Travel Day! We left Rock Springs at 7:25. Destination Layton
Utah and Valley View RV Resort. Crazy semi driver was weaving all over and
crossing the lines. We got ahead of him and he continued to do it for miles and
dropped way back.
There is some really ugly scenery that looks like the moon landscape...In fact, Al pointed out yet ANOTHER field of windmills that are creating more waste than electricity....and I told him nothing could hurt this scenery anyway.
...and there is some gorgeous scenery in Utah on this stretch of road!
Our site at Valley View RV Resort. It was a really nice place and Al enjoyed watching the fighter jets do their practice runs. Because Layton borders Hill Air Force Base, you will frequently see the F-35A Lightning II fighter jets flying overhead. These jets practice routine tactical missions, air-to-ground strikes, and weapons evaluations over the nearby Utah Test and Training Range. You may also occasionally spot B-52 bombers, F-16s, or visiting aircraft participating in joint combat exercises.
The Great Salt Lake and Antelope Island
Antelope Island, with an area of 42 square miles (28,022 acres), is the
largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The island
lies in the southeastern portion of the lake, near Salt Lake City and Davis
County, and becomes a peninsula when the lake is at extremely low levels. It is
home to free-roaming herds of bison, bighorn sheep, mule deer, and pronghorn
antelope. Twelve Bison were introduced to the island in 1893 and now the herd
is several hundred. The Great Salt Lake surrounds the Island and is one of the
saltiest lakes in the world. Salinity levels are too high to support most
aquatic species but Brine shrimp, brine flies and algae thrive here... but they stink!!!
Lake Bonneville was the largest of many glacial lakes in the
western United Stated during the last ice age. This lake covered more than
20,000 square miles and was more than 1,089 feet deep. It covered most of Utah
and parts of Idaho and Nevada. As Lake Bonneville dried up it left behind Great
Salt Lake, Utah Lake and the now dried up Sevier Lake.
The Great Salt Lake is in a severe, decades-long decline. It
has lost about 73% of its water and 60% of its surface area. The lake currently
sits at roughly 4,191 feet above sea level—about 6 to 7 feet below its minimum
healthy water level—leaving over 50% of the lake-bed exposed.
The dangerous buffalo hunt from the movie The Covered
Wagon, was filmed on Antelope Island in 1923 and was one of the most successful
films of the silent era and the first epic western ever produced. The original
playbill reads. “The Covered Wagon is the most colossal film undertaking of
all times. Nothing like it has ever been done before, probably nothing like it
will ever be done again.” I wonder what the producer would think of some of the AI generated stuff now!
Cowboys from the Island Ranch hired on to stampede the
buffalo in front of the cameras. Even then, it took three days before the
buffalo would cooperate.
The film was wildly received by the public, playing to
capacity audience for months. When the film opened with such excitement at the
Paramount Theater in Salt Lake City, the theater served buffalo burgers at the
front door.
The Candy Bomber Story—
In 1948, C-54s assisted on the Berlin Airlift. During this humanitarian operation, these aircraft supplied coal, food, and clothing to West Berlin, Germany, while it was under Soviet blockade. This C-54 flew in the Berlin Airlift and is the type piloted by Utah native Lieutenant Gal S. Halvorsen.
The story as told to us by the retired pilot: While in East Berlin Halvorsen met up with a bunch of starving kids and all he had to give them was a shared stick of gum. One even took the wrapper and just smelled it! He promised to drop them some treats next time. They asked how they would know it’s him. He said he would wave his wings before he dropped the treats. He started tying candy in little handkerchiefs and dropping them out of his plane for the children. The government told him he couldn’t do that but then changed their mind thinking it might be good human relations. Then Hershey’s started donating candy for him to drop and so that’s how he became the candy bomber.
Halvorsen’s humanitarian effort to bring hope to the East Berlin children, unofficially
known as “Operation Little Vittles,” gained in popularity and support. From
this humanitarian effort, Halvorsen earned the title of the “Candy Bomber.”
Enola Gay- The Enola Gay is one of the most
well-known aircraft in American History for its role in the world’s first
dropping of an atomic bomb on an enemy target. During the late afternoon of
August 6, 1945, Colonel Paul Tibbets watched the “Little Boy” atomic bomb as it
was loaded into his B-29. Not knowing if he was going to live through the
mission ahead, he painted the name, Enola Gay on his aircraft to honor his
mother for her dedicated love and support during his career. Early on the
morning of August 7, 1945, Tibbets took off in the Enola Gay to deliver “Little
Boy” to the Japanese city of Hiroshima, a mission that would effectively end
the war and forever change the world. The Enola Gay exists still today and is
on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Virginia.
Bockscar—On August 9, 1945, the B-29 nicknames Boxcar
dropped the second atomic bomb, “Fat Man,” on Nagasaki, Japan.
LBJ & Ladybird Airforce One
This plane served President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady Claudia Alta Taylor "Lady Bird" Johnson until 1977. When Hill Aerospace Museum acquired the plane, staff had no idea it was an Air Force One. When the museum acquired this JetStar, the paint scheme had nothing on it to indicate the nature of it's prior service. As the restoration crew sanded down layers of paint, they discovered a shadow of the presidential seal. Further research o the original tail number proved it's prior service as LBJ's jet.
Interesting tidbit:
Lady Bird got her
famous nickname as an infant when her nursemaid, Alice Tittle, remarked that
she was "as pretty as a ladybird". The name stuck, effectively
replacing her first name for the rest of her life.
While Tittle was likely referring to the red-and-black insect (commonly called a ladybug in North America), the "lady bird" name became synonymous with her lifelong advocacy for nature and the environment. Her family and close friends typically called her "Lady," while her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, called her "Bird.”
