Monthly Archives: October 2018

Vacation Journal: Utah!

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OVERVIEW

Seeing how this vacation journal has grown (or groan, as the case may be for some readers) to over 5,000 words, let me offer a short overview.

Back in early August our friends David & Deb invited to join them for a week-long sight-seeing trip to Utah during early October.  Sadly, we had a few too many October travel plans already locked-in, so they accommodated us and moved the trip to late September.

They flew out on the 22nd and we followed on the 23rd as we had a prior commitment on the 22nd. They spent Saturday & Sunday exploring Salt Lake City before picking us up at the airport late on Sunday afternoon.

During the following seven days we traveled some 1,300 miles by car from Salt Lake City, to Moab, then Hatch, Park City, Ogden and then back to Salt Lake City.  Along the way we visited:

  • Arches National Park
  • The Hole N” The Rock
  • Dead Horse Point State Park
  • Canyonlands National Park
  • Goblin Valley State Park
  • Capital Reef National Park
  • Bryce Canyon National Park
  • Scenic Byway Route 12
  • Utah Olympic Park
  • Antelope Island State Park
  • Old Park City
  • Uinta National Forest / Scenic Byway Route 92

The long hours in the car were a bit fatiguing, but there was never a dull moment and we were always having fun.  Great trip but good to be back home: we’ve got a busy month ahead of us!!

SUNDAY

We were up, had breakfast and were on our way to the airport by 9:30am and, after a gas stop to make sure I had a full tank for the drive home late next Sunday night, we dropped the truck off at Wally Park and took the shuttle to the airport.  The only “issue” had been the top handle breaking loose from our 50lb suitcase as I pulled it out of the truck. Oh well, I’ll fix that at some point, during or after our trip. Hey, it’s 16-years old!  I’m amazed it’s lasted this long without giving us any trouble.

Curbside check-in at the airport was a breeze and even getting through airport security wasn’t all that bad as we received TSA Pre-Check when we booked our travel through Delta on my Delta Rewards program.  We were a good 3 hours early for our flight and parked ourselves at the Gordon Biersch Brewery where we met a nice gal from Salt Lake City who gave us all kinds of sight-seeing recommendations.  We split a burger for lunch and killed a good hour at the bar.

After boarding, getting settled and having the aircraft pull back from the gate, we spent the next 30 minutes parked on the ramp while they did some trouble shooting on an error message from the on-board maintenance system. Thankfully, they were able to “reboot” the aircraft, clear the message and get an OK from flight operations to continue with the scheduled flight.  It was a bit of a bumpy ride and seemed a long longer than the 3 and 1/2 hours, but we made do reading and watching movies.

Our friends Deb and David had spent the night in Salt Lake City and picked us up at the airport around 5:30pm. From there we made the 239-mile / 4-hour drive down to Moab where we’d spend the evening and next two days.  We stopped at an Olive Garden restaurant for dinner before leaving “civilization” as there truly was nothing between Provo and Moab, never mind what was there in Moab was closed on Sundays!  It was a long drive and we were glad to be at our hotel for the night.

MONDAY:

Our biological clocks were definitely not on Mountain Time and were both up early, too early for Moab.  After tossing and turning for a couple of hours we got up and headed down for breakfast.  Looking out the windows we were amazed at the rock formations surrounding us, noting we had no idea what the area around Moab looked like since we came in during the night. After breakfast Debbie headed up to do some exercising while I stayed down in the dining area and did some work on my laptop, e.g., finances, Email, blog updates, etc.  I think it was around 9:30am when we left the hotel for Arches National Park, just a few miles up the road.

Just a disclaimer: I’ve got more photos than I’ll ever post to this blog: these will just be samplings.  Here’s a link to a full portfolio of all the photos from our Utah trip: LINK

Upon our arrival at the entrance to the National Park we sat in line for a good 30 minutes waiting to pay our entrance fee.  Once we finally reached the entrance I opted to buy an annual pass for the U.S. National Park system since we’d amortize the cost during just our visits to three National Parks in Utah.

To say the park and its sights were breathtaking would be an understatement.  No words or photos do the rock formations justice.  Moreover, they all look very different from different perspectives and as the sun moves they change even more.  Although most of our touring was done from the car, we did get out and do a little hiking at a couple of the more famous sights.  In fact, we make the 3-mile round-trip hike to the lower observation area for ‘Gentle Arch’ that included a pretty good climb up a rocky ledge.  Again, I’ll let a small collection of photos do the talking for what we saw at the park: just amazing.

