Salt Lake City

The beginning of this year's trip felt quit different from last year's trip.  Where last year, our flight was followed by a drive across Washington state, and a grand entry into the city of Seattle, this year's direct and very efficient flight just dumped us where we needed to be.  There was no grand entry, no following the visitor's path, just the meat and potatoes reality of being there, and having to manage getting our stuff to our lodging.  Perhaps we should have flown to Vegas and driven.

Our Bed & Breakfast was in a neighborhood east of the conference center.  Easy to find.  It was on 600 East.  All the roads are named like that.  For those of us used to hearing street names that are trees, or dead presidents, there is something strangely unfinished sounding about a Salt Lake address.  "57 South 600 East."  You hear it, and then wonder, "Where's the rest of it?"  It's like waiting for a sneeze.  You do get used to it, and once you realize that it is simply describing coordinates on a grid, it all makes sense.

Our B&B was not the only one in the neighborhood. That part of town is full of grand houses, and many of them are operating as B&Bs. They become larger and more grand as you go north, and more modest as you go south. The neighborhood seemed to be having a reneissance. The grand old houses were in various states of repair, with some boarded up, some well cared for, and some in the process of being refurbished. We found it odd, but the more modest houses to the south seemed to be more uniformly intact. Mrs. Turgidson has a theory on that, where the larger the house the higher the probability that some owner, some time in its history, won’t have the wherewithall to do a repair, and the roof will go, or the porch collapse. Probably a good guess.

The first thing you notice on the streets of Salt Lake City is that every seems unnaturally obedient.  Someone can be standing at a crosswalk, with no traffic in any direction as far as the eye can see, and he will still wait for traffic light.  It left us scratching our heads until we overheard someone discussing the $80 fine for jaywalking.

Salt Lake City in summer is hot and dry, but not as hot as it might be.  Had the city been at sea level rather than 4300 feet, the heat would have been unbearable.  But here, the air is thin and dry.  Evaporative cooling works so well that everyone uses swamp coolers, a type of air-conditioning unknown here in the east.  Outdoor spaces may be cooled by spraying water into the air, water that never hits the ground.  And the daily swing in temperatures is wide, with a 95 degree day dropping to around 60 at night. (Here in the east, 95 degree days are usually followed by 80 degree nights.)

There are some scary looking people in Salt Lake.  All around us we see people of all ages.  We see youth, with tight skin and firm features; we see those in  middle age, those who are old.  We see a lot of healthy people, who worship the outdoors.  And then there are those we can only describe as gnarly.  I commented to my son, who was trying not to stare, "He's probably younger than we are."  And he probably was.  The sun takes it's toll on some.  Here in the east, we'd probably assume the guy was homeless.  He might be; there are a lot of homeless in Salt Lake.  But then, he might just be a lineman for the power company, someone whose work takes him into the sun a lot.

Transportation is OK, not great in Salt Lake. The trains run from the Downtown east to the University, and south to Sandy Point.  Riding in the Downtown area is free, but once outside the downtown you must have a ticket in your possession.  There is no conductor to collect it, and everything appears to be done on the honor system... but we have heard tell of the fabled transit police, who may board and check riders for tickets.  Tickets are good for two hours of train-riding, but if you're going to end up buying three tickets in a day, the all-day pass makes sense. The University has its own bus routes, and they are free. However, the University routes vaporize on Sunday.

GT