This morning saw the start of a very loooooong day. I basically had to get from one side of Utah all the way across to the other, and then to Vegas. Still didn't get up when the alarm went off though. Pffft. Reset it for an hour and a half later.

I had my route back all mapped out but when The Yank mentioned he'd never been to Zion National Park, I dropped one of my stops and adjusted the route in order to make the return trip via Zion. Was kind of a novelty to be able to show him around somewhere after all his local knowledge! He slid into a food coma for the first few hours of the drive through Arizona (a truck load of French toast and maple syrup at breakfast will do that to a boy) so I just put on some calming Aerosmith and sang quietly to myself but he came good around Page. He woke up just in time to find me turning around after finally taking my first wrong turn of the whole trip.

Him: I fall asleep for ten seconds and look what happens.
Me: You want to walk back from here?
Him: The car’s moving, you can’t make me get out.
Me: Willing to test the theory I can’t push you from a moving vehicle? I’ve got cruise control.

Finally!! An American with an Aussie sense of humour!!

We eat last night’s leftovers on the hop. This involves me being hand fed while I drive. Feeling very pampered. We take the 9 into Zion and The Yank’s conversation ceases. What replaces it is a series of single syllable words like "Sick" and “Sweet” and some swearing that would do any Aussie proud. In fact The Yank is all round cool enough and swears fluently enough to be an honorary Aussie. He also likes my singing which makes him extra, extra cool. Or utterly tone deaf. Either way, it’s a win. He was so blown away by Zion, I decided to stop there long enough to catch the shuttle from one end to another and go for a bit of a walk, then catch it back. I get the feeling he’ll be going back there if for no other reason than to top my efforts of not quite getting all the way up Angel’s Landing. Flaming mountain goat...

Even with just over a week between my stay at Zion, things had changed a bit. More yellow in the trees, hints of orange. The place is still utterly breathtaking and I so wish I could stop and stay longer. Clearly there is no chance of me being "done" with Utah. I will have to come back again and maybe again. This place talks to me.

And millions of others each year. Also possibly to the astounding punks rock climbing up at Temple Of Sinawava. Check out the photo. Just... No way under the sun. They are quite clearly true and genuine psychopaths with no concept of fear.

With much regret we got back on the road for the final slog into Vegas. I hit the most unbelievably slow line of traffic coming out of Zion. The speed limit was 65mph but everyone – and I mean everyone – was doing 50mph. For absolutely no reason! I heard The Yank muttering something that sounded like “Utards” (as opposed to Utahns) but I can’t be sure. (Clearly lived there just a little too long.) This was easily solved though. The Dodgem Car has this lovely little “Sports” button you can push and when you accelerate, the car goes into orbit. I got around everyone fairly quickly, with extreme amounts of glee, and after each powerful burst of speed, The Yank would say “That never gets old.” Soooooo much fun. Unfortunately I was driving west into a setting sun which was kind of hard to take and The Yank helped me keep my eyes open by falling asleep again. Anyone would think I’d worn him out. He woke up coming into Vegas, just in time to point out the truck stops and the “trucker suckers”. Such a classy place. He also woke up in time to see how well I’d drive in the city. No pressure or anything. Vegas is really not very easy to drive around at night. They don’t use reflective lane markers in the city so everything is a bit of a guess with really heavy traffic around you in all directions. Makes it a bit intense. Everything also moves quite slowly on the roads there, especially if you drive the Strip. Which I did. Because I like looking at it.

Checked into The Hard Rock and received an upgrade to a better room, higher up, in a better tower. Triple win!! The Yank looked so super rock star cool relaxing in the room, I decided to blind him and practice some flash photography.

Slept with all the curtains open and the lights of Vegas visible. The Hard Rock is well back from the Strip so it wasn’t overpowering. Quite beautiful and soothing, actually. Wish I’d had more nights to enjoy that view.

Twelve nights all up. Ten nights on the road, plus a night each end in Vegas. Went way too freaking fast. :-(