Wednesday, July 7th, cont.

So we pass through the magic gate and low and behold - there is a flight of stairs and an entire rabbit warren of other magic doors appears! It's like the old days, when you walked out onto the tarmac and climbed the stairs to the hatch! Along the way we were told that our carry-ons would have to be green tagged and stowed in the belly of the plane and that our backpacks could only be seven inches thick! That took a bit of rearranging. The flight from Denver to Salt Lake City took just over an hour and was spent on a tiny puddle jumper. Marilyn and I were seated nine rows apart in really little seats! But we made it!

We found the Hertz counter and resisted the saleslady's pitch to upgrade to a bigger car and to buy her $26/day insurance because "most people's insurance doesn't really cover everything." We've got a fire-engine red Nissan Versa and it will do quite nicely, thank you, very much!

Out of the airport and up I-15 to Brigham City to buy groceries and regroup in a HoJo's before the real adventuring begins. (Have I mentioned how much I love mountains?!) The cashier at Wal-Mart (hey - not a lot of choices in Brigham City!) suggested a new Chinese restaurant, Beijing Buffet, and boy was he right! It was delicious and also cheap - our two favorite qualities in a restaurant! One of the stock girls had told us that in Utah a grocery store can sell beer but only a liquor store (boy I wish I could reproduce her pronunciation for you!) can sell wine! She gave us directions and when we got there, we found that it is the Utah STATE Liquor Store! Gotta love those Mormons!

B.C. is a charming little town and, as you can see, claims to be the Gateway to the World's Greatest Wild Bird Sanctuary! We'll see in the morning, when we are scheduled for a three-hour tour with lots of stops for oohing, ahhhing and click-clicking! Now it's time to reorganize the suitcases and get serious about this Yellowstone Adventure!