Yes, it’s defiantly broken. My toe is defiantly broken. But I guess that is what I get for wearing tennis shoes to a literal mining pit. My toe is purple and swollen. Any movement hurts,.

April and I are sitting in the “Gypsy Van” a converted pickup truck slider covered in wood paneling, parked in a posh trailer park filled with old school buses and hipster themed camper vans. The day has been spend mining away in a slate quarry were I was looking for trilobites. And while I found many of them, by body has paid the price. April and I are both dead tired.

“I don’t think they are checking passes, and besides think how good your feel afterwards!” April explains to be, making the case for sneaking into the resort for a midnight dip.

“I’ll stay here while you go and check” I tell her ask I gently poke at my toe, prodding it as if I can somehow poke the bones back into place.

Not much later, I too make my way up the hill and find my way to the illuminated hot springs. Only a few people are here this late at night. Our passes are for tomorrow and I worry someone will Cath us somehow. But April thinks it is worth it, and as I slide into a prociline tub covered with thirty years worth of mineral buildup, I have to agree. Our bodies relax and I dream of sleep as we reflect on what has happened so far, and what is still to come.

Our little nothing of a long weekend trip has turned into one for the books. We shoed up to Utah with almost no expectations, only a need to turn some soon to expire credit cart points. What we found was fun and adventure unlike any other.

Salt Lake City

April has always been one for credit cart points, god knows she spends enough to have plenty. But neither of us were every much good at planning ahead. So with 2022 coming to an end, April had about 300 dollars worth of delta credits that would disappear if not used. Scrambling to find a place to use them, we decided on a long weekend trip to Salt Lake City of all places. A place that neighter of us would normally go, but we didn’t want the points to go to waste. So here we are some three months later. It’s 7 am and we just got off the plane. We booked the cheapest care we could find and a lack luster AirBNB. We haven’t the slightest clue what we are going to do for the next few days, but all I can think about is food and coffee.

With my Mamiya still in the shop, I decided to switch it up. I brought two leicas with me, one loaded with color, the other with black and white.

We were still coming down from our longer and intensively planned 9 day long road trip to the pacific north west. While I think we both had a lot of fun, the trip wasn’t without its problems. Primarily, we planned without much proper research which left us quite disappointed on a few major events. I had wanted to go backpacking in the Hoh rainforest, but apon arrival I found snow on the ground and didn’t have the proper equipment for spending two nights covered in ice. April wanted to see the tulip fields the exist on the parameter of Seattle, yet we had arrived too early in the year to see them as they should be seen. As a result, we drove home with a bit of a low feeling in our stomach.

The morning is surprisingly quiet. We post up downtown and enjoy some good coffee while figuring out what we are to. We each have one major activity that we picked beforehand, and these were to tentpoles of the trip that everything else is to be built around. But those are scheduled for the last two days. As of now we have nothing planned for the next two days except a place to sleep. And to make things worse, we were sober. April and I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol since Seattle and we planned to go the next few mounts bone dry. Normally when we found ourselves in a strange city with nothing to do we could just crawl into a bar and have all the fun we needed. We wouldn’t have that luxury here.

Still reeling from the Tulip disappointment of Seattle, April was overjoyed to find a tulip festival not thirty minutes away from where we sat. It seemed like a blessing from god, which I’ve been told has some special influence over the day to day of Salt Lake City. So we booked tickets for that afternoon and decided to spend the rest of the morning walking around. I had heard a lot about the history of Salt Lake City and was especially interested in the churches. So we headed west to the old part of town.

April had forgotten her lipstick at home so we needed to make a few stops. This gave me time to explore the city even more. I’m alway happy to just wonder around a new place. There is so much to see and learn even in the most generic of spaces. The architecture can speak wonders of the history, and how people walk, talk and react can tell the story of a town just as well as anything. And since we had the time, and no plans for the day, this is exactly what we got to do.

As I walked around tho, I noticed that most everyone I saw in this part of town seemed to be visiting. They didn’t give me the vibes that these people lived in a city of any measure. But perhaps that is what people who live here look like? We make our way to the old church which is full of girls in old school plane dresses. The vision of a religious youth from one hundred years ago. They were all very friendly and more eager to talk to April than myself. She even met a woman who spoke Chinese.

