4 April 2015 - Roadside Delights and Back Roads, Part 2

Years ago I read a book called Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon about traveling on the roads marked in blue on road maps. I loved it and highly recommend it if you are looking for your next good read. He wrote about his journey across America going from one small town to another, often because he just liked the sound of their names. He always ate in local restaurants (no fast food for this guy) and met a lot more interesting people that way. 

This book resonated with me because Jack and I usually traveled with no destination in mind. We would just see where we ended up and always had amazing adventures. We loved the back roads and I still do. It is a part of America you don't find on the freeway. 

It was a bit shocking and scary to see how much urban sprawl has taken over the valley. I happened to drive by the Lehi Roller Mills so I stopped for a photo. This was where the prom took place in Footloose.  Speaking of shocking, do you realize that Footloose was filmed 31 years ago?  In the movie, the Roller Mills was surrounded by fields. Now it is packed in tight between fast food restaurants and other detritus of the ever burgeoning suburbia. 

So the Mills work for me because I collect painted signage and it is part of roadside America. In the first picture I am standing in the parking lot of a Subway sandwich shop and in the second, I'm in a MacDonald's parking lot. Crazy. But they still sell flour and baking mixes.

 In the I-brake-for-painted-signs category,  next up was

Heading west finally got me away from the new housing developments and strip malls. This is how I remember what most of the valley looked like when I was growing up.  Lots of land. Ranching. Farming. Open space. And always the mountains.

Happy to find it has not all been eaten up.  This road took me through Tintic, a tiny mining town. Hazel and I always stopped in Tintic for lunch. My plan was to do the same. There was one little diner on the main street that had seen better days 20 years ago, but the food was great. It was disheartening to find that every storefront was empty. Small town, we are talking only six or seven buildings but still. 

I think they were actually fixing up the City Hall and Fire Department. I hope. 

Hard to see, but the Gatley Bldg still has a beautiful old clock on the front. 

When was the last time you saw an actual elk's head on your local B.P.O.E.? Other questions worth asking, was it a working clock before the B.P.O.E. took over the building? 

The sign is all that remains of the lumber yard. It has been reincarnated as a liquor store. 

 And like a proper old town, there was painted signage. 

 You can kind of date this sign by the term waist overalls. At some point in the 1960s waist overalls became known as jeans.  And it has been longer than that since they offered a new pair if they rip. I love this stuff. 

Off the main roads are other interesting things to see. Utah has many remnants of buildings.  Doesn't seem as though there was enough room for a gas pump here.  I think some enterprising soul should fix this up, keeping all the doors, signage and corrugate siding and make a coffee shop or something out of it. It deserves a new life.

Leaving Eureka on the way to Tintic you get a glimpse of a structure up on the hillside. 

 This was the Tintic Reduction Mill. What remains of the mill are foundations for water tanks, crushers, roasters, iron boxes, leaching tanks, and drain boxes. Silver, gold, copper and lead were mined in this area.  With my zoom, you get a better view.  

When you get into farm country it seems like there are two kinds of people. Those who abandon old equipment where it stopped or line it up on the edge of their fields or those who hang it on the barns. I am in favor of hanging. 

Continuing on, the big surprise was a Utah Highway Patrol check point in the middle of nowhere. Fifty officers, a couple of large vans and many cruisers ready to take off after anyone deciding to turn around rather than go through the check point.  What the heck? 

Well. I had totally forgotten that this was Easter weekend and many schools close early on Good Friday. The state road I was traveling turns out to be the major route to Little Sahara. I have only been there once when I was maybe eleven. All I remember are beautiful pink sand dunes and interesting beetles. 

Little did I know that on Easter weekend it becomes a destination for anyone who owns an ATV or dirt bike. The officers were checking for drunk or drugged drivers. They had me take off my sunglasses to check my eyes.  Okaay. Turns out the vans were for drug and alcohol tests.  The officer told be to be careful there are crazies out there.  She was right. Two lane road with nothing but pickups and huge trailers hauling ass through the desert.  

I made a mental note to get to the Little Sahara again, but not on a holiday or a weekend.  Stay tuned!