  

From Arches National Park we headed back to Moab to get lunch and to run an errand or two.  After driving the length of the main street (U.S. Highway 191) through town we found the Blu Pig Restaurant and Bar, a place that David said had very good reviews.  We stopped there and had a really good time and a great meal.  Definitely a great little place.

From there we continued south to a tourist attraction called the “Hole N’ The Rock,” a former restaurant and home created by carving-out 50,000 square feet of sandstone from the base of a rock formation along U.S. Highway 191.  The first excavations were made in the early 1900’s, but the work that created the Hole N” The Rock began in earnest in the 1940’s.  You can read more about it in this Country Living article from July 2017.

From there we headed back towards Moab and made a quick stop at a True Value hardware store where I picked up some nuts, bolts and washers so I could repair the broken handle on our suitcase, at least well-enough to get us back home and do a proper repair.

After a short visit back to our hotel, we headed off to find Dead Horse Point State Park and then Canyonlands National Park, hoping to time our visit to Canyonlands to coincide with sunset.

Once again the photos don’t do the sights justice.  There’s a “legend” about Dead Horse  Point that gives the mesa overlooking the Colorado River its name that suggests cowboys used the mesa to corral wild mustang horses and then leave the unwanted ones to die of thirst.  At least a few accounts suggest that, while it was used as a corral, only once were the unwanted horses left on the mesa.  This mesa is also where the final scene from Thelma and Louise was filmed during which they drove their old Ford Thunderbird off a cliff and into a canyon.  Setting aside the legends and film history, it’s quite simply just an amazing place to see from the “Island in the Sky” that surrounds the various canyons formed over millions of years by the Colorado River and other bodies of water that have filled and flowed through this part of Utah.

 

We then made a short drive to the Canyonlands National Park where we were able to use our National Parks Pass once again; definitely an on-your honor entrance at that time of day.  The views of the Green River Canyon were spectacular, made more so by the light of the setting sun.  However, we received a fantastic “bonus” on our drive out as it was also a Harvest Moon and we were treated to an amazing “moon rise.”

  

We made our way back to town where we stopped at the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then headed down to the Moab Brewery for a late night dinner to end our day.  All told, we drove about 190 miles as we visited and toured the three parks and the Hole N” the Rock during our day-long excursion.  Spending a lot of time in the car would become a constant for most of this trip.  If I had to do it again, I think I’d focus on spending more time at just one of the destinations and include some mountain biking, hiking and other types of activity vs. just sight-seeing.  However, it was great to get out and see all there was to see.

TUESDAY:

Our destination today was the Riverside Ranch – RV Resort and Motel in Hatch, Utah, which would put us within a short drive of Bryce Canyon National Park.  It was about a 278-mile drive, made about 12-miles longer by stops at the Goblin Valley State Park and a scenic drive through Capital Reef National Park along Utah Route 24 (UT-24).  Both of these parks had been recommended by the gal from Salt Lake City whom we met while having lunch at the Atlanta airport on Sunday.

Goblin Valley State Park was mind-blowing!  Once again, the diversity of the geology here in Utah is amazing.  But, what we found at Goblin Valley was completely unexpected.  I’m glad I had no idea of what it was and had not seen any pictures before arriving.  Of course, if you’re reading this you’ll have no doubt seen a few photos: sorry about that!  It was well worth the detour off of UT-24.

  Once we were back on UT-24 we made our way through Capital Reef National Park and I’ll need a chiropractor to fix my neck after this trip. Every mile and at every turn there was yet another unique and attention grabbing rock formation, petrified dune or lush green valley along a river.  The north side of mountain ranges are completely different from the southern facing sides and so on.

  

As we exited Capital Reefs National Park we came into Torrey, Utah with a very inviting drive-in called Slackers Burgers.  What a great little place that was.  We took a very much-needed break for a late lunch before the final stretch of driving to Hatch where we arrived at The Riverside Ranch around 5:30pm.  We stayed in the small and rustic but very comfortable motel, noting they also had RV hook-ups and campsites.

It was probably around 7:30pm when we headed out for dinner at the Outlaw Saloon.  What made the Outlaw Saloon a must-visit place was their grass-fed, free-ranging beef offerings and the novelty of being your own grill master.  Yup, they present you with a raw piece of rib eye or T-bone steak and point you towards the large grilling island where you get to apply your seasonings and grill your steak over a 350*F gas grill.  The gentleman tending the bar — Andrew — was really a delight.  Just a guy from Wisconsin who follows the seasonal employment circuit: work hard for 6 months and then take 6 months off to enjoy life.  Between his company and the fantastic food, it was a great dining experience.

