Kanab, Utah

Thursday 13 August

The days are slipping quickly by

have given up on my pongy synthetic socks, now donated to Garbage America

bought a 6-pack of USA made 92% cotton ones, $7, gave 2 pair to Richard, and he's given them the thumbs up too.

Also switched to wearing my new Celabas cotton shirts.

40 years evolution of all-weather farm wear works just great over here too

bit heavier than the flash sports stuff, but it keeps out the sun and some of the rain

and dosent get grubby nor pong anywhere near as fast.

Tonight we're in Kanab, pop around 2000, alt a tick under 5000'

Just had another run-in on the tipping question

we sort of arrived one after the other at obviously the towns only classy restaurant

the waitress insisted we all go on the one bill, instead of individually, (as you do)

we conclude its for the 18% gratuity applying here to groups of 6 or over to be effective,

otherwise, one on one, the customer gets to use his discretion about the amount of tip, usually 10% I think.

When we said we wanted to down-structure to individual credit cards, (it wasnt cheap)

she responded there was a $3 surcharge each

which I doubt because we were the only group over 2 persons in the place.

Nevertheless, Ken paid the lot on his card, and he's got a heap of our cash dollars in his pocket as we squared him up.

After the last experience in Rapid City I vowed I wouldnt go near another restaurant again

AND THIS IS IT!!

and dont forget to add sales tax

jees, greatest nation in the world, my ass.

Petroglyphs

Anyway....

today a short ride shanghai'd by camera stops

first a quick ride to see some petroglyphs

then quickly up above the tree-line and into the cool 9500'

in fact some rain, and thunder and lightning in the distance.

Somehow we managed to outflank the worst of it even though at around 8000' all day

including a section of road perched along the top of a ridge, big drop each side

quite disconcerting on a bike, with lightning bolts in the distance.
Thankful it wasnt windy.

The Motorbike Doctor

Escalante was the place I spoke about didnt have the coffee

met up with a character there, the Motor Bike Doctor

scoops around on an old but perfectly tuned Rocker, doing a motorcycle good samaritan.

Ken thinks he has informers that let him know when bikes come through town

because in he popped as we ate our midday burgers.

He was chuffed to see Ken had given him a mention in our travel guide.

Bryce Canyon

On to Bryce Canyon...

we're getting pretty good at this national park stuff

you tell the ranger at the entry station you've only limited time, and ask where to go to get the best bang for your visit

otherwise you'd be there a week.

At Mesa Verde there was no traffic behind me and the ranger seemed insistent on a chat

he'd been to Fiordland and had fallen in love with it so much he applied to be a ranger down there

but our immigration was too difficult a hurdle at the time.

Struck another ranger later today that had a married daughter in Hamilton

like, when he asked directly, where in NZ did I live, I was a bit short of how to answer, uh Wanganui?

as I keep saying, we're more on the map than we think.

Have wondered a bit, how, in the face of the magnificent mountain scenery weve been amongst here, there's so much high opinion of NZ's alpine and back-country scenic offering

I think its the unique-ness of our flora

over here its mainly pine, a bit of fir

and lower down, sycamore, some oak, maple further north, and round here what looks like silver birch with a bigger sized penny leaf

and apart from juniper and desert scrub and sagebrush, I've now worked out the lighter green shrub might be

thats it....

Juniper looks like macrocarpa family, same sort of foliage, scaly bark

the berry is more like a hard nut

juniper's a flavouring in Bombay Sapphire, no?

Bryce Canyon...

unique I suppose but only an in/out call to my mind.

In Zion Natl Park

Zion National Park a different story, to flog a phrase, well worth the journey

everyone put it as the highlight of the day

instead of trying to carve a track round a 1000' cliff face they tunnelled just inside the wall instead

1.1 miles long, finished in 1930, mind boggling.

Quite unique rock formation and colour here

easy drive to the toll box at the other end, then come back the same way, see it from the reverse perspective...

And so, tonight in Kanab,
tomorrow, Grand Canyon

On the road to Kanab

Zion