Ed

[Today's Photos] Breakfast today was a unique experience. The motel served a "continental" breakfast, out of which the least unappetizing item was instant oatmeal. I made sure they had hot water, took a couple of packets of oatmeal, and went to the hot water dispenser. It said Do Not Touch. That left... coffee. A word to the wise: instant oatmeal with coffee is Not Good. It is rather impressively Not Good. And it gets worse with every bite. You may have to try it to believe it!

But enough of that. We drove through Zion and stopped for a short hike up the Canyon Overlook Trail, just before the big tunnel. This is gorgeous country. And so wet! There's water seeping everywhere, and lush greenery in the most improbable places. Lots of crevices and lots of growth in them.

Today's photo was taken from the top of the trail. It's a nice overlook of Zion Canyon. Just a 15-minute hike to the top, and the vistas are oh so worth it. Click on the picture for a full version.

From Zion we drove to St George, where we meet up for Elderhostel. St. George is, in a word, nasty. That's not something I like to say, but I can't take it back. The Elderhostel people are delightful, but there are some real jerks elsewhere in town. It's a very crowded place, and traffic is almost Bay-Area bad. Rudeness is the norm. Never yield to anyone. Yellow means "go", even if it means blocking the intersection. There's a traffic circle in town, and I can understand why some people in Los Alamos are so emotionally upset at the idea of them: the traffic circle here flows well most of the time -- even with pedestrians -- but there are indeed a lot of idiots who just race through. Screeching brakes and honking horns. Not often, but enough to make an impression.

No WiFi in St George, so I don't know when or how I'll post this. Nobody even knows what WiFi is. There's a spot that claims to be an Internet Cafe, but it was closed and there was an angry lady sliding some papers under their door when I went. Her server has been down for four days, she's been trying to contact them to bring it up, and they don't respond. She's losing business because of this. I tried the library; no WiFi, and I'm not local, so I "can't use their computers anyway". How friendly.

Wow, this is sounding really negative. Sorry! I'm in good spirits, and just trying to convey some of the spirit of the day. And I'm not even going to go into the tour of the Tabernacle...