All the Fun That We Missed
This post title is from a song title by The Ziggens, which was sampled by Sublime in “Badfish” (which many of you may have heard years ago on the radio). It pays tribute to what happened this month…
A couple days later after getting home from Southern Utah, I had planned to drive up to and scout Bear Lake in Utah and Idaho for future camping trips, and to check out a few places while in the area while we were there. Both my child and I have never been to the area, so I thought it would be fun to check it out and to bring the dog with for the day.
I am so glad we didn’t reserve a camping spot at the north or south camping lots the day we visited, because it looked like spring break at popular coastal beaches and it would have been a horrible camping experience . I should mention, Garden City was celebrating Raspberry Days that day, so that is one reason why it was really busy in town.
We looped around the lake, saw no lake creature (…asking for ‘tree fiddy’), and then stopped to check out a few shops along the way as we headed to Montpelier, ID.
Funny story, we passed through Paris, Idaho on the way to Montpelier… so I guess you can say that we “went to Paris when the 2024 Olympics were happening…”
When we arrived, we discovered the thrift store my kid wanted to go to was once a King’s store… Just like the one seen in Napoleon Dynamite. They are all closed now, but this one reopened as a thrift store (different business name) even though the Kings letters are still up. It too, had a basement that you can walk down into, just like the Preston store… no toys though (how it once was).
While my kid was inside looking around, I realized one of my pins from Google Maps of Places to See was right around the corner. So I walked the street we were on [Highway 89] to our destination.
The last known bank that Butch Cassidy robbed in 1896 is now a personally run museum telling the story. I talked to the guy who runs it and he talked my ear off. If you want to see this museum, you better hurry because he is closing it soon.
Well, we were starting to get hungry, and so we planned to drive into Preston and eat dinner at Big J’s Burger.
Once making it into Preston, auto and foot traffic was crazy busy that night– What the heck was going on? It turns out that the towns annual rodeo was going on that night. Trying to get dinner in town would be suicide.
Before we carried on into Richmond, UT to grab dinner at the Big J’s there (next to where they filmed the two scenes in the movie), I spotted a wall mural dedicated to Preston, Idaho… and I had to get a picture of us standing by the Napoleon mural.
I know I have taken the kids up there when they were younger, but I realized they don’t remember much since I was pointing out filming locations from ND along the way out of town and they were seeing these places in person as if for the first time. I’ll have to take them both back up there one day to show them the filming locations and homes used in the movie (I’m trying to create an ultimate ND filming location guide on the side).
A couple days later in downtown Salt Lake, I spotted the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile parked for the night. So we got out and took pictures.
Max came up with their mom for an appointment. I didn’t know Max was staying a few days after, so I never requested any time off to spend time with the kids… but I’m planning to definitely spend time with them in September!
We carried on with life (work, house work, chores, etc.) until the middle of the month. On my day off, I took Keith to his first job interview at a local haunted house. While waiting, Brodie and I walked around that neighborhood.
After the interview, I dropped Keith off at Encircle and since Red Butte Canyon was inaccessible that night, I found a park nearby the U area to wander around with Brodie until I had to pick up Keith.
After picking up Keith, we rushed out to the Great Salt Lake that night as fast as we could drive, but did not reach my destination of Black Rock before the sun set. I captured photos of the sun setting a half mile south of Saltair 3.
A couple days later, because of stormy weather, we really couldn’t do anything fun outside earlier in the day. We were finally able to drive out to and visit the GSL where the Saltair 3 is, and to walk around it while I was capturing photos of the weather, clouds and lightning off in the distance…
A couple days later, I woke up to see the sad news that the lead singer of the band The Ziggens had passed away the day before.
That hit hard because that was the best concert I ever attended, and I was waiting to go see them perform again. Since they never did perform again after the concert I went to, I realized that I had officially documented their last concert in 2020. I just wish I had also recorded audio of the entire performance, mmm, dang it!
Since I had that day off, I took Keith to Liberty Park to try the metal detector he owned.
He wasn’t having any luck, so I convinced him to go out and try it at the Saltair because of how many people visit and drop belongings outside during concerts.
So we drove over to the GSL and while he was using the metal detector, I was doing my thing with photography. We never did find anything with the detector, but I discovered these tissue thin salt creations from the storm that passed by the area on Sunday.
After getting home that night, my brother showed me a Instagram video of a comedian during his podcast. My brother saw him a while back, and gave him one of his t-shirts he sells. Well, guess who wore it that day?
I had to work a week straight after that last day off. Unfortunately, I went home early on the last night of work because I was sick again, and crashed in bed for a long time…
Now the sad news that I received to end this month…
I woke up early Tuesday morning (8/27) to see a text message from a former neighbor and friend. She let me know that Amanda, my second ex-wife, had passed away the day before due to her health.
I have been shown repeatedly that everything in life happens for a reason. Whether it is good or bad, as long as you learned a lesson from it, that’s all that matters and all you can do.
I guess that we were supposed to meet and help each other out for a while. I was the one to help bring her closer to her family and daughter (who will now have memories of Amanda), and she showed me…. that alone time is vital to survival and sanity. Although our time together was short, we made some fun memories together. Heck, we even survived the COVID lockdown together without killing each other! 😂 And this is still my favorite moment in South Park, because of her…
Like I said at the beginning of this post, I chose the song title as the post title from The Ziggens because after we separated, I always wondered what it would have been like to have her tagging along besides me as I went on the adventures that I have written about after March 2021 (or how things would have turned out had we stayed together and things turned out for the better). I also wonder if she ever read my site to see what I was doing… of all the fun that WE missed.
True, I would have been miserable, but I know she really missed out… and that’s made me feel sad all this time.
Besides the divorce and small claims for the watch, I never contacted her ever again (although I had two friends send me text saying they were near her at different times). I had my life to live, she now had hers. I always wonder how her daughter is doing in life? We (my family) all hope she will get through this, and are thinking of her.
Yes, I was notified of when and where they were having a celebration of life, on her birthday in Sept 2024. I had to give up my chance to say Goodbye because I stayed away to keep the peace… not because I didn’t want to go.
Like I said before, Amanda, wherever you are (because our religious beliefs were different)… rest in peace.
