Home Again, Home Again!

Well, Miss Dorothy got one thing right . . . there's no place like home. I've had a ball over the last 5 months. It's been brilliant. But . . . I'm really glad to be home.

There really isn't much to report about the trip home. It was pretty normal. Got on the flight in Chicago on Wednesday, changed planes in Cincinnati, got off in London at 9.00 am Thursday. Although, for a change, I did actually sleep much of the flight. That was a nice surprise. It wasn't great sleep, but it was sleep. So I wasn't totally trashed when I arrived. And, as a true act of friendship, my friends from church, Claire and Joe, came all the way out to Gatwick to collect me! So I didn't even have to lug everything through the Underground/Trains. Yeay! That was very kind, and totally above and beyond the call.

Friday I got up and went into Uni. Had a quick check-in with my advisor. Things are looking good on the PhD front. Had lunch with Jenny, and took a few photos of campus.



Saturday, I finally got around to to unpacking. Surprisingly, I managed to get everything done, including all the stuff I'd packed away so that my house sitters could move in, in under 4 hours! And no, that didn't mean stuffing everything into the laundry hamper. I mostly had clean laundry, anyway. Then, in the evening, my friend (also from Church) Rebekah came down from Cambridge and we played. Saturday we went to Nando's (one of my favourite cheap and cheerful meals!) for dinner, and watched Sahara at my house. Rebekah started playing with my hair and actually put me to sleep twice! Sunday we went to church, which was great. It was so nice to be back home with them. Then, after church Rebekah made me the most amazing Sunday Dinner. And let me get my head down whilst she prepared it! My body's mostly back to normal, but I am still feeling a bit of jetlag. She made amazing roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and sausages. And then for afters . . . oh my goodness! She's baked these scrumptious chocolate with white chocolate chip biscuits at home and brought them with. She layered them in with cream and cherries and raspberry yogurt for an amazing, light, treat. It was perfect. So we sat out in the garden (rather hideously overgrown) and enjoyed the fruits of her labours. What an amazing welcome home feast!



After dinner we went down to the river. Rebekah's an amazing photographer, (She's just started up a blog of her own, if you want to check out her other work.) and she'd brought her equipment, so she took loads of photos of me. Isn't she sweet? And some of those photos turned out amazing!



I'm now back into normal life. Well, sort of. I'm playing catchup just a bit. The garden had been let go whilst I was away. I suppose of all the things to neglect, that's the least problematic. But when I arrived and looked at it I just though, *sigh* That's going to be a bear to clean up. Fortunately, I have loads of marvelous friends. One of the Youth from church, Elliot, and his dad, David, came round today to help. Elliot cut the grass, David trimmed the edges and raked up all the dead bits out of the grass, and I clipped the hedges back. It's not done, but it's at least usable now. Hooray, and a huge Thank You to David and Elliot!

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 4)

Sorry I haven't finished this story. I didn't have much by way of Internet connection in South Haven. Anyway, picking up from where I left off, on the 13th, I got up, and felt pretty good. Not 100%, of course, but well enough that I just couldn't see skipping the appointment after having worked so hard to get there. So I went. I had this wonderful stylist, Emma. She said that my hair is actually in pretty good shape, just needed a trim, so that's good news. Then she went through all the techniques the Curly Hair Institute uses to get the most out of your curls. I had been using many of them, but not all. And the ones I didn't know made quite a difference. She carefully taught me all the techniques, but managed to keep the results hidden til the style was totally complete. When she finally turned me around, I was so surprised. I knew I have really curly hair. But I did not realise it was that curly! It looked absolutely amazing. Now all I have to do is work out how to do the techniques on myself!
We ended up driving all the way home after the appointment. We'd talked about going part way and staying the night. But we got half way, and it was still pretty early, and we decided that it was just as easy to drive the rest of the way. When we got to the customs checkpoint to re-enter the US, the customs officer asked, 'What was the purpose of your visit?' and I said, 'To get a haircut.' He stops, looks at me and says, 'Really?' I said, 'Yeah.' He said, 'Well, that's a first!' He then asked why, so I explained about the Institute, and he's like, you know, I've never thought about that. Anyway, I thought it was totally worth the pain and trouble and sticking it out through the cold. What do you think?

