We spent a month in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am still trying to get caught up with my posts from then to where we are now. We had so many fun experiences...I don't want to leave anything out!
In addition to the places and things I have already talked about, we also.............
*Met some great people!
The kids formed some fast friendships and had so much fun playing at the campground with their new friends. They rode bikes and scooters. Put on "shows" for each other. Played at the playground, the pool, and on quilts in our yard.
One of our neighbors taught the girls how to make jewelry. The girls LOVE this new hobby. Ashlyn spent her birthday money on beads, wire, and clasps :).
We met another full time rving family with kids. It was fun to talk with them and get some helpful tips.
*Saw some interesting things...
The city at night was beautiful, we loved looking at the lights. Downtown you can take a horse drawn carriage ride.
The Wal-Mart has a multi-level parking garage with an escalator to get down into the store. To get your cart back to your vehicle, there are 2 up escalators. One for you and one that your cart snaps into, you meet at the top. I'm not really a fan of Wal-Mart, but the escalator thingee was neat :).
We visited Willard Bay State Park. A fresh water lake on the edge of the Salt Lake.
*Did some shopping...
We spent a day in Draper, Utah shopping at Camping World and IKEA. We got some things at each place for the camper that I will tell you about later.
The kids needed a few clothes, so we went to Old Navy. Shirts for $1.97? Yes, please :).
T J Maxx. Need I say more?
*Ate some good food...
The kids wanted to eat at Crown Burger because Adam Richman from Man Vs Food ate there. They had really good gyros.
We ate lots of Mexican style food. There was a Mexican grocery just a few miles south of our campground that we went to several times. Their prices were super affordable, we bought and cooked all sorts of things.
Just a few miles north of our campground was a sorta fancy grocery store in Bountiful, Utah. They made their own sushi daily and it was SO GOOD. Even the kids all thought so. They also sold gelato. The salted caramel was my favorite.
Of course we had our not so good moments, too. I don't like to dwell on the bad, but it was a part of our experience and so I will tell you about it.
The campground we stayed at was Pony Express RV Resort in North Salt Lake. I have told you the enjoyable parts of our stay there, now for the bad...
The laundry room was terrible. This is a big deal when you are trying to do laundry for 7 people. They only have 5 washers and 3 dryers that work for 175 sites. I got yelled at by the maintenance man when I told him that the dryer just blew cool air even on the hottest setting. (I ran it 2 full times and my clothes were still wet. I later found out that the 2 broken dryers have been that way for months.) After being yelled at for telling the man in charge of fixing things that the dryer was broken, I had an "aha" moment. I got online and found a laundry mat nearby to use instead. If you ever stay at the Pony Express skip their laundry and go to the Maytag Laundromat in Bountiful. WAY better. Their machines actually work and nobody yells at you.
The campground advertises how secure they are with a fence and a coded gate to enter. The gate was broken a good portion of the time we were there and so it just stayed open. There is also a 35 mile long bike path that goes right past the campground. There is access to this path from the campground through an unlocked gate. Our site was close to this gate and I saw several people come off the path to use the campground bathrooms. One lady who came off the trail kept trying to open the door when one of my kids was in the bathroom, fortunately it was locked and she couldn't get in. So, it's not as "secure" as they say.
There were a few other minor things, but really the worst part of the "bad" was when the man was yelling at me. He got so mad that his face and the whites of his eyes turned red. My kids were with me, so they witnessed the entire thing. We were in the laundry room at around 9pm, so it was dark outside. Then, when we were driving back to our campsite I looked in my rear view mirror and he was behind us in his truck. That scared me. Thankfully, he drove on past.
Our camper had some issues...
The one thing I was nervous about, the camper plumbing, had issues within days of Dan leaving for work. EEK! We have 2 bathrooms, and 1 of the toilets partially clogged. It would "burp" when we tried to flush it (you are gonna have to google it, I'm not going into details). Fortunately it was an easy fix. I filled the black tank with water all the way up to the tippy top by holding down the toilet lever thing. Let that sit for a full day and night. Then emptied the black tank. I didn't add anything to unclog it other than the blue stuff we always put in there and the water.
One of our air conditioners died. The motor went out on it for no apparent reason. So thankful that we have a 2 year warranty! On the bright side, at least it was the unit in the master bedroom and not the one in the main living area.
Our camper started leaking. The crazy part? It started leaking the day after Dan returned from work. I thank God for holding it together until then. (I would have noticed it, there was a big wet spot on the concrete under the front of the camper.) This sent us scrambling to find a warranty repair shop. We were able to get in at a place nearby and they found dozens of leaks in the fresh water pipes where they weren't crimped properly at the factory. They had to pull out the hot water heater and furnace, but got all the leaks fixed and everything put back together.
So, there you have it. The bad just makes us appreciate the good even more...
No comments:
Post a Comment