Which Road? The War Of The Signs

Continuing on from last week…

07/01/21 Today I felt so very relaxed that I was almost comatose. I did some things with the timecards for work, read, sorted and edited pictures, read, pictures, and napped. For lunch I heated up the second bag of sloppy joes. Later, we took a drive. This drive we hit the jackpot! We like to take the side roads and this didn’t disappoint. Kevin is getting really good at spotting the “historical” markers on the sides of the road. 🙂

The first we saw was at the split of I-80 and I-84. The marker said, “The Battle of the Signs”. It told about how the people in Coalville wanted the Lincoln Hwy to go past them on I-80 but Ogden wanted people to go to their town on I-84. One side would put up a sign and the other side would turn it, or paint over it, or knock it down. Oh, this made us roar with laughter. Kevin said it reminded him of a cartoon. Both ways boasting it was the best way to go to Salt Lake City.

We then continued north, to the side of I-84 and ended up in Henefer. The road was closed and we had to detour. We went on West Henefer road and then came to Highway 65 (just a pave, 2 lane road) and we decided to turn right. Soon we saw a marker and shocked of all shocked – it was the Hastings Cutoff!!! (Read the Donner Party).

Farther down we saw where they turned. Continuing down the mountain, we saw East Canyon Reservoir. There is a lovely campground and resort there and we kept it in mind to camp there. (This evening we looked it up and it is a members-only place. Oh well.)

Steep mountains, green pines and green grass everywhere. At the summit, we read that the pioneers were so discouraged as they looked and saw the taller, steeper, and rougher Wasatch Mountains in front of them. At Big Mountain Pass (the summit) there was a parking lot and trails.

We stopped and admired the beauty. Kevin heard this loud banging and I kid you not, on the side of the mountain, next to a building, was a guy playing the drums! You could hear it a long ways. And he was really good. We got such a kick out of that. We decided to not continue on to Salt Lake but turned around. Driving through Henefer, we looked for a little cafe to eat but didn’t see any food places. Back to Coalville we decided on Annie B’s Pizza. But nope, it closed at 7:00 and this was 7:30. We walked on down to Mom’s Place Diner which was a converted house. We were surprised at all the take out orders that came through. We ate there: Kevin had patty melt (said Polar King was better) and I had chicken strips. We talked about the towns of old and how they had to have everything in each town and if the stores didn’t have it, they would order it (think Sears catalog, Wells Fargo, etc.) Then we realized it was the early “Amazon” or order online. Why did that end and then now, that is how people shop. I think it is a cycle where people don’t want what they grew up with. Just a thought. HAHA On our campground walk-about this evening, we saw that the campground is really full. Lots of groups having fun, it looks like.

Friday 07/02/21 Beth came up to visit around 2:00. It was nice to catch up with each other. We played games (Qwixx & Golf) outside and then Kevin cooked Green Chili Smashburgers. Oh, so delicious. After dinner, we walked around the campground to show Beth. She was impressed. It was warm out and we decided we wanted some ice cream so we loaded up in our truck and went back to Polar King in Coalville. It was the first time we saw it packed, which is good.  A lot of people looked sunburned and tired from boating all day on Echo Reservoir. We took our shakes to go and ate them at the campground. Soon Beth left. It was a nice day. Oh, one thing I saw on the Facebook RV Community group made me sad. It was a lady that said, “we’ve been traveling full time for a year now and can’t stand being together 24/7/365 even with breaks from each other. So we’re considering trading in the rig for two smaller rigs and travel separately.” Then she goes on to ask if anyone does that. I thought that was so very sad. However, now Kevin and I are joking about traveling separately and I said I would have my trailer fully decked out in yellow, pink, light green, and light blue. HAHAHA

Saturday 07/03/21 We slept in. Then Kevin made pancakes on the Black Stone Griddle.After breakfast, we drove to Park City Museum on main street. The museum cost $15 each and it was worth it.

Next we went to the 2002 Winter Olympics Museum. It is free and so nicely done. There is something about “us” in Utah hosting the world just months after the terrorist attacks on “9/11”. The pride of our country, of our state, of our president sitting with the athletics, of the SLOC putting on the best and most successful winter games to date and the remembering of being there at the events…still brings a tear or two to our eyes.

I didn’t write anything more in our travel journal for this trip. One day we went to Wyoming Downs! We had never been to a horse race before. It was very fun to watch but we quickly got bored with the waiting between each race (that is when people place their bets). We didn’t know anything about it and how it works. We learned all about it. 🙂