Its a shame that we had to leave Yellowstone today. The weather was beautiful with a sky of broken clouds. It was quite a contrast to yesterday. But our schedule demanded that we leave. Fortunately, we got one last look as the path to Salt Lake City took us through the northwest corner of the park.
Yesterday's thoughts about the national parks really hit home - for others - today. As we were heading toward the west gate, we saw a line of cars stopped in the oncoming lane. There were 2 bison near the road and every car was stopping to take photos. I happened to glance at my odometer at the time. We were moving rapidly toward the gate - as the only car leaving that day - while the length of the stopped line of cars kept growing and growing. It finally ended after 7 miles. Many people even that far back were out of their cars. The reality is that 1/2 of their day in the park was going to be spent in line while people took pictures of an animal they would see dozens of more times that day.
Once we left the park, Montana wheat fields turned to Idaho wheat fields and, ultimately, the crop for which Idaho is known - potatoes. It was beautiful country. It must be noted that irrigation makes it all possible. There were long sections of irrigation equipment in the crop fields. In non-irrigated fields next to the crop fields, the only product was sage brush. This video was from southern Idaho
We didn't make any unplanned stops today because we needed to get to Salt Lake City before dinner time in order to attend the Mormon Tabernacle Choir evening rehearsal. We stopped for lunch at Wingers in Pocatello. Otherwise, it was clear sailing until we reached the Ogden area when traffic became heavier and slowed due to construction. It didn't last long and we breezed into Salt Lake City right on time.
There was little time to photograph and little new to photograph. While Susan drove, I took a few photos of the Utah landscape.
... and of a very focused driver.
After checking in at the Hampton Inn in downtown Salt Lake, we walked about a mile to Temple Square where we checked out the Mormon Temple and Tabernacle area. It all was beautiful, with great landscaping and stonework. Since the rehearsal didn't start until 7:30, we went to a mall in the next block and had a good Italian dinner at Brio. We then got in line at the Tabernacle.
The rehearsal itself was a fantastic experience. It was very informal and, despite being asked to stay for the entire performance, many people were leaving early. I guessed that was because they didn't understand that this was not a concert rehearsal. The conductor picked several segments from each song and worked the choir over and over until he was satisfied. Only then did the entire song get performed. That made the wait during the drills worthwhile. As others left, we were able to improve our seats. Others' impatience worked to our advantage.
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| Mormon Tabernacle Choir |
The highlights - Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
The regrets - None.
Today's total miles - 382
Today's miles from start to destination - 380
Today's miles on side trips - 2
Today's miles driven by Paul - 322
Today's miles driven by Susan - 60
Today's hours in car - 6 1/2
Total Miles Hiked - 2.0
Cumulative total miles - 4,265
Cumulative miles from start to destination - 3,333
Cumulative miles on side trips - 932
Cumulative miles driven by Paul - 3,678
Cumulative miles driven by Susan - 587
Cumulative hours in car - 81
Cumulative Miles Hiked - 14.4
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