Our trip to the Great Salt Lake...BEWARE!

Now, I don't think this post will really do justice for the horror that took place.  We had just dropped off my dad at the airport and thought that we should go see the actual Salt Lake.  I was looking forward to touching the water, smelling the salt air and showing the kids.  We went to the south side of the lake and parked at the marina.  The lot was empty and we thought we'd have the place to ourselves. 

We were approached by a park ranger who asked us to pay the $2.00 entrance fee.  He let us in with 1.42 which was all we had in the car.  Then we began to unload everyone.  As I opened the door, I thought I saw a little shadow go under my tire.  I dismissed it and hurried excitedly with the kids to the water's edge.  If you know me, then you know that I love, love, love the ocean and couldn't wait for some salt air.  What I found was brine air.  It smelled like a mixture of sewage and chemicals, or as Miles put it, "Stinky Poo Poo."  I decided that I at least was going to touch the water to see just how salty it was.  I couldn't even get close though.  My new white shoes kept sinking in the black muddy sludge that surrounded the water.  We gave up and headed back to the look out tower we saw when we drove up.  While walking there, Haleigh gave her analysis.  "I do NOT like the Salt Lake.  It's smells and it's dirty!" 

By then, we had caught up to Doug, Louis and Carter who were already frozen on the lookout.  Doug called, "Don't come up here!" which of course, I ignored and went up anyway.  To my utter shock, were thousands and thousands of golf ball spiders covering the rails, the rocks, the walls...everything.  I had never seen so many in my entire life.  Spiders are one of my worst fears and I couldn't believe how they had taken over every inch of the rocks and marina.  I crept closer with my phone to try to document just how many there were and how big.  It was like a freak of nature to see so many...like the movie arachnophobia.  Haleigh starts crying, Miles starts yelling, "'Et's get outta here!" and I could barely take my eyes off the scene.  I didn't know if they were jumping spiders, or poisonous spiders or what.  I glanced at the rocks which were like breakers.  They were blanketed in layers and layers of web with spiders dotting from the lookout tower down to the water, and those were the ones that we could see above the rocks.  Who knows how many are hiding underneath?

We took off back for the car and realized Doug left the security alarm buttons inside.  As he figured out how to get in, I went to find the park ranger and ask him why in the world would they allow the spiders to take over the whole marina like that?  Was it an ecosystem kind of thing?  Because it was way beyond keeping some around to eat the flies.  We walked towards the trailer/office and saw that the stairs, ramp to the door and door were also covered in layers and layers and layers of web.  My mind wandered to a scooby doo episode, "What park ranger?  He's been dead for 20 years..." We never did see that park ranger again and I waited as long as I could. 

Anyway, we got the car open, loaded up and drove off at full speed.  It was then that I remembered the little shadow that scurried under the car as I got out in the beginning.  The whole way home I envisioned my stowaway hitching a ride home to Cedar Hills.  I have had a spider in the car before and that three hours I'll never get back and a few nightmares.  I had Doug get home and fumigate the whole border of the house, the under side of the car, and every inch of the garage.  He kept telling me to get over it, but I compared him falling into the train full of snakes like Indiana Jones to what I had seen that day.  Same thing. 

I'll include a video of our get a way.  You gotta here Haleigh's final words on the video.  It's now a family classic quote.  "This is the Worst Day of My Life!"

I'll put the pics too but my little phone camera did not do it justice. Just assume that anything you see that looks black is a spider in the background.