I say, “I don’t know what to write” and Lisa says, “Start with the bolt of lightening at Bryce Canyon.” So, ok, the bolt of lightening…..?

Awoke for the briefest of moments today*, looked at Lisa’s phone to figure out the time and saw that it was 6:27 a.m. on 6/27/06. The sun had just started to illuminate the park and it could have been the correct time to rise but instead, several days of poor sleep being considered and alarm set for 7:30 as it was, I rolled over back to sleep on the very hard ground in our cute, little barely fits two pop-up rental tent wearing its rain jacket (fly?) “just in case” which of course was laughable in the evening but seemed reasonable at 10 a.m. when the bolt of lightening sprung out of cerulean blue sky (with white cloud accent) draped across burnt sienna mountain range. By that time, hoodoos had been replaced by grottos & windows (so said the signs), juniper and pinion replaced by spruce and pine. Purple/green swallows (properly I.D.ed as swallows based on flight pattern and wing/tail shape) replaced by ravens.

I guess some words of acknowledgement should be said regarding our arrival to Bryce Canyon, it’s magnitude and beauty, the hikes and my vertigo (who knew?!)….. and also as a basic item the excitement of the countryside in general and of course the fact that we slept in a tent twice without killing each other (despite needing to drive back to Springdale to return the water shoes we’d rented for Zion**, then drove to Bryce, then back to Springdale to return the tent the next night, then back through Zion for the last time to get to Page) and have now settled into a lovely “international hostel” which we fortunately have to ourselves. (I assume no one has yet figured out where exactly this town is – with its booming population of 16,000.) Missed seeing Rainbow Bridge National Monument and Antelope (Slot) Canyon because both are off Lake Powell and we had neither the time nor money to rent a boat. And unfortunately, we realized after leaving we forgot to get a Glen Canyon sticker for the car. That’s two locales now we’ve missed.

*now yesterday….
**if you get the chance, go to Zion prepared for a river hike. SO FUN!!!

Well, I’m running down the road
tryin’ to loosen my load
I’ve got seven women on
my mind,
Four that wanna own me,
Two that wanna stone me,
One says she’s a friend of mine
Take It easy, take it easy
Don’t let the sound of your own wheels
drive you crazy
Lighten up while you still can
don’t even try to understand
Just find a place to make your stand
and take it easy
Well, I’m a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed
Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me
We may lose and we may win though
we will never be here again
so open up, I’m climbin’ in,
so take it easy
Well I’m running down the road trying to loosen
my load, got a world of trouble on my mind
lookin’ for a lover who won’t blow my
cover, she’s so hard to find
Take it easy, take it easy
don’t let the sound of your own
wheels make you crazy
come on baby, don’t say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me, oh oh oh
Oh we got it easy
We oughta take it easy
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All day long had the Eagles’ song in my head…. Unfortunately, despite original plans to do so, we are NOT spending the night in Winslow AZ. Silver started bucking after a long hard day of driving through the Grand Canyon and so we are spending the night at the Flagstaff Super 8 Motel (which, if memory serves correctly, I have slept at before but cannot remember why.)

Am sure there are many more things I wanted to say but as time is limited and this is our first motel night with internet access, it’s going to have to wait. I’ve got some of the photos from the trip thus far up - most of which are from Zion but a couple from before leaving l.a. - (slideshow here… which needs editing at the moment…) but not most since they’re still on Lisa’s camera and some are even REAL FILM. If you want to see videos, go to the gallery directly….

We did manage to get the table & chairs sold *finally!!!*, the last of the food purchased or made, all my many voluminous boxes of crap stuffed into the van and the apartment quickly cleaned including a half-assed failed attempt to paint over the red wax on the walls. Made bedsheet curtains at the 99c store and off into the wild blue yonder for we three girlies! (Silver being our third girl, of course.)

She’s great so far. The air worked (most of the time) though we didn’t use it in the heat of the day…. our 4p departure took care of that issue, at least for today. After several additional unsuccessful attempts to find a fan including at the world’s gaudiest welcome center, we finally snagged 2 at a TA Travel Center or as I have always known them, truck stop. Why two? One for each of us! And whoops. We only have one cigarette lighter to plug into. Oh well.

Had a “quick” drive down the Vegas strip including requisite flashing by bridesmaids then back out to the 15. Drove and drove and drove and drove until 2:30pst which is actually 3:30mst; destination Hurricane Super 8 motel. (Actually original destination Springdale but we gave up 20 min. too soon. HAD to sleep.)

Today it’s a hike in Zion National Park then easy-peasy drive to Bryce Canyon to visit the dance school.

Photos to follow whenever Lisa has time to upload and post. Who knows when we’ll have internet again. {It’s good to get disconnected and off the grid once in a blue moon.} Since I’m doing the driving, I won’t be taking many.

Would you be at all surprised to hear that packing up one’s life to move is stressful, tear-filled, and heart-breaking? Yeah, I didn’t think so. That it takes days and days to go through all your stuff until you have whittled down to the almost essentials but there are so many things you wish not to part with (like the super-comfy just barely 2-years-old furniture or the dozens of books purchased but not yet read or, most importantly, the amazing circle of friends you’ve developed and still feel after knowing some nearly 3 years [four years!?! it feels like 6-months {In a good way}] that you have just barely begun to see most of the facets of and could go on knowing, hanging out with and loving for the rest of the years of your life) even though you have to, and that it pisses you off to know you are dropping plans with people you love in order to have strangers rifle through personal belongings and snear at the quality, condition, or price.

Spent a week with the horses in Santa Ynez/Buellton: lunging geldings, driving minis (horses), bathing sundry mammels and close encounter with vicious bales of hay. Returned for my last week at Pi Genesee fraught with exhaustion; am now bruised, buff and busy, ready to sell the last of my duds and party ’til the cows come home (7:30pm, you say? a tad early, don’t you think?) on my way out of the loverly Lost Angels. Photos sure to follow (sorry for skipping the one of the bruise - was planning to moon y’all but just haven’t had the time.)

p.s. let me know if you want my last bookshelf.