Swimming, Mining, and Parading

On Friday, July 23, we had a busy but fun day! As with the rest of the summer, we had swim team at 7:00 in the morning. Then we had the opportunity to go to the Kennecott Copper Mine with Ryan’s Webelos (Cub Scout) den. The den currently consists of Ryan and one other boy, so the two boys, their den leader and I went. Here are some interesting facts about the Kennecott Copper Mine:
•Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine has produced more copper than any mine in history - about 18.1 million tons.
•The mine is 2-3/4 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep. You could stack two Sears Towers (now known as the Willis Building) on top of each other and still not reach the top of the mine.
•The mine is so big, it can be seen by the space shuttle astronauts as they pass over the United States.
•By 2015, the mine will be at least 500 feet deeper than it is now.
•If you stretched out all the roads in the open pit mine, you'd have 500 miles of roadway - enough to reach from Salt Lake City to Denver.
•The giant electric shovels in the mine can scoop up as much as 98 tons in a single bite -- about the weight of 50 cars.
•The newest electric shovels each cost more than $20 million and weigh 3.2 million pounds.
•The trucks that haul the ore are larger than many houses and weigh more than a jumbo jet. They stand over 23 feet tall and can carry from 255 to 360 tons of rock.
•The truck driver rides about 18 feet above the ground -- nearly two stories high.
•Each tire on these big trucks costs from $18,000 to $26,000 and lasts just 9 months.
•The crusher in the pit takes in about 140,000 tons of ore every day and grinds it into chunks smaller than the size of a basketball.
•At 1,215 feet tall, the Kennecott smokestack is the highest structure in Utah.

We enjoyed admiring the huge tires from the dump trucks, as well as some of the old mining equipment.We had lunch at a drive-in by the mine, and then drove home. We relaxed (Ryan relaxed, I worked) for a couple of hours, and then we (Rara, Papa & I) took Ryan to his meeting spot for the parade. The Tsunami swim team walked in the parade. Their meeting spot was right by 5-Points park, so it was nice to sit in the shade while waiting. Ryan played a bit with his teammates.
When the coaches were all there, we left Ryan in their hands, went to Rumbi Island Grill for dinner, and then found a spot on Main Street to watch the parade. It was extremely long this year, with several corporate sponsors passing things out as they went by. By the time the Tsunami team went by (entry 112), we were ready to go!

The parade officially ended on 4th North and about 100 West, but every group was assigned to end at a different spot to ease congestion. The Tsunami team turned back south on 100 West, and then ended at a church at 200 West and 200 North. We took more pictures as they passed us on 100 West, and then walked with them to the church.We took Ryan to Wendy’s for dinner, and then drove up to Bountiful Boulevard to watch the fireworks.We had a fun day, but were thrilled to crash into bed when it was all over!