's situation. Thank you for reading and Happy New Year and Cheers. J&S
PS--We suspect a trip like the one we just had ends on a note like this just once in a Blue Moon, eh?
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Ready to leave Nephi
Above is a 27 photo online album of some Nephi scenes. Many of them are historic photos that are hanging in the hallway of City Hall. Our camera has a nifty "super macro feature that allows us to take a photo of an old photo and it pretty much looks just like a scanner did it.
We took a tour of the Nephi DUP Museum yesterday afternoon. We learned a couple of great stories and we will tell them pretty quickly as we have to git crackin' here to git ready to go.
So there was this guy named Broadhead who came to the area back in the late 1800's.
Probably the 1880'sa judging from the clothing and equipment in the photo. So he decides to file claim on a ridgeline between Nephi and nearby Levan. He says he's going to dry farm wheat and doesn't need irrigation. Well, the local locos thought he had lost his mind. The authorities actually jailed him for perjury! Somehow, he got out of jail and proceeded to dry farm wheat there and was wildly successful and now everyone dry farms wheat. For many years, locals called his place, "The Perjury farm."
Meanwhile, back in Nephi, Brigham Young told the locals to protect themselves during the 1854 Ute Indian War called "The Walker War." So the Nephites deciddes to wall themselves in. Turns out it wasn' no small wall--it contained NINE CITY BLOCKS! The wall was TWELVE FEET high and six feet thick at the bottom and two feet thick at the top. It one gate on the middle of each side. Supposedly it was 420 rods long on each side. A rod is 16.5 feet so I doubt that accuracy of that claim. In any case, it was HUGE! OK, they finished in late summer 1854 and they liked it so much they lived in it for 5.5 years! Yep, and they enforced a curfew. Everyone had to be inside the wall at 5 pm when the gates closed. They sealed themselfs up! Some guy built a scale model of it for the museum, complete with all of the houses and outbuilding that were inside the wall. Even the trees are to scale. VERY impressive!
Well, we have to run along now. Have a great day and we will see you when we get back to our Idahome.
Hasta, pasta! J&S
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Nephi-Juab County Seat
We visited City Hall and the Library. Each Utah county has its own definitive history book. You can go to any Utah library and ask to see a copy of the "county history" and the librarians know right away what you are talking about and they produce it instantly. The Utah Legislature paid each county to produce these books back for the state centennial in the 1990's. They are truly awesome and amazing and no other of the 49 states has anything like it. Hooray, Utah!
Well, anyway, I sat down and pretty much skimmed the whole history of Juab County and got the geology, pre-history, Native Americans, Spanish, mountain man, Mark Twain, Mormon, Pony Express, militarym, railroad, mining, agriculture and current day synopsis of the place. It's a lot more diverse here in Juab that I realized and there's a few places that we like to call "come back spots."
We now realize that the Safari would make a great "base" for exploring Juab County, especially the lonely western parts. Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge is DEFINITELY a come back spot. The Rockwell Natural Area of the Little Sahara Sand Dunes is yet another. The old mining town of Eureka in the Tintic Mining District is already calling us.
Back on Memorial Day weekend, when we were Secret Shoppers for the Forest Service, we got to stay near Utah Lake at Provo for 9 days. One of our official trips was up and over the Mount Nebo Loop down to Nephi and then return to Provo. we actually got paid mileage for that trip! Anyway, we learned today that federal stimulus money has rebuilt the campgrounds up on that loop--they really needed a facelift, that's for sure. We're looking forward to a camping trip up there one of these years.
We went into the NAPA store and bought two cans of windshield de-icer. You can' buy that stuff in Arizona! It was great to find them and the price was good, too.
Meanwhile, back at the motel, I had to move the truck so they could plow the parking lot. That turned into a real adventure as teh side streets here are slicker than snot. I almost got stuck trying to make a u-turn and had to go a few blocks out of my way to avoid getting stuck. Meanwhile, I almost pulled out in front of a local loco. He was purposely doing four-wheel side slides down one of the streets. You know how to do that? You turn the vehicle and hit the brakes and commence to slide sideways for awhile, then you countersteer and do it on the other side. He was on the thin edge of losing control and narrowly missed me as I waited unsuspecting at the stop sign while he flew by. WHEW! I guess that's what they do for fun here in the Juab County seat.
