Salt Lake City

We got to Salt Lake City Thursday evening and went out to dinner with our hosts: Will's friends from college, Suzanne and Anne, and Anne's friend from West Virginia, Zelly (I'm not sure how to spell her name.) Later we hit up an office supply store and I failed to find those massage chairs they sometimes sell and have out on display and you can sit on and get a free massage and it's really relaxing. But they didn't have one. They did have lots of electronics, though. We got back, hung out some, then went to bed.

Friday we went to the Tracy Aviary in SLC, where Suzanne works. It was raining, which sucked, but there were random large birds wondering about in the open, which was nice. We got lunch at a soup kitchen, and eventually made it to the grocery store to pick up food, and the movie rental place to pick up Shawn of the Dead. Anne and Zelly made brownies, but the came out soft (they seemed to think this was bad, but they were good soft.) We ordered Pizza and watched the movie, then went to bed again.

Saturday Anne, Zelly, Will and I drove out west to the Bonneville Salt Flats where they have all sorts of racing and what not. As the name would suggest, the salt flats are made of salt, and impressively flat. This time of year, however, they are covered in an inch or so of water. I took off my shoes and started wondering out. Here's the problem with this: the salt flats were covered with water, and water softens skin. The salt we were walking on, while being smooth enough to drive on, had some pretty large and sharp salt crystals that you would step on. Once your feet are torn raw by the surface, they're soaking in salt water, which isn't the most pleasant of feelings. Still, it was an amazing sight. Since the water was so shallow it was very still, and would reflect the sky and mountains in the distance, which made it feel like we were floating around in the sky. Very serene. We then wrecked the serenity by taking a car out on the flats. Since there's nothing for miles, you can speed up, slam on the brakes and skid, do donuts and various other slides, and not have to worry about hitting anything. You do need to worry about the salt, though. We got to land and all the salt water that had been kicked up by the wheels had dried, leaving a thin layer of salt covering the car. We took it to a car wash and all's well, other than the engine block, which is probably still coated in salt. Arter all that we headed breifly into Nevada to try to find a post card, but failed to. Part of that search brought us to a casino. Casinos are creepy. No natural sunlight so you never know what time it is, lots of neon lights to anger up the blood, so many people wasting their time on this planet putting metal disks into machines and pulling levers.

We got back to SLC and had dinner with some of Suzanne's coworkers, one of which was leaving and being the cause for this dinner get-together. We got home, I made sure all my stuff was ready to go, and we went to bed. Sunday morning Will drove me to the airport. While there, and bored, I picked up a couple books at the book store. One, which was being read by one of our hosts, and was suggested to me by Will, and sofar is quite the good book is A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, by Dave Eggers. It's kindof reminiscent of David Sedaris. Anyway, I eventually boarded the plane. I had a window seat this time, and whilst sitting a woman came up to me and asked if I would mind switching with her so that she could sit with whatever man I was sitting next to. She didn't ask it like that; I'm sure she knew him; maybe they were married. Anyway, I moved a couple rows ahead to her window seat. Eventually my neighboring seats were filled by a few girls visiting Maryland coming from California. After a week of hiking around and only using the biodegradable camp soap that doesn't clean that well I smelled like skunk. I'm not just saying that I smelled bad, which I did, but I smelled like a skunk, literally. It was bad, and I felt sorry for those girls. Eventually the plane landed and my parents picked me up. After a shower and dinner at their place I took my car back from Jeremy, dropped him off at school, and headed home.