Dispatches from Pops: SSRT Day 9: Salt Lake City, UT

The beautiful Utah Animal Adoption Center in Salt Lake City

It’s Day 9 of the Sauerkraut Summer “Kraut and About” Road Tour 2015!

When we left Reno this morning, it was raining, and rained for the first hour of the drive.  But as the weather cleared, I found several things about the drive that delighted me:

• The clouds don’t just come over the mountains after a rainstorm, they rest on the mountains, like the gods are holding the clouds in their enormous stony hands

• Dust devils in the desert rise sometimes 40 feet in the air before they spin themselves out into nothingness
• The terrain doesn’t just look like a mountain range when you’re passing it - it appears like it’s been violently thrust up from the earth as if ancient deities battled in the ground below
• Passing through Utah just after crossing over from Nevada, the sands are so white and hot, it looks as though you’re approaching a lake that never gets closer. I can understand the whole mirage in the desert phenomenon better now
• Nevada along Interstate 80 has more prisons than I thought possible - like every miscreant is sent to northern Nevada from every other state

We arrived in Salt Lake City (and for those that don’t know, yes, the Great Salt Lake really is salty), and drove to the Utah Animal Adoption Center.  They hosted today’s Sauerkraut Meet & Greet, and were very excited to have the little stinker in their facility!  There were cupcakes, lemonade, and snacks for everyone that visited.

Today’s event was a steady stream of people through the front door of the Adoption Center!  From the moment we got there until the moment we left, people came from all over Utah to see Sauerkraut, to hear her story, and to learn about special needs adoptions, volunteering, and to leave donations for the Utah Animal Adoption Center.  As a matter of fact, they raised more money than any other stop so far on our Tour.  Congratulations!  And many, many thanks to the generous and friendly people that stopped by - some with their own four-legged companions!

For those that have never been here, Salt Lake City is mountainous, peaceful, and very relaxing.  I have a special treat in that Humom, Sauerkraut and I are parked at the home of Rachel, my very dearest friend from high school.  A visit from home and a reminder of our childhood always does a heart good.

Tomorrow we are on to Fairplay, Colorado - our last stop before home on the Tour!  See you then, friends!