We only had one full day to check out Salt Lake City, but we packed a lot in. We rode a plethora of bike trails this day. Although a bit chilly, we had a nice clear day for riding and viewing the gorgeous Utah scenery. We started the morning riding from our hotel on the Airport Trail over to the Jordan River Parkway Trail. The Jordan River Parkway Trail led us to the Legacy Parkway Trail, a lovely trail that took us north of the city. The Legacy trail has no road crossings for miles, which makes it really fast and fun. After going quite a few miles, we missed a hard right turn on the Legacy Trail and ended up on a rail trail up in the Farmington area. This one was also nice but had a lot of road crossings, every one with a gate to go around. We continued on this trail until we finally decided to stop so we'd have enough time to ride around downtown. Barry had read about a "Cycle the City" loop that sounded fun. So, we turned around and headed south to downtown Salt Lake City. These signs marked the cycle route, but they weren't always quite as easy to find as we'd hoped. We took a few wrong turns but managed to get back on course pretty quickly. There was a fair amount of traffic and some construction in areas where we couldn't ride bike lanes, but overall, the city was more bike friendly than I expected. And there were plenty of sights to see. You'll have to squint to see me in this photo of the capital building. Can you find me? We walked our bikes respectfully through Temple Square, the centerpiece of the LDS church in Salt Lake City, but somehow did not get any photos of the main LDS temple. Here's a photo from Wikipedia. We had to cut our downtown exploration a little short as we realized that it was getting a bit late and we were already going to have 60 miles in by the time we got back to the hotel. So, we headed back. Looking beyond the airport, the majestic snow-capped peaks are evident. I can see why Utah is such a prime ski destination. After putting the bikes away and cleaning up, we met a co-worker from the old Nortel days in Research Triangle Park (North Carolina) at a Mexican restaurant he recommended. John is living and working in Salt Lake City now, and it was so much fun to see him again since we rarely have the opportunity to reconnect with friends while we are on the road. I love this photo he took of the two of us. Even though we are still holdouts, I gotta admit, those new-fangled iPhones (he has an iPhone 6) do take good photos! His photo is much crisper than the one our server took of us with my camera, but that may have just been a bad setting (I hope). The Red Iguana specializes in mole, so our server brought us out a small plate with a dab of each of the different moles so we could try them. They were all good, making for a very difficult choice. I ended up with pork enchiladas with mango mole, and Barry ordered chicken with their very spiciest mole! Both were very, very good. If you're in Salt Lake, don't miss the Red Iguana! A dinner out with an old friend was a wonderful way to wind up our time in Salt Lake City -- thanks John!
Next up, we point our car southward and land in Durango, Colorado, where we hook up with another old work friend and have another fantastic bike ride. Stay tuned!
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Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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