I took the opportunity to hop into my car (because again I hadn't been doing enough driving) and headed for the hills, namely Park City - the site of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
It was still crazy early, but, hey, I was awake. I started headed out and before I knew it, I was hurtling along the highway at 121klm/hour (80m/h speed limit) in snow and ice. I quietly entered the truck lane and proceeded at a more controlled pace.
I ended up at the Olympic park, where I battled snow and sleet to take a look around at all the ramps. I was quota amused to see they have a summer program where you can go down one of the huge ski slides into a rather large, deep pool. I'd be glad to give that one a miss :) I was there so early that I wasn't able to take a look at the museum, but the location was exciting nonetheless.
I continued on to Park City Main Street. What an enchanting little town! Big fluffy snowflakes were falling and there was a sweet layer of snow on everything. Just as a sidenote, did you know that eyebrows can freeze? Rather an awkward feeling, let me say.
Again, I was there way too early but the benefit to that was that I had the roads all to myself. I took myself up to where the nicest houses are and got some gorgeous photos.
I head back to my hotel as I had woken and gone out so early, and I really needed a nap by this stage! During my visit to the Valley Communications Centre whilst at the Conference, I made a point to introduce myself to the Centre's Director and began an email dialogue with him by email about the exchange program I'm wanting to explore. I asked if it would be possible to visit VECC again before I leave SLC and after some serious security vetting, I had an invitation to visit that afternoon!
Valley Comms is fabulously impressive. All state of the art, lots of room to move around and be comfortable in. They had a table set up with a chocolate fountain and other goodies to celebrate Dispatcher' week. The views from the break room were fabulous!!! Snow capped mountains!
The team I met were really friendly and welcoming. I plugged in and listened to both police and fire dispatch (EMS is through fire) and also spent some time with a call taker who took calls for all emergencies. I guess you would get used to it, but I found that most of the street names have numbers as well as the premises numbers (ie 230 2500 West Street). The accents probably didn't help.
One of the staff support personnel came around to give a little box of nick-nacks (pens, chocolate, stress balls and the like) to say thanks for doing what we do (I got one too!), which was really sweet.
Before I left, I spent some time with a fire dispatcher, Irene, who suggested that I call in to one of their fire stations to say hi on the way back to the hotel. I thought this was a great idea, so after a couple of hours in the centre, I did just that.
The firies, all guys, were having their dinner when I arrived, but were very welcoming and were happy to answer all my questions. Two of the guys are qualified paramedics as well as firefighters and another was in training. They all went together on each and every job (5 officers in total), in both a fire truck and an ambulance. I'd brought some of my little koala bears with me and some QAS keychains, which they were happy to receive.
Suddenly, the buzzer went off and they had received a job. I was ready to say goodbye and get out of their way but they just said 'You're welcome to come with us!' so I jumped in the firetruck and off we went with the ambulance right behind us, lights and sirens ablazing. The case was an older gentleman with an extensive medical history presenting with chest pain. I ended up travelling in the ambulance when they transported the patient to hospital. What was amazing was that there were so many officers attending that there room to move inside, so after I watched initial contact, I headed outside to give the guys room to move.
Once we got to the hospital, we offloaded the patient into his own little ER room, did a handover with a Dr and then made our way to the Emergency staff break room. They had a popcorn machine (like at the movies) and a soft drink machine!!!!!
It had been a long day so I took off back to my hotel once we got back to station. What a greet bunch of guys and I am a little jealous of all the resources the officers and the Dispatchers have.
I had dinner at the onsite Japanese restaurant at my hotel. I ordered a chicken bento box and was astounded when they brought out a tray as big as a briefcase...all for about $8. Crazy! There was a family using the unusually placed indoor swimming pool, so I guess I got dinner and a show...although I could have been spared the Dad in the speedos and the biting smell of Chlorine whilst I ate.
I got a fortune cookie after my meal, which I found very apt in regard to the exchange program that I hope to set up.
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