What’s that smell?

Devil-twin lives a bit outside Salt Lake City in what can only be described as paradise. The backyard is a mountain who’s skiing is so good they used it for the Olympics; the forests and trails so pleasant, they’re littered with the corpses of runners and cyclists. This is outdoor heaven.

We lunched on this, the birthday of America, in a place called Park City, a lovely little ski town that’s missing all the pretentious rubbish that comes with ski towns (see Telluride, Vale et al for details). We were supposed to sit in the park and listen to a few bands, marvel at the craft fair and generally drink in the sun. Sadly by the time we got there it was all over so we just did the drinking bit.

Whilst we were gone we left the 2 mutts alone in the backyard: wrestling. Returning home 4 hours later, we had the first truly heart stopping moment of the trip. No Josie. We had assumed she was part Boxer, part mountain goat. Now we know there’s a slice of Houdini in there too. Somehow, she’d cleared the 6 ft fences and ran off. Thankfully, only to the neighbour’s front yard. I think she was either chasing Monty’s cat (did I mention they have a cat? They have a cat) or just trying to escape the insane wrestling puppy and sought out the shade and sprinklers next door.

Next up in the legendary list is Big Jessie. (Not to be confused with Hot Jessie, Monty’s wife.) Big Jessie is gifted with transmogrification: add whisky and he morphs in to an Irish Man. Big Jessie was nice enough to throw a 4th July party in his new house. The details of the party are censored but all had a great time, the house was truly wrecked (think back to when you were a student) and we snuck away in the night at 4:30 just to avoid the smell.

Of the few details I can tell you, I am allowed to share the fact that Jessie is the only non-Mormon in his street and so we were the only people drinking at the neighbourhood firework sing-along we crashed. Oops. I can also tell you, that regularly shouting “Happy
Birthday America. Number 2 behind China! Woo!” does not make you friends.

Tomorrow will not happen.

Oh and I was right to call Monty the Devil-twin.