 

After a quick stop at a mini-mart / gas station in Hatch to pick up some beverages we headed back to our motel.  David & Deb joined a collection of other guests around a bonfire for the rest of the evening while Debbie and I retired to our room.  Debbie wasn’t feeling 100% and really needed to get off her feet and sleep a bit.  I did a little work on the vacation journal and apparently fell asleep with my hands still on the keyboard!

WEDNESDAY:

After breakfast at the Riverside Ranch and some additional time to allow David & Deb to wash some “smoked-up clothing” from their evening sitting by the fire pit visiting with other guests at the Riverside Ranch, we loaded up the Nissan Armada and headed towards Utah Route 12 – Scenic Byway, en route to Park City, Utah where we’d spend the next four nights at the Hilton Grand Vacations – Sunrise Lodge: about a 370-mile day.

Our first stop along Utah Route 12 (UT-12) was Bryce Canyon National Park.  To get there we first passed through the Red Canyon,  a 4-mile long stretch of road through orange-red limestone rock formations filled with a variety of turrets, hoodoos, pinnacles and spires formed over time by erosion, in much the same way was the goblins in Goblin Valley.

We made stops at several overlooks and saw the famous Bryce amphitheater with its sandstone towers, natural bridges and arches as well as the beautiful vistas. To be quite honest, we did ourselves a disservice by visiting Arches, Canyonlands and Capital Reefs National Parks before Bryce, never mind Goblin Valley: they made Bryce seem underwhelming.  Don’t get me wrong, the views were spectacular, but they just paled in comparison to what we saw over the previous two days.  That and Bryce also seemed far more commercialized with camp grounds around every corner, businesses lined up along the entrance and more than enough tourist traps.  However, we’re glad we made the stop.

As we resumed our trip up Scenic Byway UT-12 the topography and sights along the 113-mile drive back up to UT-24 at Torrey, Utah were simply amazing and there were a few that bear special mention to go along with some of the photos.

The first was the Powell Point & The Blues Overlook.  We saw Powell Point with its summit at 10,188 feet well before we began the twisty climb up to the pull-off at the scenic overlook of  “The Blues” a badlands of gray-green shale deposited over 80 million years ago when the area was covered by an inland ocean.

The next “wow” of the drive came shortly after we had a really great lunch at the Circle D Eatery: highly recommended!  Really, huge portions of delicious food in a spotless, upscale looking restaurant that was actually a great value. But, I digress….

We next came to the Head of the Rocks Overlook with an amazing view out and across the  Escalante Canyons where a turbulent ocean of slick rock stretches almost as far as the eye can see. Some 168 million years ago, these striated cream-and-red sandstone formations were sand dunes. However, what also makes this particular stretch of UT-12 even more fascinating is the story of the Million Dollar Road, the stretch of UT-12 that winds through this incredibly rugged, rocky area.  Completed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1940, the Clem Church Memorial Highway passes through the Escalente Canyon and then across the top of Hogsback Ridge with grades that reach 14% and S-curve after S-curve and, of course, the 109 foot bridge across the Hogsback Ridge’s Death Hollow with its 800-foot drops on both sides.  Since just driving along the stretch of road causes everyone to grip the wheel of their vehicles a little tighter the real question that runs through your mind is, how the heck did they build this road back in the 1940s? If you’re not bothered by the heights, steep drop-offs and not driving the vehicle, the vistas along this stretch of road are breathtaking.

 

Beyond the city of Bolder and nearing the summit of Boulder Mountain — with its Aspens and free range cattle grazing all over the place — is Homestead Overlook.  The panoramic views from the 9,400-foot-high scenic point are spectacular.  To our left were the five peaks of the Henry Mountains, below in the valley were the magenta wedge of the Waterpocket Fold, to our right were the striated rock face of the Kaiparowits Plateau and off in the distance were the Navajo Mountains.

We came down off Boulder Mountain into the town of Torrey at Utah Route 24 (UT-24), just a mile ahead of where we had lunch at Slacker’s Burgers the day before.  I will note, we had first discussed just heading to Park City via the most direct route vs. adding the 3.5-hours it would take to make the drive up UT-12 and we were all glad we opted to take the time for the scenic drive: it was well worth it!  To have come this far and by-passed it just to save a little time on a week-long trip would have been a shame.

