Ut-ahhhh

Logging in from Utah, where I've been on vacation for the past week with AC. This is the first "active" vacation I've ever done and it's been a lot of fun, though I'll be taking home with me an unwanted souvenir of sore legs and an inflamed perineum from all the driving we've been doing. (Thank you, corn starch!) We flew into Salt Lake City last Friday (not much of a city, IMO) and promptly drove 260 miles to Moab, the birthplace of mountain biking, near the bottom of the state. Moab kicked our ass. We hiked Canyonlands, Arches, drove through the La Sal Mountains, and tried our hand at mountain biking, which did not go as planned. We got up at dawn, after having registered for an intermediate trail with "Moab Adventures" the day before. It turned out to be ridiculously hard. My paved rides in Brooklyn did not prepare me for broken rocks, a steep, uphill climb on slickrock, or loose sand, which was nearly impossible to pedal through. I fell off the bike twice and once landed flat on my back. My partner in crime fell only once - she smartly got off the bike to walk it when she saw trouble ahead. If you didn't know this, falling off a bike on rocks really hurts. Fortunately, I had a padded backpack to break my fall. AC was not so lucky. She wiped out right on an elevated section of slickrock and got a couple of nasty bruises. Seeing the trouble we were having, our 20-something guide, "Bobby," suggested we try an "easy" trail instead. We agreed, and he took us down the road a couple of miles, where he and I (AC had had enough mountain biking for awhile) did an 8 mile ride that was not as easy as advertised, but which was far easier than the hellhole we first selected and went off without a hitch.

Utah is really a stunning place to visit. I can't do it justice in words. Soaring red rock, yellow and orange buttes, wide expanses of desert, lots of room to breathe, virtually no traffic, and all the activities you could want to do. I took plenty of pictures, and will post some when I get back. After Moab, Arches, and Canyonlands, we visited Monument Valley, where many westerns (and some non-western) movies and commercials have been shot. It's on a Navajo Reservation, near the Arizona border. Then we drove to Lake Powell, home of the Glen Canyon Dam, to rest our weary bones for a couple of days. Then on to Bryce Canyon, which was mind-blowingly beautiful. We did a 6+ mile hike down into the canyon and then back up. There was this one pass called "Wall Street," which looks a little like the one in New York, except instead of concrete buildings, there were huge red rocks. Bryce was amazing. And as I write, we are sitting in a resort in St. George, waiting for our room. Here we plan to receive a pair of badly needed massages before leaving in two days for Vegas, where we'll fly home to New York.

All in all a great, though extremely tiring, vacation. I've never been one for doing "active" vacations - I'm more of a plant my ass on a beach or visit a foreign country kind of guy. But I have to say, this one's been fulfilling on a lot of levels. It brought out the mountain man in me (boy, was he neglected).

One strange thing about this trip is that we've run into far more Europeans than Mormons. We saw a few Mormons in SLC, but since then, it's been all Germans, Italians, English, and a couple of Belgians. Everywhere we've gone, all I've heard is foreign languages or accented English. Bizarre. I never knew how popular this area was for Europeans, but I guess that dollar of ours still must be tanking. How times have changed. We also ran into a few New Yorkers escaping the hustle and bustle of city life. When you live in New York, as I do, an escape to wide open spaces now and then is definitely a necessity. Here, I've gotten up early, gone to bed early, and had days full of activity. Here, life doesn't seem to pass by as quickly as it does back home. It's quite nice, actually. When certain people heard we were going to Utah, eyebrows were raised. Utah?? Wha? But let me tell you, there is nothing better than having time on your hands, a car to drive, beautiful scenery all around you, and the open road ahead. It's been fantastic. And there's no better way to get to know someone than take a 10-day trip with them. Alone. With no escape. Not an easy thing to do, but so far, so good. Knock on wood, salt over the shoulder.

Reality, T-minus two and counting.