Utah

After one of my sister's multiple cross-country jaunts, she informed me that she and her husband were hoping to one day buy some land in Utah and live there, or retire there. To which my (predictable) response was, "UTAH? What the hell's in Utah?" She said, "It's pretty!" And I said, "It's UTAH."

Well, now I know. Utah actually is gorgeous. Once we left Monument Valley, the landscape kept changing so frequently we almost couldn't keep up. I didn't know there were so many different kinds and colors of rocks in the world, or that the landscape could change so quickly. We would literally round a corner and everything would look completely different, with no clue that it was getting ready to change. We climbed into mountain elevations and saw actual water, and trees, and a national forest, which was balm to our dusty, rocky souls. We even saw--well, I'm not sure if they were donkeys or mules or wild burros, but they were definitely one of the above.

We spent several hours oohing and aahing at the scenery before we got to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park just outside Moab. I'm not even sure I can describe the parks. They were both like nothing I'd ever seen before. At several points we were pretty sure we were actually on Mars. But bless the National Park Service for putting in roads through the middle of the parks. That meant we could drive through them, stopping to take plenty of pictures along the way, and still see plenty of great stuff without having to hike out to it. We saw plenty of people hiking--and I'm sure they saw even more great stuff than we did from the car--but people who want to hike over bare rock in 100-degree sunshine are hardcore. More power to them. Maybe that means I'm lazy, but I'm okay with that.

But by the time we were almost done with Canyonlands, we were having scenery overload. There are only so many different varieties of rocks you can look at in one day before your brain shuts down and you think, "Oh goody. More rocks. Where are the damn trees?" We were having civilization withdrawal and needed some buildings stat, preferably of the restaurant/bar/hotel variety. Instead of camping, which was the original plan, we got a cheap motel room, where we saw our first transsexual of the road trip--in Utah!--and headed to Buck's Grill House in Moab, which was a blessed outpost of civilization. We sat in a green backyard (with trees!) and ate some of the best food I've had on this road trip--artichoke ceviche, pork jowl lettuce tacos, duck tamales, rabbit crepes--and in Utah! Who'da thunk it?

Today, thankfully, we're headed to Salt Lake City and more civilization. We plan to storm the Mormon Temple and demand they let women in.