I Don't Think We're in Maryland

Day Two
We stayed at the Ben Lomond hotel which is documented to be haunted.  Luckily we were not visited by a ghost.  But someone else was.  We had the clerk relate her ghostly experiences to us.  She told us about seeing a  lady dressed in a long fancy dress come down the stairs one night and she went into the elevator.  The elevator doors closed but then opened right up again and poof! she was gone.
Teri from Shepherd's Bush recommended shopping at Rainbow Gardens.

 So we drove out there.  It is a collection of stores and a restaurant in one building.  We really liked the quilt shop there.  We found a few other things at one of the gift shops.  Then we had to try a "Mormon Muffin".

It is a bran muffin with walnuts.  It was warm and served with honey butter.  It made the perfect lunch.  Ogden is very scenic with mountains and valleys.

 But we have to get back to Salt Lake City to take a plane to Phoenix.  I totally forgot to fill up the rental car with gas and we were an hour late returning the car so we got charged extra.  Rats.
When we checked in at the airport the lady told us the wrong gate number.  Luckily we checked on it after a while (Why isn't anybody at our gate?) and found the right gate.  But our flight was delayed but only half an hour.  We got to Phoenix fine.  Our agenda for the evening was to go visit a friend who we met at the Silver Needle retreat a year ago.  So we rented a car.  Unfortunately it was rush hour.  But I have a GPS unit that Son#2 gave me a while back (that I have named Matilda) to help us find our friend's house.  I typed in our friend's address but for some reason Matilda thought we were in Maryland. Oh no.  How will we get there?  After getting kind of (hopelessly) lost, we stopped at a gas station and bought some maps.  But we had no idea where we were.  So we called our friend.  She stayed on the phone and gave us step by step directions to get us to her house.  It took a while since our top speed was around 15 MPH.  After just a couple more wrong turns, we made it.
It was wonderful to see our friends stitching and quilts and needlepoint.  She had dinner fixed for us and it was delicious.  Peppermint ice cream for dessert.  She has a lovely house too.  She even let us see her sewing room.
After leaving our friends house, we are headed to the Hyatt Place in Mesa. Our friend has printed out directions for us but the directions are printed backwards, from the hotel to her house.  I can't read backwards directions.  I know, I've tried before.  But we think we can do it.  Take the 101 to the 202.  Simple, right?  But we are not seeing the hotel.  Or any streets we recognize from last year.  Finally we decide to turn around.  But then our evening takes another turn.  We are pulled over by a policeman.  The first thing he says is, "I think this is a rental car".  How would he know that?  We find out that we have been driving without our headlights on and it is very dark.  We had no idea!  He wants to see our rental agreement.  We can't find it.  He has to help us figure out how to turn our headlights on.  We tell him we are lost.  Matilda thinks we are in Maryland.  He goes back to his police car for a long time.  We are sweating bullets.  Will we get a ticket??  Will we go to jail?  We are imagining all kinds of things.  We did get a warning.  But the policeman printed out a very long page of directions for us to get to the hotel.  He was very nice to us. He shakes his head in disbelief as he walks back to his patrol car.  I am almost too tired to sit up as it is 1:30 a.m. my time.  Thanks to the policeman we make it to our hotel.  Boy, are we tired.  What a day!
A