Park City and Sundance Utah

Park city and Sundance….

  We arrived late Monday night in Park City. Jimmie was so tired driving he just took an exit and parked in a neighborhood. He climbed back in bed and we were both out for the night. One thing we love about our travato is the ability to park and sleep just about anywhere. With a big trailer or RV it’s a lot harder to do that. Also this travato is not only small, and I don’t want to sound snobby, but its just classy enough people don’t assume your homeless people sleeping in it. Although I understand many do live full time in their campers now and I have to tell you its not a bad life. A few years back we bought a camper van from my brother that was a converted old Red Cross transport bus. It was very rustic, lets call it that. I loved the thing! I had so many fond memories of my brother taking me in it and we would park on the beach and eat popcorn and drink whiskey. He decided to sell it to us for 2,500 bucks. We thought it would be a cool thing to have in Santa Cruz so we headed up to Oregon to bring it home. There was one caveat we didn’t consider, well actually there was quit a few things we didn’t consider,  one was that it ran on propane instead of gas. In Oregon people apparently use a lot more propane so its easy to find and fairly cheap. Once we crossed the California border it was harder and harder to find and this bus of ours guzzled up the propane like a thirsty sailor guzzles beer. Not only was the propane hard to find but it was extremely expensive. There was another problem, when we left Oregon it was pouring. I mean a torrential down pour, Noah’s ark kind of rain. Jon Jon, my brother, said “well the bus doesn’t like cold  so I keep this hair dryer handy and use it on high and point it here toward the propane, to warm up the propane”. Does that sound safe even? So every time we stopped our van it apparently got cold and wouldn’t start. Apparently the hair dryer trick only worked for Jon Jon. The ride back was stressful to say the least. Jimmie was ranting the whole ten hour drive home “this is the stupidest thing I have ever done”. We decided to park at Walmart in Ukiah because campers can stay there for free. Again the van wouldn’t start back up. As Jimmie was standing in the pouring rain trying not to loose his crap completely a woman in her hippie bus parked next to us started to vomit all over the parking lot. The look on Jimmies face was one I will never forget. We slept in Walmart that night with the homeless people contemplating the wisdom of the decision. I always held out hope for the bus but it just never worked out for us. 

  The only other voyage we had in that bus was to Costa Noa, a beautiful glamping spot south of San Fransisco. I pulled my vintage 1957 Kencraft trailer and my friend Diane drove the van behind me. When we pulled up the lady who worked in the little hut where you check in came out waving her finger. “Oh NO NO NO. WHAT IS THAT?” I said “that is my camper van”. Long story short they wouldn’t even let us park it in our camp sight. Diane heard a lady walk by with her little daughter and ask “mommy what is that?” She answered “that’s despicable”. After that we called our van the despicable beast. Since when did camping get so snobby?

  Anyhow, in our  travato we get away with a lot more. We can sleep pretty much wherever. Our inside joke is we only stay at the finest hotels. We love to enjoy a nice dinner or maybe a visit to a spa and then climb in to our little rolling fort for the night.

  Back to Utah. This is what got me on this tangent. We woke up in a very ritzy neighborhood. We never linger and we don’t park directly in front of peoples homes, unless were to tired to know the difference. We try our best to be respectful in our vagabond adventures, but love the freedom and flexibility that comes with this van. Something we  never had in the despicable beast. 

  Park City is truly beautiful. It’s one of the cleanest cities I have ever come across in the states. It definitely reminded us of Switzerland and gives any other ski resort towns I have been to a run for their money. We found the Park City Rv resort and got a spot right on a lovely little creek with a grassy green area to park our chairs. Park city has a charming downtown Main st. area with great shops and restaurants. We ate breakfast at the Eating Establishment. It was very good, but the service left a lot to be desired. We noticed most places lacked customer service for the most part, but that’s what you sometimes get in a resort area. The town itself was a lot of fun to walk around with many art galleries and eye candy architecture. I always thought of Utah as kind of a dry state and wasn’t expecting to find one of the best whiskey bars I have personally been too. High West distillery had really incredible cocktails. I had the Josepa  which was made with double rye/Jamaican rum/ Fernet Branco/ coconut/pineapple /beet/mezcal and habanero. Nothing better than an artistically designed cocktail. 

  Jimmie found one of those escape room places. We have never done that before so we thought it would be fun to try. The room was set up like a mine. We were told we had one hour to escape or we would run out of air. We had to find clues and solve puzzles in order to unlock ourselves and escape to the other room. After a while we found a hidden door to another room full of more puzzles to solve. Jimmie was totally in to it. There was a screen and we knew we were being watched so we could ask for clues. I kept asking for clues and Jimmie kept accusing me of cheating. The room had props, like old lanterns, lunch boxes and a bottle of whiskey glued to a table. After about half an hour I started getting a bit bored and decided if my life depended on it I’d never solve all these problems and unlock all these locks. If this were real I’d say my prayers then drink that whiskey and lay down and go to sleep. Good thing I have Jimmie around and his brains. We still died in that room even with all my “cheating”. It was a fun team building experience for a couple who has been married 30 years.

  We also did a hike up to Bloods lake. I am not sure why it is called that although hiking in such high altitude I did feel like I could die. It was worth it and the scenery was breathtaking.

  After leaving park city we took the scenic route to Sundance. I can’t get over how clean and beautiful Utah is. It’s a nature lovers dream here. There is no shortage of rivers, lakes, fishing, boating, hiking, biking and skiing. The mountains are dramatic and so green and healthy looking, especially knowing there is such a drought everywhere. While driving you could spend a whole day photographing old barns. You don’t see any run down houses with extra cars around. Everything is pristine. They must shoo those people out of town. 

  Sundance is a stunning resort. There’s lots to do here even in summer. As I write this Jimmie is zip lining down the mountain. I was not in the least bit interested. I hate heights and don’t understand the idea of paying money to be scared. I am sure this will be an experience he never will forget. They said you go like 65-70 miles an hour 500 ft above ground down an 8,000 foot mountain. It is the 3rd longest zip line in the US and the biggest elevation drop in the US. No thanks. I went shopping in the Sundance general store. They have the coolest art studio where you can take silversmith classes and make your own ring. I wish I would have know about that sooner.

  Well we are having a wonderful time and were just getting started. We have no real agenda, just going where the wind blows. Or wherever the wind blows the smoke away.