It was around 2:30pm when we began the second leg of our drive up to Park City from Torrey: it was a 220-mile stretch that put us into Park City around 7:30pm.  We made our way to Old Park City and had dinner at Butcher’s.  We made the most of the 2-for-1 special and had a really good meal: David had the prime rib, Deb had shrimp & grits, and we had seared tuna steak.

After dinner we made our way over to the Canyons resort area below Park City and found the Hilton Grand Vacations – Sunrise Lodge, where we checked-in for the next four nights.  Amazingly, this would be the least expensive of the places we’d stayed thus far.  However, we were really surprised to discover the hotel has no restaurant, bar or even a light breakfast offering so all of our meals will have to be taken “out” instead of at the hotel.  With that in mind, after checking in we ventured out into the nearby entertainment and dining complex, only to find that just about every bar and restaurant was on off-season hours and closed by 9:00pm.  We ended up taking the hotel’s shuttle bus back to Old Park City and spent a good hour or so at O’Shucks, a semi-dive bar.  We took an Uber ride back to the hotel just before mid-night and that was the end of our day.  It was a long day…

THURSDAY

Despite the paper-thin walls and floors of the Hilton that allow every sound from adjoining rooms to come through — pretty much what we discovered at Tuscany in Orlando — we both slept pretty well.  The only real, nagging issue we’re having is the incredibly dry, arid climate which is playing havoc with us.  Dry skin, chapped lips, sinus issues, bloody noses, bloating, etc. have been an uncomfortable constant throughout the trip and no amount of hydration seems to correct for it.   But, as I said, we still both enjoyed a pretty good night’s rest.

We were both up around 6:00am and did our best not to get going too early as it would be around 9:00am before we headed off to breakfast with David & Deb.  To make the best of our morning, I went down to the hotel’s fitness center and spent about 30 minutes on a stationary bike while Debbie stayed in the room and did her exercises.

After returning to the room and grabbing a shower I was able to catch up on my email and other personal business and even knocked out a little writing on this vacation journal.  I’ve continued to get more comfortable with my new 13″ Samsung laptop which, with its very compact size, has been a real treat to have vs. my huge 17″ MacBook Pro.  I’m able to do just about everything I did on the MacBook, less photo editing.  I’m still working on that so the photos that go with this blog still haven’t been added at this point.

As per usual, it was around 9:00am when we began our day in earnest.  We headed down to Leger’s Deli for breakfast, since there wasn’t anything at or near the hotel. Debbie and I split a really tasty pastrami & chicken sandwich with full garden and avocado on sourdough but it ended up giving me indigestion all day: or, was that the Kavanaugh hearings I was keeping up with?  Regardless, it did slow me down a bit as that was on top of all the other ailments I’ve already mentioned.

From Legers we headed to the Utah Olympic Center to visit the museum and explore the remaining ski jump, freestyle and bobsled facilities.  It was a very compact facility but they certainly had all of the bases covered as far as training for year-round training for ski-jump and freestyle aerials.

From the Olympic Center we briefly returned to the hotel to see what the concierge had to offer in terms of meal planning / restaurant recommendations for the balance of our stay before heading off towards the Antelope Island State Park near Odgen, about an hour’s drive north through Salt Lake City.

Antelope Island State Park was more-or-less a peninsula when we arrived as the Great Salt Lake was fairly low given the time of year.  With a total area of 42 square miles, 15 miles long by 4.5 miles wide, it is home to free-ranging bison, mule deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn sheep (aka, antelope), coyotes, badgers, bobcats and numerous birds of prey such as owls, hawks and falcons and hundreds of different types of migratory birds.  Visitors are welcome to camp, hike, bike and explore the island and can visit the Garr Ranch, one of the oldest permanent settlements in Utah.

After entering the park through the town of Syracuse, we drove across the causeway and made our way to the north side of the island where we had lunch at the Island Buffalo Cafe, which was basically a concrete block building with windows and a short-order kitchen and the only place that sells food on the island.  Well, of course we had to have the Buffalo Burgers…  noting that they should be called Bison Burgers since that’s what inhabit the island.

We drove to the various scenic overlooks and made our way out to the Garr Ranch, catching views of the free ranging bison, at least one of the antelope, perhaps a bobcat and quite a few different types of birds.  It was well worth the visit.

