The Adventures of Fric and Frac: Adventure 402 Crystal Hot Springs, Honeyville, Utah/Post B

Real riders ride when it's cold.

We started the day with our normal routine, except it was a day for an unusually decadent breakfast: apple walnut pancakes, bacon, and an egg smothered into submission with pure maple syrup. Add a couple cups of freshly brewed coffee (Costa Rican Style), and a spritely game of cribbage, and we were sorely tempted to go back to bed just so we could start over. We were among the first to enter the hot springs. I must admit, it's more pleasant to "own" the place rather than share it with hundreds of folks on spring break. We waited until after lunch to go riding because it was still quite cold. Nonetheless, we simply put our warm weather gear on, and set out along the Wasatch front. Words can't describe how pretty it is. We rode through Honeyville, Deweyville, Collinston, and we turned around at Riverside. This part of the range follows the Bear River down the valley. In 1843, John C. Fremont, a topographical engineer (Map maker) who also traveled in the area we stayed last week, crossed the Bear River in this area. He called this part of the river a restful place, and when he got to Salt Lake City, he recommended to the early Mormon settlers to travel this way. They did, and the rest is history. We rode back the same way we came out for a total of twenty miles. It was a little brisk, but it felt good. We soaked a second time in the afternoon before much of the Wednesday Family Night crowd arrived. The people watching is amazing, and the "pool talk" even more so. Kids of all ages scamper from one pool to the next. The older ones spend a lot of time rushing down The Tube. The younger ones, always with mom and dad near by, run around with their inflated water wings on. It seems that every family has three to six kids. Four seems to be the average, at least in the sample I've witnessed here. But the talk is what's amazing. I mostly just relax in the pool listening and watching, but this morning a young couple got me talking about traveling. We discussed trailers, National Parks, and everything else about the "trailer life". This afternoon I heard a family of seven discussing whether they would get milkshakes before dinner. Cute, and pretty normal. Yesterday, a little less normal came my way. I was just sitting there, overhearing a family group (Oblivious to me) discuss their relative who it appeared was on disability, which none of them could condone. The grandmother was the most vocal complaining, "She's on disability, but yet she can shop every day, attend concerts, and go to every ball game in the area. It just ain't right." Then the most amazing thing happened. The son says to me, "You've been listening; what do you think about someone taking advantage of the system to be on disability?" I took the milk toast route saying, "It depends." I later talked with Grandpa, who was injured in a railroad accident. He now works for an ambulance chasing lawyer as an investigator. They were Southerners who live in Florida, but were raised in Norfolk, Virginia. They're out her to visit their oldest son whose wife is from the area. Dad said, "In our culture if the the daughter doesn't want to leave the home area, the son-in-law complies. Today, two women discussed their change of life circumstance. Both were recently divorced and they were discussing the very real impacts of that circumstance: finances, kids, the possibility of a future partner, etc. I left the pools realizing once again that being human is no easy task. It's takes faith, grace, and maybe a little old fashioned luck. I know that I'm the luckiest guy on the planet because my life is good, especially today.

So, 1864. That meant these Mormon settlers left the East before the Civil War ended. As a group, they were driven from the Northeast by the mobs, driven from the Midwest, once again by intolerant mobs.