Sunday evening, 745

Exhausted. Typing in my sleep. Some random but important thoughts.

There are fences along the sides of every road. Even in area that appear as though they would not be able to support any form of life, even the lowest - there's a fence. I think they're mostly electric, too.

Another thing. There are telephone poles and electrical wires cutting across the countryside everywhere. They don't run along the sides of the main road, they go over impossible hills, and there are big high tension pole things proudly placed on the tops of cliffs. It looks like someone was bored one day and decided to electrify all the middles of nowhere.

Our rafting guide today told me that yes, Moab residents do suffer with seasonal allergies, and this is bad pollen season. So, yes, I do still need benadryl. They think it's dry here, but I sweat today, and I didn't sweat at all on our honeymoon when it topped 100 degrees every day. So it's drier than Dogtown, VA, but not that dry.


In Arches NP today, I saw many familiar plants growing wild. Rosemarys that were taller than me; lavenders that were chest high; sorrel plants by the side of the path like weeds. At the restaurant where we ate tonight, all the outdoor planters contained the same annuals we grow at home - petunias, marigolds, etc.

All these cliffs and rockfaces, and no graffiti. I think that's just amazing. Our rafting guide told us that the rednecks here sometime shoot the rocks. Bullet holes instead of spray paint. Weird.

The sky is SO blue.

Space here is so disorienting. How many square miles is Arches National Park? And how many square miles is Henrico County, or the city of Philadelphia, or Manhattan Island? How far away are those snow capped mountains in the distance - 5 miles or 10?

The hot tub is broken; that is sad.

Sunscreen makes my face hurt.