Our next trip out will be in the truck as the Main Street is very clear--UDOT has been back and forth seemingly countless times --I even got hit by a flying glob of snow from one of the plows--luckily it didn't hit me in the face--I really felt it on my arm! Walk at your own risk here.
We will post up more on Nephi later today. Gotta go do some more exploring.
Cheers, J&S
Snow bound - by choice
We're snowbound in Nephi. Most people get snowbound when they don't have a choice. They are stuck. Well, we have a choice--we could actually leave and head north today but we're not going to do that. Nope, we choosing to snow bind ourselves here in Nephi and enjoy another night of $47 ambiance in The Safari Motel.
Why are we doing this? OK, let's review the circumstances. First and foremost, we are south of the infamous and legendary 100-mile Salt Lake City metroplex. Even on the best of days, driving this gauntlet is harrowing and hazardous. The only really good time to drive this ridiculous stretch of madcap mayhem is on a summer Sunday morning. All other times it is risky business to drive the Salt Lake stretch. I can't even remember how many trips where we purposely timed our travel to camp on the edge of the nightmare Saturday night and "make a run for it" on Sunday morning.
The opening of The Legacy Parkway has helped ease fear and loathing--somewhat--but the no matter how you slice it, no matter how you dice it, it's STILL the infamous Salt Lake City I-15 corridor.
Yesterday--Tuesday, there were 204 accidents in Salt Lake & Utah Counties. There were 17 accidents just in the I-80/I-15 spahgetti bowl interchange! Currently, there is an official Winter Storm Warning for the entire I-15 corridor from roughly Cedar City to Idaho. It's likely that 4 inches will fall during the day. That's not much snow in normal circumstances. Here in Salt Lake--it's a recipe for 100's more accidents today. For some unknown reason, Salt Lake City area driver never seem to slow down. The State Patrol is pleading with people to slow down but their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
I've looked at the UDOT hotrod website that shows traffic conditions and virtually the entire metroplex is showing 30 mph driving conditions with lots of red squiggly lines. The red lines mean traffic is stopped because of an accident. It might take all day just to get through the Salt Lake corridor and one of those vehicles involved in an accident could be our own beloved truck.
Meanwhile, that same beloved truck sits peacefully outside out window, enjoying the snowfall that is accumulating on its windshield. No risk of getting totaled here!
The weather tomorrow promises to be clear. The wreckage from all the accidents will have been cleared and the UDOT trucks will have done their duty and made the roads relatively safe for passage. If we leave on the far shoulder of the morning drive time, we should be OK.
This room here at the Safari is one of the best rooms we've had in a long time--excepting a major chain motel, of course. The room itself is large enough to be a spacious house in a 3rd world country.
We opened up our Blizzard Boxes this morning and have been happily rummaging through our heavy duty winter clothing. We had a "hat contest." We tied. We each have six warm hats. I think I beat Susun on the glove count--I have 7 pair, she has six. She has a new pair of Sorel boots to wear this morning and I have my trusty Yak-Trax. Our walking sticks are out in the truck so we can safely so for a snowfall stroll later this morning.
It's a good thing to be here. Susun just walked back from teh office and they dropped the price a few dollars for our second night and gave us a real coffee maker with Starbucks coffee. Ah, small town perks, eh?
Susun was also delighted to discover they opened a movie house here a mere 3 months ago. Nephi has less than 5000 souls here so that's interesting someone decided to invest in a movie house. Susun is a movie fanatic so I suspect I will get roped into a movie today.
It's nice to be marooned by choice here in Nephi. I get a real day of relaxation--can't work on NOTHING! YEA! Meanwhile, I get to organize all my winter clothes and gear and actually go outside and see if it's correctly configured. This is clearly turning out to be a win-win situation.
