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Friday, April 16, 2010

Swallowed by Utah

Nearing the end of our drive to Ogden UT, we descended into a deep canyon and were met with a series of industrial-strength wind gusts.

We already had been introduced to western winds that morning when, just west of Cheyenne on I-80, we passed two semis - one jack-knifed in a big ditch, the other on its side, both blown off the road. The wind kept at us all day as we crossed the high plains and the mountains.

One shouldn’t expect too much wind in a canyon, not anything like the mountains. These blasts, however, seemed driven by the devil. They carried sand and small rocks from the canyon walls, drove them into the newly repaired paint of our car and pitted the front window in a thousand places, as though with bird shot. For good measure we were slammed on the side with a mightily flung and good-sized piece of metal, branding the Accord with yet another reason to have stayed home.

Welcome to Utah, pilgrims.

We had come there to celebrate the promotion of my Air Force son to the rank of tech sergeant. It’s a big deal, rank-wise and pay-wise.

His squadron held an informal ceremony, which included the symbolic pasting-on of the stripes by the fists of airmen. Maybe because Mom was watching, Lance didn’t take much of a beating. However, Mom and Lance’s wife, Shannon, got the first chance to take a shot at him and here’s a an official Air Force photo of the unbridled cruelty of that moment.



We had planned to stay four days, that we might get reacquainted with our 17-month-old grandson, Preston. This is when I began teaching him how to write, as he snatched my pen, clicked it several times before surrendering it, only to grab it from my pocket again.



Though four days would have been plenty, storms from the northwest kept barreling across northern Utah and bringing snow and high winds to Wyoming. That was when Ohio was in the 70’s, flowers coming on strong and folks back here were frolicking in summer clothes. It was only after the eighth day that we found a clear trough in the weather to follow eastward back to Ohio.

Playing with one’s grandson for days on end is pretty neat, but better things might happen to a person than being stuck so far away and for so long.

1 comment:

  1. Sorry to hear about the car damage Bruce. Utah can surely be a brutal place. When you travel out west, you have to wonder how the pioneers survived it.

    I can't find much info on the Net, but I remember reading an article in a trucking magazine about why I-80 in Wyoming is such a problem. The Indians warned them not to build a road through the area as it was known to be impassable for so much of the year throughout their history. Politics got involved and they ignored the warnings. The "Snow Chi Minh" trail has been cursed ever since.

    Glad to see you've got a boy doing good in the Air Force! I'd say you raised him right. :-)It's no easy task to get rank in the Air Force. Job well done.

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