Welcome to Utah: Closed on Sundays

 

by Pa Rock

Traveling Fool

It is 7:00 p.m. Utah time.   I made it safely to Salt Lake City early this morning, leaving the new Kansas City multi-story shopping mall that also serves as an airport at 6:30 a.m. and arriving in the Utah capital promptly at 8:00 a.m. local time - and once there caught that tram which has a downtown stop right in front of the hotel where I am staying.  The tram ride of several miles was only $1.25 with my senior discount, and I learned this evening - after walking to dinner and back - that rides are free all over downtown.  Tomorrow I will use that knowledge to explore!

I flew via Delta, a carrier with whom I am still pissed over the price of a Kansas City to Boston round-trip ticket that the airline stole from me during the pandemic.  But, it is what it is and sometimes I must fly when I would much rather be on a train, and sometimes I have to fly Delta, so I suck it up and fly Delta.

To the airline's credit, they did show up at the departure gate with fruit juice, egg nog, and small pastries this morning just before our flight left - much appreciated - and the flight was flawless, leaving and arriving right on schedule.  Thank you for a pleasant morning trip, Delta.

This has been a record-setting day for walking.  My departure gate in KC was about halfway to Salt Lake City, and the arrival gate in SLC was about halfway back to KC.  Then, after getting settled in to my hotel room, I went out in search of breakfast and put a lot more wear on my comfy sandals.  Utah closes on Sundays, but I eventually found a Starbucks where I was able to enjoy a nice breakfast sandwich and a large cup of milk.  But it was a good long walk from the hotel.

This evening I walked even further to one of the two downtown malls - the other completely closes on Sundays.  Both malls are meandering, multi-level outdoor affairs, and there were very few eating options even in the one that had remained open in defiance of God and the ghost of Brigham Young.  But I finally stumbled into a very noisy Dave and Buster's where I had a messy, but very good, sandwich amid the noise of football games blaring from a variety of big-screen televisions.

My pedometer says I am currently just shy of 14,000 steps for the day.

The hotel where I am staying, The Plaza, sits next door to my research destination, The Family Search Library - aka The Mormon Library.  It, too, is closed on Sundays, but I will be there when the doors open in the morning.  My hotel room is on the backside of the 6th floor and looks out over the rooftop of The Family Search Library.  I also have a nice view of the Utah State Capitol which sits on the side of a hill several blocks away.  I walked to the Capitol building when I was last here six years ago and learned quite a bit about the state's interesting history - which has much of its genesis in my own state of Missouri.

All of today's walking was very tiring.  I suspect that I will sleep well tonight.  It will be nice to experience Utah when it is open for business tomorrow!