It is my 4th day of suffering with a flu virus. Dana would add that it is her 4th day of suffering too.... Has anyone seen that TV commercial where the husband is sick with a virus and is dressed to look like a small child? Well, you get the idea....
As I am on the mend, actually feeling pretty good tonight, I thought I would do a blog post on a couple of oddities from our trip to Arizona. As you may already know this year we choose, well I guess it was my recommendation, to avoid California and head east, then southeast to Az. We decided that rather than going south through Nevada, a route we know well, but in reverse, we would go further east to Utah and catch the Interstate south.
Utah is an interesting State. Outside of the major urban centres of Salt Lake City and Orem (these two cities run together like Vancouver and Burnaby maybe not quite as big) there are very few "coffee shops". About an hour or so after we left Orem heading south on Interstate 15 I asked Gracie, she's our navigation voice, for a list of coffee shops "near here". After a long pause she gave one of her unhappy tones and said "I'm sorry.....". Fine, then I asked here for coffee shops along our route thinking this would expand her reach. I think she showed us one coming up in about 278 miles.... Finally, and now desperate for a coffee, I take the next exit and stop at a restaurant. I run inside and am met by a young, blond, clean cut, well dressed fellow (I know what your thinking but I refuse to stereotype). I asked for a cup of coffee to go. He said, "sure I'll be right back". Moments later he comes back with a large Styrofoam drink cup filled with coffee. He offers cream and sugar. He also gives me a lid. It has a hole for a straw. He apologizes for the lid and told me that they don't have "fancy" coffee lids. I tell him that coffee seems to be very rare in Utah. He chuckled and said it is and that most people don't drink it. Whoa.... Did I just hear that? Coming from the West Coast where not only a lot of people drink coffee but we have a coffee culture, I'm thinking right way that this is just wrong, at the very least weird. I take the coffee thinking that it will get poured out rather than drank and I head for the parking lot. I have to say, the coffee was good, even if the lid was useless. The young "ute" was very kind and he helped me out in a way he probably didn't fully comprehend. Can't ask for more than that.
My second story is also about coffee, plus tea, and something a bit more serious. We were approaching Mesquite, Nevada. Golfers might know this town for being home to the annual World Long Drive Competition. It was mid-afternoon and we were in need of caffeine. Gracie, you remember her, told us to take Exit whatever and we did. Now out of Utah, Starbucks seem to be everywhere, no doubt to feed the caffeine deprived travellers from the north. We get off the Interstate and I see the familiar green beacon beckoning us to the Starbucks somewhere in a large building. I whip into the parking lot, find rock star parking and we jump out of the 4Runner and head to the front doors. We push open the doors and find ourselves in a Casino! Rather than leave I ask someone at the "bank" desk where the Starbucks is located. You guessed. At the far end of the Casino. We marched to the far end. I am sure Dana was holding her breath all the time muttering that her clothes are going to stink. We get our coffee and tea. I was relieved to see some exit doors nearby thinking that Dana would at least be able to make a quick escape and save me from any future ridicule over this, my latest "good idea". I asked the server if we could exit through those doors. She looked at me as if to say "why would you want to do that"? She said "no, those are emergency doors and if you open them an alarm will sound". I made a quick assessment of the pros and cons of the matter and elected to recommend we walk the full length of the building back to the door we came in. I'll face the music later..... Once back on the road we shared thoughts on what we saw in the Casino. I'm afraid what we recalled was the sad faces at the slot and video terminals. Dana recalled on older man sleeping at his terminal. Don't get me wrong. I have been to Casinos. I can honestly say that I have enjoyed my experience. Would have enjoyed it more if I had won.... However, it is impossible to deny the addictive nature of gambling. I don't think that Casinos are bad. I think there are elements (private business and governments) involved in the business that are motivated by greed and profit and are not at all concerned about the addiction side. Some may say that people need to exercise more judgement and control. To these folks I say, you may be able to spell addiction, but you don't understand the very nature of addiction.
Well, to be honest I did not start writing to get into addiction. I just write where my mind takes me and sometimes that journey is a bit of an adventure. Hope you enjoyed the stories. By the way, the people we met in Utah were all fantastic, even if they didn't all offer coffee. Maybe I have a coffee addiction to deal with......Nah....
Bye for now!
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