Tent and Breakfast

The night we camped at Lake Powell, we set up the tents in failing light. For dinner, Eva cooked hotdogs in the night's pitch blackness. They were served simply (but at least, as can be seen in the photo above, we did happen to have some Grey Poupon) and eaten by electric lantern and headlamps' light. It was cold and windy and cold. I just wanted to crawl into my new sleeping bag and crash. I believe I managed to stay awake for the dessert of E.L. Fudge cookies, but just barely.




Things looked much brighter in the morning. Water heated on the propane stove moistened instant hot cocoa and instant plain oatmeal, to which we added pecans, blueberries and brown sugar.



These were AgroBerries, but I thought of them as aggro berries.

Eat at Ho's.

This place, Thunderbird Restaurant outside of Zion National Park, was not as much fun as its sign suggested, but I was too tired and dirty after two days of hiking and camping in Parunuweap Canyon to care.

I was also not hungry enough for pie, or to visit the soup/salad bar, though I did enjoy 3 of the 4 (two large and two teeny-tiny*) pieces of fried chicken I was served. I consumed two tiny pieces and one large piece, as well as all of the slightly congealed white gravy on mashed potatoes.

The vegetables on my plate looked weak. I decided to eat only the bland, blanched pieces that had touched gravy before my plate was set in front of me.

Everyone else I was with had mushroom swiss burgers, and they (the burgers) looked fine.


*Thank goodness for those two mutantly miniscule pieces of fried chicken. I couldn't believe that my fried-chicken-related menu choices were only 4 pieces of chicken or no chicken. I can't eat 4 pieces of fried chicken AND mashed p. with gravy AND boiled vegetables AND soup AND items from the salad bar! Get real.

Poetry Tuesday: Lines from a Road Trip

Devils bright red lurk among milder, yellower friends,
Screw up faces with sour taste of hell and angry roars.

---

Tube of giant, hot cheese balls aflame,
Redder than these canyon's walls, this soil.


(photo by Dan)

But, seriously, folks:

Raw upheavals, anvils, pedestals erupting,
pimpling upward.
Earthen thunderheads,
each high, red wall a chorus of narrow faces,
Easter Island émigrés
singing to the scrub brush opposite,
masks stacked, Dahl's cloud people,
elegant arched eyebrows and mouths.
Ridge and hill and slide piled into one;
above, a contrail hangs like a pine needle
or a maestro's baton,
pointing.
Mountain of food or fabric or pressed powder
spilling in ribbons, in folds of chalk,
its weight on itself.
Farther colors pale like the memories of colors.


(photo by Dan)

Laura Bush Ate Here.

(phone photo by Dan)


Dear Houston's Trail's End Restaurant in Kanab, UT (and Salsa Brava in Flagstaff, AZ),

Your portions are out of control. Do you want all of your customers to be obese? Pancakes should not be larger than my head if they are also 3/4" thick each. Your "short stack" of two is a "WIDE LOAD stack." And side of hash browns should not cover a large oval platter.

A stuffed sopapilla (now I'm looking at you, S.B.) is delicious but it should not be bigger and wider than both of my fists held end to end (especially considering it is jammed with meat and covered in cream sauce AND my fists aren't petite). And if it is as big as that (and you're unwilling to warn the customer), I certainly don't need beans and rice on the side and I will NEVER have room for dessert. Also, I don't really want a bottomless Pepsi. You could at least ask me if I want a refill.

-- Jennette

p.s. Houston's, I did enjoy your wallpaper. Salsa Brava, your flavors were excellent before I became overwhelmed and annoyed by the portion sizes, and you did a nice job on the salsa bar. Of the four varieties we tried, I preferred the pineapple habanero.

On another note, when in Kanab, I recommend staying at the Red Rock Country Inn if you want a cheap room and appreciate a hot tub.