A Tourist in My Own Home Town

Last weekend I took my friends Erin and Libby to Orderville to celebrate the 4th of July.  We went Friday and slept at my sisters house.  Then bright and early Saturday morning we got up and went to the annual Orderville town breakfast.  My dad was the mayor of Orderville for sixteen years and I think he was the one that started that tradition. I love it!   The 4th of July after my Dad passed away the park was dedicated and named after him.  

Then we went to Glendale for the parade.  My sister did a float in honor of my Grandpa Goulding who served in World War II.  We helped her make the banners the night before.

That's right, that is me on there.  My sister, her kids, my Grandma and one of my cousin's kids were on there too.  My sister's oldest was dressed in one of my Grandpa's old uniforms.

I know you can't see the signs very well but if you could you would see that they look really great! :)

Then we decided to visit some tourist attractions.  Our first stop was this "Rock Stop".  It is not even a mile from my house and I don't think I have ever been inside. I didn't know the guy that owns it.  He asked where we were from and it was kind of funny to tell him born and raised right there.  He told us a little bit about the history of the place.  A guy by the name of Elbert Porter built it along with some dinosaur replica's.  They were all in  Orderville until the late 70's when someone, maybe the state of Utah, bought them and moved them to Vernal and now they are part of the dinosaur museum there.  My sister still remembers when they moved them on flatbed diesels.  I had heard a little bit about that all before.  In fact I told a guy I know from Vernal that those dinosaurs used to be in Orderville and he made fun of me thinking I was just trying to be a one upper.

Then we decided to go to Moqui Cave.  I have passed it countless times in my life and I think I have been there once.  It cost five dollars to go in.  We decided to try it out.  It had been a really long time since I was there.  I really didn't remember anything about it.  It was pretty cheesy but we had fun.  They have some dinosaur tracks and some rocks that glow under UV lights.  One thing I thought was kind of cool is they told us it actually used to be a dance hall and bar.

Then we went back to the park and bought lunch.  There was a soup contest and we decided to help judge.  Libby loved it!  There were some pretty good soups.  Orderville's nick name was soup town back in the day. There is a lady who has bought some of the older buildings along main street. One of them is now the Soup Town cafe and the one next to it has a replica of what the town looked like during the United Order.  So we went and checked that out. 

Lastly, we took a detour into Alton and not only did they get to see the little beautiful town but they got to see the Whoa sign.  There used to be more but I think this is the only one left.  
I really did feel kind of like a tourist since we visited some places I had never been. I don't know about my friends but I had a good time.  I hope they did too.