Travelling to Utah

As we were flying over some part of the country today - the Texas panhandle, most likely - I was thinking that it would be nice to do a travel diary kind of thing on this trip. I think writing about it will help me remember more, make me think about what touches me and why. So even though I'm seriously sleep challenged, I'm starting now.

Yesterday we started our slightly convoluted journey by driving to Norfolk, beating most of the rush hour traffic to our hotel. Then we drove in rush hour to Va Beach to pick up DSD, Theresa, to take her to dinner for her birthday (Wednesday). She wanted to go to Uno's, and we'd never been, and it was a great choice. We ate too much, strolled around the mall for a while, and did some hat shopping for me (I left my hat in my car at home). I found a cool Jack Skellington hat at the Dizzy Store. We had some good conversation with Theresa, and I think we all enjoyed it. :-)

Then we took her home and went to our hotel and tried to turn in kind of early, with alarms set for 3:30. I had been fighting a headache all day (probably day 5 of so of the damn thing), and I'd eaten too much, and the sheets smelled (scented detergents and air fresheners are the PRODUCT OF THE DEVIL AND EVIL INCARNATE! - I say this from an overperfumed hotel room in Provo), so sleep was tough for me. Up at 3:30, off to the Norfolk airport. The usual airport stuff, long lines - a bit of weirdness at the gate, when we learned after sitting there for several minutes that they were actually boarding, but for whatever reason they don't announce it. You're just supposed to mind-read that fact.

Extremely annoying people on the plane in front of us, reclining their seats, acting like their seats were rockers, and FARTING up a stink storm. Flew to Houston, immediately recognizable by the mildew smell as you step off the plane. Had to settle for McDonald's food for "breakfast" or whatever meal it was by then. Onto another, bigger plane with fewer annoying people, but still.

However, this leg of the journey I was flying over a part of the country that I'd probably not flown over before, and I had the window seat, and the landscape was fascinating. For the longest while, it was just pale brown sandy looking dirt. Then it changed to red clay for a while, and the some incredibly beautiful crop patterns. Land divided into the usual grids, but inside each grid it was plowed and/or planted in circles. Many of the circles were close to the same size, some of them were half one color and half another. I saw one pair that was divided perfectly into thirds. There was a trapezoid that held six circles, two each of three different sizes, perfectly filling the space. My brain was seeing quilts everywhere, wonder geometric quilts. Strangely enough (to me), it was all beautiful, even though it was all shades of brown and grey I hate brown, but this was lovely.

Then the landscape changed again, and it was brown and barren. If those lines were roads, they were unpaved. I'm conviced that I was looking at the place where the 1969 moon landing was filmed, or where the Mars rover really set down; it seemed so other worldly from above. That gave way to hilly sort of stuff that turned into mountains, and the next thing I knew there were BIG mountains with SNOW on the tops! To see it from above, see how few signs of human life there were in some of those areas - that's what I've been longing for! I'm so overloaded on people and noise. These places truly re-define "the middle of nowhere" and that is SO where I want to be!

We landed in Salt Lake City, got our rental car, and drove South to Provo. We discovered that this is graduation weekend here, and the city is FILLED TO THE BRIM with families. Traffic, mid day on a Friday, was a nightmare. We were less than two miles from our hotel, but the last two miles had taken us at least ten minutes, so we stopped for "lunch." Then on to the hotel, where our room wasn't ready anyway.

There's a beautiful lake next to Provo, and gorgeous mountains everywhere, but we've been up for fifteen hours now and haven't had dinner. We tried to relax in the hot tub, but there were screeching kids in the pool. So now Rick is taking a hot bath, and since Voyager isn't on TV, I'm writing this.

My guilt follows me even on vacation; I look out the hotel room window (which we have open in hopes of getting rid of some of the air freshener from hell) and see snow capped mountains through the trees. But neither one of us has any interest in getting in a car and going anywhere. We spotted a Mexican grill across the street where we will walk for dinner. And then hopefully some quiet time in the pool, then bed.

Goodness only knows when we'll wake up tomorrow, but we're off to Moab. And that's when the fun should really begin!