We soon found out that most of the people we saw walking around were, in fact, visitors. We passed the convention center just as thousands and thousands of medical professionals were pouring out. Dressed in their finest business causal, they seemed to blind in well with the atmosphere of Salt Lake City. Wishing to avoid the wave of causally dressed, we ducked into the Art Museum that was downtown and we were pleasantly surprised. We started by watching a video about “House Splitting” then saw some great local art. The final exhibit was an eyeopening view of housing and the rights people have towards housing.

Some time later, I was in the parking lot for the tulip festival waiting for April to change clothes and put on her makeup. I stood watch as the streets were full of families walking to and from the festival. When traveling, no matter what, I have to budget at least one hour per day for April to put on and take off her makeup, no exceptions.

After some time, April got out of the car all dolled up and ready for pictures and the two of us made our way to the main park entrance. It was quite grand, with the entrance opening to a vast vista of manicured lawns and large patches of tulips scattered about. A maze of paved walkways veined out across the landscape carrying the thousands of visitors. The entrance was very busy so I pushed April deeper into the park. All over were small patches of tulips. Each area had unique verieties and combinations. While it’s a far cry from the massive fields of tuples once can find in Seattle or holland during the right time of year, it was still very beautiful. As we walked, the temperature began to drop and clouds rolled in overhead. We picked up our pace, hoping to see a few of the desired spots before things got too bad. I can only hope that some of April’s desire for tulips was satisfied before we had to leave.

As rain begun to speckle the road, April and I sat in a parking lot down the street looking for lunch spots. It was later than I usually liked to eat and I was getting hungry. April too was getting anxious and I could tell that if we didn’t get something soon, we would degrade into argument. I was attempting to advocate for something quick and easy, while April wanted something nice. I reminded her that we were on a budget and an expensive lunch wasn’t the right choice. And so followed the standard vacation argument that always has to happen at least once a vacation. Anyone who has ever been in a serious relationship could write the script, so I’ll gloss over the details.

One hour later I was waiting in line at a 7-11 trying to buy some gernola bars and April elected to skip lunch. With some level of hesitation, we decided to go to the Da Vinci Museum. Irriation brimmed my subconscious and I could tell April was feeling the same way. But I knew that we would be better off spending the day being productive, so I tried my best to enjoy the museum. Within minutes of walking around, we discovered that the museum was designed for children, not adults. We had paid admission so we tried making the best of it. I soon discovered the flight simulator and saw that we could take the plane anywhere in the world. Eagerly to extend an olive branch I dropped the plane off on the easter cost of china and ensiled Aprils help in locating her home town of Tsingtao. This seemed to work well and before you know it were were having fun again.

Our first meal was salty, and that isn’t a joke about the city. It’s a serious critique of the food.

Utah Day 2

We decided to spend the first part of the day relaxing and walking around town.

I spent some time walking around while April did some paper work for her new job. I took some photos. Not my best but it was still nice to see a new city.

Our main stop for the day was the Great salt flat. we made the great drive, and with some hesitation we decided to drive our rental onto the salt.

I took the car up to 90 MPH before hitting some water and hydroplaning. After that, we decided to drive at a normal speed.

The flats had the most amazing sunset. But such a thing is impossible to catch on film.

After the sun went down, we begun the long drive home. Turns out resturants in Utah don’t stay open very late, so we found the last non fast food option that was open in all of Utah.

On day three, we awoke very, very early. This was the day we were to do my acitivt, An activity I had wanted to do for years. Far from anythign of importance or interest in Utah, lies a very unique pile or rocks. In this pile of rocks, fossils can be found. For a fee, you can buy entrance to this quarry and mine to your hearts content. And I planned and to make the most of it.

I didn’t take my camera out except for once at the end of the day. And you must understand that this is the biggest complement. Despite my broken toe, a side effect of warming tennishoes to a rock quarry, my day could not have been better. I fount a total of 50 complete trilobite fossils and even more parcials.

Afterwards we drove three hours to sleep in a bus at a hippy spa. This was Aprils requirement. Despite our spa booking being for the next day, we decided to sneak in and take a soak in the hot springs in the dark. After being worn out from a day of mining and driving, and then a very relaxing hour in a hot spring we slept like babies.

Utah Day 4

Day 4 was all about relaxation. We had a flight leaving at the end of the day and were in no rush to leave.

We both got magical massages from a Cristal expert. The best part of the trip for April

After scrambling to make it to the airport in time, forgetting my camera bag in the rental and having to run through the parking lot, we made it to our airplane with very little time to spare.