Up at 7 after a bad night's sleep, Thanks to that behemoth next door. Since i did all i could do here at the Grand Canyon yesterday, i decided to move on today to Bluff Utah and hope to get a room in the very pleasant Recapture Lodge where we stayed last year.
It was very cold this morning (20s) so i took my sweet time to break camp. And how sweet it was! That is a pace I can live with.
On the road at 11. As soon as i got on highway 89, i passed a young woman hitchhiking with backpacking gear. I would have stopped to give her a lift (perhaps secretly hoping to recreate the pleasant experience i had with Stephanie in 2016) but since the drive would be about 300 miles, the only place she could have sat was cramped in the back in Dinner's rear bed. Besides, i reasoned, since women simply do not hitchhike alone these days, or backpack the Grand Canyon, she was probably pulling the age-old two-for-one trick - the woman hitchhikes alone and when a vehicle stops to pick her up, the boyfriend suddenly hops out from hiding, and the people who stopped really have no choice but to take the two of them. (That happened to me in Ireland and the Yukon.) But i do have a choice since i have room for one extra person, a small person. So i moved on and silently wished her well, but had i had room for the two of them, i would have taken them both.
The 300-mile drive today was long and hot, but breathless the entire way —- Mountains, canyons, mesas, and then the monuments. There was no end to it. Every hour brought an entirely different landscape. Every minute brought a reaction from me. I could not get enough of it.
Last year, when i was headed this same way, my Garmin took me down the periphery of Monument Valley. But that was so awesome a drive, i decided to stop by this year and drive the valley. So, when my Garmin today tried to take me to Bluff the same way, i shut it down, took a left onto route 163, turned on Red River Rock, and had the 90-mile ride of a lifetime. What absolutely awesome beauty. One big monument would no sooner disappear and another would pop up right behind it. Go watch John Wayne's cowboy movies to see what i am talking about, especially Stagecoach. I did over the last year and recognized much of the landscape and many of the monuments. Sheer beauty.
The sun was about to set when i flew by the Valley of the Gods, so i decided to stay an extra day here to explore it over a many-mile dirt road.
My goal today was to make it to Bluff Utah and stay in the very pleasant and dog-friendly Recapture Lodge where we stayed last year. When i got there ar 6:30 just as daylight disappeared, they had one room left, #4, the same one we had last year. Lucky me, huh? If they were full, i probably would be bivouacking somewhere in the desert.
As soon as we entered our pleasant room, i swear i heard Donner say, now this is more my style. He immediately took his favored position in such places, on one of the beds, until i chased him off to cover it.
My plans from here are uncertain because both Arches and Needles National Parks are on reservation system until Nov first and they are full reserved. For years when i heard those places were fully booked this time of year, i envisioned it was by these tanned mesomorphs with washboard stomachs, full heads of wavy hair, NorthFace tents, and the latest climbing outfits, who went there to climb Spiderman-like those oddly shaped rocks to practice for El Capitan or Everest, and then drive their Jeeps through the rough desert. Nope all RVs (disclaimer - i do have a NorthFace tent but drive a Defender).
Time for my first sleep in a bed in 32 days.
Ed and Donner, from the road
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