Great Times in Provo!

Hello!

I had a fantastic weekend in Provo visiting Jodi! I left Friday morning with my overnight bag, snacks, TomTom, and a bushel of apples for Jodi, her parents, and her roommates. It was going to be a 6 hour drive according to my google directions (7 and a half according to TomTom, but thank goodness I already knew not to trust him and his british accent) and I was planning on making a stop or two on my way up, so it was going to be a long day in the car. I did end up stopping at the Needles Overlook. Needles is a part of Canyonlands National Park, and while I didn't stop at the park, I did get a beautiful view of the Needles, Island in the Sky (another part of Canyonlands), and the Colorado River. When I walked up to the overlook, I thought "How silly it was for them to put a 5 foot tall fence around the edge! As if people would try to jump off the overlook! Seems a bit excessive." No sooner had I thought that when a giant gust of wind literally pushed me into the fence. Holy cow! I could not believe how strong the wind was! I could barely hold my camera steady! It was much worse then the little overlook by the random tower we found in Donegal. I found myself very thankful for the 5 foot fence!

I continued to drive through the diverse landscapes as I made my way north. The great sage plains relinquished their hold to the red rocks of Moab and their odd eroding patterns. But that too faded away to the white sands of the dunes just south of Price, the Book Cliffs in the distance. I did have a laugh to myself as I turned onto interstate-70 west. Oh how I had miss this road! I then continued north to Provo, the desert sands disappearing into the windy canyon pass the road snaked through, the mountains growing taller and taller the closer I got to my destination.

I finally arrived and met Jodi at her school. It was so good to see her! Her classroom is adorable and she looks all grown up, like a real teacher, not like the girl I once went to Best Buy to visit. We grabbed delicious Provo polish dogs for dinner from a BYU hot spot (ate them with pickles and a honey sauce- don't knock it until you try it... I don't even like hot dogs and these were amazing!) and saw Wall-E at the dollar theater with her roommates. Jodi and I stayed up late talking- catching each other up on our lives and remembering high school trends like ribbon necklaces (what were we thinking!?).

We woke up early on Saturday to small wet flurries falling slowly to the ground. Jodi was trying to tell me it wasn't usually this cold, but I was ecstatic to see the snow! We then had a fantastic breakfast at MeMe's with one of Jodi's fellow teachers before driving into Salt Lake City for the Body World's exhibit. The show was smaller then we saw in LA, but great all the same. I was so proud of Jodi for not getting completely grossed out. As we walked between the bodies together, laughing and joking about immature things, I swear we could have been 4 days out of North Penn, instead of 4 years. Salt Lake is beautiful. It feels like a city, but it doesn't look like one. There are luscious green parks and interesting architectural buildings. The feel of it reminded me more of an European city then an American one. And of course, the city was in the shadow of the mountains all around it creating a beautiful backdrop and breathtaking view from every angle. We stopped to see Jodi's parents in Sandy, just outside of SLC before heading back to Provo. It was so good to see her parents! They are exactly the same as I remembered! Incredibly nice and welcoming as well as goofy and friendly with their jokes and comments. Their house is beautiful as well. It was strange to see pieces of furniture I remember so clearly from their house in Hatfield in this new environment.

We grabbed pulled pork burritos (yum yum yum) before dressing in everything we owned and walked over to their stadium for BYU's homecoming game. It was such a strange walk to the stadium. BYU's colors are blue and white and they are the cougars so all the clothing was blue and white decorated with cougars, which look remarkably similar to nittany lions. Everyone had their blankets and seat covers and as we got closer to the stadium, I could hear the cougar roar... identical to our nittany lion roar. If I squinted my eyes, I could have been at Happy Valley. Although- their stadium was a lot smaller than ours, they sport the 'Y' instead of the 'S', and there were those beautiful mountains in the background... but amazingly close. Close enough to make me homesick for good ol' PSU.

The game was fantastic. I learned all their traditions and got into the game. BYU should have crushed University of New Mexico, but they missed some key plays so the game was closer, which made it more fun to watch. The band even played Hey Baby in the fourth quarter! Jodi and I stood cheering and yelling as loud as we could, BYU stickers on our cheeks, mugs of slightly warm chocolate in our hands. That night we hung out at her apartment after grabbing a snack at Denny's, too cold to do anything but talk under blankets.

I left on Sunday with a bag of snacks Jodi packed me as well as promises to see each other soon. The drive back to Hovenweep was uneventful and quick. Well, as quick as 5 and a half hours in a car with only spotty radio stations can be. It is good to be back at Hovenweep with Julia and my routine. Speaking of, I should probably get to work since I spent far too long on the computer typing out my adventures this weekend!

Hope everything is well back on the east coast! <3