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Moab, UT June 25-29
Jul. 6th, 2012 12:04 amAs far as the physical aspect of this trip...
1. After arriving in the small town of Moab, an eight hour drive from El Paso, we went to Dead Horse Point to look at the view from the cliffs.
( Read more... )
2. The next day was canyoneering & kayaking. The former involved hiring a guide who strapped us into harnesses and using rappelling ropes, had us lower ourselves down 110 feet down a canyon wall twice. I won't lie; I was scared. The second descent was scarier because at one point I wasn't touching the canyon walls. I stayed there, suspended in air by the ropes, trying not to freak out at the distance between me and the ground. It's not easy. The key is to be feeding the rope into the pulley, but too much slack and you'll plummet, or to allow the rope to pull one's hand into the pulley meant a nasty injury.
3. Kayaking: It was my first time in the water. Again, we hired a company to furnish us with boats and show us how to paddle down the Colorado River. I got yelled at several times by one of the instructors because I had a hard time paddling correctly, steering, etc. Once I got the hang of it, it was neat. It took a lot of arm strength to paddle the eight miles downstream. I'd also paddle into swells made by headwinds since the opposing force of the kayak and the water resulted in a refreshing spray in the face.
4. Wed. was a day trip into Arches Nat'l Park to climb up on the rocks and fins. We had the luck of having clouds and fair weather in the morning, but by 11, the sun came out to burn us. I had to retreat into shady caverns several times to get out of the sun. And I realized that I love climbing on rocks. It's like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. I did get a little overheated. I wasn't even aware that I could get goosebumps from overheating, but my skin felt funny. Like it was itchy and going numb.
5. Thursday was another venture into the Arches Park. We hiked a few short trails and saw the granaries that the indigenous used for stashing food and seeds long ago.
6. Friday, we managed to book a last-minute trip with a rafting company. We spent a few hours in the morning on a raft floating down the Colorado. I really enjoyed this one. No one yelled at me, plus when we reached calm water, the guides encouraged us to jump into the river. I took a few plunges. I'd never been swimming in a river before, but I liked it. Even when the current dragged me a little too far away from the boat and I had to really swim hard to get back.
When I wasn't hiking or enjoying the river with my 2 travel buddies, we'd walk down the main drag shopping or trying to find someplace to eat. Moab is a great little town. There's touristy shops, outdoors gear supply stores, the Moab Brewery which serves excellent homemade root beer (I bought a moonshine jug full of the stuff), the Peace Tree Cafe for the organic lover (the librarian had a thing for this place...we ate lunch there 3 days in a row), a retro diner, a sushi bar, and more. I even found a comic book store on a road parallel to the main street.
Then there was the psychological aspect of the trip.
I was dragged out of my comfort zone on this trip. Lord knows my companions learned that traveling with me is like dealing with a 29-year-old female Sheldon Cooper. For one, I hate driving in different places. I'm not a very good driver, between gauging speed or finding places. And I hate making left turns, especially pulling out to the left on a busy 2-way street. It's just too much stimulus to process having to judge speed from cars going left and right at the same time. Well, my companions gave me holy hell for avoiding left turns, and I got real frustrated when we went to see the Delicate Arch before sunset on Thursday and Alicia and the librarian had me drive and kept changing their minds on where to drive as often as a pubescent changes her tampons in the middle of menses. I wound up making a 360 in the middle of the road with a line of cars waiting for me to go. I was so upset that evening that I waited by the car while they ran to catch the Arch.
The librarian, I learned, loves to dish out teasing but hates the taste of her own medicine. She pushes me into the river and it's a joke. If I had done that, I'd have fresh scars running down my eye sockets and this entry would be in braille. Alicia got her in a headlock at one point. I contemplated doing the same, or even acting out the "Stuck in the Middle With You" scene from Reservoir Dogs but swapping the ear amputation with stuffing beef jerky into her vegetarian mouth.
And a good way to keep the designated driver awake once her coffee high wears off is to recite a Dan Mintz stand up act.
Johnny Depp was in Moab filming The Lone Ranger. Alicia was starstruck, so in "Operation: Depp Throat" we spent an afternoon asking the locals for leads on where Johnny would go to shop or buy groceries. We never found him.
