Park City, et al

I took a tour to Park City, away from the area I travel to go to work. I took some pictures during my travels. Here’s some of the things I saw:

Shoe tree: It’s on the road I travel, so I finally took a picture of it. It is on Poison Creek in Park City, outside of the Marriott Hotel. It looks like it has been going on for a while. Why? Who knows. It is an interesting if somewhat disturbing site. Why disturbing? All those shoes that could be used by people who can’t afford decent shoes. Some of them appear pretty good.

Another sight: On the plaza before Main Street at the Marriott, an artist had some metal sculptures outside. I like this one of a mare and her colt. All of the parts appear to be old car/mechanical parts: springs, pistons, etc., welded together. Very well done.

Since these were taken later in the season (early March), there is not a lot of snow. You can see from the Main Street pictures, the streets are narrow and crowded. Sidewalks are narrow. Just to the right of where I took the picture is a lift that takes you up to the main Park City Resort ski area.

I took this picture on the way into Park City. You can see the runs. Not a lot of snow, but enough to keep almost all the runs open. Not sure how long that is going to last.

Here’s a picture of Deer Valley from the upper parking lot. The building is the Snow Park Lodge, the main building for the resort. This is where I usually work, up on the third floor – the one with no windows, no skylights, no way of ever seeing out. But, the season is almost over – only a couple of more weeks.

My thoughts on being here: Park City is a tourist trap/resort. Yes, there are people who live here year round, but the ski resort, Sundance and the Park City Film Festival (after Sundance) draw in tourists. One person said to me that the billionaires are pricing out the millionaires. Ugh.

The problem is that I am living in a beautiful, but very manicured resort. It is nice, but so very civilized, I might as well be living in a condo. Park City and Deer Valley are more of the same. For a while, before I started my adventure, I lived at Eddos on the Sacramento River and drove over Willow Pass to Walnut Creek. Compared to Eddos, this is like living in downtown Walnut Creek. I’ve discovered that this is not the kind of environment I want, at all. Yes, I can see the mountains and with a little bit of traveling, I can get away from all this, but not entirely.

In addition, I vow never to work where I have to worry about the snow. I have the only two-wheel-drive-that-isn’t-a-front-wheel-drive in all of Utah. I don’t enjoy driving when I have to worry about sliding or hitting black ice. Fortunately, the snow has been so bad, there have only been a couple of days when driving from Heber City to Park City might have been considered “iffy.” The plows and sanders have been very good on those days, but sometimes not before I got to the roads in the morning.

I’ll have to see how working at Whitefish Lake State Park in Montana will be. I will have to work more hours, but I will be close to Glacier National Park from mid-May to mid-September. Only 4 months compared to the 5-1/2 I have been here. And during the summer! Can’t wait.

December 1 through March 1

Yes, that is a long period of time. I’ve been kind of lazy when it comes to actually doing anything here, but not a lot has happened.

December 1, I started working. The first 3 days were for training in how to be a cashier for Deer Valley. What to accept, what was needed, bundling cash, doing a daily deposit, etc. After that, I was sent off to be a real, honest to goodness cashier.

My schedule was for 3 days a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Since I don’t ski anymore, those days were fine for me. That way, the others could ski on those days where there were fewer skiers and then work on weekends. Two days a week, I work at Snow Park Lodge, the main area for administrative functions for Deer Valley Resort.

Wednesday, I am in a closet at Silver Lake, kind of the mid mountain area of Deer Valley. Empire is the highest area. Deer Valley is an interesting area – it isn’t a town, so much as a condo resort – you have to go to Park City if you want to shop after hours. Most of the restaurants are closed fairly early (8 pm or so). Since you cannot buy a drink unless you are also buying food, there aren’t any “bars” in the area. Most are associated with a restaurant.

Before Christmas, I ended up with a cold and then the usual cough that lasts forever. I started all my usual solutions to the problem early (such as inhaler, drugs, etc) and bought a humidifier because the air is so dry. All seemed to help, I lost my cold in 6 weeks instead of the usual three months. Wonderful!

The weather has been strange, either cold and snowy/rainy or cold and absolutely blue sky. Here’s a picture of my truck and the side of the trailer decorated for Christmas.

An issue with the area is the traffic and driving. The speed limit everywhere (except for a few places) is 25 mph. Difficult to maintain. During the Grand Prix moguls contest at Deer Valley, the traffic at the end of the day was slow.

During the two weeks that the Sundance Film Festival was in Park City, the traffic was awful. I didn’t go to any of the venues or see any of the movies. I was still in the middle of coughing at that time. I’m not sure I missed much, since I really didn’t want to see any of the movies and I’m not much of a crowd person.

A variety of other pictures from my site.

I’ve been “remodeling” my trailer. I took out the dining area and put in a desk instead. So the smaller of the seat cushions (the back rests) are now on my bed as a back rest when I sit on the bed. I’m not sure what do with the big cushions.

I’m also in the process of taking out the nasty carpet. Once it is out, I will put in vinyl tiles. I’m leaning in the “fake” slate vinyl tiles. I’ll have to see how it looks after I get the nasty carpet out. I also replaced all of the handles. The originals were curved and limited access to two and a half fingers. It was painful to pull some doors/drawers open because of the shape. The new ones are square and take all four fingers. So much easier on my hands! See pictures of before and after.

Now that there is very little time left (I have around 14 working days left), I have some decisions to make concerning how much I will toss out before I leave. I have to do some cleaning and making sure there are no disposables in the refrigerator by the time I leave. But not until April 12.

My next adventure is to go to Park City and take pictures. I’m planning a brief walking tour of this very resort town.