The rest of my time in Michigan was pretty quiet. On the 14th I got up and kind of puttered around. I hardly did anything, just lunch with Grandma, then down for a nap. I was still feeling the cold, and hadn't slept well the night before, so I was just as happy to keep things quiet. We did drive over to Grandma's doctor. He verified that it was a virus, and I just had to hang in there til it passed. But I felt quite a lot better by that point anyway. It was Aunt Peggy's birthday that day, so Grandma and I went to dinner with her and Uncle Mark, my cousin Meghan and her husband Scott and their little girl, Harley. On the 15th my routine was pretty much the same (minus the doctor's visit): lazy getting up, late lunch, lovely nap in the afternoon. I'd still been having trouble sleeping because of the cold, though. So, Sunday (16th) I'd planned on going into church, but I'd finally really gotten to sleep that night, and I didn't wake up til 11.00. Grandma was feeling a bit stiff and sore and tired, so she was just as happy to take things slow again, and she knew I hadn't been sleeping well, so she didn't want to wake me up. It was just a really quite day. We did have dinner with the above mentioned people again.

The 17th I was finally starting to really feel normal again. I spent some time over at Aunt Peggy's helping her with some computer things, and chatting. Then Grandma and I met up with Lori, a friend from church, for lunch. That was fun. It was good to see Lori, and catch up with what's going on with her. Then I spent the afternoon down on the beach. Now, I know that nowhere is perfect, but there was some real charm to growing up on the shores of Lake Michigan. I never lived within sight of the lake, there were always trees and houses between us and the shore, but I always lived within sound of the waves. That was something I really enjoyed. The sun was pretty warm, but there was a breeze, so it was still cool. The sand was just perfectly warm. As I was down there the Tall Ship, Friendships Goodwill, sailed by. It fought in the war of 1812 along the Great Lakes. It's a beautiful ship. Grandma and I had been talking about going to Red Lobster the whole time we'd been driving North, and had never made it. So we finally decided to go have lobster. Well . . . she had lobster. I had crab. It's my favourite. She did share a claw with me, though. So I had a bit of both. It was divine.


The 18th I had a breakfast date with a friend in Paw Paw. Beth and I had become friends through the scrapbooking forum we're members of when people started talking about where everyone was from. She said SW Michigan, so I obviously had to ask where, because that's where South Haven is. So we'd been keeping in contact over the past 8 or so months, and when I found out I'd be going through Michigan on my way home, we made plans to meet. It was absolutely lovely to finally meet her. And she's ever bit as lovely and nice as she sounded in her emails. Then, I drove on into Kalamazoo (yes, there really is a Kalamazoo!) and had lunch with a friend, Annette, from High School.... sort of. We'd been friends during our High School years, but not because of school. We were in the same Stake (church regional area) so we met at Stake activities. It was great to reconnect with her. After lunch I went back to Grandma's and spent an hour on the beach again, then . . . had a nap. Then she and I went to Mark and Peggy's for dinner. They made pork loin on the grill, which was marvelous. It was a lovely way to end my stay.

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 3)

So, on the 10th, we got through North Carolina, Tennessee, and we were in Kentucky, when I finally got a hold of my family to wish Mom a Happy Mother's Day. Lois was up visiting, and I was telling them about not feeling well, and we started comparing symptoms. We've got the same thing! And I found out where I got it! One of our other friends had it, and was round for 3 days at Lois' house. Both of us caught it from her, as did the husband of another friend. He went to the doctor, and was told, sorry. It's a virus. You'll just have to let it run its course. So, since I felt fine, if not able to swallow comfortably, we decided to revert to our original plan, which was going to be a heck of a lot more fun. So we headed northeast from Kentucky, skirting past Cincinnati, OH, stopping for the night about halfway between Cincinnati and Cleveland (better?!? I got told off by him for spelling it wrong earlier) for the night. Oh. My. Word. I've never had such a miserable excuse for air conditioning! It was constantly going on and off, really noisy and didn't ever really cool the room. I was up every 2 hours. It was horrible.

On the 11th we got up and drove the rest of the way to Niagara Falls, Ontario (through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York). We decided to stop off there and see the falls on the 12th. I got up this morning and felt pretty rough. Much worse than I have done. But, at least had slept much better. So, dragged my feet and finally got out the door around noon. I felt miserable, though. Really poorly. Sitting in the restaurant waiting for lunch to arrive we were discussing the possibility of just heading straight home, possibly even today. I got a hold of Lois, and we re-compared notes on our symptoms. Seems like I do, in fact, have the same thing. It's just miserable. And, since I felt quite a lot better after lunch, we decided we'd see how I feel in the morning. If I'm really miserable, we can just pack it in and go home. If not, I can still get to my appointment on Thursday. I've also got an appointment with Grandma's doctor for Friday afternoon.

