May 26-30 - Salt Lake City

Tues, May 26 – It was apparent that we were coming out of the desert that morning. It was relatively late, almost 8 when I got up. The tent was still shaded by the canyon walls, but the tent and ground were wet. It hadn't rained, but dew had dropped pretty heavily. It had been awhile since it had been humid enough for dew, so it was a little bit of a shock.

I wasn't in any hurry though, I wanted to wait until the tent dried before heading into the city. I did some reading and eventually we got on the road. I really hate cities. Coming into any big one just makes me stressed out and in a bad mood. We followed Adams directions, and something wasn't adding up. We drove all the way to the east side of the city, where the road ended at a mountain. We drove a little way back, then pulled into a park.

We spent three hours at West Valley Park, reading, writing, playing with Dazey, and dozing. Finally, Tyne said she would drive and we tried to find Adams house again. She wasted another 20 miles of gas before Adam called us and told us what the mistake was. Finally armed with the right directions, we made it to Adam's house.

Dazey wasn't allowed in the house, so we chilled on the porch while they talked inside. Tyne's other friend Fletcher was randomly in town, stuck at the airport for the night, so Adam and Tyne went to pick him up while Dazey and I waited on the porch.

When they got back, Adam told us that he was taking us out to this great pizza place. We tied Dazey in the garage, and headed to The Rusted Sun Pizza shop. Great vibe in there, good music, and excellent food. Adam ordered for us; pasta salad, killer cheese dip, 2 pitchers of some delicious micro-draft, and a large pizza with Canadian bacon, artichokes, portabellas, black olives and fresh tomatoes. We were all stuffed and there were leftovers in every dish.

We went outside to breath, stretch and smoke, and Adam quietly disappeared next door. 5 minutes later, he appeared with a paper bag and 4 cups. He had stopped at the Indian restaurant and gotten us all a little potatoes/pea curry treat and an Indian equivalence of a mango slurpee. Somehow, we managed to eat this too, but by now I was lethargicly full.

We got back to the house, and found Dazey had missed us bad. She had barked the whole time, and now wouldn't stand for more time in the garage alone. I went out there and sat with her while everyone else watched planet earth. Finally, I just said goodnight and took Dazey out to the Nar. I did some writing and internetting and watched an episode of South Park before turning in.

Wed, May 27 – I was awoken at 6am with my stomach not being happy with me. I ran into the house and took care o business, but it still wasn't right. I tried to lay in the van for awhile, but had to come back in for the bathroom again. Sleep was out of the question, so I just wrote until Tyne and Fletcher came out so he could get a ride back to the airport.

I gave him a ride there and he gave us $10 for gas. Tyne and I talked about what our plan would be for the day. We would take care of laundry and try to get a little done, then go downtown and see if we had any luck pan-handling. Dazey and I chilled in the garage while Tyne did laundry and made me some dank French toast with orange slices.

Dazey not allowed in the house had 4 options. She could either be in the garage, which she would bark and be freaked out if she was alone. She could be on the front porch tied up, but I needed to be out there with her. She was allowed on the balcony, but would scratch at the door if I wasn't within eye sight of her. The last option was the van. Why couldn't my little brat just go in the house!!

I was really tired from not sleeping much, so I took Dazey out to the van and tried to sleep. I was almost sleeping when I jumped awake all sweaty. The sun was over the top of the house! We went inside and into the garage. The concrete was too cold to sleep, and I could hear construction just around the corner. We tried the balcony. I laid on the floor inside while she sat outside. She didn't have much room and wasn't too happy, but I was able to almost fall asleep.. Until the drier turned back on and the TV got turned up and someone started hammering outside.

Realizing I wasn't going to be sleeping, we just spent the afternoon writing and lounging, something we have been doing too much lately. Its nice, but I can be lazy at home. I want to get out and experience the world more.  Tyne made a lunch out of all the stuff we had that was going to go bad. She came out with an amazing lunch of spaghetti with alfredo sauce, chicken and pepperoni mixed in, along with a very garlicky cheesy toast. So good! I finally found the sweet spot outside on the front porch. Shaded and satisfying to both Dazey and I, we spent the afternoon out here. Adam came home and we had a bottle of wine with some yak cheese called Euphoric. It was interesting, but defiantly a wine that you have to drink with wine. Nothing much happened that night. I slept in the van again with Dazey.

Thurs, May 28 – We got up early to go down to the temp. labor office to try to get a job for a day or two to make some extra gas money. We figured that the office would open at 7, so we were there at 655. It didn't open until 8, so we went back to Adam's house for an hour before returning. Finally talking to someone, they informed us that they only did longer term work, weeks or months at a time. They gave us the address of another place that had work on a day to day basis.

At the second place, we were greeted by a very nice young lady who told us that they were out of jobs for the day, but if we filled out the paperwork and took a short test, we could have first pick the next morning. We took the 75 question test, which was really easy. They plugged in my results and it came back as a fail! Tyne finished 10 minutes later, and she failed as well! Something had to have been wrong with that machine, because I know I did good on it.

