Mother's Day & Mother Earth

Both of my daughters called me early in the day to wish me a happy Mother's Day, which set my heart in a good place for the day. To further celebrate the day, I decided to take myself out for breakfast...more precisely, a breakfast road trip~!

Not sure where I'd have breakfast, I ran through the list of options:

• Mystery diner in Torrey or Loa (60+ miles north)

• Rustler's Restaurant in Tropic (38 miles west)'

• Denny's or Cracker Barrel in St. George (3 hours southwest)

• Page, Arizona (3ish hours west, south, and then east)

It was a road trip morning, so I didn't want to stay in Escalante. In the end, I decided to go west, middle-aged mama and decide on Tropic or St. George along the way.

By the time I got to Tropic, I really wanted bacon and scrambled eggs, so I stopped at the Rustler's Restaurant. They also have a good rye toast there, which made me very happy.

Having eaten quickly, I packed up a little ToGo container for Buena, and headed out the door. Only, I wasn't ready to get back to the RV. Despite the day looking grey, I wanted to do something more. I pulled out the map and looked at my options:

Buena and I have a special place in Red Canyon where I climb a rock wall, and she comes up the from a different way. We meet at the precipice and walk along the ridge. So, we drove down to Red Canyon and did just that.

Then, I headed east. Since I have a National Parks pass this year, I decided to go see what the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon looked like on a grey day and drove to the Fairyland trail head parking lot. Only, when I stepped out the car door, the wind whipped my hair about my face. I grabbed my camera and sprinted across the parking lot to the edge. The way the orange earth opened up to the sky made me want to walk down into the canyon to see what it looks like from down below. I reallllllly want to come back on a sunny day and hike that trail. For now, I made a mental note of it, took a picture, and hurried back to the car.

Leaving Bryce, I made the decision to go see Antimony. One of my motorcycle friends said 22 is a fun road on a bike--"Not as fun as 12," he'd said--so I decided that it would be fun to check it out. For the most part, storm clouds remained overhead, while also gathering density to the west.

I passed through Antimony, which is only some buildings and an old four-cylinder silo. Then, I continued onward, toward Kingston. Along the way, there was a brief break in the clouds at a rocky area with some little caves in the rock. I thought this one looked like a face. (See the nose?)

Once on Highway 89, I headed south, toward Panguitch. The storm clouds continued gathering in density to the west. Is Buena looking at the clouds or the cows?

Along the way, I saw a sign for Butch Cassidy's boyhood home. I like the way the spring foliage looks against the dark sky.

In Panguitch, I stopped at the Family Dollar and the small grocery store to pick up some items that aren't available in Escalante.

Back on Highway 12, I headed eastward toward Escalante. Just west of Tropic, the sky opened up.

I made my way up the curvy section known as the "Blues," which is between Henryville and Escalante. It is so named because in that section, the red sand and rock gives way to grey-blue rock and bentonite. It's a vast desolate area, and through my window, I could see how the earth and sky seemed to meet in a sea of grey. Despite the rain, once I reached the top of the Blues, I dashed out into the rain to try to capture it.

Shortly thereafter, I arrived home to the Godspeed and settled in for the evening. In all, it was an eight-hour journey, and I had a sense of completion, having mind mapped that little portion of Utah, filing it into my geologic-formation knowledge base.