The Road to Salt Lake
We turn North for the final time, driving homeward towards Salt Lake and the airport. It is quiet on this trip. Then the rain begins again. This is a hard rain to be proud of - severe thunderstorm warnings and winds upwards of sixty miles per hour sweep the car. Thank heavens for my considerable Texas-based experience at driving in... driving rain.
The rain eventually drizzles away. The storm blows East into Colorado, and we travel North and out from underneath the storm. It leaves us with only a rainbow.
As we arrive in Salt Lake, the wind picks up again, and there is a dust storm. Truly fantastic to watch it blot out the sun, and cast long, muted red shadows across the countryside.
We see Andrew and Marian and Daniel one more time, and reward young Daniel with a colorful plush dinosaur from the Price museum's gift shop. We again find that time flies in their company as the conversation again wanders in that very Grinnellian way from science to religion to art and literature, somehow still managing to keep every beat in course and all of it relevant and connected.
As a result, we leave their home rather later in the evening to begin our search for a cheap motel to spend the night. In most major cities, this would prove no difficulty as the airport is usually surrounded by the things - a deer at bay by wolves. Salt Lake City proves surprising again, and we must hunt along the outer edge of Loop 215 until we finally find a small pack.
When we do pull over, we find that the first motel we enter is literally booked completely solid just as I walk in through the door. The second hotel has a room available, but they ask an unreasonable price for a single night. It is late, and all parties need sleep to rise and fly the next day. It is here that I learn an important lesson in modern commerce: I remove nearly twenty dollars from the woman's quoted price merely by asking if they have a more reduced or reasonable rate, as I am willing to continue searching for their nearby competitors. Haggling is still alive and well in capitalist America, and the only fixed price is the one you are willing to pay.
It is rather more of a hotel room than I had expected. For only a little more than our first night on the edge of SLC, we find wireless internet access, a bed larger than any I have slept in, two televisions, and a living room with a couch and a loveseat. This place lacks only a kitchen, and I would be ready to move on in. Too bad that everyone is too tired and leaving too early the next morning to truly appreciate it.