Salt Lake City, Utah: Just going to go ahead and report Dave's Mom took a tumble in her Wyoming home and is having a little trouble. Mom has been admitted to a hospital in Salt Lake City, so we hopped in the car and pointed it towards Utah. Her partner, Gene, is also here with her.
It is a 700+ mile drive and it took us two days. Most of the California-portion of the drive looked like this:
Most of the southern Utah-portion of the drive looked like this:
The first day, we made it 400 miles to St. George, Utah, and stayed at the Best Western Abbey Inn... which was an appropriately-named place to watch the season premier of Downton Abbey. We also enjoyed a very good dinner at the Painted Ponyrestaurant in St. George.
I especially enjoyed the pretty "stained glass" garnish stabbed into my mashed potatoes. Two paper-thin sections of a potato - with a piece of parsley sandwiched between - and fried like a potato chip. Super thin and crispy and something I had never seen before.Ordering a cocktail in Utah still amuses me. Though the restaurant has a full bar, there is not a bottle of spirits visible anywhere. The server did not ask us if we would like a "drink" or a "cocktail" before dinner, as is common in the rest of the world. You have to speak up. The restaurant had gin and made me a lovely martini, but I cannot properly describe the size of the martini glass. It was a vessel made for Barbie. Utah laws require all cocktails to hold only 1.5 ounces.
We stopped to a Starbucks in Cedar City, "fueled up" and drove directly to the hospital to see Mom, arriving in Salt Lake at noon.
She was happy to see her #3 boy and happy to hear any news and happy to see new photos of her first Great-grandson, Leo. We are hoping to do a video chat with Leo tomorrow or the next day.
After 6p, we left the hospital to check into our hotel and realized we hadn't eaten all day. Diner was an appetizer at the hotel bar while watching the BCS Championship game.
Some sort of heavenly nacho-esque house-made potato chips with blue cheese (and a Barbie martini).Just because it's vegetarian, doesn't make it healthy.
The weather is icy cold in Salt Lake. Below zero. Not a cloud in the sky and lots of snow piled up everywhere. We have no coats, because we planned to spend the winter in Indio. I can't wear shoes (except my ballet flats) since my foot injury Friday night. We are cold and can't remember the last time we were this cold.
DT's Mom will have more tests this week and will be constantly monitored, evaluated and examined by a team of first-rate physicians. I am not shy, and will kindly ask y'all to keep her in your thoughts and prayers, and please understand if I do not update this website daily for a while.
Until my next update, I remain, your Salt Lake City correspondent.