We also found a health food store that sells essential oils. Thyme and tea tree oils are both natural anti-viral/anti-bacterials, so I'd wanted to get some. They get absorbed directly into your skin, so if you put it straight over the lymph node, it gets to work in the most important spot! (You ought to mix thyme with something else, like grape seed oil -- my favourite -- or olive oil, because other wise the thyme is likely to feel a bit like it's burning your skin.) They also recommended this cool stuff called Lymphdiarral. It's specifically designed to drain the lymph system and reduce swelling in both acute and chronic lymph problems due to infection or injury. Well, that pretty well made my day! I've been using it all day, and I can feel a reduction in the swelling. I'm hoping I wake up and it's much better tomorrow.

We also walked around the Falls for a bit. Really pretty. But let's be honest . . . how long can you stand and look at a river? We spent about half an hour, then came back to the hotel. Just taking things easy today.

Just a couple of seconds of the roar of the water falling over the side.


We've got this really sweet little Australian Rosella Parakeet (a real parakeet, not a budgie that we just call a parakeet!) who lives in our hotel. Her name's Paris (since the Hampton chain is owned by Hilton. . .) She's a doll. Click on the video to see a short bit of her. You can hear her chirp. It's very sweet.

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 2)

We drove from Savannah, GA straight on up to Asheville, NC. I'd never been to Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina before, so we took a smaller road through part of South Carolina. It was a two-lane road that went through the centre of some very small towns. Kind of fun. And so green! And it smelled green . . . an observation that has earned me no little grief with him. *sigh* He doesn't realise that green can too be an odder!

The reason we were heading to Asheville was that my youngest cousin on my mom's side lives there. And, since this is my mom's mom that I'm traveling with, it only made sense to stop off and say hi to Daniel, and his girlfriend, Michelle. We arrived on the 8th, but we didn't bug them til the 9th. On the 9th we took Daniel out for breakfast. The most amazing waffles you've ever seen. And the Huevos Rancheros?!? Oh. My. Goodness. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. It was amazing. We dropped Daniel off for work, then we went on out to the Blue Ridge Parkway (which is also a National Park). We stopped off at the Centre for Folk Art. They were having a big special weekend highlighting various 'fiber crafts'. So there were people there spinning yarn, making bobbin lace (*wow*), crocheting, weaving beads . . . you name it, if it had to do with fibers, there was someone doing it! Amazing. And the live band was so much fun. Except, of course, I didn't have anyone to dance with! Such a waste of fabulous live Blues/Bluegrass music.

That evening we took Daniel and Michelle out for this amazing South American food. It was called 'Tomato: Cocina Latina". The food was so fresh and wonderful. I had carne asada, Daniel had paella (which is technically a Spanish dish, not South American) and Grandma and Michelle had chili relleno. Every one of us enjoyed the food. It was great. Then Daniel took us past the house he's put an offer in on. So, it looks like they're in NC to stay! Grandma, of course, was jibing them about 'when are you going to get married?!?' Apparently they've decided they will it's just a matter of Daniel getting around to asking her. Come on, boy, once you've made the decision, get with it! She's too good of a catch to mess about and let get away!

The night of the 9th, I didn't sleep well at all. I'd been fighting this horrible virus that attacks your lymph nodes, and it was making me pretty miserable. And I woke up on the 10th with more swollen nodes, so we decided to alter our original plan. I'd made an appointment in Toronto at the Curly Hair Institute to get a haircut and learn their techniques for using their product. I've been wanting to do this for years, but it just never works out. But I was kind of worried about this virus. So we decided to drive straight north and get back to Michigan that night, and I could hit the doctor's office on Monday.

