Having spent three weeks visiting the Parks and being on the go daily, we had scheduled a stay of six nights in Salt Lake City for a little rest and recuperation.

All this travelling around is no holiday. It involves a great deal of hard slog. Packing and unpacking, sightseeing on a daily basis and long distance travel all take their toll. Of course, you also need to feed and nourish yourselves and on a long trip like this it would be of no good to your constitution, your wealth, health or waistline to eat out each and every lunch and evening. This is more so in the USA, where there is a preponderance of ‘fast food’ outlets. Mexican, Italian, Mexican, Italian, Mexican…the choice of alternatives to these American staples is infinite. So, Pat and I do tend to factor in Airbnb stays where we can cook an evening meal or at least prepare a snack for lunchtimes. There are times when this is not possible and lunch has to bought. Where we can stop to have our own home made sandwiches, chicken salad etc we obviously are able to save on our “dinner money” and like all kids we head to the nearest sweet shop, or in our case, ice cream shop, to spend it!

I have heard it said that in retirement I am living a 3G life. Golf, Gardening and Genealogy. The last of these takes up a great deal of my time, in particular, more recently, researching the ancestry of those families that have lived in my house since its being built in 1896 and looking into the Walton family of Knaresborough on behalf of the Knaresborough Museum Association.

Now I found myself in the Mecca of Genealogy, Salt Lake City. For more than a century the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the Mormons, have taken it upon themselves to chronicle and record all people who have lived on earth. This is as part of their belief that all families are forever and can be sealed together for eternity. The aim is to bind together the whole human family and thus a record is needed. These records are made available to everybody at no cost and the Family History Centres around the world are the portals through which these records can be accessed. The Centre in Salt Lake City is the largest and most important of these.

The Temple Square complex with the Tabernacle, Conference Centre, Church Administration buildings and the Temple itself, is the heart of the Religion. The Temple is undergoing refurbishment and rebuilding and can’t be seen very well behind its scaffolding. However the other buildings are very impressive.

Many attractions in the US have reduced rates for Seniors, Veterans, AAA members and other assorted groups. While some Senior discounts are reserved solely for US residents, some aren’t so restrictive and for this reason I always carry my UK Driving Licence as proof of age.

On boarding a bus for the 10 minute ride into the centre of Salt Lake City I had my dollar bills ready to pay for two $2.50 singles. “It’s only $1.25 for you seniors” piped up the rude driver.

“How very dare you?” Surely the right thing for him was to wait until I requested the discount and for him to then disbelievingly ask for ID.

Cheek!

The following day I only had a $10 bill and knew that no change is given. I was explaining that I had no change, half expecting him to suggest that I buy two full priced returns, when he just said ” Two Senior returns are only $5 but what the heck why don’t you older guys just have a free ride on me”

“How very dare you?” Actually he date timed our tickets so that we could return for free as well!

Nice young man!

I found a decent sports bar in which to watch the Champions League Final. Roughly 2:1 Liverpool to Real Madrid fans. I also spied a Leeds shirt and an Everton shirt (not mine). A delayed start meant that I was as p****d as puddin’ by the end. Thank God it didn’t go to Extra Time and Penalties, which I understand is the usual way to win a trophy!!

Of course, no visit to Salt Lake City would be complete without going to see The Great Salt Lake. So we did.

The next section of our trip I will call our Waterfall period. We moved north to Twin Falls, home to …three waterfalls! Actually, the Shoshone Falls are technically outside Twin Falls but they are its greatest attraction and of the “twin falls” only one exists now that the river has been diverted for hydro-electric power. Work that one out. Indeed online you can read about the 10 best waterfalls in Twin Falls!!

Apart from the falls, there is the Perrine Bridge which spans the Snake River Canyon at a height of almost 150 metres and claims to be the only structure in the world from which you can legally base jump without a permit, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Very impressive it is too. I even got to play 18 holes at the golf club in its shadow. It was either that or base jumping!

As I said the main attraction is The Shoshone Falls

The Canyon proved to be quite an attraction to Evel Knievel in 1974, when he attempted to ‘jump’ it on a rocket propelled motorcycle. He failed, as he did in many of his attempted jumps. The only remnants of this stunt are the ramp that was constructed for his take off and a memorial plaque. Odd that he didn’t build a landing ramp. Perhaps he planned on deploying his parachute. Great publicist though and earned a fortune for it.

Our next falls were in the town of Idaho Falls. An original name you might think; but think again. This town was originally known as Eagle Rock. We hadn’t really read up on these falls and to be fair there would likely be little written to attract you to come and see them. The falls are little more than a large weir constructed around a slight elevation drop (rapids) in the river for a hydro electric scheme. What is impressive however is that the falls provide more than a third of the City’s electricity needs for a basic $4 million investment in the 1980’s. Maybe we could do this in Knaresborough!

I would also add that Idaho Falls is one of the most pleasant places we have visited, with its greenery and riverside walks.

Between visits to the falls we had headed north to stay in Hailey and visit Stanley, an old cowboy town. Here we encountered our first real taste of snow in June. While it didn’t actually snow during our time there it was cold enough and we certainly felt wintry.

On a trip you can come across some odd sights and quirky things that prompt the WTF response. Travelling between Hailey and Idaho Falls we passed through Arco. On the hillside above were what can only be described as many “HOLLYWOOD” signs in numerical form. Apparently each year the graduates from the local High School climb to an hitherto unused spot and put up their year of graduation. Besides this the town also has the claim to have been the first place in the world to have nuclear power generated electricity. It was on 17th July 1955 and lasted for one hour. Long enough it seems to affect the population who have since given birth to oddball mountain climbing graffitists.

This drive also took us to another oddity, Craters of the Moon National Park. It comprises three major lava fields covering hundreds of square miles. It has nothing in common with the Moon, as I could see, other than it was used by the Apollo astronauts as a training ground to practice picking up lava samples dressed in a spacesuit. OK, it has lava in common with the moon. But no cheese. While this was not our favourite National Park, it did provide us with a pleasant 4 mile hike and a climb for me to the top of a ‘Cone’ for a look over a great swathe of the Park.