June 11, 2000

Salt Lake City: The Rental Car Off-Road Adventure

Starting odometer = 4550

Distance = 0* miles (300 brutal miles on Clem's rental)

Rats! My insomnia strikes again. I give up trying to sleep at 5 am MST.

Clem is in town on business... sooo... the leisure patrol is on the rampage again.

Clem and I start with brunch at the Alta Ski Resort Lodge. That's Clem flipping you the bird.

We leave the resort and decide to look for a ghost town. Along the way, we see a dirt bike and ATV park. We investigate. There is a sign that states "This State Park Open To All Motorized Vehicles." Well, clearly Clem's Mitsubishi Mirage rental is a motorized vehicle...

Views from atop one of the hills. Never, EVER buy a used rental car. I can still hear the cries of agony that emanated from that poor vehicle as we periodically stopped to check for flats. Twice the car nearly flipped. Once, we almost got stuck on top a mound as we turned into a gully we almost couldn't escape. One hill was too steep to attempt going forward in a front drive car, so we drove up in reverse -- until we ran out of torque anyway. A few doughnuts, neutral drops, and parking brake slides later, we hit the road again.

Somewhere along Skull Valley (just west of Salt Lake City) we see a big rock much like a small Devil's Tower. We investigate. Hmm. The Mirage handled the off-road park so well, what's a little rock going to do? We can certainly get onto the platform in the right picture...

WHO needs four wheel drive? Hmm... What's that wall on the right?

Let's worship this tree in honor of our Pagan...

Views from atop the rock. Boo-yah!