The Great Drive -- Or, The Long Way Home (Pt 1)

I arrived in Orlando, Florida on the 5th. I only had about 2 hours of sleep, but that was a sacrifice I was more than willing to make, and I'd make again in a heartbeat. A very fluttery heartbeat ;-) So, as a consequence, I pretty much went straight to bed on the 5th. The 6th, Grandma and I were supposed to stop off at Sea World and play for a bit. But it was so hot, well over 90'F, that we decided it just wasn't a good idea. I suffer from heat, but she really suffers, and at 80+ years, probably not a great idea to push it. So we just drove all day. We stopped off in St Augustin, FL.

St Augustin is the oldest continuously inhabited town in the United States. The area was the first place that Ponce De Leon landed in 1513 when he was searching for the fountain of youth. Eventually a colony was established in 1539 -- 42 years before Jamestown, VA and 55 years before the Mayflower arrived. Santa Fe, NM is the only other city which competes. There's some debate as to which city is actually 'oldest', but in any case, it's a very old town (for the United States). The whole town is covered in Spanish Moss. Really pretty, slightly eerie... But one of the avenues in particular is stunning. It's listed as one of the top 10 most beautiful streets in the US. It's lined on either side by Live Oak Trees, and they're covered in Spanish Moss.

The 7th we were planning on playing tourist all day, and staying the night again in St Augustin, but not at the same hotel (which was kind of a miserable place). We got up and jumped on the tourist tram and rode around for a bit. We got off at the old Fort, which is now a National Monument, run by the the National Park System. We explored it for a while, but it was just so hot out there, we decided we'd be better off just heading out for parts less hot. So instead of staying in St Augustine, FL, we ended up staying in Savannah, GA.

BRB

I'm driving my Gran from Orlando, Florida to South Haven, Michigan before flying home to England on the 20th of May. I may or may not have much access to the Internet over the next two weeks. So, basically, I'll Be Right Back!

Arches and Canyonland National Parks

As you know, I spent 5 days down in Southern Utah hiking and camping in the National Parks. My folks drove down from Montana on Saturday morning, and we left for Moab on Sunday afternoon. A couple of good friends of mine, the Landons, are avid camper/hikers (Nate's a National Park Ranger), and they recommended a fabulous campsite to us. It's off the normal hiking path. In fact, it's out on the 'Slickrock Trail' which is for BMX, 4x4s, ATVs, mountain bikes and other off road vehicles. They have several campsites out there, but they're all considered 'primitive'. As in, no running water, pit toilets, no electricity . . . in other words, perfect. The lady at the visitor's centre wasn't overly enthusiastic about it when we asked for directions, but we loved it. There were several other groups camping out there, but we couldn't see each other from our sites, and they were all courteous and kept the noise down after dark. The point of this adventure was two fold -- 1) Get Mom out of the allergens up in Montana (their spring is just hitting the worst pollen time, and Moab's a couple weeks ahead, so their trees are already done) and 2) Help her build red blood cells. She's been anemic, and the Dr wants her out hiking/biking and whatever else she can stand as much as possible. So, we opted for medium strenuous, medium length hikes.