1. After arriving in the small town of Moab, an eight hour drive from El Paso, we went to Dead Horse Point to look at the view from the cliffs.
( Read more... )
2. The next day was canyoneering & kayaking. The former involved hiring a guide who strapped us into harnesses and using rappelling ropes, had us lower ourselves down 110 feet down a canyon wall twice. I won't lie; I was scared. The second descent was scarier because at one point I wasn't touching the canyon walls. I stayed there, suspended in air by the ropes, trying not to freak out at the distance between me and the ground. It's not easy. The key is to be feeding the rope into the pulley, but too much slack and you'll plummet, or to allow the rope to pull one's hand into the pulley meant a nasty injury.
3. Kayaking: It was my first time in the water. Again, we hired a company to furnish us with boats and show us how to paddle down the Colorado River. I got yelled at several times by one of the instructors because I had a hard time paddling correctly, steering, etc. Once I got the hang of it, it was neat. It took a lot of arm strength to paddle the eight miles downstream. I'd also paddle into swells made by headwinds since the opposing force of the kayak and the water resulted in a refreshing spray in the face.
4. Wed. was a day trip into Arches Nat'l Park to climb up on the rocks and fins. We had the luck of having clouds and fair weather in the morning, but by 11, the sun came out to burn us. I had to retreat into shady caverns several times to get out of the sun. And I realized that I love climbing on rocks. It's like Chuck E. Cheese for adults. I did get a little overheated. I wasn't even aware that I could get goosebumps from overheating, but my skin felt funny. Like it was itchy and going numb.
5. Thursday was another venture into the Arches Park. We hiked a few short trails and saw the granaries that the indigenous used for stashing food and seeds long ago.
6. Friday, we managed to book a last-minute trip with a rafting company. We spent a few hours in the morning on a raft floating down the Colorado. I really enjoyed this one. No one yelled at me, plus when we reached calm water, the guides encouraged us to jump into the river. I took a few plunges. I'd never been swimming in a river before, but I liked it. Even when the current dragged me a little too far away from the boat and I had to really swim hard to get back.
When I wasn't hiking or enjoying the river with my 2 travel buddies, we'd walk down the main drag shopping or trying to find someplace to eat. Moab is a great little town. There's touristy shops, outdoors gear supply stores, the Moab Brewery which serves excellent homemade root beer (I bought a moonshine jug full of the stuff), the Peace Tree Cafe for the organic lover (the librarian had a thing for this place...we ate lunch there 3 days in a row), a retro diner, a sushi bar, and more. I even found a comic book store on a road parallel to the main street.
Then there was the psychological aspect of the trip.
I was dragged out of my comfort zone on this trip. Lord knows my companions learned that traveling with me is like dealing with a 29-year-old female Sheldon Cooper. For one, I hate driving in different places. I'm not a very good driver, between gauging speed or finding places. And I hate making left turns, especially pulling out to the left on a busy 2-way street. It's just too much stimulus to process having to judge speed from cars going left and right at the same time. Well, my companions gave me holy hell for avoiding left turns, and I got real frustrated when we went to see the Delicate Arch before sunset on Thursday and Alicia and the librarian had me drive and kept changing their minds on where to drive as often as a pubescent changes her tampons in the middle of menses. I wound up making a 360 in the middle of the road with a line of cars waiting for me to go. I was so upset that evening that I waited by the car while they ran to catch the Arch.
The librarian, I learned, loves to dish out teasing but hates the taste of her own medicine. She pushes me into the river and it's a joke. If I had done that, I'd have fresh scars running down my eye sockets and this entry would be in braille. Alicia got her in a headlock at one point. I contemplated doing the same, or even acting out the "Stuck in the Middle With You" scene from Reservoir Dogs but swapping the ear amputation with stuffing beef jerky into her vegetarian mouth.
And a good way to keep the designated driver awake once her coffee high wears off is to recite a Dan Mintz stand up act.
Johnny Depp was in Moab filming The Lone Ranger. Alicia was starstruck, so in "Operation: Depp Throat" we spent an afternoon asking the locals for leads on where Johnny would go to shop or buy groceries. We never found him.
