DAY 14 - UTAH-KIN' TO ME?

We had waffles and juice for breakfast in our motel and then filled up with gas at the filling station next door before setting off to Salt Lake City.  The journey takes about 3 hours.  Jessica has set up the SatNav to take us to an underground parking facility right in the centre of the city next to the Church of the Latter Day Saints Administration Building.  It is so easy to get to and we are soon parked up ready to go sightseeing.

It is lunch time so we go into the food court of the large shopping area and get enchiladas to eat.  We then go to look around Temple Square.  Brigham Young's house is called The Beehive and we get a guided tour from two young girls who are Mormon missionaries.  The house looked quite small on the outside but was large and fairly luxurious on the inside with all the rooms set out as they were in the nineteenth century.  The girls tell us all about the Mormons arriving at the Salt Lake in around 1840 and the building of the city.  They also tell us a bit about the Mormon beliefs and show us the Book of Mormon.  At the end of the tour they ask if we would like them to telephone us in the future so we can ask them questions about the Mormon faith.  They are happy to telephone anywhere in the world apparently.  Jessica and I look at each other and both say "no thank you" and beat a hasty retreat.

 

The Temple
                
We then go and have a look around the Visitor Centre where there is a model of the Mormon Temple (we are not allowed to go into the actual temple).  We also go into a building called the Tabernacle which is a bit like a church with a stage and an organ.  There are seats for an audience so we go sit down expecting some sort of organ recital. Instead there is a girl on the stage ripping up paper and dropping pins.  As we do not understand what is going on we decide to leave.

The city of Salt Lake is very immaculate and clean and looks like a wonderful place to live.  Everyone seemed very happy to be there.

We leave Salt Lake City to drive to our motel for the night which is in Richfield, Utah.  The journey out of Salt Lake is horrendous with five lane carriageways completely filled with cars and lorries travelling at well in excess of the speed limit of 65 mph.  At one stage we notice a set of metal stepladders which seem to have fallen off a lorry into the lane between the carriageways (a pile up waiting to happen me thinks).  Anyway Jessica is driving and she seems to be managing OK although we keep to the speed limit.

Half way to Richfield another thunderstorm develops so we decide to pull over into a filling station to wait it out and fill up with petrol.  The storms here are not like those in the UK, they are over quickly but vast amounts of water come down making it virtually impossible to drive safely.