Apr 4, 2025
Paid another visit to the really interesting Natural Groceries shop first thing. It’s an amazingly large shop with organic vegetables, and aisle after aisle of every health lotion, potion, capsule, tablet, spray and powder ever manufactured. Unlike supermarkets back home that stock one brand and a home brand, this had every item made by every brand for every line. There were cures for ailments that I didn’t even know existed. The aisle for men’s complaints included remedies if you had a deficiency of something, and a remedy if you had an overabundance of the same issue. Casting my eye over the labels gave me a great sympathy for the plight of the American male, but I didn’t manage to find a lotion to give you orange skin.
Then it was off southwards down the big interstate that would take you to Las Vegas, if that’s where we were going. Imagine – a 10 lane interstate linking sin city with mormon headquarters! However, we traveled along the edge of the snow capped mountains that make Salt Lake City so breathtaking, so one of us got to enjoy the view while the other white knuckled it.
Eventually branched off towards the famous national parks of Utah, which are our destination for the next couple of days. Climbed up and then wound our way through a narrow pass between the mountains. Sunny both ends, but snowing as you traversed the pass.
Lunch at Walmart in Price. The store was so big that they have ride on mobility scooters available at the front door for people to use to get around on. And just to welcome us as we walked in, Men At Work started playing ‘Land Down Under’. Like most Walmarts, they have a variety of sub-stores in their building, so you can have your car serviced while you get your eyes tested, or in our case sit down in Subway for lunch.
Another hour or so of driving until we arrived in Green River at the most cruddy Motel 6 of the holiday. Despite sitting in the car till check in time at 3pm, like many others, many of the rooms were still not cleaned. When eventually we were given our keys, and hiked upstairs with our suitcases to our room, neither of the keycards worked. Trudged down and stood in line again to be eventually given two more cards. Neither of them worked either.
After standing in the queue yet again, they changed our room, and we lugged our suitcases down the stairs. Of course, the cleaning of our new room hadn’t even started, so we stood outside in the cold until the housekeeper noticed us, and eventually started on it. The keycards worked on this one, but the TV remote didn’t, nor did the 4 spares the receptionist brought around. “I’ll be back to fix it”, she promised. I think I’d be more likely to win blackjack in sin city, but let’s see what happens.
The motel has no breakfast and no kettle in your room, but you can make yourself a coffee in the foyer. The sign on the wall proudly proclaims that we always give you great rooms and excellent service. Hmm. You can write anything I guess.
The town has a hamburger joint, a Mexican restaurant and a pizza place. We are here for three days. I can guess our menu with some certainty. We opted for nachos tonight, and they were great. Guess that’s not surprising given that they were cooked by a real Mexican who hadn’t yet been deported.
Motel 6, Green River
Rest stop at the top of the pass
Coming down the pass
Our KIA rental
The Cruddy Motel 6