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Ah, that most American of vacations: the Road Trip. Last year I had a superb run down the Oregon and California coasts---ably accompanied by those scholars and gentlemen, RWH and MFM. We had a lot of fun, made friends with bikers and various one-armed bandits and caught some spectacular scenery. But a year has now passed, and last week it seemed about time to step on the road once again. Spring break or bust, betches!

This trip the contestants were myself and Allison, and the destination was Utah---the beehive state. To get there we battled through snowstorms and 70mph gusts, but did we give up? Of course not! For we are true road warriors. The aim was to cruise down to see the National Parks in Southern UT, find some more spectacular scenery and make some Mormon friends. One of my favourite parts of the trip was camping in Zion Park, and here's the evidence we were there:



This next picture is the view back down the valley from near the top of `Angel's landing', a nice little hike with a bit of scrambling towards the end.


And here we are in the Bryce canyon amphitheatre, a short hop along from Zion.


The weird sandstone formations you can see behind us are called Hoodoos, which are basically huge boulders perched on layers of softer sedimentary rock. Here're a lot more of them, without us in the way:


Crazy, man. Were those things made by aliens or what!?!

More next time, plus the details of my masterplan to develop the website bridesandgroom.com.

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Before then, some music. One day, Sufjan Stevens will have an album for every possible US roadtrip. But in the meantime, commiserate with me while we listen to some Will Oldham:



Why commiserate? Well, I'd bought tickets to see him play in PDX, but some kind of brain-wrong made me book the road-trip for the same time. Our friend Colin benefited from my stupidity, and I'll just have to wait a bit longer before I next see Will play live....