The mountain and the Mormons

Salt Lake City - 40°45'39.00"N 111°53'25.00"W

I've been here since last Thursday night. I spent the first few days staying at a Holiday Inn, and then I checked out yesterday, (Tuesday) spent the day at the University of Utah and met up with the latest host family that have been kind enough to put me up whilst I'm over here.

I'm now at the University of Utah using one of their computers whilst I wait to go to dinner with the staff who have been showing me around the university the past couple of days. Both the university and the community engagement centre that I've been visiting are awesome. The university itself actually hosted part of the Winter Olympics in 2002, with the opening ceremony taking place in the university football stadium (it's that big) and the student accommodation being used as the Olympic Village! (something to aim for James and Michael if you're reading this!)

A couple of you have commented on the absence of any mention of social/drinking activity taking place in the previous post that I put on here..........so I've sepnt the last few days out of my mind to make amends. - just kidding...........it was only one day........

Friday night I went to a sports bar and watched the local Utah "Jazz" basketball team play the L.A Lakers (they're a basketball team as well........ from L.A). Drunk American sports fans are hilarious, especially when the game's as close as this one that I watched. The Jazz won by just a couple of points and the locals went crazy shouting stuff like "yeeeeehaaaa", "USA, USA" and "OH YEH BROTHER, YOU GOTTA LOVE THE JAZZ"!...........I kept quiet and tried not to spill my beer whilst people I didn't know slapped me on the back.

On Saturday I left the hotel and started walking towards the city. Got to the City, looked at the Mormon Temple, took some photos and then started walking again.

I wasn't sure where I was going but I kept walking and walking until I left the Downtown area on the other side...........then I carried on walking some more. I was like a British version of Forest Gump.

I ended up on top of a mountain! , kind of. It might have been more of a big hill but for a man of my physical and athletic prowess, it was a mountain.

The mountain/hill was called Ensigns Peak/Everest, and it was the place from which Brigham Young (Mormon geezer) and his pals surveyed the Salt Lake valley and began to plan the layout of the city. "Fascinating stuff Wallace" I hear some of you cry, but it was fairly surprising to me considering that I hadn't even intended on climbing up there when I left the hotel.

I took a whole load of photos of the city, the mountains and the valley, before I stumbled on the sign in the picture at the top of this post. With Steve Irwin being dead and gone, I'm not really up on what to do if confronted with/bitten by a venomous snake..........so I got scared, started to need the toilet and climbed back down.

You can see how far I walked if you put the following GPS numbers into Google Earth.

My Hotel - 40°44'50.50"N 111°53'29.15"W

Ensigns Peak - N 40°47.663' W111°53.442'

In the evening I headed into town for a drink. In Salt Lake City, a lot of bars make you pay a temporary membership fee of $4 before you're even allowed to the bar. I thought about skipping it, but 'needs must' as they say.

I had a few drinks, played some pool with a few of the locals and watched an 80's tribute band dressed in wigs and drainpipes murder some classics. The locals loved it though, and for the encore a gang of large women started throwing themselves up onto the stage. They must have been Mormon, because in the absence of a winch or a crane only God could have got them up there!

I'll wrap this post up now though. I'm off to dinner in a bit before I head back to Anna and Rod's place (my host family) to back my bag, get a good nights sleep and then catch a flight to Vegas tomorrow.

In Vegas I'll be meeting up with my mate Kieran ('Kizza' to those of you that know him), and I'm sure we'll do our best to make sure that there's something to write about on here by the time we've finished! I"m hoping it'll be a little bit warmer there as well. It's been snowing here in SLC and the wind chill takes it down to about -10! Not only that but I've slipped over twice in public places. On both occasions I did my best to make it look like I meant to do it............ but a 4 year old girl still pointed and laughed at me.

M

p.s - PHOTOS! - there's a new link on the right hand side of the blog under the 'links' section. Click on it and you'll be taken to an online album of just some of the photos that I've uploaded. Hope you like them.