No rush this morning. A leisurely breakfast, take some time to repack the saddle bags. Its funny how that happens. The bags start out so neat and perfect the first day. Then with each successive day they become progressively less organized. Again, its going to be a hot one. “So….down the road we go…ramble tamble…..” Can you guess what song that is from?
We followed interstate 15 south to highway 40 and headed east to Downey, then to Preston and on to North Logan.
Arriving at our hostess’s home we were greeted with the same warmth and friendliness that Deleyne greeted us with last year. Almost exactly a year ago, Larry and myself et al. pounced on Deleyne’s home as a stop point on our way to Mexico for the 47th annual Three Flags Classic Motorcycle Endurance Event. The event saw us ride from Puerto Penasco, Mexico to Calgary, Alberta in 3 1/2 days. To follow our Three Flags Classic Adventure (click here)
After a bit of a relaxing and visiting with Deleyne, the 4 of us hop in Deleyne’s car and launch ourselves towards the Utah State University, agriculture department creamery where we indulge in some of their world famous ice cream.
With a milk fat content of around 12%, it is one of the creamiest ice creams available in the USA. It is actually the ice cream that was/is taken into space by the astronauts. (Called Aggie Ice Cream).
Next was a trip across campus to the Aggie Chocolate Learning and Research Center Factory. Although Marion and I have toured several chocolate factories, plantations and even helped make chocolates, there is no such thing as being in too many chocolate factories. Our young guide provided us with an excellent explanation of the chocolate research being done there followed by an explanation of the process.
Marion, you will appreciate that they have and are working with chocolate Ghana. Then came the best part. Yup, you guessed it, the sampling of different chocolate from different countries. It became clear to Marion and myself a long time ago, that not all chocolate is created equal and that was so true in today’s samples. The first chocolate (and these were all dark chocolate) from Ecuador was excellent but I had no idea what kind of treat was in store for us next.
We were so fortunate to have the opportunity to sample chocolate from Belize. I have sampled a lot of chocolate in my lifetime, but never have I had a chocolate as incredible, as stupendous, as amazing, as mind blowing (well, maybe not really), as the chocolate from Belize. If you have never tried Belize chocolate and your are a fan of chocolate, you must go looking for Belize chocolate. BTW, for our fellow Canuck readers, they even had Nanaimo Bars.
Travelling a little further across campus, and it is a huge campus, we went to the Merrill-Cazier Library where Deleyne used to work. On the second floor of the library is the access to what is called the BARN which means “Borrower’s Automated Retrieval Network” It is an 8 1/2 story high automated book retrieval system that can hold up to 1.5 million books. It was like watching something out of a sci-fi movie.
Off to Sizzler for supper where due to mix-up by their marketing department, they did not have the special as advertised in the flyers that were sent out. It is a pay before-you-order restaurant and unfortunately the cashiers were not told about the mix-up soon enough. Since we had already paid for the specials, the manager explained the mix-up to us and then upgraded our meals. What a deal.
From there Deleyne continued our tour of Logan and North Logan with a trip up to the cemetery where her husband is buried. It is a fairly new cemetery and the land was donated specifically for this purpose and is a beautiful setting.
This was a pretty full day. G’nite ya’all.
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