mikes web log

The end of another pleasant day at Springdale as we sit on our balcony sipping wine and staring at the 3000 feet chunk of sandstone in front of us. The chunk is changing colour as we look. From reds to yellows as the Sun begins to slip towards an unseen horizon behind us. The explanation is linked to the filtering of the red part of the spectrum as the light meets the earth’s atmosphere. Thus I upset the romantic nature of the description.

Had some great walks yesterday and today. All have been in the ‘easy’ grouping although we did manage a moderate theis morning. I like the American use of the tern ‘drop off’. To me it would mean a bus stop or similiar point of exit. To the Americans it means how far you would fall if you ‘dropped off’ the track. The easy walks have short drop off’s while the streneous ones have long drop off’s which may imply that you are likely to kill yourself if you dropped off at any point. I suppose it could also mean going to sleep! It would probably have the same effect on a ’strenuous’ walk.

The American everyday language  is always fascinating us. “Have a nice day”‘ “See you later”  ….how will you see me later – I’ve just bought something from you and then I am going to drive 50 miles. ‘Your welcome’. Maybe a collection should be started.

Animals we have seen now include wild deer, captured elk, humming birds and a brown bear. We encountered the latter when we walked around a corner of the track. Apparently when you meet dangerous animals you have to make yourself big , wave hands and shout. We didn’t do this and let the caterpillar continue across the path.

Animals we have not seen include beavers, mountain lions, goats and apparently 37 other varieties of birds. Maybe tomorrow.

I have a problem with America. Everything gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Firstly there was Bryces Canyon, then Escalante and the Boulder Hogsback and finally the Burr Trail and its phenomenal sights. Now we have Zion. What next!

We approached Zion via the N89, one of the roads we met earlier in our travels. Early 0seems to be a strange word to use as we have only been on the road for about five days. It always seems to happen like that – very quickly you adapt to new environments living out of suitcases, sleeping in different beds , stumbling around at night because you have forgotten where the bathroom was.

You are zooming along the N89 at a respectful 65mph when suddenly the Springdale sign appears. On the map it seemed to be on the N89. The next stop. So why is it on a right side turn? Suddenly you have to do a rapid right hand turn and find you have another 28 miles to go! Not only that to get to your destination you have to go through the National Park and pay 20 dollars for the privilege. The 30 dollars was paid ( upgrading to a National Park Pass) and then we had an experience that would be difficult to forget as we drove through the red walled gorges of this fantastic park. The walls of red sand stone seem to stretch endlessly above you.  At one point you drive through a one and half mile tunnel which had wondrous windows cut into it. After this and another spectacular twist you arrive at Springdale – our watering hole for the next five nights.

Have reached Springdale but at this stage a short note on Boulder and the Boulder Mountain Lodge with its excellent restaurant Hells Backbone Grill. The Grill seems to have Buddist connections. A little bit of Buddism in Mormonality. It was am amazing place as it was one of the last townships to be connected by a metalled road and still hasn’t got a Post Office and lots of other amenities. Only got a population of 180. Why the owners opened such a scrumptious restaurant in a tiny tightly knit community of Mormon ranchers beggers belief. Seeing the nature of the nature of the road with its fantastic Hoggsback you can understand the reluctance of the road builders. One step wrong and you had a thousand feet drop either side. Mormonality is all apparent. We must have been the only patrons of the restaurant to be drinking wine. I suppose you wouldn’t think of drinking and driving if you had to go home via the hoggsback.

They all seem to enjoy Rosemary Limeade

4 cups of syrup – which you make with 4 cups of water and 4 cups of sugar and a stem of fresh rosemary. Combine water and sugar, boil carefully for ten minutes. Remove from heat and add rosemary.Leave for an hour. After that add 4 cups of fresh lime juice and 10 cups of water.

Just about mastered the car although still cannot work out how to raise the sun-roof.

Decided we would visit the Big Rock Cand Mountain en route. This was a mistake. We are both convinced it was not the mountain that Burl Ives sang about – much to small and it certainly didn’yt taste of candy.  Now if we hadn’t visited the Big Rock Candy Mountain we would have been on the right road to Boulder. Instead we continued on the wrong road to Bryce Canyon and our first National Park.

The drive to Bryce’s Canyon was one of those typical American drives which other people tell you about, you read about but do not believe. Miles and miles of straight roads. No towns. No wayside houses and no cars. Completely amazing. We even drove very slowly passed an eagle tearing bits off a dead whatever. We are not completely sure it was an eagle. It was big enough. It was also like those birds you see on the stamps.

Bryce’s Canyon was superb. What a landscape those sedimentary rocks have created. It pus Derbyshire to shame. Vast open spaces and hoodoo’s of all shapes and sizes carved by wind and rain.

We eventually started to make our way to Boulder – or tried to. A couple of failed attempts at a dirt scenic route meant a 20 mile detour which brought us back to wher we started. It did however riase our American animal score. We have now seen an eagle, jack rabbit, chipmunk and lots of dead racoons. Obviously racoons like playing chicken with passing cars.

Eventually onto Boulder and behold our non-scenic route was the most scenic route we have ever driven along. It was truly breathtaking. Imagine driving across a plain being accopanied by rock formations of all shapes and all of the shades of red and yellow. Dreams were made of this. Eventually the road climbed one of these formations and finally did a delicate bit of ridge tracking before falling down into Boulder.

Boulder Mountain Lodge was our chillout two days before moving on to Springdale.  Two nights here with a balcony looking out on a fanatstic pond/lake which is part of an 11 acre bird sanctuary.

