Sunday, January 19, 2025

They named it Zion for a reason (Day 13)

Just when I thought it couldn't get any colder, -2°F greeted me this morning. The hot water pipes in my hotel were frozen and I microwaved a little cup of water to splash my face awake with. Hearing this made the hotel owner giggle!

Beast got a decent warm up then we hit the road. It was a lovely morning for a drive... the turkeys agreed.


Above me towered cottonwoods. Host to a golden eagle; my first sighting and really one of the rare opportunities I had to use my long lens this trip.



After 12 days of not seeing a whole lot of people together, or close to me, Zion came as a bit of a shock. Not awful, just the sudden realization that I'd adjusted to and appreciated, a crazy amount of alone time, a quiet environment and SPACE.

Every pull-out and parking lot was full. 43°F was the high temp today, the sky was blue and it was Sunday - before Martin Luther King Jr day. Not to mention the 'day of rest' is taken quite seriously in these parts. Lots of stores and restaurants were closed and a ton of those National Park visitors had Utah plates on their cars. 

















For the first time since I'd left Denver almost 2 weeks ago, I found it hard to motivate and there was a decidedly absent flow of thoughts and feelings. My journal got Sunday off too. (Clearly I caught some wind in my sails on Monday to fill in the blanks.)

Instead I spent time wandering and sitting.  Observing and doing good deeds. (Good deeds here all come in the form of taking peoples pictures for them.) Then I took an hour out to bathe myself in some Visitor Center cell signal and got a real estate deal under contract. It felt good and right!

Day 13 was the day I began to mentally embrace going home. My body was tired no matter how well I slept and those Spooky Canyon torqued limbs were still complaining and stiff. As cute and friendly as last night's hotel had been, I made the decision to upgrade for my last 2 nights on the road.

Tub ✓         Breakfast onsite ✓        Memory foam mattress ✓

No sunrise effort for me tomorrow... this train is sloowwwiinnnngggg down. It's a good thing. I have come by my exhaustion honestly.

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