7-4-2018 Park City, Utah

It is time to move along to Park City so as to be on time for the 4^th of July celebration.  Our camp site was in a pretty, grassy area along a small river at the base of the foothills.  A variety of birds and many cute furry little prairie dogs with names like Al, Isaac and Steve kept us company during our 4-night stay.  Our mission on the 3^rd was to scout out the town, learn the transportation and parking ropes and the parade route.  It was easy to do because there are free buses and trolleys every few minutes connecting everyone to everything day and night.

Park City is a ski town during the winter season but the locals don’t let the warm Summers slip by without capitalizing on the winter facilities.  The chair lifts carry visitors such as Rob and Lindy up the mountains.  We walked over the catwalks to another chair and then rode down.  There are other ways to descend as well.  Summer bobsleds in trough-like tracks, zip lines and roller coasters.  The activity level is fantastic.

Rob with the parade crowd headed for the park

The earlier the better on the morning of the parade so we parked at the high school and rode the bus to the parade route and found a good shady spot in plenty of time.  To kick off the event, four F-35s flew over in formation with alarming thunder and speed.  American patriotism was on full display with thousands of flags, marching bands playing Americana tunes, military service members and veterans and thousands of little Mormon babies clad in stars and stripes.  The funniest group in the parade was the “math club.”  A hundred kids walked with amusing signs such as, “triangular equality now.”  When the last parade display had passed, the entire crowd of onlookers flooded onto Main Street to march down to the park for bbq, games, bands and a beer garden!  (Yup, Utah has now been contaminated by The Invasion of the Beer Drinkers!)

Park City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics and Utah Olympic Park is still active.  The construction of the park began in 1991, long before they won the bid to host the games.  The enterprise was failing and money was growing scarce until Mitt Romney, then a private business man, stepped in and organized the effort.  It thrived and the park has now expanded to 400 acres.  Besides entertaining visitors with tours, bobsled rides, zip lines, simulators and a ski museum, the park has now been converted into an Olympic Training Site where athletes come from all over the world to practice year round.  Today, July 6^th before our departure, we had time to go to the park and watch the elite ski jumpers practice.  They go flying off the triple, double, single or mogul ski jumps, flip, spin and turn and land in the swimming pool.  The pool is 16 feet deep and impossible to heat so the water is a steady 60F and the jumpers wear wetsuits under their ski garb.  If the water were still, it would be like landing on concrete and thus, there is a pump before each jump that jettisons bubbling water out into the pool, activated when the skier gives a signal.  These water jets have 2 purposes:  the white water helps the skier orient himself to where “down” is and second, the surface tension of the water is broken up so that the athlete has a softer landing.  Our tour guide of yesterday, Aimee, is a competition downhill skier at the university level.  She dreams of being an Olympian but it is a full-time commitment and she giggles, “I don’t want to be a college dropout.”  We ran into her again today and she informed us that the elite ski jumpers we were watching are the Australian mogulists.  It is quite a learning experience to watch the Olympic level skiers perform.  For a fee, I could have tried the mini jump myself but maybe I’ll leave this challenge to younger bones and stick to the pickleball courts where feet are commonly in contact with Mother Earth.

Lindy at the freestyle jumps

Happy 4th of July!  God Bless America!