Wednesday - July17, Day 9

    This day was filled with shock and awe. We followed my friend Doug Echols advice on where to go in southern Utah  and Doug did good. First stop - Dead Horse Point - pretty much the Grand Canyon of Utah. Unbelievable views and the site where Thelma and Louise drove off the cliff at the end of their movie. While there Pee Wee did a good deed above the urinals in the men's bathroom in the visitor center. Somebody had recently done a very poor job of cleaning up after applying lots of grout to the tile walls. So Pee Wee used his newly acquired skills from the Museum of Clean and made it look like new.
    Then we went to the Arches National Park near Moab. This was a first for us in more ways than one. We actually were in this area during our first trip 5 years ago but passed up the Arches to play 9 holes of golf in Moab. We were idiots 5 years ago because the arches, balancing rocks, and other rock formations are something I wish everyone could see. We hiked a total of 5  miles but it was worth it. Delicate Rock and Landscape Rock are the most impressive and we have some pictures of those. To and from Delicate Rock was over 3 miles in close to 100 degree heat. Some people were turning around - it was really hot. On the way down we did a good deed for a man from Belgium we had met a few hours earlier at Dead Horse Point. He was really struggling - even staggered some. We made him walk with us and kept a good eye on him. All three of us had gone through the water we had taken with us on the hike so the last quarter mile I jogged ahead and got 4 bottles of water from our car. I met up with the man and Pee Wee about the time they made it back to the parking lot and we drenched the man in water with one bottle while he drank from the other.  He spoke English but he thanked us in some other language - it might have been Flemish but considering the state he was in I think it was gibberish.
   After almost 6 hours in the park, we took a road that Doug had recommended up toward Grand Junction in Colorado. I think it was Highway 128 and it was an amazing road. Pretty much the entire 40 miles we drove next to the Colorado River while at the bottom of a steep canyon. We may have seen 4 other vehicles. Once we stopped next to a scenic view, walked around on the highway and took turns yelling toward the canyon wall to see who could make the loudest echoes. Pee Wee won easily. Then we drove to a town named Cisco, except it's not a town anymore - it's a real life ghost town! We drove around and all the buildings are old and vacant - it was spooky.  Then the road became just a little better than a dirt road and we could tell it gets washed out a lot, but we made it. Again we stopped when and wherever we felt like - in the middle of the road. We saw a prairie dog pop its head up once - we got out and got some photos and then we charged it. It ducked down and came up in another spot. We played a little cat and mouse with it but prairie dog won. Then we drove on - Pee Wee saw a crow perched on a stick jutting a few feet out of the ground. He honked his horn at it and the crow fell off - he looked at us and started cawing at us - we made him mad. I love this trip ... one more day and we fly back on Friday. Thanks for the comments!