Surrounded by Savages

Oops, PC Mode Failure.  I mean Native Americans.  It's alright, though, all they were trying to attack was my wallet, which I'm pretty good at protecting.......especially when it comes to buying jewelry. The highlights of the day were Monument Valley and Zion National Park, with some curvy bits in-between.  The trouble with places like Monument Valley and most of the country I was in today, is that the vistas are so grand it's hard to capture them on film...........er, pixels?  But I gave it a try and here are some of the results:

 The telephone polls in the foreground give an idea of the size of this formation.

This next one was shortly after entering Zion:

The sun was setting and often shining in my eyes.  That, combined with the traffic on the weekend, made for a cautious go of it on the way up to this tunnel:

This used to be a two-way tunnel, but for some reason they have made it one-way, and I got there just after they closed it for my direction.  We had about a 10 minute wait.

I was the second in line and that car in front of me is some kind of high-dollar Porsche.  The road down on the other side of the tunnel is the best part, with some major switchbacks.  Naturally, that Porsche was going to show that motorcycle how to do it, so we had a friendly romp down the hill.....still with a good degree of caution in consideration of the looky-loos parked alongside the road.  However, there was no way I was going to stop to take pictures and let some of the cars who were waiting in line behind me catch up.  So, no more pictures, sorry.  I think Zion is one of the most spectacular National Parks I have seen.  Carolyn and I have been there several times when we lived in California, and there are some fond memories of camping and hiking there.

I tried taking some helmet-cam videos while riding through Monument Valley, and I'll work on processing them tonight, but I got a late start on this post due to the fact that I had to walk a mile from the motel to find a beer in this Mormon town (Hurricane, Utah).  Such are the hardships of travel.

Both Carolyn and I have heard from people who have tried to post comments and found it so difficult they gave up.  I know it was hard for me the first time, and I don't remember how I did it.  I remember having to use my screen name of McRider and also entering a capcha.  Perhaps Karen or Mike can post a comment telling people how to post a comment.  Never too late, I guess.

Tomorrow I start heading north by northwest towards home.  I really fell behind schedule today and will probably need to add a day.

I did get a short segment of helmet cam video on YouTube.  It only took a couple of hours to upload 30 seconds!  Anyway, it's not so hot.  My eyeballs can swivel a lot further than my head.