 

After returning to the Hilton we had a little down time before heading to a local Italian restaurant called Trio.  Like most places we’ve been, it was nearly empty when we walked in but we made our way to the empty bar for cocktails and dinner.  Dan was the barkeeper — a young man who followed his Air Force dad around the world and landed in Odgen, Utah and then made Park City his home where he tends bar, skis and cycles — and we had a great time chatting with him and getting a few recommendations on other bars and restaurants we might like.  Debbie and I stuck with salads as our entrees, hers with chicken and mine without: I just needed greens!  David & Deb a pizza and it was all really quite good and reasonable.

From Trio we headed across the way to Bout Time, a sports bar that was really just our cup of tea for a night spot.  We had a great time there catching the Thursday night college and pro football games and otherwise just taking in the sights and sounds of the pub.  Our barkeeper was Eric — a transplant who has been tending bar and teaching snow boarding after giving up his home improvement business in San Diego during the housing bust 10 years ago — After a short stop at Walmart to pick up breakfast items, we headed back to the Hilton and called it a night.

Friday would be a casual, down day with an afternoon visit to Old Park City where we’ll wander around and see what there is to see.

FRIDAY

Per our plan, we stayed in our room for most of the morning, making breakfast in.  Debbie dutifully did her exercises while I checked my Email, worked on the vacation journal and kept up with current events.

We ventured out to Old Park City around 10:30am and spent the better part of the late morning and early afternoon walking around and wandering into various different shops and galleries along Main Street.  Debbie found a few things that struck her fancy and I was really amazed at how ski equipment had changed since the late 1980’s when I last went alpine skiing on my old Rossignol 3G GS ski’s.  We sure didn’t wear helmets back in the day and the ski’s are almost twice as wide and not nearly as long: very strange on 1st glance.

 

For lunch, we camped out at the No Name bar: wow, what a place!  It’s one of those joints that is probably backed-up by some big money, but still has that warm and cozy bar feeling.  It’s definitely a place where we could hang-out and watch a ball game or just sit and visit with friends.

We headed back to the hotel and spend the afternoon relaxing a bit in our room before heading out to get in a late afternoon walk around The Canyons Village, a food, shopping and entertainment complex situated in the middle of the resort hotels.  This was a part of Park City that didn’t exist the last time I was up here in the 80’s.

After meeting Deb and David at Draft’s Burger Bar, we headed back down to the Bout Time Pub for dinner.  Our return visit to Bout Time got off to a shaky start when the two gals tending the bar seemed to be overwhelmed by some technical issues. However, our keeper — Elizabeth, a transplant from Florida who teaches 2nd grade during the day and tends bar at night to make ends meet as teachers wages in Utah are apparently some of the lowest in the US — was able to gain her stride and did a good job of taking care of us.  The meals all ended up being really tasty so, all-in-all, another good visit.

We returned to the hotel and parted company with David & Deb who headed back to Draft’s Burger Bar for a nightcap while Debbie and I headed back to our room to warm up and get some rest. For some reason we found that we were both getting chilled by the night air in Park City, even though it really wasn’t all that cold.  Perhaps it was a combination of the cooler, thin and dry air.

About the only other noteworthy news of the day was that our friends Chuck & Julie would once again be joining us in Daytona for bike week in mid-October.  That was great news, as we’ve really been looking forward to that trip.

As for what Saturday will bring, we’re still working on that plan.

SATURDAY

Despite an early evening, we both slept in a bit this morning.  I started my day working on my Quicken accounts and that did not go well.  After reworking all of the Categories and then scrubbing 90 days worth of ledger entries I realized something was seriously wrong in the accounting and had to wipe out my main account.  It was so screwed up that it would be easier to rebuild from a back-up and do over, something that would wait until later in the day.

Around 10:30am we joined up with David & Deb and headed off on yet another driving tour, this time our destination was the Uinta National Forest and Scenic Byway Route 92., aka, the Alpine Loop Scenic Drive.  The 20-mile drive winds through rugged alpine canyons of the Wasatch Range below Mount Timpanogos and other glacier-carved peaks southeast of Salt Lake City. Although we didn’t stop at either one, Timpanogos Cave National Monument and Robert Redford’s Sundance Mountain Resort are located along the route. We had a minor issue just as we entered the Uinta National Forest due to college students parking along both sides of UT-92 despite the no-parking signs, reducing it to an impromptu one-lane road with two way traffic; ugg, what a mess.  They were apparently attending some type of a conference at BYU’s Aspen Grove Family Camp adjacent to the entrance to the park.