So, I guess it'll be a once in a Blue Moon travel day tomorrow as we transit from the Heart of Utah into Tater Nation once again. I can hardly wait to have an audience with the Nation's potentate--King Tot.
More soon--thanks for reading--Cheers, J&S
Why are we doing this? OK, let's review the circumstances. First and foremost, we are south of the infamous and legendary 100-mile Salt Lake City metroplex. Even on the best of days, driving this gauntlet is harrowing and hazardous. The only really good time to drive this ridiculous stretch of madcap mayhem is on a summer Sunday morning. All other times it is risky business to drive the Salt Lake stretch. I can't even remember how many trips where we purposely timed our travel to camp on the edge of the nightmare Saturday night and "make a run for it" on Sunday morning.
The opening of The Legacy Parkway has helped ease fear and loathing--somewhat--but the no matter how you slice it, no matter how you dice it, it's STILL the infamous Salt Lake City I-15 corridor.
Yesterday--Tuesday, there were 204 accidents in Salt Lake & Utah Counties. There were 17 accidents just in the I-80/I-15 spahgetti bowl interchange! Currently, there is an official Winter Storm Warning for the entire I-15 corridor from roughly Cedar City to Idaho. It's likely that 4 inches will fall during the day. That's not much snow in normal circumstances. Here in Salt Lake--it's a recipe for 100's more accidents today. For some unknown reason, Salt Lake City area driver never seem to slow down. The State Patrol is pleading with people to slow down but their pleas are falling on deaf ears.
I've looked at the UDOT hotrod website that shows traffic conditions and virtually the entire metroplex is showing 30 mph driving conditions with lots of red squiggly lines. The red lines mean traffic is stopped because of an accident. It might take all day just to get through the Salt Lake corridor and one of those vehicles involved in an accident could be our own beloved truck.
Meanwhile, that same beloved truck sits peacefully outside out window, enjoying the snowfall that is accumulating on its windshield. No risk of getting totaled here!
The weather tomorrow promises to be clear. The wreckage from all the accidents will have been cleared and the UDOT trucks will have done their duty and made the roads relatively safe for passage. If we leave on the far shoulder of the morning drive time, we should be OK.
This room here at the Safari is one of the best rooms we've had in a long time--excepting a major chain motel, of course. The room itself is large enough to be a spacious house in a 3rd world country.
We opened up our Blizzard Boxes this morning and have been happily rummaging through our heavy duty winter clothing. We had a "hat contest." We tied. We each have six warm hats. I think I beat Susun on the glove count--I have 7 pair, she has six. She has a new pair of Sorel boots to wear this morning and I have my trusty Yak-Trax. Our walking sticks are out in the truck so we can safely so for a snowfall stroll later this morning.
It's a good thing to be here. Susun just walked back from teh office and they dropped the price a few dollars for our second night and gave us a real coffee maker with Starbucks coffee. Ah, small town perks, eh?
Susun was also delighted to discover they opened a movie house here a mere 3 months ago. Nephi has less than 5000 souls here so that's interesting someone decided to invest in a movie house. Susun is a movie fanatic so I suspect I will get roped into a movie today.
It's nice to be marooned by choice here in Nephi. I get a real day of relaxation--can't work on NOTHING! YEA! Meanwhile, I get to organize all my winter clothes and gear and actually go outside and see if it's correctly configured. This is clearly turning out to be a win-win situation.
So, I guess it'll be a once in a Blue Moon travel day tomorrow as we transit from the Heart of Utah into Tater Nation once again. I can hardly wait to have an audience with the Nation's potentate--King Tot.
More soon--thanks for reading--Cheers, J&S
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
What next?
We're sitting here reading the Salt Lake & Pocatello NWS Discussions. It's like trying to read tea leaves or tarot cards or maybe someone's palm. For days, the NWS Staffers insisted this system would be well to the south of the Salt Lake Valley. HA! It doesn't take much snow to cause trouble on I-15 through the 100-mile metro corridor. Listen to this snippet from the NWS Discussion tonight
THOUGH THE SNOW WAS LIGHT...THE COLD ROADWAYS (LOWER 20S) CAUSED NUMEROUS INCIDENTS.
