Friday, October 13 - Arrival

I am sorry it has taken so long to post blog entries, but getting access to the internet has been more difficult than I imagined.

We all arrived safely in Salt Lake City, five of us on the same flight and Chris B. landing within an hour on a different flight. Jeff was bumped from his original flight because it was overbooked, and not only was he moved to the same flight as the rest of us, but he got a free ticket to anywahere in the US. Seemed like an auspicious start to the trip.

After picking up bags, we headed out to get our rented van. Scott had made all the arragements so we followed his lead. After unsuccessfully trying to us an Ohio Bar Association ID to get a discount, we were given the keys and pointed in the direction of the parking lot. After a little wandering around we found our brand new, white van and pilled in. When Scott tried to start the engine, the key would not work. After some confusion, Scott realizes that we are in the wrong van. So, with much laughter and jabs at Scott, we unloaded the van and set off again in search of our van. We finally located it in a far corner of the parking lot where they clearly kept the "less desireable" vehicles. Not only was this van not brand new, or white, but it smelled like cigarette smoke and was pretty well beat up inside. Although it was a little bit of a let down from the other van, it is probably just as well given where we are headed and the abuse we will no doubt dispence.

Ensconced in our beater van we left the airport with directions to a place to get dinner off of I-215 south of Salt Lake City. We had no trouble getting on to I-215, but were not able to locate the restaurant. After driving around for a while, and, this should go without saying in a car full of men, not asking for directions, we decided to eat at a Mexican restaurant we had driven by. The restaurant was fine, and we had a cute young waitress who did a good job flirting with us to boost her tip. I think it worked.

Well fed and in a joveal mood, we again set off for our planned stop in Price, Utah, which lies about half way between Salt Lake City and Moab. The drive took us throught the mountains, but it was too dark to see anything, except when our headlights briefly illuminated the giant form of a male elk standing right next to the highway. Scott, although generally doing an excellent job driving, failed to notice this potential hazard.

We arrived in Price without incident, and proceeded to drive right past our hotel. Now Price is not a very large town (population ~9000), and the chances of it having two Holiday Inns would be slim to none, but somehow we got it into our heads that the one we just drove by could not be ours. We cruzed Price's main drag and came out on the other side of town without encountering another Holiday Inn (surprise). Eventually, we stopped and Scott called the number we had for OUR Holiday Inn. Ashley at the one Holiday Inn in Price informed us that we had driven by it, but Scott was still not convinced so he asked if she had a reservation for a Scott Smith. She verfied that in fact she had such a reservation, but he had not yet checked in.  Scot informed here that that jerk had not checked in yet becasue he was looking for the other Holiday Inn in Price. 

We did eventually make it back to the one Holiday Inn in Price, and checked in without further mishap. The beds were comfortable, and it did not take long for us to fall asleep given that it was about 2 am our time. This may account for some of the confusion, but that did not stop us from giving Scott a hard time.