On Monday, we went into Arches National Park and hiked up to Delicate Arch. It had rained overnight Sunday, so the air was crystal clear. They get a lot of pollution blowing in from LA, and also the wind picks up all that fine sand (which is how the arches get formed!), so often you can't actually see the La Salle mountains off behind the park, but Monday you certainly could! It was a perfectly clear day, blue sky and sunny! We'd actually lost our sunscreen, but managed to keep the exposure to a minimum, so didn't actually fry. But . . . boy did I get tan! Although, sadly, no one but Lois is ever going to notice! My summer colour is most people's winter colour! I'm just that pale a person. I enjoyed the hike, it's not too hard, and it's only 3 miles round trip, but I ended up doing a bit more than that. I got 2/3s of the way up.... and had to go back to the truck! So I ended up doing it basically twice! Ooops. Never mind. I got a real good first hike in. And on my way back up I saw a collared lizard and a whiptale lizard. We saw loads of whiptales, but that was the only collared any of us saw, so I guess it was worth it!
Monday night the wind picked up. Really bad. 30+ mph. It was so strong that the only thing holding my tent down was me. I ended up dragging the water supply into my tent and climbing into the cab of the truck to sleep. The wind was noisy, but the real reason I ditched the tent was the rain fly might be great for keeping out water, but it's rubbish at keeping out sand. I was being covered. Since the wind was still crazy strong in the morning, we decided to head to Canyonland National Park, which is a bit further South, near Montecello. It was still windy, but definitely an improvement on Moab/Arches! The Four Corners Region, in addition to having some truly remarkable geology, was also the home to the Anasazi Indians (amongst many other groups). These people left behind a bunch of unique dwellings (see Mesa Verde National Park) but also petroglyphs. One of the best examples of petroglyphs is 'Newspaper Rock'. It's in them! And it happens to be just off the road to the Needles District of Canyonland. So, obviously, we stopped off there. Very cool. When we actually arrived at Canyonland, we hiked Pothole Trail and Slickrock Trail. Pothole was pretty easy; all flat. Slickrock was a lot tougher, and ages long! Seriously, it went on forever! It was a 'lollipop' trail, meaning you hiked out a bit, did a loop, then backtracked the first bit to get back to the carpark. It was beautiful, but not my favourite hike of the week. It was hot, windy and I was thirsty . . . and it was not the 2.4 miles it claimed. We hiked solidly for 4 hours! We weren't trying to win any speed hiking competitions, but we weren't just standing around, either. You can walk 4 miles/hour! Ok, so we were going a bit slower because it was up and down and side to side, as well, but 4 hours?!? It only took us 3 hours to hike the 3 miles up and back to Delicate Arch, which was all uphill on the way out, and that was only because I hiked it twice, and we hung around for half an hour once we arrived!Wednesday the wind had calmed down quite a lot. It was breezy, but not windy. I even managed to sleep the night in my tent Tuesday night! We got up and headed out to Double O Arch Trail. This turned out to be my favourite hike of the whole week. It was sort of in three parts. Round trip it was 4-5 miles, depending on how many of the side hikes you took. We took every one of them. It was fantastic! The first mile was out to Landscape Arch. It's this enormous, very thin, arch that spans the horizon. It's considered the largest natural arch in the world -- 295 feet -- closely followed by Kolob Arch, in Zion National Park. It's so cool. The hike was pretty easy up to this point. There was a bit up and down at the beginning, with two side trips out to Pine Arch and Tunnel Arch, but very well maintained, paved, easy walking. It's out in the 'Devil's Garden' area, and there's a whole 7.6 mile loop you can do. We did all but 1.6 miles of that loop. Once you got past Landscape Arch, the trail got quite a lot rougher. In fact, the park service has it labeled as 'Primitive Trail. Difficult Hiking.' But that's also where it got fun. First, Arches is covered by these outcroppings of sandstone called 'fins'. These fins are thin wall-like structures. They're where arches form. Well, the first thing you get to do once you pass Landscape Arch is hike up a (small) fin! Yeah. Obviously I'm going to love that! I was totally in favour of hiking back down, just so I could hike back up again! It's not very tall in comparison to the fins on either side (there are 3 in a row, and you hike the middle one), but it's not flat, like most of them. Instead, it goes up the side of a hill! So you're walking a few feet above the side of the canyon wall. Pretty awesome! Mom's a little sensitive to heights. She wasn't overjoyed with it, but survived ok. Once you got up to the top, you had the option for two short hikes (about 1/2 a mile each way, if you did both) -- Partition and Navajo Arches. They were in opposite directions, but very short trails. Partition Arch was particularly amazing, because it's the same wall as Landscape, just off to the right a bit, so you get this amazing view of the whole valley. Navajo Arch is just very different, because it's kind of in a corner, and you don't have to hike up to it. Ok... sure, you've already hiked up, but usually once you reach the area of the arch, it's still UP! This one's right on the floor! Also, there was this cool little nook just before the arch. I saw it and had to crawl inside. Yeah . . . I do that a lot. If you can climb in or on it, I'm there. The third leg of the trip was the most difficult. But it was also the most fun. (Are you catching a theme here?) That was the mile out from Partition/Navajo Arches to Double O Arch. It was a difficult trail, mostly uphill across rugged land. But the best bit was you got to walk across another fin!! And this one was probably close to a quarter mile long. Now, it was pretty easy walking, because the fin itself was level. What made it challenging was . . . it was the tallest thing up there! And it was a long way down to the canyon floor. Several hundred feet. I have no idea how far, exactly, but absolutely more than 100 feet. Yeah, that really pushed Mom's buttons. There's one point where the fin is cracked, all the way across, and you have to step over the gap. Now, the gap is only a few inches wide, so it's no big deal . . . except that you can see down. That got even stomach, and I'm not bothered by heights. It nearly reduced Mom to tears. Bless her. But she toughed it out, crawled across (no joke. On hands and knees) and we told her how brave and courageous she was to have made it across. Walking across that fin you had the most beautiful view of the lower canyon. Absolutely stunning. You really did feel like you ought to be able to see the back side of your head. The view was only limited by the curve of the earth. Amazing. Once we got across the fin, the trail got physically tougher. Finally, I said to Mom (she was kind of suffering at this point) that, 'whenever [she] wanted to say . . . there it is!' which got a laugh, of course. What I'd been starting to say was, 'Whenever [she] wanted to say enough was fine by me,' and just at that moment, I saw the arch! We could see it out across the valley. It was still a hike away, so Mom decided that it was a rather anti-climactic arch, and she could see it fine from where she was, and sat down to recover for a while. I sat with her, and Dad decided he was going to do a bit more exploring. After about 45 seconds, he said, 'Hey guys . . . that's not it'. We had actually not been looking at 'Double O' even though there were two arches, one above the other! How did he know? Because he'd gone around the corner of the fin we were hiking along the side of, and saw the real Double O Arch! He was all of 15 feet away, so we walked over. It was much more impressive than the one we'd been looking at (still don't know what it was called, if anything), but Mom still thinks it wasn't worth the last part of the trail. The fin, however, she loved . . . retrospectively. She hated walking it, but loves remembering it (which she admits!) Anyway, Mom sat down in the shade of some rocks, and Dad and I hiked the rest of the way over to the arch. I climbed up into the lower arch, but there was no way to get into the upper one. We only stayed a couple of minutes, though, because the wind was picking up, and we still had to walk back across that fin! Mom did it even better than she had on the way out, though. She handled the crevasse much better, no tears at all! Still didn't like it, but did a great job getting through it. All in all, we hiked for 5 hours, and did 5 miles. I'd go back and do that hike in an instant. I'd really loved to have done the whole loop, but Mom was just not in any condition to do the extra mile and a half. But I loved that hike.

