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Day 17: Thu Aug 7, 1997

 I got up and decided to start transferring the routines in my most used IDL library from the computer at work to my laptop over the phone lines. I planned to read while the files were transferring. I had not done such a transfer, not so many files anyway, but it should have been easy enough. But it turned out not to be. I started the transfer with no problem, then after it was running a while I wondered where the files were being saved on the laptop. I aborted the transfer and found them all scattered around on the top level of the c: disk. I cleaned up the mess and looked at the transfer program more carefully. I found it has a settable default download directory so I made one. I started the transfer again and it appeared to hang the system, I couldn't do anything, not even shutdown the computer. I waited quite awhile then finally pushed the off button. Then when I turned it back on it had the expected "Not properly shutdown, have to check the disk" type message. It did its disk check, seemed ok, then tried to start up windows. That's when the error message appeared. Don't remember the details, but it was something about not being able to control something, and HIMEM.SYS was missing, to make sure it was in the windows directory. The computer came up in DOS, not Windows 95. I had no idea what to do, so I rebooted. Same problem. I thought maybe when I cleaned up the mess at the top level of disk c: I had accidentally erased a needed system file or something, I had been careful, but maybe one slipped in. I checked the windows directory and found the requested file to be there. I thought maybe I would have to reinstall windows from cd-rom, but I had not brought that disk along. I thought maybe there was a Dell service place in the next big town (Salt Lake City) and I could get things set right there. But I didn't have the Dell 800 number. So I called the lab and tried to get our system guy, Jon. No answer, so I tried to get the other one, Steve. Not there, so I tried to get Bruce. Just his message, but it said to press 0 for the secretary, so I did. No answer. Left it ring for a long time. Then the boss answered. I told him briefly what was happening and asked if he could put Frank on to find the number for me. He said Frank was at lunch, so I suggested Marshall, not in the office. I said the number I needed was right in the box in my office so he went and got it for me. Before I called Dell I wanted to get the computer reference number which is on the back inside the connector area. So I partly closed the display to get the number, I think a bit too far, sounded like it triggered the save to disk feature or something. Anyway, about that time the system came back up in windows normally. The only reason I can think of is that somewhere along my tries I had entered the setup menu and told it to take the default settings for the system. I don't think it worked right after that, but maybe it needed a cold start or something. Whatever exactly happened, it's working ok now. It was very depressing to think about the rest of the trip without a computer.

 That whole affair lasted until close to checkout time (11:00), so we got a late start. We drove west on Rt 40 from Vernal, enjoying the scenery. Had to wait quite awhile for some road work but the weather was good. We hadn't eaten breakfast and didn't eat until afternoon. We found a taco place in Heber City, not Sharleen's favorite place for breakfast, but better than nothing. We didn't see a convenient phone there so continued on. Rt 40 became a divided highway shortly outside town and we stopped at a rest area a bit later. We had to wait for the phone for awhile and while we did some bikers were getting ready to leave. I noticed a Sturgis shirt on one and got out to talk to them. They had Harleys. I asked when the big Sturgis rally was, they said it was happening right then and they had come from there. Every year in Sturgis, South Dakota bikers converge for a big biker rally. It's mostly Harleys, but other bikes too. It goes on for 10 days (see http://rally.sturgis.sd.us/schedule/dayschedule/rallyracesssched.htm for schedule). The phone freed up and Sharleen called Little America in Salt Lake City to get a room. She asked when check in time was, they said in 5 minutes (3 pm).

I put a quart of oil in the car before we left the rest stop. We were not far from Salt Lake City and I navigated us to the AAA office to get a detailed city map. Then a short ride brought us to the hotel. The main part is a 17 story tower, we stayed in a cheaper section, $95 per night. We don't normally spend that much but had stayed in a Holiday Inn in Boulder, it was somewhat factory like, and had bad computer connections. For about $6 more Little America was like a different world. We started under a very large covered entrance way, even had two big skylights over the brick roadway. There must have been a dozen big doors into the lobby. We looked a bit scraggly, faded torn jeans, wrinkly shirt, but that was no problem. The lobby area was very big and had a fancy stained-glass domed skylight, lots of fancy furniture, a big brass fireplace, marble, and so on. We registered, got our key, and drove around to our building. The grounds had fountains, spraying curtains of water 10 feet or so into the air. Our building had pines and big white birch trees. We went up to the second floor and opened the door. It was a big room, two main sections. One was like a living room with nice furniture, a sofa, 4 chairs, end tables with lamps, and a nice big wooden table with a phone. I have my computer set up on this table right now as I type this in. The bedroom area has a big bed, really comfortable too, and a big screen tv hidden inside a large wooden cabinet. The wood looks a bit like polished cherry, maybe not that dark. The two areas may be divided by curtains. The whole room must be 15-20 by 30-40 feet in size. There is also an entrance way with closets and a sink, and a big bathroom with a big elliptical tub (which Sharleen just soaked in while I type this in). There is another phone in the bathroom, plus a fridge in there. A fountain outside the window gives sound effects.

We took our swim suits and walked over to the tower building. Went up the curved staircase from the main lobby to the second floor which has many meeting rooms and a pool area. The pool area has exercise equipment, hot tub, sauna, and changing rooms with showers (with soap). The pool itself is both indoor and outdoor, you can swim through a large tunnel. A large deck area surrounds it and rugged mountains are visible in the distance, with a few small snow patches. We changed and swam for awhile. The water was very warm, I like it that way. Then we got dressed and drove downtown to a large, 4 floor mall to try to get the film processed and get something to eat. I didn't like the film price and we didn't see much that interested us for food, so we walked out and across the street to the temple square, a large area with the Mormon Temple and other large buildings and big old trees. We walked there a bit and came back, found our car in the large parking garage and came back to the hotel. We checked out the restaurant there and decided to try the one vegetarian dish they had. We started with a big salad, and some very good salad dressings. The main plate was a thick slice of portabelo mushroom (about 6 inches across) with spinach on top, surrounded by polenta (some kind of corn stuff), sun dried tomatoes, pine nuts, tomato sauce, and the whole thing had asparagus spears forming a tee-pee over it. It was actually quite good, better than it looked, it all came with a big bowl of various kinds of bread. It was almost too much food to eat. Should have been for $30. After the meal we checked out the Ball Room restrooms. Very fancy. All marble (colorful marble) and shiny brass. The stalls were little individual marble rooms, each with its own crystal chandelier. In a few more days we'll be digging a hole in the ground, maybe not on Whitney, it has solar powered latrines, whatever they are.

Back at the room we pulled the thin curtain between the bedroom/living room areas and opened the balcony door. One set of fountains are just outside and with the door open we could hear them all night through the screen. Sounded like rain, intense rain. In fact I recorded a bit so you can hear them yourself if you have access to sound (10 seconds, 216Kb, sounds a lot like static). We heard it all night long, I kept wondering if the car windows were tightly shut.

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