UTAH: Life Elevated

What a perfectly-worded slogan for Utah. Tonight, Mark will sleep in a REAL BED! It's hotel night :)

Bear Lake is crystal clear. These colors are REAL.

Arrived at the Alaskan Inn!! Mark's a happy guy.

Wouldn't feel like home without our stuffed animals.

Here's the view in the front of the hotel.

And here's our room! Oh, how wonderful "hotel night" is!

Went to downtown Ogden for a socially-distanced dinner in a courtyard.

Restaurant, Stellas, had a lovely dessert menu. Is the smile from the hotel room, the Golden Spike beers, or the molten chocolate cake? Answer: all of the above.

Alaskan Inn had great wifi and air conditioning. Beats the parking lot of Arctic Circle any day!

Welcome to Idaho!

Beautiful rolling hills welcome us into Idaho.

Montpelier, Idaho was our first stop. No wifi at the KOA, so we headed into town and parked at Arctic Circle for 4 hours so Mark could use their free wifi and get work done. Good sweet potato fries with "Fry Sauce" (a.k.a. Russian dressing). Click photo below for commercial!

Montpelier is a quiet town with its own newspaper, "The News-Examiner," The only paper in the world that cares about the Bear Lake Valley.

And the town features the LARGEST AND MOST COMPREHENSIVE Butch Cassidy Museum in the Universe!! (Judy was not convinced this was the ONLY museum on Butch Cassidy -- AND she is correct!)

But no place is perfect. There are at least THREE bad guys in Montpelier...

...AND THEIR SHARE OF CYBER BULLIES! Sign on the front door of the museum reads: ATTENTION: This is a private establishment. It is run part time as a hobby because I have a full time job elsewhere that supports my family. Please do not post negative comments about the museum being closed. Donations & purchase of merchandise will help keep this door open. Please do not complain, contribute instead. Thank you for your support. Hmph!

Our KOA site was right alongside a beautiful stream with rushing waters.

Sunset from the campground. Then a delicious Idaho potato hash for dinner (thanks for the recipe, Mol! Here's a sunset to show our thanks). We hear the stream as we fall asleep in the van. Lovely night.

Went for an early run in the morning, then headed out of town toward Utah. We passed the following sign in St Charles, Idaho, hometown of Gutzon Borglum. Who knew??

(Of course, Judy was so excited to learn more about her friend and obsession in Gutzon)

Another Escape Campervan Sighting!

Meet Greg, traveling from L.A. to Yellowstone and Grand Teton. He's driving the Big Sur, which sleeps FIVE (including the two up top). His vehicle is named "Stallion." (Btw, ours is named "Surreal.") We've sighted at least 6 other Escape Campervans on our trip, and we always honk and wave. And, to let you know how much Judy loves the Surreal, I have already asked the company if we can buy it at the end of our trip. This, in the category, of "Happy wife, happy life!" Okay, rebuttal from Judy: if we buy this you know I'm not going alone, so I guess you're liking it too??! To be continued...