And not in a good way. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

When I first planned this trip I had it in my head that I'd leave each town early in the morning and race to the next destination. Did this once and realised the folly of the scheme. Doing that lands me at my next destination in the middle of the day and photos are pointless until at least 4pm. So I've eased up on myself and have no complaints about it. Sleep in, pack my suitcases at a lazy rate, stroll out and head off whenever it feels good. Works for the raging insomniac. Of course it also means I'm far less motivated to get up and take good sunrise photos, but meh.

Leaving Capitol Reef is quite a pretty drive and it changes constantly. After a few miles of something, you sweep around a corner and it changes so much you think you've left the state. Over and over again. The roads are also reeeeeeeally isolated. Like, you don't see anyone else for miles and miles and miles at a time. Naturally, (and also possibly deliberately) the speed increases when the road opens up and you just *know* there isn't a cop shop for 300km.

I can confidently say the Challenger handles beautifully at 170km/hr. I reckon I'd be able to say it handles beautifully at a much higher speed if the roads in Utah weren't so shockingly bad. There was a point at which I stopped enjoying feeling the car skip around a little too lightly on the uneven terrain and I backed it off to a calm and steady 145km/hr. They make NSW roads look awesome in places.

Had a quick stop at Goblin Valley. This was always part of the plan. It's a spooky place but very cool. Would probably be quite trippy at night under a full moon. From there to Green River on the I-70, it should've taken me an hour but, ummm, took me about 30 minutes. Which is where it got interesting. I honestly should've known better. The 'I' in I-70 stands for Interstate. That means it's an important kind of road with other people on it. People like cops. In radar traps. I hit the brakes when I saw him but it was waaaaaay too late.

He swung out and gave chase. Speed limit on the interstate was 75 mph. Roughly 120km/hr. I was doing 101 mph. This be 162km/hr. I was *begging* for trouble. Since he'd pulled me over on a major road, he came up on the passenger side lest he be skittled by a passing truck. All the people I'd previously overtaken like they'd been nailed to the fence probably went past me laughing their heads off.

First words out of my mouth gave the game away. TOURIST!!!! He'd have already pulled the plates and realised it was a rental. I was expecting it to play out like a bad episode of Cops, complete with absolutely no sense of humour on the part of the cop. But he was actually very nice. He explained with a dead straight face that 101 was really too fast and not very safe and I should try to stick to 75. I'd heard horror stories of Aussies being booked overseas and paying massive massive fines for relatively minor infringements, let alone 26 miles (42kms) over the limit.

Next words out of his mouth: "I'm not going to cite you because you're a foreigner and there'd be no point."

YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!! I didn't care about a single thing he said after that. I nearly hopped out of the Challenger and cartwheeled down the interstate. He did issue me a warning and it's hilarious because it states how fast I was going but he said he was only putting 9 miles over the limit on the warning presumably because he didn't want to explain on his paperwork why he let someone going that stupidly fast walk away.

He sent me on my way with a hand on the door of the car and an acknowledgement that it was a very cool vehicle and they didn't see a lot of foreigners in Utah (which is wrong, there are heaps, they're just not all driving at lunatic speeds through radar traps) and he wished me a safe trip. I actually turned on the cruise control and more or less stuck to most of the limit the rest of the way to Moab. As I was coasting my way into the distance, The Yank explained to me that had *HE* been driving, it would've been handcuffs on, do not pass go, do not collect $200, go straight to lock-up and the car would be impounded. Apparently going that far over the limit lands you in the slammer if you're lucky enough to be a US citizen. Never been so freaking grateful to be an Aussie.

The Yank also pointed out I had taken my shirt off in Goblin Valley and was in fact wearing a wonderbra and a singlet. This in all likelihood helped, he thinks.

So, I learnt something new. Pick and choose which roads on which to speed like a rabid maniac. Not the interstate.

Got into Moab, checked into rather nice motel and ordered pizza for dinner. It's a hard life.