Southwest Road Trip, Day 1: Nevada and St. George, Utah

We left the Las Vegas airport in our faithful steed, the only rental car they had left in the “compact” category: a bright blue PT Cruiser.  After driving the car for over a thousand miles, I can tell you two things: (1) PT Cruisers are not so great for driving, actually, but (2) the bright blue made the car particularly photogenic during our drives through sandy deserts and red rock canyons:

We drove up I-15 into Utah and ooh-ed, aah-ed, and gaped at the scenery, especially through the Virgin River Gorge (and, according to Google Maps, Purgatory Canyon).  It was around dinner time when we arrived at our nightly lodging in St. George, Utah, a town described by the AAA agent we talked to as a “sort of Mormon resort town” (followed by a giggle).  Needless to say, we were intrigued.

We were also exceedingly hungry once we arrived,so after a brief jaunt through a street festival we had a quick dinner at Panama Grill in Ancestor Square, with good Mexican food and (Utah-easy-on-the-alcohol?) margaritas.

After dark, we hopped in the car and headed for the Mormon temple, apparently the first temple they built in Utah.  It was incredibly impressive at night:

As we walked up to the temple, though, an announcer’s voice over a loudspeaker was echoing throughout the city; it made for a surreal experience (we think it was coming from a local college football game).  Last September, would I have ever imagined that in a year, I would be standing outside a Mormon temple in southern Utah with football commentary as the soundtrack?  I think not.

After admiring the temple, we drove past Classic Car Cruise Night and then headed up the hill behind our hotel to Skyline Drive, where we had a great view overlooking the city:

We were also standing right in front of a giant, red-rock cliff.  On the side of the cliff, someone had painted “DIXIE” in large white letters, and lights illuminated this at night.  On top of the cliff, there appeared to be some boisterous drunkards.  Behind the cliff, you can see 6/7 of the Big Dipper (if you enlarge the photo):

We then returned to the Best Western Coral Hills, our lodging for the evening, which featured two pools that we didn’t swim in, rooms with mini-fridges and microwaves that we didn’t use, and a view of the coral hills around St. George, only partially obscured by the parking lot and an office building.  Thumbs up on clean, safe lodging not too far for our (original) destination for the next day.  But that’s another story…

It’s my blog, and I’ll bore you if I want to

You know when people invite you over and then force you to look at their vacation photos?  Something of an e-quivalent is impending at reverberated.com: A rundown of Epic Southwest Adventure 2008, a 1000+ mile, 5-day, 4-night loop through Nevada, Utah, and Arizona.  Like so:

Epic Southwest Adventure 2008

The points on the map are:

Arrival:

A: Las Vegas, NV

Southern Utah:

B: St. George, Utah

C: Bryce Canyon, Utah

D: Kanab, Utah

Grand Canyon:

E: Tusayan, Arizona

F: Grand Canyon (South Rim)

Historic Route 66:

G: Flagstaff, Arizona

H: Williams, Arizona

I: Seligman, Arizona

J: Grand Canyon Caverns, Arizona

[K: Kingman, AZ]

L: Oatman, AZ

Back to Nevada:

[M: Bull Head City, AZ/NV]

N: Las Vegas, NV

O: Valley of Fire State Park, NV

P: Las Vegas, NV

I’ll start tomorrow with Southern Utah.  You know what the nice thing is about the internet, though?  You’re not held captive on someone’s couch while they flip through the photos for four hours.  You can close the browser window and walk away at any time, and I’ll never notice.  Sweet!

Lazy Sunday Cerddoriaeth

There’s a usual pattern when it comes to my music recommendations to my father.  It goes like this:

(1) Emily: “Hey Dad, you’d really like ____.  Seriously.”

(2) Dad: [thinks something about chemistry]

(3) 4-12 months pass

(4) Dad: “Hey Emily, I discovered this great new artist, ____.”

(5) Emily: “Um…I told you about ____ months ago.”

(6) Dad: “Oh, really?  I guess I wasn’t listening to you.”

Such is the case with Welsh singer Duffy, whose album Rockferry came out earlier this year (and garnered her comparisons to both Dusty Springfield and Amy Winehouse).

Here are some of my favorite Duffy tracks from around the interwebs:

• My favorite song of late is “Warwick Avenue.”  I can think back to many a heartbreak period, with the spilling of tears and rending of garments, that would have been made much more enjoyable had I been able to play this song and warble along with Duffy about how “I’m leaving you for the last time, baby; you think you’re loving but you don’t love me.”  You can see the tearful official music video on Youtube, or listen to it (and several other tracks) at Duffy’s MySpace page.
• I adore this acoustic performance of “Mercy” from Spin’s Backyard Jam.
• Duffy also released a remix of “Mercy” featuring rapper The Game (via hypemachine); while The Game is only mixed in at the beginning and end, my little genre-combining, mash-up-loving heart still loves it.

Duffy is touring (you can see dates at iamduffy.com), and last night my mother sent me a message asking, should she go to see Duffy when she’s in town?  And I was all, YES, DUH.  Then my father, who loves to watch concerts on tv or DVD (and once forced the entire family to sit through a televised ZZ Top concert just because he noticed it whilst channel-surfing), announced that no, he couldn’t be bothered to go.  When my mother reported this back to me, it prompted a lot of “ARGH” and “WHAT A CURMUDGEON” and other such all-caps responses, and finally an order to buy two tickets, and then if my father still refused to go, order me a plane ticket and I’ll fly home.  TAKE THAT, DAD.