A little disappointed, we went to a third and final employment office. This one not only didn't have any work, but didn't even have any more applications, so even if we wanted to, we couldn't work. Disappointed, we decided to try to go and panhandle to make some cash.

Driving downtown, we found the center of the city pretty quiet. Considering the size of the surrounding suburbs, Salt Lake doesn't have much of a middle. Looking to find a high traffic area, we pulled into a Wal-mart not too far away. The parking lot had a second story, so the big lot was shaded; a perfect place to panhandle.

I took Dazey and began asking people coming out of the store if they had an extra 34 cents. My story was I was short to buy dog food. 34 cents is a good number to use because it sounds like you are really close to having what you need, and its very easy for people to digest. It doesn't sound like a lot of money, but three people add up to a buck. Plus, a lot of people just ended up giving us a dollar, or if we talked to them a little more, sometimes more than a buck.

After 10 minutes, I had made $5. I was feeling pretty good about the situation when I asked a man if he had any change. He said he didn't have any change, but he had a debit card and he would buy me some dog food. He took me into the store and bought a $13 bad of food for Dazey. When he paid for it, I noticed it said, "Change - $40." On the way out of the store, he handed me the money and told me to get some food for myself as well. The man's name was Kirby, and he made Mormons all right in my book.

For some reason, Tyne wanted to go across the street and try to make money at a Lowes. Even though we were shaded and making a good return, she went out into the sun. I went back into Wal-mart and returned the dog food, taking a gift card that I will probably use for more dog food when I run out (no sense carrying extra weight)

Tyne appeared after 10 minutes, saying that the people across the street were cheap and some Mexican dude tried to get her into his car, thinking she was a prostitute. I spent another 20 minutes getting cash, while Tyne talked to some bums that were sitting outside. Their names were Wes and Josh, and they said we should go to "Sugar House" to panhandle more efficiently. They got in the van and we drove 10 minutes south.

The Sugar House was just a series of strip malls. We all split up and tried our luck at getting paid. I made a few dollars, but it wasn't as good as Wal-mart. We all met up and the guys said they were going to get a bottle of booze if we wanted to drink with them. We had been working for hours, so a break sounded nice. They got a bottle of whiskey and we walked down to a little wooded creek next to some stored. I had just a couple sips, Tyne a couple more, and the guys killed it.

One last round of panhandling after our drinks, I was making progress outside of a Taco Bell. A guy came out and he gave me a chicken taco to share with Dazey, then asked if I wanted a job for a few hours. I told him yes, that Tyne and I would love to work for him. He introduced himself as Lar and he gave me his number. Wes and Josh came up as we were talking. They were half drunk and very obnoxious. Lar looked a little worried, but I told him it was just me and Tyne that would be coming.

The guys got on my nerved more and more. They were rude to people and annoying, and I was embarrassed to be around them. Tyne was having fun with them, so I just bit me tongue and sat back.

They wanted to go see a dollar movie, and I told them I didn't. Dazey wouldn't wait for us, and I didn't really want to sit in a theater anyways. It took awhile for it to sink in that we weren't going to go there. Finally they got the idea to go up to Cottonwood Canyon for a little hike.

I was not happy at all driving up into the Canyon. The guys were loud, drunk and making a mess in the backseat. I just wanted to drop them off and go home. We pulled into a campground to take a little hike, and were told that it was $6 to get in, plus dogs weren't allowed anywhere in the canyon because the creek was drinking water for the city.

Discouraged even more, we stopped at a little picnic area. Even though Dazey wasn't allowed in the canyon, we still stopped because it was pretty quiet. I wasn't really in a good mood at all, so I took Dazey and we did some climbing on the many rock ledges that led up to the mountains. The guys and Tyne were drinking another bottle of whiskey, but I was not feeling it at all. Finally, they smoked a bowl and got me to take a toke. I really didn't want to, but it kept them quiet.

A man riding his bike stopped and told us that we had to leave because of Dazey. I said ok, and was walking to the van within 10 seconds. Josh and Wes didn't like his attitude I guess, because they stayed back for a few minutes and argued with the guy. I didn't understand this at all, because it didn't concern them. Finally they showed back up at the car and we headed back into town. They got dropped off at Sugar house. I almost just left them on the side of the highway, I was so sick of them.

We headed back to Adam's and had a quiet evening. Josh kept calling Tyne, (why did she give her real number?) and for several days I got laughs at Tyne making excuses for why we couldn't go and pick them up again.

Fri, May 29 – I spent the night thinking about how crappy my life was and how I wasn't able to give anything back to society. I decided that I wanted to donate some time and just volunteer to help someone. If I cant be happy, I thought, then maybe I can make someone else happy.

I took off on foot around 10am, going door to door asking folks if there was anything I could help them with. I told them that I had some bad karma that was weighing on my soul, and I wanted to clean my slate and start fresh

I knocked on 10 doors, only two of them answered and neither had anything I could help them with. Pretty discouraged, I almost walked back to Adam's, but decided to try to help at a pet resort that I passed. The girl at the counter seemed very surprised when I asked her if they had anything I could do to help, but she soon found some work for me.

