Friday was our last full day in Utah so we decided to check out Park City. The drive was an easy hour outside of Riverton and we reached historic Main Street before most of the other tourists. Park City was quaint and very dog-friendly. Blue received treats and love at almost every shop we went to. And all over town, we were stopped by people wanting to pet or say “hi” to him. The reception we got makes me believe that Blue could have been voted Mayor of Park City. And of course, that would make me Mayoral Mama.
We left Riverton around 9am and had plans to check out Zion National Park before reaching Primm, the last stop of our 5+ state road trip. It was about 10:15am when I started to get hungry and after confirming that McDonald’s serves breakfast until 10:30 or 11a, I figured we’d see a few before breakfast hours stopped. I am convinced David put a curse on this trip as I can’t seem to be near a McDonald’s when I want a sausage egg McMuffin. This map shows my location (the infamous blue dot that my mom still uses to track my adventures even though I’m traveling with my husband) and all of the McDonald’s’ in the opposite direction to where we were headed. In a weird way, Utah and Mexico have some remote areas where even the Golden Arches aren’t found.
Zion was a unique place to visit – it felt like we were on Mars. I was waiting for little green men to come out and take David back to his home planet. The color of the rock and dirt ranged from reds to oranges and even green. We had to settle for seeing Zion from our car and not on the scenic shuttle bus through the park since dogs are not allowed on the park shuttles. We drove through 2 tunnels and ended up exiting the park at the east entrance. Now you’re probably wondering why I say 5+ states since we only planned to hit Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Nevada and California. But somewhere in exiting Zion and heading to Primm, we traversed into and out of Arizona. So surprise, we accidentally passed through 6 states in total!
Our last stop on this journey was a pre-planned stop in Primm at Buffalo Bill’s. At this point in the journey, I wish we had just driven straight through to San Diego. I loved a lot of the trip and got to see family that I haven’t seen in 5 years. But parts of the trip included quite a few white-knuckles from David’s driving. I have plans to rent an RV one of these days to see if we would like to travel that way. I also have plans to outsource the driving to someone else! You can love someone and hate their driving; both things can be true. Buffalo Bill’s deserves all 2.5 stars it is rated, probably 0 if we’re being honest. The room was old and furniture in disarray. Don’t even get me started about the food – there were limited options and nothing was good except the $32 mashed potatoes at the buffet. But we knew what to expect and will plan better in the future. Speaking of future planning, we have since learned that Blue is not a hotel dog. Every time someone walked by our door just talking, he barked. I got no sleep and when I opened my eyes at 6:46am on a Sunday, I looked over at David and said, “let’s go home.” We’re now on the road back to San Diego.
Overall, we traveled ~2,900 miles starting in San Diego and looping through Klamath Falls/Crater Lake, stopping for 3 days in Boise to see my cousin Chris and his family, taking some downtime in Riverton and roughing it for a night in Primm before reaching final destination: HOME. It will be good to be back and rest my head on my pillow. A few more trips for me coming up this year and it’s starting to feel like this Gypsy Girl has awakened her travel bug. Where to next??!
There She Goes... 