Wednesday, November 9/2016

The sun is shining this morning and glistening off the waters of Utah Lake.   It is actually quite lovely although there is not any trees to speak of surrounding the lake.   It is really quite open in this area. Almost verging on desolate.
Utah Lake is unique in that it is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the western USA and yet lies in an arid area that receives only about 15 inches of rain a year.  It is a shallow lake which measures only 14 feet at its deepest point and averages a depth of 10.5 feet.  It lies in the Utah Valley and is surrounded by the metropolitan areas of Provo, Orem and Saratoga Springs.  Much, but not all of the shoreline has been developed.
Thirteen species of fish used to call this place home and that included, walleye and both white and black bass.  Unfortunately with the introduction of the common carp in 1883 (to take the stress off fishing the native species), the decline in native species was imminent.  Today, 90% of the biomass of the lake is carp.....hence minimal native species.  Kay says there are HUGE catfish (carp) in the lake and they are very tasty!!
Raw sewage used to be pumped directly into the lake (as late as 1967) and that really didn't help the biodiversity of the lake.  This practise was stopped by the construction of waste management facilities but the lake still continues to struggle with pollution problems today.  This year, the lake was closed to all activities due to a huge algae issue that was deemed unsafe for humans and animals. The algae count far acceded the normal levels acceptable and hence the closure.
Despite all its struggles, the lake is actually quite nice although I do miss trees!!  It was a great place to park for the night and seeing water is always awesome in this arid part of the country.
Kay  headed to Nephi this morning.  The cats had been left outside so she had to scoot home and deal with them.  It wasn't too long before John and I got our act together and headed down the road as well.
Unfortunately, I didn't notice that a cupboard had been left ajar and when I went to put the slide in on the trailer, I caught the cupboard, broke it and put some damage on the trim wood on one corner of the slide.  Shit, Bugger, Damn!!  Not a happy camper this morning!!  Good thing we have insurance  - especially useful for dumbasses!!
We arrived in Nephi in the early afternoon and the sun was shining and it was bloody hot!!   Definitely time to break out the shorts.  We sat around until the sun went down on the other side of the surrounding hills then John started a campfire and we sat around it for several hours.  A few of Kay's neighbours came over and then we had John cook us supper again!!  Life is good and so was supper.
Kay has to work in the morning so it was off to bed early for us.  Tomorrow, time to clean up a bit and do some laundry.   Hmmmm.....I wonder what John is cooking us for supper tomorrow night??

Headed out

Taking the back roads to Nephi