If we thought it would be impossible to beat the scenary of the previous day then we were wrong. Todays adventure took us along The Burr Trail road and ancient trail which was an alternative to the mountain approach to Boulder that we had used the previos day. This was flattish but because of this it spent some time going through gorges. Wow wait until we add photographs.

Tomorrow off to pringdale UT for five more chill out days.

The car . A bloody great Ford.  “It’s in B6 in the pound behind us” ” Here are the keys”. Keys taken and off to find B6. Easy. You see a line of cars click your key and it says hello with its flashing light. It always amazes me that you dont get a dozen other cars answering however I believe it is something like the lottery – random numbers are generated by the car and the key and they have to match. The chances of you getting another car answering are therefore a billion to one.

We sit in the car. No. We move around the car because the drivers seat is not where it should be. It’s on the other side of the car. Find the seat and put the key in the lock, What to do then? Not a clue. The car is an automatic and I really didn’t have a clue about what to do next. There were only two pedals! Gina gets out of the car and tries to find a helper. She finds a nice jovial Hertz woman who explains all the controls , even the cruise controls. Cannot explain the satellite radio so off she goes to find another helper.

Eventaullly we are ready – to tackle the car park. The next ten minutes was spent driving around the car park practising. Various attendants looked baffled. One of the worst things was the mirrors – they like the driving seat are in the wrong place. Eventually the bullet was bitten and off we headed on the open road. Suddenly in 30 seconds we had changed from a steady 10 mph in the car park to 65mph on the freeway going south. How did I know we were going south? The car told us. I started sweating.

It was 30 minutes of stressful driving before we and the other drivers around us all felt comfortable. Thank goodness for the freeways. You have to go in the same direction. None of that annoying turning left or right.

What a country. Even in this short expedition you get a feel for the size of the place. The emptiness is impressive.

Stopping at a roadside diner ( getting the language right) to top up on coffee and food reminded us of the generous American helpings. The simple fact that the coleslaw was homemade made it much more palatable. The welcome was also warm and big with lots of free coffee top ups and the obligatory glass of iced water.

Finally to Richfield where we topped up on wine at the State liquer store, had a JFK, watched Flight 93 and collapsed for the night.

It was our 8th anniversary and we were up at 4.30 readying ourselves for getting to Heathrow for 7.30. The American adventure begins.

Arrived at Heathrow at 7.30. Pretty amazing the last time we tried the M25 we spent at least an hour doing the final mile to Heathrow. The car was whisked off to the Purple Parking place in the sky.

The comfort of economy plus and British Airways. Room to wave your legs around and the food was fab.(did I really say that about airline food?) Celibrated the anniversary with a small bottle of champagne.

The nightmare of JFK US immigration was not the nightmare we expected. Only 30 minutes to answer a few questions have your fingerprints and photograph taken by a very pleasant immigration officer. Onto the Delta flight to Salt Lake City.

Maybe this is what flying used to be about. I can remember my first flight where you got into the back of the plane and then had to walk up (literally walk upwards) the aisle. It wasn’t quite like that but it was primitive. A completely plastic plane which smelt faintly of urine. 158 people packed in, no space to move – literally sardines in a tin. I think the sardines would have been more comfortable. Then there was the food on the 4hr flight – a packet of raisins, a cheese triangle, a biscuit and a packet of crisps. What a contrast.

The journey upset was compounded by the confiscation of Gina’s lighter. Gina had, had a successful ten week period without the cigarette however the stress of the last few weeks of the school term had taken there toll and she had succumbed a week ago. The lighter successfully travelled from Heathrow to JKF but did’nt make the JFK to Salt Lake City journey as a security officer gleefully pounced upon it. You also have to take your shoes off for the internal security checks.

The Heathrow-JFK journey extended our anniversary by 6hrs and then the JFK-Salt Lake City journey increased it by another 2 hrs so by the time we were settled for a meal in Salt Lake City it was 9 pm and we still had 3 hrs left to celebrate!

You could actually see the salt lakes as you flew into this strange city. Why was I surprised?

Now it’s Tuesday and we start our journey to Las Vegas. This means I have to master a new automatic car, driving on the wrong side of the road and other cars which seem to be going terribly fast. I’m not looking forward to it.

I really do not understand new technologies. How do the kids do it? Or do they?

The story begins with the purchase of a new car. Our Nissan Almera was quite OK but we were ready for downsizing and a special offer on a Ford Fiesta sounded good. Part of the deal was the buying of a Nokia account which came with free Tom Tom navigation plus other incentive.

Now I am in some cases a traditional male. I don’t do maps. Males are traditionally not a gender that uses maps. We would prefer to get lost. Then get lost even more. Then maybe more. Maybe at this stage we would stop and ask somebody but in no way will we refer to a map. I know where we are. It is the next on the left. Bugger, it must be next right.

Here I am installing a free direction system into the car. Can I. No chance. There are so many stages to go through which are eventually achieved with very little help from booklets and CDs . You then reach an interesting problem. How do you type in, on a phone, a registration number like CSJCW NZZRZ  MKADJ, even on a supposedly advanced  Nokia N70! You obviously look at the phone instructions. Rubbish the only reference to Text in the index sends you sailing into messaging worlds. You look at the TOM TOM software and things are equally obscure. nice

The frightening thing is that the instructions may not be obscure to your average thirteen year old. They may, for some reason be very clear to them. It is me that is joining the void. I (Me  and the wife) will tackle the problem …. in the end but wouldn’t it be really nice if they could create instructions for the normal nerd.