The long and nonwinding road

Moab, Utah to Cedar City, Utah

Leaving Moab, it was time to head toward Zion and Bryce Canyon, a distance of 289 miles.  According to Google Maps, the drive would take about 4hrs – here’s the route we took below:

It took us a bit longer than that – leaving Moab just before 2pm or so, we finally arrived in Cedar City just after 7pm.  The drive was verrrrry long and munchie-inducingly dull, especially the first bit where the landscape was very monotonous.  We got so bored, we eventually resorted to the time-old time-waster of “I Spy” – perhaps not the best choice of game when driving through hundreds of miles of barren desert (“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with “S”….). 

Tonight’s accommodation was the palatial Super 8 (still free on points, though, so no complaints) and the guy at the check-in desk, though I’m sure a lovely husband and father to his children, was completely useless when asked such complex questions as “where would you recommend to go and eat around here?” and “where’s a good place to watch sunrise from in Zion?”.  Totally useless but in a way that made you think he was going to be useful so that you continued to stand and listen to him politely, while your inner voice started to tap its foot impatiently.  Stealth uselessness.  The deadliest kind.   After about 15 minutes, he was still talking and saying nothing of value, so I eventually had to cut him off as Lori was waiting in the car with the bags as I was “just checking us in”.  It felt good.  I’m not even sure he noticed.

After dumping our bags upstairs, we headed out for a quick bite to eat at the restaurant attached to the motel next door, a fine Olde Establishment called Bards (guess the theme to this one).   Inside, it was all fake wood and medieval draping and a post-Black Death-esque number of punters.  So, we didn't hold out great hope for a good meal – our goal was to achieve the maximum amount of nutritional input with the minimum acquisition of food borne diseases.  As such, despite the misspelt menu and predominance of fish items on offer (why do landlocked places in the middle of nowhere do that?  Are we supposed to believe its fresh out of the sea?  Do they have secret fish lakes stashed down in their cellars?), the food was not too dreadful – sticking to my meal plan, I had a steak salad and Lori had a bowl of beef and barley soup.  Neither of us died or seemed to instantly contract Hepatitis A, so it was a win-win all-round.   And with that, we figured we’d quit whilst we were ahead and get an early night in, ready to be up at 4am to go watch the sunrise.  

Tomorrow is going to be a busy and exciting day....