Or, it seems like the long day drives are going to be like each other.
Last night’s murder mystery party for my friend’s birthday, held at a cabin in Breckenridge, was so much fun. Today’s very long drive to Zion was not as much fun. It wasn’t terrible, but between weather and the length of the drive, and the hotel here at the end, I can imagine a world where my day was better.
Starting with the murder mystery, I got to dress up as the bartender, which was a great deal of fun, but the star of the show was the individual who played the owner of our speakeasy in the first act, was then murdered (see crime scene photo below) and then played the detective in the second act. They were phenomenal, and made it so much fun for the rest of us.
But that was yesterday.
What did I do all day, today, Day 3?
Mostly drive. Morning was beautiful, below is a picture off the balcony of the cabin. But I left early with the intent of getting to Goblin Valley State Park in Utah by the middle of the day, and to Zion by the end. Spoiler alert: I did manage those things.
Doomsie (my car, you’ll remember) was in the driveway overnight. It was -7° C in the driveway, and thus in the car, too, and as I was starting out today, I was very happy that she has both heated seats and also, get this, a heated steering wheel. I did stop for coffee. And postcards.
The drive was fine, but rain rolled in and when you combine that with twisty mountain roads, and large trucks spraying rainwater, and temperatures around freezing… well, I was white knuckling a lot of the drive.
I also decided to listen to an audiobook today, rather than music, and it’s a good book, and you know how you can think about one thing while you’re driving and then you realize you’ve just driven for twenty minutes and have absolutely no memory of what that entailed? That worked for me today. Yes, occasionally I had to rewind a little when driving past a truck in the rain around a mountain bend forced me to put all my focus on driving. But the book helped the time pass more quickly.
Which was good because…
How was being alone today?
After hanging out yesterday with one of my very best friends, several people I went to Alaska with, and eight more friendly people, today was more of what I had been expecting. Driving is a great way to distract myself from thinking. Add the weather and the audiobook, and we have a deal!
But then, I pulled up to Goblin Valley State Park in Utah. It’s a cool place, pretty unique geological formations, a little out of the way*, but worth it. At least, it would have been if I’d been there with someone. I wanted someone to exclaim about it with, someone to remember it with, someone to make jokes about it looking like a Star Trek set with. I ended up not staying long.
Turns out this is also true of all the scenery I’ve been admiring from the car. It’s gorgeous, amazing, and yeah, sometimes it’s moving. But I’m not great about getting a lot of… what, personal growth or serenity or something out of these experiences. I think I’m too social, experiences like this are something I want to share.
So, cool as Goblin Valley was, I don’t think I got anything out of it.
I had another 4 hours of driving from there, and my day is ending in a hotel that is at least inexpensive? It’s also old, feels a little thrown together, but not terrible. I’ve thrown myself into this blog entry, and my to do list, to try to drown out the quiet. And it’s kind of working.
So… tomorrow?
Yeah, so tomorrow is another day in a hotel, this one in Las Vegas, with considerably less driving. It could go either way. Stay tuned!
* Okay, Goblin Valley is really out of the way. Four hours from Vail, four hours from Zion. If I hadn’t been going from one to the other, I would never have stopped there. But here’s a cool picture of it.
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