And the journey begins….

I thought I would start this blog where the South Africa one left off….(this is for you Tina!)

Where Tina and I left off….

I bought myself a little digital tape recorder so I could record my thoughts and experiences while I drive and I am totally addicted to it now.  Watch out…you may get taped!!  (evil laughter)So, my day started off leaving at 4:30am for the airport and taking a 5 hour flight to Salt Lake City.  We arrived in SLC late but I still made my connecting flight to Grand Junction, Colorado where I sat next to a guy that looked EXACTLY like my friend Doug!  It really kind of freaked me out!  This guy probably thought I was a psycho-freak stalking him because I kept looking over at him to make absolutely sure it wasn’t my friend Doug and I was being rude by not saying hi.  Flying all day and being tired does weird things to one’s mind….I landed in Grand Junction and promptly picked up my car that will drive me all over the West for the next week.  I was sooo happy to see it was a little red Kia that reminds me so much of my little red Beetle!  I feel right at home!

“The Chris Mobile”

I began my drive to Moab and when I say I was driving in the desert…I was driving in the desert!!  I found myself singing “Raw Hide” out of nowhere!!  Beautiful scenery and one section that looked EXACTLY like South Africa when I was on the safari.  So much so I was waiting to see giraffe and zebra!  I had a hard time driving at first because the speed limit was 75 and I felt “guilty” going over 65.  Within about 10 minutes…I was going 90!!!  (lol!)  I loved it when I got into Utah because their license plates don’t just say “Utah,” they say “Utah!” with an exclamation point!  Talk about being excited about your state!  I couldn’t help but think about how totally cool it would be to ride these roads on a Harley!  Ed and Lisa where are you when I need you!!

Not bad for taking a picture of myself while driving…

“The road less traveled….”

I finally arrived at my dwelling for the next 2 days, The Redstone Inn in the cute little town of Moab.  I unpacked my things, almost caught my hotel room on fire when I lit some incense, and then headed to the grocery store to fill my cute little kitchen with food.

“The Redstone Inn”

My cute little kitchen

I decided to drive into Canyonlands to get a sneak peak in the daylight of the Mesa Arch Trail that I will be hiking tomorrow morning at sunrise.  What a beautiful park!  I could spend days here and never see the whole thing!  As I was driving back from the trail, a few “friends” decided to cross the road (very leisurely I might add!) and proceeded to look at me with a “what the heck are you doing here?” look.

“Friends”crossing the road

Canyonlands 1

Canyonlands 2

Canyonlands 3

Tomorrow I will be hiking the Murphy Loop which is about 11 miles.  Keep your fingers crossed…it is supposed to rain tomorrow.  But you all know me…I will be hiking anyway!

Chris