The scenery along the drive was spectacular, but very different from what we saw even on Boulder Mountain or anywhere else during our travels around Utah.  Driving the narrow road with two-way traffic with drivers of questionable skills and judgement, cyclists and members of the university of Utah’s cross-country ski team working on on roller skis made the journey a bit tense at times.  We we were glad we made the journey but, in retrospect, should have probably made it during the week instead of on a Saturday.

 

After leaving the park we made our way back around the Wasatch Mountains through Provo and stopped at Melvins Public House in Heber, Utah, for lunch.  As perhaps our last stop on our pub crawl through Utah it did not disappoint.  The barkeeper, Correy, was excellent as was the food and overall environment.  They had plenty of large screen TVs with the college games on, most importantly… the Georgia vs. Tennessee game.  Just a great time with our great friends, David & Deb.

We headed back to our hotel for some additional down time, which Debbie and I spent in our room where we finished watching the Georgia / Tennessee game.  Well, OK: Debbie napped and I resumed work on my Quicken account.  Lots of good games and, thankfully, I think I was able to get my Quicken account straightened-out and aligned with the host accounts at Morgan Stanley, American Express and Wells Fargo.  I was also able to do most of my bill-paying on line from Utah, which is pretty slick.  I’ve got a few more accounts to add to my bill-payee profile but after that I should be 100% on line for bill paying.

For dinner, we headed back to “Loco’s West”…  the Bout Time Pub.  Our server from Thursday night, Eric, took care of us while we enjoyed just about every college football game on their vast array of big screen TVs.   Like Loco’s back at home, Bout Time just has the right vibe for us: casual dining, attentive staff, good food and a bunch of regulars who enjoy a relaxed time at a good pub.

We were back at the hotel by 9:30pm, which was just fine for us as we were pretty much gassed after a week of being sight-seeing tourists: perhaps for a few too many days.  Debbie and I were both thinking we’d have done well to rent a couple mountain bikes for the past few days that we were in Park City and hit the bike paths and trails… just to get the cobwebs out.  Of course, to her credit, Debbie has been very diligent about getting in 30 minutes or more of exercise a day, whereas I only managed one day on a stationary bike.

We’ll head out to Salt Lake City around 11:00am tomorrow and will need to be at the airport by 3:00pm for our 5:20pm flight that will get us back into Atlanta around 11:00pm and home by perhaps 1:00am.  Yup, it will be another long day, that’s for sure.

SUNDAY

We checked out of the Hilton Grand Vacations – Sunrise Lodge at 10:00am and headed off to Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.  It was a very windy morning with very hazy skies, most likely filled with dust picked up by the high winds.

The Salt Lake Temple and surrounding buildings such as the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall, were beyond impressive.  We spent a great deal of time in the visitor’s center where the exhibits focused on the temple and the importance of families in the Mormon community, noting that visitors may enter the Assembly Hall and Tabernacle, but not the Temple which is reserved as a special place for members of the Latter Day Saints.  Like Utah itself, I’m now compelled to do a bit more reading on the Mormon story.

After our visit to Temple Square we headed a few blocks to Gracie’s Gastro Pub where we’d grab some lunch and catch Sunday’s NFL games while we waited to head to the airport for our 5:19pm flight back to Atlanta.

We arrived at the airport around 3:00pm, topped-off the gas tank in David’s rental car before dropping it off — which proved to be a bit of a challenge for some reason — and then made our way through curbside check-in, the TSA checkpoint where we thankfully had PreCheck again, and then found our gate where we camped-out for the next 90 minutes before boarding the very crowded flight.

It was an uneventful flight. Debbie spent the majority of her time reading since the inflight entertainment system didn’t have Sunday Night Football available as a viewing option. I split my time reading and watching a movie to pass the time.

After arriving in Atlanta we met back up with David & Deb and headed to baggage claim where, for unexplained reasons, it took an inordinate amount of time for our baggage to arrive.  After that we headed off to find our parking lot shuttle bus and, once again, we found ourselves waiting far too long for the bus to arrive: on the order of 30 minutes or so.  We’re still not sure what their story was, but it certainly didn’t endear us to Wally Park for any future travel needs.  It was 12:15pm when we finally made it out of the parking lot headed for home.

We stopped at the Waffle House for a bite to eat on the way home, not completely sure what we had on hand at the house and also not wanting to start cooking at 1:00am.  After our waffles and hash browns, we finally arrived back home.  Debbie headed straight for bed while I got the luggage out of the truck, unpacked and put away, as I was still a bit “wired” from the day’s journey and not really back on East Coast time.  It think it was around 2:45am when I finally went to bed for a restless night.

And there you have it…