Weddings and Wendover ...

This is a picture of the royal kiss ...

This is a picture of the "Edwards" kiss ...

[can't get picture to upload right now ... we'll insert later ... sorry!]

Personally, I think we did a better job of sealing the deal. Though there were not quite as many people waiting to greet us outside of the temple doors than there were greeting William and Kate from the palace balcony.

Two weekends ago we went to Wendover. It was 6 p.m. on a Friday and I was just finishing up my last paper of the semester. Dave and I were frantic to get out. We didn't care where ... we just needed a vacation. Since we had to be back by 2 p.m. the next day we couldn't go far. We weighed our options and our budget. We had enough to stay in a really nice room and go out to eat in Wendover, or stay in a really small hotel room in Park City and go through the drive through. So we headed west on 1-80.

It was one of the most beautiful drives I've ever taken. It was sunset and the mountains were reflecting off of the salt flats which had been covered with rain. That drive is normally desolate and brown. This time it was full of color and a little bit of magic.

Then we got to our hotel room. I'm pretty sure it was designed by a stripper. It had an in-room jacuzzi. There were mirrors and neon lights EVERYWHERE!! I couldn't stop laughing. We enjoyed some casino food. Dessert was amazing (passion fruit mousse and triple chocolate lava cake), the pasta not so much. The next morning we got up early for the ATV ride we had scheduled. I was excited to do something outside. I hadn't seen the sun for months and my body hadn't done anything active since finals prep had begun. Our tour guide pulled up in his van and we crawled in.

The first stop was a trailer home. "This," we were told, "was where the railroad station used to be before it burned down." The next stop was the frontage road. "There," our guide said, pointing to a dump truck "is the machinery that works the pot ash mine." We figured he was being friendly, giving us the "scenic" tour of Wendover on our way to the ATVs, but we were getting impatient. We had spent the rest of our money on the excursion and the hour was starting to dwindle away as he went on about the pot ash mining process. Finally, we were on our way again. He pulled onto the freeway for about two minutes, exited off again and drove to the end of the pavement where a parks marker signaled the beginning of the salt flat racing track. That's when I knew we were in trouble. "Dave," I whispered. "I think this is the tour." His eyes got wide.

We got out and our guide read the sign to us. He offered to take a picture. We got back in and he started back to our hotel. A brochure in the van confirmed our suspicions. Dave told him here had been a mix-up ... somehow we'd been signed up for the "interpretive" Salt Flats tour instead of the ATV rides. The man apologized, but told us it was too late and there was nothing he could do. He offered to take us on the rest of the tour. We glumly agreed.

Have you ever been to Wendover?! There is nothing there! There's one street with maybe four hotels, a couple cheap fast food places and a golf course. So the rest of the "tour" was driving past our hotel, our guide pointing out "Pizza Hut on the right and the new town hall on the left" and then turning around at the golf course and dropping us off. Then he charged us $50. Turns out if we'd gone on the ATV ride it would have been $130. We were livid. Interpretive tour my foot. He just charged us $50 to take us to free BLM land and read off a sign. It was clearly not the employees fault though so we paid and left. Dave immediately called the management for a refund. The call did not go well and I'm still trying to figure out the best way to submit a complaint to the Nevada Better Business Bureau. So if you go to Wendover, skip the "interpretive tour." But be sure the get the passionfruit mousse and the room with the mirrors.

Who knew trashy could be so fun?