Day 76,77: downtime in UT: Eclectic Cafe in Moab, and What is UP with the numbered streets in Salt Lake City?

September 19, 2007 by Julie.

Ummm…are we really still on this trip? I think i just suddenly realized that we really are going to be in the car for another 287 dys or so, think I felt my flight response kicking in, when we got in the car to leave Moab. Quick, somebody say that thing about ripples and waves and making a difference just a tiny bit at a time…

Shake it off. We have to recommend a little oasis of freshness in Moab called the Eclectic Cafe. Very close to the Days Inn where we spent the night, the cafe had organic, fair-trade coffee, locally-grown breakfast, and set us up on chairs outside looking at the mountains and plugged into the bar. Beautiful. We closed them down and drove through Arches National Park before heading to Salt Lake City.

OK somebody already answered me on this one: All the streets in SLC are numbered concentrically out from the main Temple, and are tagged with their according position on the map (ie: 9 streets South of the Temple is South 900 but if the street is west-ish, then it will have West tagged onto the end of it, like South 900 West?…oh i can tell i am still getting this so wrong - Anyhow, the forefathers apparently never thought the town would grow any bigger than 9 streets in any direction and so did not foresee the frustration I’d put myself through, leaving the house without phoning my destination, and depending on our hopeful but erratic navigational system in the Ford. “Navie,” we call it. My favorite quote of the trip so far is Ben telling Mark, “Google it. I trust Navie about as far as I can throw her.” sigh.
But seriously, today was a humbling day of lessons for me, lessons in planning before takeoff: How to use a phone to save yourself, time, gas, and sanity. Hilariously, I was dense enough to have to learn it 3 times in a row (that’s apparently how I really learn best) within 2.5 hours. In fact, I could have asked our gracious hosts for help finding a natural food store. But, instead, independent girl that I like to think I am, I Googled Salt Lake City co-op, found the website and street address, entered it into Navie’s little brain and drove off.
After several highways, and some really sketchy looking areas, I finally found the Co-op in an Industrial Complex - a rather unseeming locale for natural food. Then I walked into the little room with a couple of desks and 3 people, one on the phone taking orders for fresh produce delivery, and looked around to see where the rest of it was, where the food was, but there was no actual store. The people looked somewhat sorry for me and directed me to a regular grocery but their directions bounced off my cortex like so much Greek: I got back in the car, having understood none of it, pulled over and called Mark for Google help. I must have called him like 6 times over the course of the next couple of ridiculous hours driving around the city.
Then Mark did the same thing I did: Googled a store and got the address without calling first - so when I got there and couldn’t find the place, he called, and found that the store had moved locations!!! AAck! Even better, when I found the new location, I went in and realized that the store didn’t have any produce at all or the bulk food we were looking for. (Another thing we could have discovered by asking the right questions on the phone!) So, where did I end up going? Wild Oats. I was never so happy to see a Wild Oats big chain store in my life as I was after driving around Salt Lake City with a head swimming with street numbers, wondering if Salt Lake even has natural foods. But, here it is, Best of All: If I had only taken the time to ask our hosts, I would have learned that Wild Oats is about 5 minutes away from the house in which we are staying. DOH.

On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the most environmentally sustainable, I would have to give myself a 2 for the day. 2.5 hours of driving is not forgiven just bc I was driving around to find find local food. Lesson (hopefully) learned.

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