Oregon Trail (3rd leg)

As I wrote yesterday, today, my plans were to have lunch with my friend Jason in Salt Lake City, then head torward Oregon. Here is a very unexciting review of my day on the road:

I left Rock Springs, WY at about 8:00 a.m. It was a bone-chilling 19 degrees. It was cold. But hey...I have been asking for the end of Summer for a while now. The end is here.

The drive from Rock Springs to Salt Lake was rather eventless, except for the drive through Park City, UT and the mountains leading into Salt Lake. Between Park City and Salt Lake (about 40 miles give or take) there is a drastic drop in altitude and lots of curves to keep you focused. I actually turned off my iPod. For years now, I have believed that too much stimulation from sound can affect my ability to focus on driving. I don't think there have been any studies done on this, but I am pretty sure that when I paused my iPod during Midlake's "Young Bride", it gave me much better odds to show up in Salt Lake alive.

My friend Jason Beckman moved to Utah over a year ago to raise his son with his girlfriend Mila. I have never met his girlfriend or his son, Milan (being held by Jason below, along with his girlfiend Mila and her three children).I got to do both today, and then Jason and I went to lunch. We ate at a regional chain restuarant called Rumbi's Island Grill. Look for one near you within the next 5 years. I think this could be the newest National chain sensation since Five Guys. http://rumbi.com/

Highlight of the day (if I don't count the Luau Pork Plate from Rumbi's): Standing at mid-field inside an eerily empty Rice-Eccles Stadium. I requested that we head to Sugar House (Univeristy of Utah's surrounding neighborhood) and see if we could get some pictures of Utah's football stadium. After seeing an unmaned entry gate open, we decided to walk in. That entry took us directly onto the field. It was truly amazing to look up at over 45,000 empty seats and realize that we had the stadium to ourselves. It reminded me of the time my friend Joe Knapp and I got to walk around an empty Jacobs Field in 1997 or anytime I've played on a nice golf course when there are no other players in sight. Truly an unexpected highlight of my trip.

I left Jason's house, and started the 5 1/2 hour drive to Boise, ID. Nice scenery on this drive until about the last hour. Arrived in Boise and found a nice hotel to stay. The hotel had a lounge in the lobby, so I went down to get some food, drinks and watch the UConn/West Virginia game. The only reason I am including this is to introduce the classic hotel bar lush. This time it was a car salesman from Boise. Still not sure why he was staying at a hotel in Boise... I tried my very hardest to ignore this dude from the time I sat down, but as soon as the bartender brought me my Basque Mac & Cheese (penne pasta lathered in several cheeses and accompanied by Spanish chirizo and roasted red peppers then topped with breadcrumbs and parsley), he had to make a comment about my food. Of course, who couldn't predict the next thing he utters: "where you from?". "I'm from Indianapolis", I said. You know what's next..."what are you doing here?", "i'm moving to Oregon", "where to?" "La Grande", "to do what?", "i'm gonna be a butcher", "wow".....on and on until he made quite possibly the most profound statement I have ever heard: "La Grande is the most beautiful place on Earth". It was ridiculous, but it made me smile. I was also smiling at his inability to talk in full sentences, etc. He finally left but when he wrote his room # on the bill, it was not legible. After seeing that the bartender left the seafood chowder and one of my Jack & Coke's off my bill, I assumed she was trying to recoup some of the money she had lost because she could not charge his bill to a room. I helped her out.

I am leaving for La Grande early tomorrow, and hope to start moving into my apartment by 11:00 a.m. PST. This should give me time to get all my shit into the apartment before the Oregon/USC game. It is my top priority tomorrow to find a place serving cold Oregonian beverages that has this game on television. Go Ducks!