Leaving Salt Lake City

We've extended our stay here in Salt Lake City and although we've had a grand time its finally time to hit the road.   We leave in the morning, finger's crossed!

Last week we were in Provo for a stopover night.   Our spot at the Provo Elks lodge was so pleasant that we figured we'd stay one extra day and do a bit of exploring.     We passed a Jeep dealer so we stopped in to see what options we may have if we decided to trade in our 2015 Grand Cherokee.   We've been thinking of changing to a Wrangler Sport but wanted leather seats with lumbar support and a navigation system and wondered if those things were available.    We found out that they are not options and to get them we'd have to move up to a much more expensive model.   Ah well.  

To make a very long story short, our Irish salesman John, offered to get us exactly what we wanted by selling us a stock Wrangler sport and then swapping out the seats and radio for leather/lumbar,  a navigation/radio system AND deliver it to us in the time we had available.

 So, we signed on the dotted line.

  Unfortunately, the base Jeep he found for us was in Tucson and had to be transported to Provo, then leather seats and nav. system installed.   After all that, it needed to be readied for flat towing behind Beluga.

We ended up staying in Salt Lake for 4 days more than originally planned while the "magic" was happening in Provo.  Not a hardship, it gave us a few more days to enjoy the company of our friends and perhaps see more of the area we've really just driven through.    Dave was able to get in a little more golf, we had a few more delicious dinners and had a chance to tour Red Butte Garden.

  We had a bit of a rough patch during the process, necessitating a few more hours spent back in Provo, but ultimately we have the exact vehicle we were looking for and we love it!

While waiting in  Provo we checked out Utah Lake State Park.   I've been wanting to see the lake so we turned the delay into an opportunity to explore.

Utah Lake

The lake was pretty with the snow capped mountains in the distance, but a annoying hatch of mayflies kept us in the car most of the time.   They don't sting, but my do they swarm!

Once the new Jeep was finally in our possession and at Beluga's side, Dave hooked up the newly installed lights and braking system to make sure they worked nicely together.     They didn't.

our uniformed tech. getting down to business

 Luckily Mr. David's A-1 Connection Consultants, LLC was in the area and we were able to persuade the owner to send his best man to the Pony Express RV Resort, site B-11, to lend his considerable experience to solving our problem.

He didn't let us down.   After a few hours of work and a serious personal meltdown, the deed was done and the cute little Jeep was winking its lights at us on request.   Phew.     Thanks again Mr. David, I don't know what I'd do without you.

We spent today taking care of the normal day before leaving details and got acquainted with our new vehicle.   Dave remounted the satellite radio antenna, cleaned up some rough edges that the other guy left  and we managed to pack all our "good stuff" into the back of the Jeep.  

We met Jack and Marilyn for one last dinner and a quick stop at Trader Joe's before heading to bed, happy with our visit and our purchase.

Dave and Jack admire our new baby

Tomorrow we're on the road again at last!