Tick off another 'first' - I ate biscuits and gravy for breakfast. :-D Mr Cowboy took me to get a latte (at the five seconds away place), then we had a proper cowboy breakfast - he informed me they live on this - of biscuits and gravy. He was truly shocked that I'd never tried this before. We followed that up with a visit to meet his colt, which is actually a two year old gelding but they still call them colts until they're four or five. How's that for confusing? What do they call them if they're ungelded? Anyway, a gorgeous little quarter horse that he's only had five rides on. Six, counting the ride this morning that I got to watch. When he asked if I'd like to watch him ride, I merrily replied, "Sure, I'll happily go watch you get pole-driven." I am such a ray of sunshine. In my defence, he said he was bucked off on ride four.

He stayed on this time. After that, I packed my bags and hit the road, leaving the tiny town of Tropic far, far behind.

Random side note - it's quite cold in Utah, particularly in Bryce. As in, overnight temps are probably just below zero and morning temps are not much better until at least 10am or 11am. Last night, going to dinner, I wore my very fancy North Face goose-down filled ultra warm long black jacket that is so hot I can't wear it in Australia even on the coldest nights. In this jacket, I was sufficiently protected from the cold in Utah anywhere the jacket touched me. Mr Cowboy wore a t-shirt last night and drove with the window down. This is acclimation at work. Told him he probably wouldn't like Australia. The heat and humidity would kill him.

Onto the far more interesting topic of today's drive to Torrey!! :-D

If only Hertz knew the things I was getting up to with their rental car. Mwuahahahaha!!! That is one filthy, dirty orange car just now. When I picked up the car I assured them I wouldn't be taking it off road at all. Ha!! I made such a liar out of myself today. Here's where chatting with locals will get you - when buying my latte in Tropic yesterday, I noticed a beautiful photo on the wall of a slot canyon and asked the woman if it was Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ. She said no, it was a canyon just five miles down the road and I could easily access it. Instructions were something like "Drive five miles east, then turn right at something or other building. Go three miles then turn down totally unpronouncable road name, and the slot canyon is two miles after such and such creek." Pretty easy, right? She said I'd be there in ten minutes.

The part she left out was that after turning onto unpronouncable road name, there was ten miles of dirt road before such and such creek. And three creeks to drive THROUGH. I'm driving on low profile tyres with 18" rims. Not exactly built for off road. But I'm the queen of totally stupid decisions, so I just kept going. Once in there, I figured if I could get in without flattening all the tyres, I could probably get out without flattening all the tyres. Successful on that point. So was it worth it? Was the slot canyon beautiful? It absolutely was. :-) A worthy detour.

I learned another thing, today. You know those yellow signs, with the silhouette of an animal stamped on them, indicating that animal may be seen in that area? Right. Those. They have them here too, of course. Different animal shapes to what we have at home but one we do have in common is the cow shape. They do this groovy thing in Utah where they stick two little red flags on the sign. Horse riders, you know when they close a jump on the cross country or show jumping course by diagonally crossing two red flags on the jump? THAT. They diagonally cross two red flags and stick them on the back of the cattle sign, so they wave out the top of it. Makes the sign harder to miss.

During the course of my drive today, I discovered that those two waving red flags are code for, "We have turned our cattle out to graze this major highway today. Please try not to hit them." Took two or three batches of cattle for that to really gel but I got it eventually. Also didn't hit anything. The coolest part was coming across a herd with about six cowboys and their horses driving them.

I stopped in Escalante for possibly the best bruschetta I've ever had, then continued down the 12. This is where the road got super interesting. I have a continuing suspicion this is the highway I came down through a bit of a blizzard (at night) last time I was here, but I have no way of knowing for sure. If it is the same road though, I'm kind of glad I didn't know where we were driving because it was pretty intimidating WITHOUT snow and ice and total dark. :-D It is also probably the most spectacular bit of road I've ever been down.

I have NO photos of the good bits. None. There is NOWHERE to stop and take them, and no "scenic pull-outs" because there is very little verge. You guys are just going to have to take my word for it that it is breathtaking like nothing else. Firstly, it's quite high up. And once again we have that Utah tradition of super steep drops with hardly any guard railings. If you miscalculate a corner, you have about two feet (of gravel) before it's curtains. And let's face it, if you hit gravel off a corner, you're going to slide. Way intimidating when all your driving instincts are geared for the *other* side of the road, and the *other* side of the car. Secondly, after the height, you have the most eye-catching scenery. Which makes it very dangerous because each corner you go round, you go "WOW!!!!" and stop watching the road. You can't help it!! Bad idea. Even I slowed right the hell down.

But better than taking my word for it, you should all just hop a flight over and take the Scenic Byway 12 between Escalante and Torrey. Totally worth the airfare right there. I'll drive.

Even after the "high" bit finishes, it's still a very pretty piece of road. Peaks out at 9600 feet, but beyond that you can see even higher planes not too far away. I passed all these signs warning about the icy road, but it was three in the afternoon and I was thinking, yeah, we're fine. Until I stopped at a scenic pull-out near the end and discovered it was about 7 degrees and windy. Good conditions for things to not thaw. I tried to be a bit more mindful of the road conditions after that but I figured if the Prius ahead of me was doing alright, I'd be alright too.

Got into Torrey and checked into my room. I think this place is the cheapest one on the trip. About $60 a night and really quite nice. And in keeping with my tradition of mingling with the locals, I had dinner down at the bar/food joint run by this place and pulled up to the bar with two local boys. When I say local, they live in town but originally come from Penn State, as they put it. One of them spent about five months Downunder so he understood me perfectly. He's keen for a ride in the Dodge and will show me around all the good spots tomorrow if I will pick him up. Done deal. Truly, America really does have some lovely people in it.

Must remember to not drive like a complete moron.

So now it's off to bed and hope that I haven't unpacked the insomnia along with everything else. I thought I'd left it at home the first couple of nights but it reared its ugly head in Zion. Possibly to do with the central heating in some of these motels. Am pretty sure they duct it straight up from the fiery depths of Hades because holy mother of Twisties, it can be deadset frosty outside, and I'm sitting in my room sweating. With no control over the heating except to open the window and let in some Arctic blast. And that only works for so long before it becomes a bit much, too. Hard to balance.

But this motel has given me my own personal heating thingy so I can control the temperature. Aha!!! I'm hoping that will help.

Oh, and PS: For those of you who will have gotten your panties in a bunch over the fact that I had dinner *AND* breakfast with Mr Cowboy, simmer down. I'll put you out of your misery. :-D He was a perfect gentleman. A rare and dying breed the likes of which I have not been around in many years, if ever. He was beyond offended when I offered to pay for even coffee. He was utterly respectful and I didn't indulge in any behaviour that would horrify my mother.

He did say "Yes ma'am" a whole hell of a lot. That was pretty cool.

There. Y'all happy now? :-D