We will be driving to Oregon from Colorado. Unless we go way out of the way on who knows what roads?, we have to pass through part of the Morridor, part of Utah and more of Idaho.
I get physically ill when I am anywhere near the Morridor because of the feeling of PURE EVIL. For me, it is palpable and I actually feel physically awful.
I don't have to go through Rexburg and I heard Boise is not nearly as bad as Rexburg, but I would appreciate your thoughts.

How do some of you cope with it?

If you are passing through on a Sunday, you should stop in on one of the many exmo coffeehouse gatherings between 9-12 a.m.

Go through on a Sunday--they'll all be in church or taking naps at home.

Sundays are also the best time to shop in Utah, or go watch a movie.

:)

make sure to drive across wyoming on I-80.
it's quicker.

I'll be there to put flowers on my families graves between both Utah and Idaho. I don't feel the way you do. When I come home to visit it is with mixed feelings, most of which are part homesickness for the place of my birth and where I grew up.

Many of my loved ones still living are still LDS living in the Morridor. I don't see them very often, but we still love each other and there is a bond between some of us no church can separate.

I love the scenery! It's some of the most beautiful and spectacular anywhere I've traveled. Right there in that little corner of the world. For me it is and will always be my home, at least in this lifetime.

Also love New York. It's been my home for the past nearly 30 years. It's just not the same as where you spent your childhood IMO.

Take a sleeping pill, Cover your head and Sleep. Let someone else drive. lol

Whenever we go there I just think of it as a circus sideshow, particularly the house of mirrors, distorted and weird. I do love the scenery and try to stop for that most times though.

If you aren't driving, ask your doctor for some Xanax or Ativan. Both work very well for dispelling both PTSD type anxiety and simmering resentment of TBMs. I need an Rx to get through TBM in-law gatherings and have tried both drugs on different occasions. If used appropriately and just for the hard parts of the trip, the side effects are minimal. With the kind of strong reaction you are anticipating there's nothing wrong with asking a doctor for help. You deserve a pleasant trip unblemished by the stupid cult.

A cup of coffee and a Neon Trees t-shirt will repel Mormon cooties.

I can't seem to find any references to Utah or the Morridor in this book:
https://books.google.com/books/about/Robert_Young_Pelton_s_The_World_s_Most_D.html?id=-d-cF4PjhmUC&source=kp_cover&hl=en

Leave it up to verilyverily and her growing paranoia; she makes a simple drive through the Wasatch seem like the Lewis & Clark expedition.

I'm kidding you, and I wish you good luck on your journey, but hey, don't you think this is silly? Anyway, I've been through Wrecksburg, and I survived, want me to bear my testi.....uh, what I thought of the town? ;)

My husband becomes physically ill there, too, He says the evil is tangible.

We have tried to live there twice (for family), once for three weeks, the other for six months. My husband was so sick that our landlord allowed us to break our lease--no money owed--and we moved back to CA.

Verily, have you ever studied "Highly Sensitive People"? He is one of them. Maybe you are, too.

No I haven't, but I'd like to. Is it a book? If so who wrote it? Thanks

There is quite a bit written on the subject--tons online. Just google Highly Sensitive People, and a lot of fascinating stuff will come up. :)

Ogden was in the top ten of the worst crime ridden cities when I lived there in 1976 my junior year of high school. It was so bad our next door neighbor was arrested for stabbing a hotel clerk 44 times for a few dollars. *After* same said neighbor had burglarized our house a couple of times (I'd moved away by then!)

It was a helluva place to be living in the 70's. It was just coming out of the Dark Ages from school segregation, the tension at my high school was palpable walking through the halls. I didn't have a problem, but was always on the alert from necessity.

Satanic cults were flourishing from ex-Mormons then becoming Satanic worshipers and druggies combined. It was a blessing for me to be able to escape it back then when I did, for Palo Alto where I finished high school.

