as seen in space

Saturday morning started way earlier than usual as I woke up before 10am to meet some folks for breakfast. Up the canyon we went, to Ruth's Diner, an up-the-canyon institution.

Look at this napkin.


Kind of sad that Ruth didn't realize that Betty Crocker was a fictional character. She also has napkins signed by Captain Crunch and the Headless Horseman.

After breakfast I wasn't even sure if I was really there or not, so I was going to go home and catch-up on my missed sleep. But then I got a better idea. What about going to the mine?

The Salt Lake Valley is more than just Dee's and neon signs and the zoo and places to shoot. It's also home to the world's largest excavation. The Bingham Canyon Copper Mine.

The usuals gathered and we pointed the car due west. Y'see, the entire western half of the valley is owned my the mining company.

Scott brought a basketball because he wanted to see if he could drop it all the way to the bottom of the mine.

Interesting country as you get closer. Lots of greenery and unsettled land.

Here's a huge pile of tailings (the stuff they've dug out of the ground). It's known affectionately as Mt. Doom.

Behold, the mine!

Not impressive? Let's put things into scale for you. This is one of the tires used on the mine trucks.

Now take a look:

It's a big damn mine! 2.5 miles wide, almost 1 mile deep. Full of copper.

It was a mountain once, but a little over 100 years ago some guys looked at that mountain and said "let's just tear that sucker down."

Interesting experience, gazing into the depths. This guy approves.

Do you even know how important copper is? Without it we'd have no golf trophies, no tv/vcr combos, and no miniature ovens.

I always thought the richest hole on earth was this guy:

ZING!

Odd that the gift shop would sell Kanchos, and that they would spell it wrong.

This is one of the best souvenirs I've ever gotten. And for only 51 cents.

I love my Beehive logo stretched penny. Seriously.

After our mine visit we sought out the tiny burg of Copperton. A bucolic oasis isolated out in the middle of nowhere.

The only place to eat there was The Best Little Ore House in Utah (get it?) but it was kind of intimidating.

We still had the desire to eat in a strange place so we went to a place on State St. called Jim's Diner (not to be confused with Jim's Family Restaurant).

This place was really eerie, and after a while we began to suspect that we had died and this was some sort of after-life waiting room.

Charon's boat, perhaps?

This perverse fry didn't help anything.

Later that night a few of us got together at the Bud, which was fun until Lee lost his temper and got all stabby.
Somehow we ended up taking turns reading from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe. You ever heard this poem Annabel Lee? Man, that Poe could really spin a word.

Much to everyone's delight Scott read aloud a passage from his memoirs. The story of The Enterprise Mug that is Huge. I think it's the finest thing he's ever written, and to hear him perform it is really something else. If your lucky you'll hear it sometime. If you see him you should bug him to put it on his blog.

Also I wrote and performed some impromptu slam poetry. Pretty great.