The Quiet Adventurer

It was super hot down in the valley, and my roommate wanted to go do something. Woohoo! I am always up for an adventure! The question was, however, do we go to the salt flats or go up into the mountains? ...I was already really hot--ok, and it was only about 86 degrees outside, but it was hot --so I voted for the mountains. My roommate then voted for her favorite spot: Silver Lake. I was good with that decision because it is a high location--up by Brighton ski resort--and I just really wanted to see how the spring melt looked coming down the mountain. Y'see, as you wind your way through the mountains, more often than not, you drive along streams. It's particularly beautiful in the Alpine Loop down by Timpanogas. (I'm going to be taking that drive soon-ish, I hope.) I wanted to see how it looked in early spring. First Stop: Silver Lake   Well, the mountains haven't received the memo that it's spring--which I'm totally ok with! We got up to Silver Lake...

This weekend's adventure? Find an old western town. My roommate is starting to plan her new book--a western. She typically does Regency, so this new genre requires research. What better place than Utah to do it? She heard Park City began as a western town, and still had a historic area, so we decided to hop on over the mountain to check it out. We went, only to find that while the structures are old, the content of the buildings are modern. I'm not entirely surprised--it is a ski resort town. ...that seems to have most businesses on spring break for the month of April to mid-May... All in all, there wasn't much for us to do. They do have a silver mine, which we were hoping to explore, however, they apparently closed it down to guests in 2015. So it was a bust for our purposes. The day was still young, so we crossed the valley, to check out another mining town, but made a quick stop in Saltair--which is also closed for the season until May 1. Now,...

Some days find me on my computer wasting time. Shocking, I know. Today, however, I was looking up some of my well-known family relations. It is super simple to do--thank you, technology! Relative Finder uses my family tree information from Family Search to tell me who and what my relation is to famous people. I have discovered that some of my closest relations are known for bad things. Benedict Arnold? I did a research project on him in sixth grade. The one thing I remembered about that whole thing? His name became synonymous with treason. Well, he's my 4th cousin, 8 times removed. ...so distant, but still there. Then there's John Hathorne. He's from the days of the good ol' Salem Witch Trials. In fact, he was the leading judge. He's my 1 cousin, 11 times removed. ...along those lines, two of my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-aunts (that's 10th great aunts) were accused and killed during those "trials."   Thank...

Do you ever have those days when you get home and you feel about as clean as a port-a-potty? That was me. Last night. Well, technically this morning. A long day of traveling will do that for you. It didn't help that the day before I traveled from Branson, MO -> St. Louis, MO -> Branson, MO, and stopped in Uranus. (They had a fudge factory! We had to stop. Wouldn't you?) See. I felt gunky from all of that traveling. However, I finally made it back to Utah late last night. Hooray! (That's where I currently live.) I was in Missouri for my cousin's wedding. It was a jam-packed weekend, as most adventurous weekends are. (Have you ever wondered where the saying "jam-packed"comes from? Is it from the fruit--jelly and jam?) I'll start from near the end, just to give you a sense of how long I traveled, and why I came back feeling so gross. Branson, or Ridgedale--which is where I stayed--is something like 4 miles north of the Arkansas bo...