Vegas to Zion

Tuesday, June 20, 2006 9:00 PM Mountain Time

I arrived at Zion National Park about an hour or so ago after leaving Las Vegas late in the day. The first half of the drive kind of sucked mostly because of my mental state. I poked around in Vegas for the better part of the day and even though I knew that I had to drive some miles today, I don't think my mind had accepted the fact that I'd be putting another 150 down on the odometer.

I got up early, which seems to be how things are going now, I seem to be going to sleep around 11 and waking up at like 6 or 7 depending on the climate I'm sleeping in (When it's 90 degrees, you get up earlier than if it's a climate-controlled 70). Last night after gorging at the trough of deliciousness that is the Brazilian BBQ at The Mirage, I passed out around 11, which meant when I woke up at 7, I couldn't get back to sleep. I got on the computer, watched England blow a lead over Sweden (although they are both in the second round anyway) and kind of enjoyed the fact that I was in a place with 4 walls that were not made of cloth and shaped like a dome. I also ironed on a patch to my jeans that I've been carrying with me since San Francisco. See, I have 2 pairs of jeans with me, one has a hole that is growing very quickly and I knew it needed to be stopped. The hole is on the top of the left thigh, so right where I might tug on the jean to get it a little more comfortable when riding a motorcycle. The problem with the patch is that it isn't even close to the color of the jeans, it's blue and the jeans are blue and that is as close as it gets. One is light blue the other dark. They are both denim, but that barely matters when it's so horribly different colored. So, I ironed the patch on the inside of my jeans and it seems to be working, the tearing has stopped and it doesn't even look that bad. I wasn't sure I could put my confidence in an iron on patch, but after 1 day, all is well.

I eventually got to take care of the one thing I really wanted to do while at The Riviera, and that was settle the bill with the accounting department from YearlyKos. The woman who handles it doesn't come in until 10am and has Mondays off so any attempt to try to contact her in the 21 hours that I'd already been at The Riv fell on deaf ears. I eventually got the bill around 11am and there were only 3 things wrong, none of which I was able to get fixed before I left.

I then reorganized all my bags and shipped home a box that weighed 15 pounds! I'm not sure where all they weight came from but I did have some papers that I felt OK parting with after I saw the final Riv bill, a book that I thought I might get the author to sign during my final days in SF and some t-shirts. I realized I was way over-stocked on t-shirts, so I happily got rid of several of those. Because I had all this extra shit, I was carrying an extra bag on my motorcycle, it was a single strapped backpack that precariously fastened around my entire pack on the back of my bike, kind of leaving it to hang off the back. The bag itself is now in that box as well and I am down to a very lean and efficient luggage situation. But I digress.... Since I'm all to familiar with The Riviera box shipping scam that is the "Business Center" and since I am now blessed with a means of transit in Las Vegas, I decided to take things into my own hands and take it to the Post Office. Of course I went about a mile out of my way to get to the post office that Google tells me is .61 miles away, but I finally did get to ship that box home (there is this strange skyway that you turn on from one side of the strip then it takes you under the strip and then onto an elevated roadway and deposits you about a mile from the strip, no exits, no chance for escape. They must have a ton of people that need to get from that point A to that point B).

And on the way back from the Post Office I decided I should eat before I get on the road, so I made one last visit to the Peppermill and then I was on my way, around 3:00 PM. I had to get a bellman to help get my bags from my room to the curb and they stored them while I went to the Post Office and ate, so when I retrieved them, I asked the bellwoman the best way to get to the highway. After telling me driving a motorcycle in Las Vegas was a bad idea, and a story about how her kids convinced her to sell her Harley when she moved back to Vegas and estimating that one person on a motorcycle dies on The Strip everyday, she graciously informed me of the wrong directions. She made a point to steer me away from the strip, which is appreciated, but she forgot to ask me (or I forgot to say) which direction I was going, I guess assuming that no one in their right mind would go to Utah, she sent me south. Luckily I figured this out before I got on the highway, but not before I went 20 minutes out of my way. That was the start of the ride for the day.

Then I'm on I-15 battling cross winds and trucks and in a generally annoyed state of mind. I made it 50 miles without stopping but I was dying for a drink of water by the 50 mile mark. I drank 1.5 liters right there. I drank a total of 3 liters in the 150 miles. Every time I would stop and guzzle water, my mouth would be dry 15 miles down the road, I couldn't believe it. I wasn't even this thirty going through the California desert.

I knocked off Nevada and got a little nibble of Arizona as I passed through for about 30 miles on my way to Utah, the Beehive State. Going through Arizona was actually pretty cool because the interstate goes through this canyon or pass or something where there is hundreds of feet of red rock on either side of you and just this roadway at the bottom, it would have been worth a picture but I wasn't in the mood.

Another thing that annoyed me was that not only did I get a late start on the day but I lost an hour in transit! Where did this mountain time zone come from and why didn't someone warn me? Not only was I late but now I was losing an hour to nature.

I stopped at the Visitors Center right across the Utah line because I thought they might have the number for the park that I'm going to be staying in because I thought they said something in the e-mail about calling if you were going to be arriving after 6pm or so. It was now 7pm. It's a good thing it was called a "Visitors Center" and not a "Welcome Center" because the man behind the desk wasn't very welcoming. I told him about wanting to confirm the campground reservation and he kind of didn't want me to bother calling, he said that I was only an hour away and there was no reason. When I pressed him for the number he pointed to 10 digits on the page but they weren't the number for the park. It was the local visitors bureau - how could he be so wrong? Utah being one of the last states where President Bush has a positive approval rating I assumed that he had me pegged as a Democrat and figured he would give me some kind of retribution for my baby-killing agenda by giving me the wrong phone number to my campground. Or he was senile, I'm not sure. Either way I found the number that I sought in that same brochure and as far as I know Roe hasn't been overturned, so take that Utah!

This is where my mood improved and things started looking up. I only had 16 more miles on the interstate and then it was another 30 on the 2 lane highway to Zion. St. George, the city that occupies the land around the stretch of interstate that I drove is quite charming. There are huge red rocks and cliffs everywhere and houses built all around them, it's not like any city I've ever seen before. Sure I've seen houses piled on top of green hills, brown hills, flat land, steep inclines, sand and gravel - but never red rock. Maybe I'm a sucker for new landscaping but it looked pretty cool.

Then off the highway and on to Zion, I started taking pictures around here and since the sun was pretty low in the sky a couple turned out really good. The weather got a little better and every fourth breeze I felt was actually cool, a sensation I haven't felt since getting off Highway 1. I drove through the charming little town of Springdale outside the park then onto the campsite and here I am. I'm thinking I'll do a mini-hike tomorrow then take on the 2 hour drive to Bryce Canyon National Park where I hope to stay tomorrow night. I don't have a reservation so I'm kind of winging it but it appeared that there were lots of campgrounds right near the park if the park was in fact full and I know they have 250 first come, first served, no reservations sites in the park, so here's hoping one of those has my name on it.

So a day that started out not so great ended with Nolan in a great mood and happy to be where I am. The weather is very comfortable here and I'm looking forward to a great day tomorrow.