I spent the next three hours in a yard with 30 dogs, pulling weeds. Some of them were very thorny thistles, and it took some care to not get stuck. The sun was hot and I was sweating, but it felt great to do something that mattered. By 2pm, the yard was clean. I hauled out the 4 garbage bags of clippings that I produced, and was on my way.

I walked back to Adam's and was really thirsty. I wanted a drink, but only had 88 cents. I walked into a store, and low and behold one of my favorites was on sale. Dr. Pepper for 79 cents. Good karma pays.

Back at Adams, he came home around 4 and the three of us went to a little outdoor bar on the east side of town. I sipped a beer and hung out while they polished off a couple of pitchers and some nachos. 515 came around, and Tyne and I excused ourselves to go to Lars house to do some cleaning for him.

Lar was a really great guy. He gave me hope that Mormons were alright. He had us clean out his garage and front porch. It took us about three hours, and when we were finishing, he went to one of his favorite Mexican places and returned with some amazing dinner for us. He offered us some soda (7-up, orange, or strawberry; no caffeine for Mormons) and then paid us $60 for our time. He wanted us to come back the next morning to do more, and to help his parents, but we were getting low on time and had enough money for now, so we declined , thanked him and hit the road.

Back at Adam's around 930, we were rushed into some nice clothes, and herded onto the train towards downtown. Apparently we were going to Adam's friends art show. After a 15 minute train ride and a 5 minute walk, we came to what looked like a bar. I was asked for my id, which I didn't have. The "art show" was also a club/bar, so I wasn't able to come inside. Half an hour later, I was hanging out with Dazey back at the house. I guess I didn't miss much because I was told that the place was expensive and pretty lame.

Sat, May 30– I came into the house a little after eight. Adam was making a "last meal" for us, which was amazingly dank! He made an open faced sandwich on a croissant, two poached eggs on it with a piece of Canadian bacon and a roasted red pepper sauce over the top. Excellent! We started to get our stuff together to leave and spent some time getting music from Adam's computer. Finally we were ready to go, but before we left Adam gave us a going away present of two campfire Jiffy popcorns, a bag of Chex mix and a bottle of Fry Sauce.

Adam really is a great guy. I'm not sure if it's just because he loves Tyne so much, but I don't think that is the only thing. He is a very considerate and giving man, and I'm very happy I got to meet him.

We had some work lined up for the day, some more time with Lar and another guy that wanted us to do lawn work, but we had been in Salt Lake nearly a week now, and we were ready to move on. We had made more money that we had needed, so we just left town.

Tyne wanted to see the "Great" Salt Lake before leaving, so we made a little pitstop over to Antelope Island State Park. Surprised to see it was a $9 entrance fee, we pulled over just before the ticket booth and had a look at the lake. It's pretty sad looking, very flat and shallow. There are miles and miles of dried up salt flats before you even get to the shore, and from the ground its very hard to get a good handle on how big the lake really is. Disappointment is the word I would use for the lake, but I had known this would be the case before I got there.

Driving on, it had been nearly an hour since leaving Adams, but we hadn't gotten out of the city. The interstate runs between two mountain ranges and the lake, and the valley between is a metropolitian area over 100 miles long, but only a few miles wide. We drove into downtown Ogden, and finally found our turn onto state route 39 headed up into the Cache National Forest.

Up into the mountains, it got cool quickly. Every time I've driven into National Forest I stop seeing people immediately, but this was a little different. There were people and cars everywhere! It was probably the close proximity to the city and the fact that it was Saturday, but after we got to the pass there was barely anyone around.

At the top, I stopped along a huge snow drift and took Dazey for a walk. She loves snow and was very happy to run in this huge mound of it after being cramped on a porch in Salt Lake.

Down the other side, the landscape began to look a lot like Wyoming. Tyne fell asleep, and an hour later we had officially crossed into Wyoming. The sky was darkening and I saw lightning in the distance, but I still drove the 15 miles out of the way to Fossil Butte National Monument.

The Monument was tiny. There were about 10 people in the entire park when I walked into the visitor center. Inside, I saw a whole collection of fossils that had been extracted and put on display. It was very interesting, and I was looking forward to taking a walk and seeing some fossils in the "wild."

When I went back outside it was raining hard. Reading the park guide, I was disappointed to find the park only had two short trails, and neither featured any visible fossils. With the rain coming down in sheets and the girls still sleeping, I decided to just continue on the way. I wanted to make it to Alpine by dark.

Driving through the green rolling hills of southwestern Wyoming, I passed through a plethora of tiny sleepy ranching towns. Cokeville, Thayne, Smoot, Etna barely had a combined population of 1000. The road crossed into Idaho for a mile or so before coming back into Wyoming. 20 miles from Alpine, Tyne woke up. We gased up in Afton and finished the last leg of the day's journey to town. From Alpine, we drove a few miles into the Bridger National Forest and spent the night at a campsite that I had been to a couple years ago.

The sky was still threatening, so I laid a tarp out, folded it over, and lay a sleeping bag and blanket in between. I really wasn't in a good mood that night. I was short and moody and didn't want to do anything but go to sleep, but that was pretty hard to do since it was only 9pm. I watched the sky darken and a couple skies peak through the clouds before I passed to the other side.

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