Life in Tooele

Tooele is a small town, about half the size of Logan. The total population of the county is about 40,000, which is about 10,000 less than Logan city and less than half of Cache Valley. Just by moving in we've increased the Filipino population of Tooele by 11% and the general Asian population by 3%.

Because retailers look at population when deciding whether to locate in a town, the only retailer in town is pretty much Wal-Mart. There's a CAL Ranch store that I haven't explored yet, but if it's anything like the CAL Ranch store in Logan, it'll be like a discount department store with a very, very large animal care section, which only carries western clothing. The Wal-Mart here is crowded and poorly laid out, with tiny aisles and an ill-planned selection of items. They didn't have any decorative shelves at all, and they did have roller shades but no brackets to install them.

If you want any sort of selection beyond what Wal-Mart has to offer, you have to drive into Salt Lake City. This is a drive of 30 to 60 minutes (depending on which part of the city you are headed to and what time of day), around the Oquirrh Mountains, past the scenic and brackish Great Salt Lake and the not-so-scenic Kennecott Copper smelter. Attempting this drive with a carful of children is not recommended for the faint of heart. Besides the usual intense discussion of whether or not we are there yet, you will be treated to an extended debate over such deep theological and scientific questions as whether God poops and, if so, what are meteors.

So far we have found one bright spot in Tooele, and that is the Sun Lok Yuen restaurant. We never would have thought we could find such excellent Chinese food in such a small town, but there it is. It beats the hell out of anything we had in Logan (except maybe Mandarin Garden, but I haven't been there in so long I don't remember it). I'm seriously thinking of having Princess' birthday party there, since she wants a Chinese theme this year.