Brad Lovejoy David Latt
Green Envy
The blogger A Bourbon Gal fly-fishes eastern Utah’s famed Green River By Darby Doyle
44 Devour Utah • May/June 2015
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Tacos El Gordo—Vernal. Patrons start lining up to order as soon as Tacos El Gordo restaurant/store (housed in a converted gas station) opens at 10 a.m., and there’s a steady stream of happy customers all day. Grab a glass bottle of Mexican Coke to go with your burrito, enchilada, or $2 tacos. Pick fillings like spicy pork, chicken, barbacoa, or specialties you can’t get anywhere else in this corner of the state, like tripe and beef tongue. Kvelads.com/tacos-elgordo/
his isn’t one of those ‘save-the-marriage’ trips, is it?” asked our fly-fishing guide, Brad Lovejoy. We were finishing up some delish cheeseburgers Lovejoy had hibachi’ed for us during a riverside lunch break, getting ready to head back out onto the Green River. It was Day 1 of a two-day drift boat trip with Western Rivers Flyfisher. This was three summers ago, and my husband, Mike, and I were quite frankly just glad to be on any fishing trip where we didn’t have to untangle our kids’ lines or replace flies for anyone but ourselves. Having somebody else row the boat, get us to the fish and grill up lunch, too? Freakin’ nirvana. Mike and I both laughed, and I said to Lovejoy, “Nope, we’re just here to fish. We’re good.” Later, over tequila and beers with some other guides at Dutch John marina’s floating bar, Lovejoy told us he’d had a recent slew of clients come through—I suspect therapists who prescribed finding an activity for couples to share—but with disastrous results. Usually the guy in the boat lectured his wife on how to cast a line, and we all know how well that goes. Lovejoy told us that one couple divorced shortly after their trip with him, but he considered it an overall win: The newly ex-wife fell so much in love with fly fishing that she bought a drift boat with part of the