Utah

    My destination this time was Utah. I usually had a window seat on my flights, and I enjoyed studying the different views as I made my way across the country. This flight gave me mountains to study, and fields with circles in them.It was some time before I worked out what made those perfect circles....a large piece of machinery on wheels with long arms that slowly rotated around the field. This might be used for spreading some type of spray around fields? Hard to describe, probably something that is common to many but I hadn't seen either the machinery, or the circles it created, before. A smooth landing after a turbulent flight and I was ready to meet Eric. A recent widower, he was still coming to terms with living alone again. He was a little unsure of his ability to entertain and this showed in his nervousness when we met. Bags uplifted and we were soon on the road to his home.

    Waiting to greet us was Max, Eric's companion. Dark wavy hair, deep brown eyes, friendly, a little too friendly, as he slowly moved closer and closer to me. I had to finally tell him he was too big to sit on my lap. Max and I communicated despite not having a mutual language, he understood "no", "walk" and "bed". Being sent to bed sent him slinking off to the back room, tail between his legs, while looking mournfully back at us. As Eric had often shaken his head at my lack of computer knowledge he decided to do something about it while I was there. His thinking, which did make sense, was that it would be easy to show me things now, rather than answer the often urgent requests he got for help. He shook his head even more when he realised that, as long as I knew enough about the computer to chat, then that was enough for me. Eric reminded me, that, much to my amazment, computers were for more than just chatting!

    The next morning we headed out early, a full day of sightseeing was planned. Max was left behind on guard duty after he had made it known that he would rather be sitting on my lap than on the floor. The truck wasn't big enough for the three of us! We started at Park City and a drive up the mountains. This was scary, driving over snow covered roads, well, ruts rather than road, with me avoiding looking out my window as I couldn't see the edge of the road, just a drop down the mountain side! The ruts petered out, leaving us driving over rocky ground, across a small stream or two before turning around to go back down the mountain. Stopping frequently on the way down to point out sights with me trying to temper my uneasiness about the lack of road on my side of the vehicle. Nodding and muttering, "yep, I can see it" in the hope that we could get down onto a "proper" road while wondering just how people drove in those conditions every day! Going to Park City we saw the ski run was marked out and the work already begun in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics. The main street of the town was undergoing a makeover with buildings renovated and gleaming with fresh paint. Moving behind the main street was a step back in time. Old miners cottages, many in disrepair, some more fortunate in that they had been restored to their original condition. One building amused me, it was intact in that there was nothing broken, windows or walls, it's only problem was that it leaned........badly so.

    Stopping at a diner for lunch, we were entertained with the staff discussing personal issues in full earshot of the diners. By the time we left, we knew all the private business of one staff member and his family, which seemed to involve all the staff as they appeared to be related to each other in some way or another, maybe a result of the high incidence of intermarriages in the area? It was better than watching "Days of our Lives"! Driving in comfort, we went along the Morman Trail with Eric providing an in depth description of the hardships that would have been encountered on that journey so many years ago. Looking at the bush covered, mountainous countryside I had to admire the stamina and determination of those pioneers. I wondered how many times they might have come to an impassable stretch of land and have to turn back and try another route. While reading the monument dedicated to these adventurers, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, my first sighting of a chipmunk. Wildlife was rampant here, darting among the trees were mule eared deer, strange looking creatures with ears far out of proportion to their head. Many times we passed signs warning motorists that deer would be crossing at certain places. Road crossings had been painted, at the insistance of kind hearted locals concerned at the number of deer hit by vehicles. Unfortunately, nobody had taught the deer to read the signs and use the crossings and the number of fatalities had not decreased. Anyone surprised????

    Making our way home, Eric worked out that our day of sightseeing had taken us over 250 miles. Feeling weary, the thought of pizza for dinner and an early night was appealing, and, with another early morning facing me, it was also wise. Nearing the house, I blinked in disbelief. a "Kiwi Pie Shop". I couldn't believe my eyes, here, in the middle of Utah, was a pie shop, and a kiwi one at that! Being late in the day, the shop was closed so I didn't get the chance to test how genuine the pies were. Eric couldn't help on this one, he had never tasted a true kiwi pie. That will remain my mystery in Utah, is the kiwi pie really a kiwi pie???

    Morning arrived far too soon, I had been on the computer the night before and again stayed up too late. (Nothing new in that!) On the way to the airport, Eric teased me both about chatting so late, and who I was chatting with. Like everyone else, Eric wished Mike and I the best for the future. At the airport, as Eric was saying goodbye, I think I detected a little relief. My visit had forced him to converse, and he had already told me that he hadn't talked so much for quite some time. My response was that I had done a good job, it was good practice for when he started getting out and meeting people. While Max is a great companion, he falls short in the conversation department, and Eric had not got back into socialising. That was about to change! (An update.....Eric, taking that big step of moving on with his life, recently moved to Florida, met a lady and plans to marry shortly....:o))