We are
headed out to Emigration Canyon today.
On our way out of town we passed the University of Utah Rice Eccles
Stadium. The spiral pole is the Olympic
cauldron from the 2002 Olympics which were held in Salt Lake.
As we get
into the mountains we can see that the leaves are beginning to change
color. Today there were a lot of
bicyclists riding the canyon road. We
were looking for Ruth’s Diner for a lunch stop.
It was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives so we thought it might
be an interesting stop. Coming out of
town it seemed like we were just going to be driving through the
mountains. Ruth’s is quite a ways
out. Since I hadn’t brought any snacks
with us this morning I was beginning to get worried.
We finally
came upon it. In 2018 the restaurant
celebrated its 78th anniversary making it the oldest restaurant in
the Salt Lake Valley area. The diner has
had three owners since its start in 1930.
Ruth owned it until 1977. Seems
she was quite a character. She was a
smoker of Lucky Strikes and fought with the health department for quite a while
after the smoking rules were changed for restaurants. She finally broke down and posted a handwritten sign on
the door that said, “No Smoking Section – First Bar Stool Only”.
In the 50’s
and 60’s Ruth’s was a popular spot for the University of Utah frat boys looking
for a cold beer. ID’s weren’t carefully
checked since Ruth didn’t think much more of that law than she did of the new
smoking ordinances.
The parking lot is huge, at least a block long.
People were still parking along the road. Even with all of those people we were seated in about 15 minutes.
We were able
to get an outside table, the weather is wonderful here today.
The first
thing they bring are some of Ruth’s “mile-high” biscuits. They are soft and slightly sweet – awesome!
I choose the
baked mac and cheese with a shrimp skewer.
It was wonderful and I have enough left over for supper tonight.
Greg opted
for the patty melt. Half of his went
home also. He said it was “ok”. “Ok” to me means it is just passing. To him it means it is good.
More leaves
changing scenery.
We pulled
off at the Little Mountain Summit, the last summit in the Wasatch Mountains,
from here it is downhill. Which was good
news to the over 70,000 Mormons who passed by here from the late 1840’s to the
1860’s. This was part of the “Road to
Zion”. The first group of 13,000 left Nauvoo, IL
in February 1846.
The skyline
of Salt Lake City coming back home would be nicer without all of the lines of the light rail
tram system in the way.
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