Day 31 (Minivan in the hospital)

Day 31
July 22, 2006
Salt Lake City

Frank woke up at 5:15 AM (for the first time in weeks) and showered in order to get on the road by 6 AM so that he could arrive at the Larry H. Miller Chrysler dealer when it opened at 7 AM. It wasn’t all bad waking up at that hour—he was treated to a spectacular sunrise studded with hundreds of little puffy clouds highlighted in hues of pink and purple that seemed to change every few seconds. He snapped about a dozen photos as he drove along.

He would have been on time except that he became confused by the street numbering scheme in Salt Lake City. The service manager, a very friendly and helpful guy named Jim had told Frank to take the I-15 exit for “106 South.” We had seen numerous towns in Arizona and Utah that numbered their streets instead of naming them. The way they number them is a little different than the way it’s done in the East, however. Instead of designating them First, Second, Third, etc., they are numbered as “100 South,” “300 West,” and “400 East,” so that your address might be 205 E. 100 South. What Frank failed to realize right away was that “106 South” is actually “10600 South.” When he went to 106 South, there was no Chrysler dealer to be found. He found it easily, at 7:15 AM, once he drove 12 miles to the south.

Todd Makin, the Orange Team’s service advisor, was very compassionate and vowed to fit our van into his packed schedule. Indeed, within ten minutes, Service Technician Mike Wilson carefully listened to the details of the A/C problem and whisked our white steed into the service bay for teasting and treatment. The attitudes displayed by everyone at the dealership were unmistakably different from those you might encounter from similar people working on a holiday weekend Saturday at home. Frank couldn’t help but wonder if this particular Chrysler dealership was unusual even for Salt Lake City or if the decency displayed by the employees there was typical of the area in general. Could this be the incarnation of Mormon values? Frank left with an Enterprise rental car to use for the day confident that if anything could be done to make the A/C work, the folks at Larry H. Miller would make it happen.

Frank agreed to meet the rest of the family at the Great Salt Lake, partly because we felt it would be a place we could all easily find but mostly because we wanted to see it. Our opinions were unanimous: Salt Lake didn’t quite live up to our expectations. It was hazy and sort of boring and it had a bit of a rank odor about it. Perhaps the coolest thing about the lake is Antelope Island, a large, hilly piece of public land where buffalo still roam free much like the wild ponies of Assateague Island. We only stayed at the lake for about 20 minutes before heading for downtown SLC.

The Latter Day Saints headquarters section of the city (Temple Square) was, on the other hand, very impressive. We marveled at how clean and well kept everything was. The temple and surrounding buildings, including a new conference center that seats 22,000 people, were just beautiful (exceeded a Disney architect’s knack for drama). We looked at what was built there by the Mormons and we marveled at what 12 million loyal congregants who all tithe can accomplish!

While we watched, three separate bridal parties posed for photos among the beautiful flower gardens in front of the temple. Later we learned that as many as 60 weddings are performed there on some Saturdays in May and June.

While we were tootleing around the huge fountain that forms the focal point of the complex, a “host” approached us and invited us to go with her to the 26th floor observation platform of the church’s office building. From there we could see for many miles in three directions while we were given a brief history lesson on the mass Mormon immigration to the valley where SLC now exists. We learned that Brigham Young led a group of Mormons who had been persecuted first in Ohio and then later in Illinois over the Wasatch Range in search of a place so unattractive that he could be sure no one would ever desire it and force them from it. It is said that on July 24, 1847, Young and a band of 140 followers first gazed down on the valley and Young proclaimed “This is it.” The land was a barren desert wasteland that even the Indians didn’t want, but Young knew about irrigation and figured there would be enough water in the mountains that surround the city on three sides to sustain their farms here. The rest is, as they say, history. Within a very short period of time, 70,000 more faithful followed. SLC is now a city of about 200,000 (60% Mormon) with a large suburban population surrounding it.

Frank received a phone call from the Chrysler dealer while we were on the roof of the Mormon headquarters building saying the car was ready. We ate lunch in “The Pantry,” a Mormon-run cafeteria-style restaurant in the LDS complex, before driving south to the dealership. The A/C was COLD in spite of the 101 degree temperature, and the passenger window and passenger-side sliding door worked like new! The diagnosis was a bad A/C compressor and motors on the window and door. Thanks Mike, Todd and Jim!

After we got the van out of the hospital, we drove to a local 17-screen Megaplex where Mom and Dad watched Superman, Sessy, Elliot and Emily watched Cars and Frank surfed the web in the snack bar. It’s hard to say who had more fun.

We had our last dinner together out at “Spaghetti Mama’s” across the street from the theatre before driving back to Mom and Dad’s hotel in Heber City. We checked our maps and made plans for tomorrow and then kissed and hugged goodbye.

It was hard to believe that, after traveling together for almost three weeks, we would be driving in separate directions and that we would be more than 800 miles apart within 24 hours. The time passed very quickly and we all felt the sadness that is familiar from the end of vacations past.

The overnight low was about 63 degrees—perfect for camping. We all slept well.