With Tyler's trip to Utah, I was remembering my many visits to the Motherland.
The last but one time I went to Utah was the summer after my senior year of high school. It was late in the summer and Big D and I were working at The Ice Cream Parlor. We were set to go into the UC system, which starts at the end of September and all our sucker friends who were going to BYU had already abandoned us. Life was extremely dull without them.
So, one day at work we had a clandestine meeting, probably over purloined cookie dough ice cream, and decided that we'd just quit our jobs two weeks early and take off to seek out Provo. I'd never driven farther than LA before and neither of us had a car. It was gonna be a great fandango.
After explaining our plan 5 different ways to our boss (he did not speak English), borrowing my mother's car (which was really nice of her, now that I think about it), and my Father giving me some money and lecturing me about what lanes to drive in through the desert, we were off. Part of our plan was the element of surprise. We knew that we had some friends in Deseret Towers, but what that was, or where it was, we had no idea. Also, we wanted to return our friend C's cup which he left at the Ice Cream Parlor when he left.
We got underway and after awhile, we realized we had forgotten our music. In the car, my mom had two cassettes: Fame, and The Lion King. We listened to these over, and over, and over again. So much so, that we made up car choreography for them. Yeah. We were cool.
Once we got to Provo, after an unexpected stop in Alpine to look at Big D's grandma's cruise pictures, we found BYU, or rather, we could see it. We drove up one street, and down another, but we could not find a way to get in. We were driving parallel to the school for at least 30 minutes before we stopped at a gas station. We walked in, fully aware that we looked like two dumb blond California idiots, and asked how to get to BYU. The gas station attendant pointed to the street to the left and said, "You take that road."
"And then....?"
"You take that road, that's it."
Thus confirming that we were, in fact, dumb blond California idiots. I've never felt so dumb in my whole life.
We did end up finding everyone and had a really great time, but I've never gotten over that look from the gas station attendant.
5 comments:
Oh my gosh! I remember that!! I think of you guys every time I drive up to BYU and have been known to say "well, you take that road...." I've tried to explain to Tom why I say that/think it's so funny but he wasn't there :). I have almost never been so shocked as to see you guys, that was fun day.
Wait, you went past Provo initially? And also, how did you figure out where your friends were?
My memory is kind of fuzzy, but I think we needed a place to stay the night and Big D's gma was nice enough to let us in. And, as far as finding our friends, I think we just walked around and asked some fine young Mormon boy where Deseret Towers was and he pointed us in the right direction. OH, and as fate would have it, our friend C was in the lobby watching TV, so that was easy.
BYU is kind of hard to penetrate, so I can understand your confusion.
I think DT is gone now. They razed that ghetto to the ground.
Amanda...it really made me laugh when you called yourself a "dumb blonde from California" hehe
SOund like a fun trip all the same
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