Mom's Cafe | Salina, Utah

St. George, Utah: We woke to sun! The wind was gone - but it was still pretty chilly. Though our campground wasn't one of the finest we have ever patronized, it was on Utah Lake and a fabulous bike path - the Provo River Parkway. This trail leads from Utah Lake, into the BYU campus area and then up into Provo Canyon. They actually run the local marathon on this wonderful trail system. This morning DT ran on the trail and I gave my New Bike her first real workout! She performed magnificently! The sky was a brilliant blue and the clouds had vanished, so here is another photo of the mountains - the same mountains in the lake photos from yesterday!

The view from the bike path

Oregonians would call the Provo River a creek, but it was still teeming with bird life and spawning sucker fish. We saw a State biologist doing some sort of research in the river. The waters are closed to anglers until May 1 due to the spawn. We passed curious cows and pastured horses. After this wonderful exercise, we hitched up and headed south.

Our travels have taken us through this area before, so we decided to take the alternative (previously unexplored by us) route south and left I-15 at Nephi to follow 28 to Salina. (Howard: the lake on the map is now dry.) Salina has a famous cowboy boot shop, Burn's Saddlery. For lunch, we tried Mom's Cafe, a very famous and very homey cafe. We were the only people in the joint Mom didn't know personally. Mom's Cafe is famous for their scones, which seemed more like sopaipillas than scones to me... but what do I know? The food at Mom's Cafe was delicious, very inexpensive and everything is made from scratch. What a treat!

Mom's Cafe in Salina, Utah

We continued south on 89, paralleling the Interstate - just on the other side of the mountains. The views were fantastic all day and slowly changed from urban, to suburban to orchards, to fields, and then into open range, filled with sage brush and munching cattle. Then we came across something which shook our memory banks - Big Rock Candy Mountain. Ring a bell? In 1897 a railway brakeman named Harry "Haywire Mac" McClintock wrote a song about this multi-colored mound he often passed. Years later the song was famously recorded by Burl Ives and Tex Ritter, and recently was included on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.  It never ceases to amaze me the stuff we come across in our travels.

Big Rock Candy Mountain

Now we needed to get back to I-15, so decided to take the shortest, most scenic and steepest route - 14. It was so beautiful! We went over a 10,000 foot pass and were surrounded by deep snow! Something for everyone in Utah! As we climbed, we came into a pine forest, miles of lava flow and acres of the pristine Dixie National Forest. Our Intrigue has no trouble going up hills, but My Driver's Wife has trouble with traveling DOWN hills. I remained calm today, no matter how many signs we passed reading "Steep 6% downgrade next 4 miles". Near the top of the pass we stopped at beautiful Navajo Lake. Navajo Lake is still completely frozen and covered with snow. As we headed towards the valley, the mountain sides turned to deep red cliffs - simply breath-taking. We would have stopped to take photos but there wasn't so much as a turn-out on this steep, narrow mountain pass.

Navajo Lake - covered with snow

It is so nice driving this coach, compared to the Long Suffering Goldie. Our Intrigue is very sophisticated and, luckily for us, all of her sophisticated systems actually operate correctly! DT has an on-board computer screen, called a Silver Leaf, that gives him constant read-outs on tire pressure and temperature. Braking systems operate automatically. The coach is constantly leveled with air bags. Seriously, I don't even know why he sits in the driver’s seat, except maybe to change the radio station?? The computer told him maybe it would be a nice idea to rest the brakes, and let the tire temperature return to normal. Obediently, we paused after our harrowing journey near the base of the pass. Less than one hour later, we were in St. George, Utah. It was 7 pm and it was 75 degrees! Before pulling into our campsite, where we will be for a week, we filled-up with diesel: 70 gallons, $135.
 
At ten o'clock tonight, there was a big Fireworks display over our heads. Welcome to St. George!
 
This weekend, 11 of DT's buddies will arrive in St. George and the boys will spend all next week golfing. I will be busy with my needle work... so join us after the golf outing...

RV Park: Temple View RV Resort