Friday, June 23, 1972

June 23, 1972

Delta, Utah

Dear Family,

I only got as far as the date & place on this account of our recent doings when I was interrupted this morning and now it’s after supper and I’m writing in our motel room in Cortez, Colo. rather than in Delta, Utah. The day was another comfortable traveling day — generally on the cool side and mostly sunny tho along toward the middle of the afternoon there were quite a few clouds and a few drops of rain. Nothing like the rain thought we encountered yesterday afternoon which was pretty heavy at times. This morning everything was fresh and green looking because of the rain and the air had that “clean” smell which, in my recollection, follows the typical midwest summer rainstorm.

Today we drove from Delta Utah to Cortez Colo and this puts us just about at the halfway point on our trip to Houston. After lunch we spent an hour or so in a rather hurried look at Arches National Park in Utah which was just off the road we were taking. Some rather spectacular rock formations and I took half a dozen or so color pictures — the roll in the camera was I think still there from our August vacation of last year to the Pacific northwest and that shows how much of a picture-taking family we are. The whole southern part of Utah seems to be the same general geologic structure, more spectacularly represented in some places like the park we visited today but with evidence of it many places along the roads we traversed. We also saw some nice farming country today as we passed thru Utah, particularly in the southeast corner and also in the adjacent part of Colorado.

Last Friday was my last “working” day at Emeryville but I put in only a token appearance as the office furniture was in the process of being moved out and there wasn’t any good place to work. Along with the furniture was all the files so there wasn’t any access to them and this further reduce any incentive to work or much chance to do anything constructive. So I turned in my badge after an hour or so and went home to keep an eye on the packers. They spent all day Friday and most of Monday getting us packed and even then some things like the springs & mattresses and the contents of several closets still remained till the movers came on Tuesday — so that we could still sleep in the house on Monday night.

The loading was all supposed to be done on Tuesday but actually it took till well past the middle of the afternoon on Wed, so we were almost a day late starting our driving to Texas. I suspect that the mover was spending more time on the job than usual so we could have a little space left over in his van for a supplemental job; he’s not supposed to unload our stuff in Houston till next Thursday which leaves him with some time on his hands just sitting there with his van all loaded and nothing to do unless he can develop some additional small moving job. Next time (if we ever move again) we’ll know better what to expect and how to deal with it.

But we finally did start on our way about 4 PM on Wed, in time to beat the worst of the commuter traffic locally in the bay area tho we did run into a little congestion in Sacto. We had supper in Auburn in a most excellent restaurant that Palma spotted, actually as I was in the process of making a U-turn to go back to another place we had just decided on. This restaurant was in a restored Victorian house and the surroundings as well as the meal were elegant (tho a bit expensive, but then Shell was paying for it). The restaurant was fittingly called “Butterworth’s.” It was just newly operating but I suspect with time should become well known — a fellow who used to work for Aerojet was the owner. He said he’d had this ambition for a long time and as soon as he had his “grubstake” he went ahead with his plans.

Fred Brye home, formerly Butterworth's restaurant

We also stopped in Auburn for a short visit with the Flints — Mr. Flint was a boyhood friend of Jean’s dad and we’ve visited them off & on thru the years whenever we passed thru Auburn. Neither Muriel nor Palma recalled the Flints from previous visits but took to him & his wife immediately (Laurel wasn’t with us as she’s staying in Calif to go to Cazadero music camp for 2 weeks beginning next Monday and will fly to Houston when that’s over). After visiting the Flints we drove on to Reno where we spent the night and Palma had a chance to visit again the First Methodist Church there where the youth choir visited a year or so ago on tour — it’s really quite picturesque but hemmed in now by businesses as are so many downtown churches.

Thursday we traversed Nevada — the day was cloudy almost from the start and by the time we entered Utah we’d driven thru sprinkles now and again. In Utah Muriel was driving when perhaps we shouldn’t have let her as she isn’t too experienced. The road was a little wet and windy and the car skidded out of her control; fortunately we ended right side up and with no damage either to us or the car or anything else but we were all a little shaken by the experience. She didn’t drive at all today but when the situation seems appropriate later on we’ll let her start in again; maybe it was a good experience for her and will instill more caution in her in the future. After the incident I drove on to Delta, Utah where we stopped for the night; we could have gone further but the rain was so heavy at times that I didn’t feel like driving under the circumstances. As it was we had just passed into another time zone which made the time an hour later by the clock, so it was close to suppertime anyway by the time we’d located a motel.