Carl's Blog

My day started very early so that I could make the first leg of my trip to Utah. I am very glad that I did 95% of my packing the previous night. But like most trips there are plenty of last-minute things that need to be done to secure your house before you leave. Like applying liquid toilet bowl cleaner and triple checking that the sink faucet is not dripping. Things went smoothly at the airport check in, but I was a bit annoyed that my bag was tagged “late check in” I was there 45 minutes before my flight was scheduled to take off and my local airport isn’t that large. Whatever?!? Check out the sunrise in the pic below. We are at cruising altitude, don’t ask how high, I’ve no clue and not sure how I could find out.

Now I’ve arrived at Houston Hobby and what is the first thing I do once exiting the plane? Yep if you’ve followed me before I think I’ve hinted at my Pokemon Go addiction. Got to catch ’em all. !!

The flight from Houston to Salt Lake City was completely full. So, I was not as lucky as my earlier flight and didn’t have an open seat next to me. I just zoned out to my tunes and the book I brought along. Yes, that’s right I brought a real book with pages and a book cover. And I’m glad I did because I thought the flight was only 2 hours. It was 3 hours. There is this thing called TIME ZONES and I crossed one. So, airline tickets reflect your departure time for the time zone you are in and the arrival’s time zone. Ok, leave me alone, I don’t travel much out of my CST. I should have known better from Canadian Train trip back in 2018. Check that out here if you enjoy my rambling ( Montreal 2018 ). Enough of that back to the trip…

I always try to get a window seat so I can get pictures from the plane and I’m glad I was able get a window seat on this trip. Check out these mountains and rivers. They maybe out of order. Sorry not sorry.

I made it to Utah!!! I was disappointed that there wasn’t an easy to spot, welcome to Utah in the airport. I did see a welcome to Utah sign as I was driving away from the airport. One of the down sides of traveling alone, there isn’t a copilot to take pictures as you drive past cool things. Oh, I forgot to mention the 1.5 hours I waited in line at Thrift Car Rental. My personal time at the counter was very quick and efficient, but the 25+ people ahead of me must not have pre-scheduled and had to take extra time picking a vehicle or whatever… The car I was given was full size Nissan with driving assistance which is cool and all, but I really just needed cruise control. Still haven’t found that setting, but I do like the warnings when cars are in your blind spot.

Oh, did you notice I’ve not mentioned breakfast or any food other than the snack pack from Southwest? Once I finally got on the road, I was starving. It was noon in Utah, but my stomach said it was 1 PM. I went in search of a place to eat, and a quick google search of restaurants, Archibald’s Restaurant at Gardner Village popped out. I think it was just the name Archibald’s that made it “cool” in my mind. Off I went to the location. Now here is where it got very interesting. This was not just a normal mercado with restaurants and shops. Oh no, this place was themed. A fantasy theme. A fairy theme, with a fairy scavenger hunt. If you didn’t see my teaser for this trip, it’s my hand holding a larping sword. The hotel I picked was because it was next door to Evermore, a fantasy theme park. More about that tomorrow. Back to the Garden Village.

As I was driving in the parking lot trying to find a spot to park, I noticed lots of children with wings on their backs and plenty of moms chasing them as they ran around like cats chasing a laser pointer. There was a sign that said something like, “we believe in fairies” Ok, let me put the brakes on this line of thought, just for me. Sorry, not sorry. We will get back to the fairies, I promise. I spent too much money at this shopping center to ignore it. Back to the reason I was here…

Archibald’s Restaurant … my closest example would be a Cracker Barrel without the “BUY OUR CRAP” as you walk to the hostess. Oh, speaking of the hostess, she was taller than me. I’m 6 foot tall, she was taller than that. I just had to mention something that is very, very rare in my life. That’s all I’m saying. Now on to the food, quickly…

Don’t get me wrong, the breaded chicken with the garlic butter was very good, but getting cooked, crisp carrots as a side… just wonderful. Two things they could have done to improve IMHO, less salt and more broccoli. Yes, more broccoli. I like broccoli. You don’t? well Sorry, not sorry.

Enough with my lunch. I know you want to know about the fairies.

Oh, my god… the fudge store… they even had a taffy pulling machine…

The last shop I visited was a bakery and deli. I was in need of a cookie. Sorry, not sorry I didn’t take a picture of the cookie, but it was good.

It is now time for me to get out of that village before I spent any more money. Down the road to the hotel. I found it hard to focus on driving and not looking at the mountains to the left, still covered in snow. Check out the view from the parking lot of a local grocery store.

Lunch was so filling that I’m not really hungry, so I’m just enjoying a lite snack. I saw a fried chicken place that looked interesting, but it is still under construction. Sorry, very sorry. I’ve got plenty of eateries to pick for tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I’m going to check out the Natual History Museum, art museum and distillery before Evermore. Not sure there will be a post tomorrow. It will be Saturday morning or I might do a Friday/Saturday post.

Thanks for reading and following my journey. I hope you are enjoying it.