THEY CAN'T BREATHE

Layton Valley, Utah smells reminiscent, but out of place as I walk through the wild flowers growing along the path winding back up to the resort.  The dry desert heat lifts a scent that is so familiar, yet I cannot place my finger on it.  The thin air is quiet and serene as I gaze over the Wasatch Mountain range and imagine the vast difference between here and Florida.
Getting closer to the resort entrance I am distracted from my focus on figurin out the smell of the air by how good Eddie Money sounds through their sound system.
Two Tickets to Paradise causes me to pause by the entrance.  I decide to sit a while and ponder life on the smooth cedar bench closest to the door.
There is no hurry today.  And even if I was in a hurry I couldn’t move fast if I wanted to.  Dang it is hard to breathe here, so taking a pause to catch ones breath is always a prudent past time in Utah.
This visit to my favorite state of Utah, I am in the valley so I am not nauseated or flat out incapacitated like when I go further up into Park City.   But I am used to being at sea level so even at 4,350 feet; it doesn’t mean the building ain’t swayin!
Still, visiting Utah continues to be one of the biggest hoots of my life.  But man oh man what a schlepp to get here.  The topography could not be any different from my home town of Coral Gables, so it would have to be far far away.
It takes one leg of the trip to arrive at a HUB, usually DFW, then me and my camel hump move on to another plane and one more flight.  By the time I gather my entire luggage I am huffing and puffing real well.
This trip by the time I arrived at the rental car counter, a cute man in a nice hat with a lovely wife wearing pretty shoes, stopped to admire my ability to travel like a Uhaul all on my own two legs, with no wheels in sight.  They were both smiling incredulously as the gentleman told me “We are really impressed with your strength, do you need any help?”
Laughing I replied. “Thank y’all so very much.  No I am good with the bags, but I could always use help with my Mother back in Coral Gables. Y’all up for that?”  We chuckled away and then bid a good day.
Being here is a surreal blend of reality.  It is like some sort of blast from the past because aside from the landscape, the general way that Utahans live life reminds me of growing up in the sixties, in Miami.  Their manner of behaving is very civil.  There is a comfortable feeling in Utah that ties the streets and homes together as one.
Calm, is the name of the game in Utah.
After visiting for four years and the three out of four seasons, I am convinced as to why everyone, everywhere in Utah is calm…they can’t breathe!
Even when Utahans are tellin you fantastic news or having a celebration they can barely if at all, muster up the appropriate body language to get their point across.  I am tellin you it is hard to get ‘er done, in Utah.  I have not been to a wedding or even a party yet in Utah but I am imaginin’ ahead of time that I will not have to take a nap that day, before the festivities
Thin air tempers everything.  I have friends who live half the year in Park City Utah and the other half of the year they reside in flat and sunny Boca Raton.  A Floridian’s idea of a mountain is a landfill.   Their first stop when returning to Utah each summer is the oxygen rental company.  This may sound over the top for those of you who don’t understand altitude sickness, but it is something you don’t want to get and once you have had it, you will prevent it at any cost.   Most people from Florida feel something out of the norm when visiting a high altitude.  The lucky ones just get a headache for a couple days. 
And Utah dusk in the summer time is just the strangest thing.  Once dusk falls over the magnificent Wasatch Mountain range, a grayish purple covers the world as far as the eye can see.  It insists that lingering feel of dinnertime until about nine thirty at night.  Can you imagine?  It makes me feel like I am in Alaska or something.
You’d think with all of this extra sunlight people would be extra productive.  Not the case.  The thin air makes Utahans feel sorta like they have a constant case of Thanksgiving-Turkey hang over but without the bloat.
And referring to bloat?  Ain’t no one bloated here.  They do not even have a visual on what it means to be bloated.
Well for one thing there is no Blue Bell ice cream out West.  Anyone Southern will know exactly what I am sayin and secondly, not bein able to breathe takes away your appetite.  Look, there is a Cupcake War winner right across the street from our hotel here in Layton.  I must have cupcake radar because the very first afternoon I stumbled upon it looking for the typical Walmart vacay staples.  Literally, right across the street but it doesn’t matter.   I have been to the bakery four times in two weeks but low oxygen zaps how good food looks and tastes.  Either that or it is just too much trouble to chew.  It’s like you can’t do two things at once in Utah because there is no good thick airflow.  So you either breathe or eat cupcakes and when it comes down to those two, I will breathe.  Visiting Utah is the best diet tool I have ever known.
And Utahans have an unusual way of speaking.  They end their sentences fast.  They will be talking a normal speed and then at the end of whatever it is they are saying, they speed up and shorten the last word.  They cut the last word in half each and every time.  I think they are running out of breath.
The whole altitude thing is a big adjustment.  But I am startin to get the hang of it.  This trip after two weeks, I was at least able to walk my skinny self to the bathroom to brush my teeth without getting dizzy.