ROAD TEMPERATURES HAVE WARMED INTO THE UPPER 20S...
WITH REPORTS INDICATING THAT TREATMENT IS IMPROVING DRIVING CONDITIONS AT LEAST FOR THE AFTERNOON HOURS. THE SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT FOR SLICK ROADS WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING COMMUTE.
OK, the forecast for tomorrow is 2-4 inches in teh Salt Lake Valley with locally higher amounts.
The forecast for SE Idaho is about the same. The timing is the key. When will the snowfall arrive?
Early in the day? Late in the day? We might have a window to skee-daddled north tomorrow--and we might not.
Anyway, we will keep you posted.
500 mile day
Well, we finally made it out of Ol' Arizona and now we're in Nephi, Utah, Milepost 222 plus a few.
Our odometer sez we've driven 497 miles so it's close enough to call it 500. It was 9.5 hours of drive time so you can do the math--averaged a whisker over 50 mph.
It was a mixed bag of driving conditions--the typical good, bad and ugly. Beautiful snow covering everything out by Cameron and then a great picnic overlooking Marble Canyon. Swirling clouds, stunning light, classic Thomas Moran painting. North of Page conditions were pretty good. We were both so tired we didn't think we could get past Kanab but a cuppa joe did the trick and we got shot out of the cannon yet again.
Snow started falling in earnest a few miles south of Panguitch. The 7920 summit of Utah Hwy. 20 was real dicey--the truck almost slid off the road and we had to crawl along at 10 mph for awhile.
We thought I-15 would be better. HA! No way. In fact, it got a lot worse on I-15 and it was 30-40-50 mph driving for awhile. The road cleared for awhile at Scipio but then got real sloppy again just south of Nephi. That's when we decided to call it quits.
It's still really coming down--looks like movie snow and the parked truck is already covered. We're staying at The Safari Motel. They have billboards plastered all up and down I-15. It's $47 a night including tax. We have two huge double beds, full bath with a tub, fridge, nice TV and free WIFI. The room is huge. There's a nice desk for me to use the computer and the WIFI is password protected. Rich stuff.
We brought in a lot of stuff from the truck--both Blizzard Boxes, our suit cases, two coolers and lots of flotsam and jetsam.
WHEW--it was one long day of driving and I'm really glad to be off the road.
Tomorrow is going to be real dicey--the only way we can make it home with daylight left to to navigate Salt Lake during the morning "drive-time." Plus, it's probably going to be pea soup fog with a typical SLC inversion. What fun, huh?
Anyway, we're roughly 300 miles from home. Nephi is the classic Fibonacci Ratio in action--62.8% of our trip is done and 38.2% remains! Ying yang, feng shui and all of that with a sprinkle of Type A seasoning thrown in for good measure.
The coolest vignette of the day was our noon picnic looking out over Marble Canyon into the low swirling clouds. WOW! We had guacamole on Wasa crackers--YUM! There is a LOT of snow in southern Utah. A LOT! Way, way more than I had been led to believe. Some of the roofs still have over 18 inches on them. We saw some deer that were danged near up to their bellies in snow!
Well, that's about it--we will take some pix (maybe) later and post them up while we are waiting tomorrow morning for the roads to clear.
Thanks for reading & cheers! J&S
Our odometer sez we've driven 497 miles so it's close enough to call it 500. It was 9.5 hours of drive time so you can do the math--averaged a whisker over 50 mph.
It was a mixed bag of driving conditions--the typical good, bad and ugly. Beautiful snow covering everything out by Cameron and then a great picnic overlooking Marble Canyon. Swirling clouds, stunning light, classic Thomas Moran painting. North of Page conditions were pretty good. We were both so tired we didn't think we could get past Kanab but a cuppa joe did the trick and we got shot out of the cannon yet again.
Snow started falling in earnest a few miles south of Panguitch. The 7920 summit of Utah Hwy. 20 was real dicey--the truck almost slid off the road and we had to crawl along at 10 mph for awhile.