Today Ogden and Salt Lake City are listed as two of the top 25 places to retire to by Forbes Magazine. For cost of living and all. The crime rate isn't as high now in Ogden as it was when I lived there. I still wouldn't want to move back, no thanks.

As a child it was always a treat for us to visit our grandmother there on our family excursions from Idaho. It has gone full circle since then as a quality place to live, work, and according to Forbes, retire.

I remember stopping for gas at a big gas station at a crossroads in Utah with a carload of girl scouts. It was hot and we were all in shirts and tank tops.

A pickup pulled up and some women and a bunch of kids hopped down from the back. The women and girls were dressed in long, prairie-type skirts made of camouflage material and wearing jeans underneath.

The smirking guy who took my money in the store had eyes that were so far apart they seemed to look to the sides rather than forward!

I could have sworn we were in a Twilight Zone episode!

Later, in a pizza place outside Zion, I had a glass of wine to celebrate our narrow escape!

I'm a gay exmormon who's lived in Utah for years. And I love it here. Hubby and I live in Ogden, which tends to be less Mormon than other areas of Utah.

I understand what you're going through, though. I graduated from BYU 28 years ago. And it still freaks me out to drive through Utah County.

When will you be driving through? If it's a Sunday in early June you can stop and watch the Gay Pride Parade - 2nd largest event in Utah (after Pioneer Day).

Is the Gay Pride Parade in SLC or Ogden? I would like to see it. We don't know what day yet. We are in the process of selling our house so dates are still up in the air.

One funny thing that took place in Utah is on this LINK...April Fool's prank! LOL

http://kutv.com/news/local/salina-police-in-central-utah-fool-citizens-with-feline-unit

This year's gay pride parade will be Sunday June 5 at 10 am in Salt Lake City. Here's the link to more information:

http://www.utahpridefestival.org/event/utah-pride-parade-empowered-by-mark-miller-subaru/?instance_id=2

It's always lots of fun. And you'll definitely see a side of Utah that's not Mormon!

one of my co-workers told me a story of when she was driving from California to Colorado and had to stop for gas in Salina Utah.
She said that when she went into the building to pay for the gas it was like that movie "the hills have eyes".
I laughed and told her it was true.

Whatever you do DO NOT take the south route through St. George in your Covered Wagon.

Or so it seems to me...

I enjoy the sights - the mountains, the scenery. I don't care about the people, they are just human beings. I'm impervious to anything negative, anyhow.

I'm all about having a good time, enjoying my adventures. I've lived in UT and visited dozens of times, including ID where my husband was born.
There is some really beautiful country. Some of the drive is very tedious so I'd listen to my favorite music and enjoy the landscape. Sometimes we counted the different license plates, or trucks, etc. to pass the time.

It's all about the principle I talk about constantly: Take Your Power Back and Own It. That means that nothing and nobody can upset you or mess with your day. You are in control of YOU and nobody else is given permission to intrude.

So, my advice? Get busy owning your own power and enjoy your trip! There is some beautiful scenery, and interesting places to see. Have FUN!

That state freaks me out. The last time I was there, it was for a week in Manti. It was like being in a bad movie. Every store I went in made me wonder when the bad movie was about to take a turn for the worse. The hardware store was the worst.

The guy working there ran to the back room and peeked around the corner to see what I was looking at. All I wanted was a small plastic bucket. You would have thought I was ordering up several gallons of whiskey.

He shoved a bucket at me, I gave him my $3 and left.

Later on I met up in Manti with hubby. He'd driven there to pick me up after my glorious time in Manti. We stayed at the RV park behind the temple. The plyg family running the place were nice enough, but very stand offish.

By the time I left Manti, i'd had enough of turkey's to last me awhile. The town is just weird through and through. The only normal people I ran into were at McDonalds.

As real as Jesus chased away from bewildered people...
Take I-80 North, make sure your tanks are full.....

make it a game.

laugh at the mormons. I do. it's cathartic.