Thursday Mom was beat. We'd done quite a lot of hiking, and her body had said 'Uncle!' So we took it easy. We did Park Avenue, which is only a mile, all down hill (then sent Dad back for the truck!). Then we did the upper view point for Delicate Arch, which was probably only a mile round trip (1/2 a mile up -- and I do mean up -- and 1/2 a mile back). But after that, she was exhausted, so we went back and slept. Honestly I was sort of feeling it a bit, too, but was fine as long as we kept moving. I'd been sitting in the middle of the bench seat along the front of the truck on our drives, and it was starting to bother me. It meant I had to sort of twist my back a bit, and even then my legs couldn't be straight out in front of me. They had to fold one direction or the other (mostly one direction, other wise they would get in Dad --driver--'s way). So I was rather glad to have a break and let my muscles soak. We'd decided that we would get a hotel that night, rather than camp again, so that we could get a shower and wouldn't descend on Lois like (Mom:) a Plague of Locus, (Me:) a Pack of Wild Hyenas or (Dad:) a Plague. We opted for one with a hot tub so we could soak the aching muscles. Actually, it ended up being the worst night sleep for both me and Dad. Mom, however, slept much better. Both Dad and I were up early Friday morning because our backs had had enough of the hard mattress! Friday, our last day, dawned overcast. Not heavy clouds, just not the bright blue we'd had up til then. It was kind of a nice break from the heat and sun, but kind of sad, too. So we got out the door and up to the park pretty early (since we didn't have to break camp or anything). We headed out to the Windows area of the park, and did two short hikes: North/South Window and Turret Arch, and Double Arch (not to be confused with Double O Arch). Double Arch is probably the second most photographed/iconic arch in the park. It's sort of a tough call between it and Landscape Arch as to which is second to Delicate Arch. But, Double Arch features in the movies occasionally. Most memorably (for me, anyway), it's the location that Young Indiana Jones is climbing around in at the beginning of The Last Crusade. Once we'd hiked out to both those areas, we piled back in the truck and drove back to Salt Lake.
And thus ended our fabulous visit to Southern Utah.

I'm Back! (In Salt Lake)

Ok.... sorry to have disappeared off like that. I went down to Arches National Park with my folks for the week. But I'm back now, and I promise to get a real post up soon. In any case, know that I'm alive and well.... and a whole lot tanner!