We thought I-15 would be better. HA! No way. In fact, it got a lot worse on I-15 and it was 30-40-50 mph driving for awhile. The road cleared for awhile at Scipio but then got real sloppy again just south of Nephi. That's when we decided to call it quits.
It's still really coming down--looks like movie snow and the parked truck is already covered. We're staying at The Safari Motel. They have billboards plastered all up and down I-15. It's $47 a night including tax. We have two huge double beds, full bath with a tub, fridge, nice TV and free WIFI. The room is huge. There's a nice desk for me to use the computer and the WIFI is password protected. Rich stuff.
We brought in a lot of stuff from the truck--both Blizzard Boxes, our suit cases, two coolers and lots of flotsam and jetsam.
WHEW--it was one long day of driving and I'm really glad to be off the road.
Tomorrow is going to be real dicey--the only way we can make it home with daylight left to to navigate Salt Lake during the morning "drive-time." Plus, it's probably going to be pea soup fog with a typical SLC inversion. What fun, huh?
Anyway, we're roughly 300 miles from home. Nephi is the classic Fibonacci Ratio in action--62.8% of our trip is done and 38.2% remains! Ying yang, feng shui and all of that with a sprinkle of Type A seasoning thrown in for good measure.
The coolest vignette of the day was our noon picnic looking out over Marble Canyon into the low swirling clouds. WOW! We had guacamole on Wasa crackers--YUM! There is a LOT of snow in southern Utah. A LOT! Way, way more than I had been led to believe. Some of the roofs still have over 18 inches on them. We saw some deer that were danged near up to their bellies in snow!
Well, that's about it--we will take some pix (maybe) later and post them up while we are waiting tomorrow morning for the roads to clear.
Thanks for reading & cheers! J&S
Friday, December 11, 2009
Online!
Howdy, hello and HI! Can you believe it? We are actually online here in our humble little Arizona home. Who'd a thunk it possible? Certainly not us. But, yea verily, tis true.
Obviously, we figured out how to fix our computer, too. It's still "acting up" as computers are sometimes wont to do. But at least we have the rudiments of an online connection.
We've been with reliable internet access since we left home in Idaho Falls. It's the longest online access drought we've experienced in many years. We gave up on using the local Beaver Creek Library. The laundromat turned out to be a dud in the suds. Basically, we've just done without and that's been a very "trying" experience.
The story of our getting online would be a very long story--perhaps I will try to tell it in a separate blog spot. It's quite the "jury-rigged" connection. The cable is still lying on top of the frozen ground. We finalized the details with the installer while standing around a mesquite campfire in the darkness last night. Our modem was mis-delivered by UPS and a
neighbor brought it by late last evening. Luckily, we had a VERY good tech support guy who talked us through the step-by-step procedure of getting over the final hurdles. Viola, here we are.
We have a very busy day ahead and no time to write more in this or other blog posts. However, you can bet your antique bippy that we will be writing more stuff at every opportunity. Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading!
Obviously, we figured out how to fix our computer, too. It's still "acting up" as computers are sometimes wont to do. But at least we have the rudiments of an online connection.
We've been with reliable internet access since we left home in Idaho Falls. It's the longest online access drought we've experienced in many years. We gave up on using the local Beaver Creek Library. The laundromat turned out to be a dud in the suds. Basically, we've just done without and that's been a very "trying" experience.
The story of our getting online would be a very long story--perhaps I will try to tell it in a separate blog spot. It's quite the "jury-rigged" connection. The cable is still lying on top of the frozen ground. We finalized the details with the installer while standing around a mesquite campfire in the darkness last night. Our modem was mis-delivered by UPS and a
neighbor brought it by late last evening. Luckily, we had a VERY good tech support guy who talked us through the step-by-step procedure of getting over the final hurdles. Viola, here we are.
We have a very busy day ahead and no time to write more in this or other blog posts. However, you can bet your antique bippy that we will be writing more stuff at every opportunity. Thanks for your patience and thanks for reading!
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