Just know that you are ONLY passing through.

Utah is beautiful and you don't have to stop and talk to anyone about mormonism.

I love visiting Utah!

Never once have I been proselytized, and I've had some really good conversations there with other people visiting who find the mormons there really weird...

Haven't been to the Beehive state since I defected 10 years ago, but I am like you - if I had to go I would be physically ill because of the EVIL that I would feel passing through a US "state" that is so encased in a god damn cult.

Perception is everything. If you think Utah is an evil wasteland, that's how you'll see it. Hell, as a Mormon, I thought basically the whole world was evil and out to get me, and interpreted reality to match that expectation.

I see Utah as a state that has a lot of flaws, but a lot of awesome too. SLC is one of the most gay-friendly cities in America. There are tons of ex-Mormons here whose very existence undermines TSCC's narrative. Only about half of Utah is even Mormon any more---we'll soon reach a tipping point where TSCC loses its stranglehold on the legislature and become a real state.

If you expect Utah to be horrible, it will be. But it you look deeper you can find more than that.

Source: I'm a gay ex-Mormon living in the middle of Orem.

Exactly. I have lived here my whole life and had very few problems with Mormons. Maybe try adjusting your attitude.

When I went to synagogue services visiting in southern Utah the tongues were wagging about the around town this and that goings on of the Mormons in the community.

With a little eye rolling to boot. It's one of the pastimes for the never Mos living in the heartland of Dixie.

With gentle humor, nothing off beat or deprecating other than the weirdness of it all sometimes gets to them too.

I don't think the Mormons abduct tourists or anything. Enjoy the scenery!

I like imaworkinonit's suggestion!

Gas up so you don't have to stop in SLC and by the time you get to Wyoming you can have a beer with lunch.

RB

Xyandro - just to be sure everyone understands where I am coming from...I grew up in Utah and was in the CULT until I was 15.
After leaving the CULT, and to shorten the story, I went to college and got two master's degrees and a Utah teaching certificate.
I started teaching college at a STATE [not CULT] owned college. I taught there for several years. Every time a full time position came up, I applied of course. By this time I was part way to a PhD [master's degrees were required for the teaching positions I applied for] and I also had college teaching experience!

I finally found out from a very reliable source [my TBM, but kind boss] that there was no way I would ever get hired full time there because I didn't have a TR and was not in the CULT. Remember this college is owned by the STATE not the CULT so this was blatantly illegal, but who wants to fight the slimy cult? I figured that if they don't want me for not worshipping a child molester, conman, criminal, then I don't want to be there either! F*CK IT!

So I moved out of Utah ASAP and flipped it the bird on the way out. Then because of a bunch of CULT members [including the judge and the defendants] all being in the CULT, I lost a law suit to the tune of $300K. Even my lawyer said if I hadn't been in Utah [and the only non-CULT member in the case, I would have won. If the trial would have been in a state not governed by the CULT, I would have won.

Our lives are still affected by that loss. That was our nest egg that my mom had put away for us since my husband is disabled. Her slimy former husband's adult children managed to F*CK the whole think up in the Mormon court room with the CULT judge and the CULT bishop testifying for the slimy Mormon assholes and I was screwed. These asshats ripped us off for $300K.

Now, we have to move to yet another state because of our nest egg being ripped off by the CULT and the state the CULT is in. We can't afford to live here so we have to move.

So, YES Utah and the CULT is an EVIL wasteland. I won't ever change my mind. If you had had the experience I have had with Utah and the CULT, you would not enjoy anything about the evil place either.

It sounds like an ugly divorce or worse that you went through between your parents estate, the lawyers, and your step siblings.

No wonder it has left such a bad taste in your mouth.

I would find a good map/atlas and look for any other way to go around and circumvent Utah if I were you. You don't even want to pay taxes on its gas driving through, that is understandable.

You don't owe them a thing, they stole more from you than you'll be able to get back.

((((Hugs!))))