lots of miles, lots of smiles.

i have discovered that after today, i have run out of adjectives... i really don't know any words beyond awesome, incredible, amazing, absolutely something, fantabulous. even i did know words, those words wouldn't be enough to acurately describe the beauty God has created in Zion national park and Bryce Canyon... or even on the road along the way. i found myself looking up a lot... everything is so huge, causing me to feel so small, but in this crazy way.

before i continue with the story, i am going to tell the end so that the rest makes sense... it's past midnight here, and we JUST arrived in Moab, UT. so, no pictures tonight (that would take way too long because there are SO many that i want to share with you!) just stories, and not all of them at that.

ZION: all the wonderful adjectives put together, and then some. we hiked to emerld pools ( a little over 3 miles round trip). absolutely beautiful, i will wait for pictures to go fully into details. we left zion and headed to bryce canyon. but to get to bryce canyon we drove through all of zion national park... key word, THROUGH. it was the most awesomest drive i have ever driven. there was even a tunnel that went through the mountain that was 1.1 miles long! try holding your breath in that tunnel.
BRYCE: also an amazing place. i hiked down to the bottom and was just in awe of this place. again, pictures will tell the story later.

let me start buy saying this... our gps system thing had this really interesting way of getting us from Bryce Canyon to Moab, UT... however it was so stinkin totally incredibly awesome-tastic (how's that?) i have fallen in love with the open road, and when you see pictures later, you will know what i mean by open road... i am talking a straight road, going on for miles and miles, and not a single car on the road with you. and to top it off, you've got these massive land features all around you, yet you drive in the valley across this flat plain... amazing. this one road imparticular, John's Valley Road. thats the name of the road... isn't it fun?
so here is where the fun comes in... unfortunately, no pictures to go with tonight, so you won't get the full effect... but here it is... here is a list of everything we saw while driving down John's Valley Road (and then a few miscelaneous highways afterward, before we made it to the main highway, the 70 E).
badgers: me and jenny were driving along, we were leading, and then out of no where these two creatures begin to creep out onto the road on the left, and then the moment came... the badgers saw us, we saw the badgers... the badgers literally jumped out of fear and scurried back into the bush, and i braked, me and jenny jumped and scfreamed as we drove past the scared badgers. we couldn't stop laughing. i brake for badgers.
a sign as we entered john's valley road said it was prarie dog country. i was really excited to see some prarie dogs because i have always thought they were so darn cute and never saw one in real life. a little ways into the drive on this road, we were just driving along when this is what i saw... a dead prarie dog lying on the right side of my lane... and then 10 feet past the dead prarie dog was a live prarie dog standing on its hind legs, also in my lane, in the path of my right front tire. i started to shout at the little prarie dog telling it to move cause i was going fast. the live prarie dog moved alright... from the path of my right tire to the path of my left tire.
...
bump
...
i clapped my hand to my mouth...looked in the side mirror... eek... i just killed an innocent little prarie dog! road kill... i just had my first road kill! we turned off the radio and had a moment of silence.
that's a bit gruesome though... i would like to tell the story from the prarie dog's point of view.
lets name the prarie dog Romeo.
Romeo was wandering the fields looking for his friend, oh lets call her Juliet. Romeo called for juliet many times, and after not finding her, he wandered towards the road. he went a few paces and then he stopped, and stood up: "but soft, what street meat that lay yonder? tis Juliet!" and then Romeo looked up to see an car speeding towards him... he couldn't handle the agony of having lost his Juliet, so he seized the opportunity and ran towards the tire of the car speeding by.

isn't that a bit more romantic?
COWS: so much fun!!! so many cows, quite a few in the road, two dead on the side of the road, and two that came up to our car (one scaring the crap out of jenny because she thought it was going to ram the car). since there were no other cars on the road, we could stop and just sit there with the cows and have them stare and moo at us. SO MUCH FUN! pictures will be great.

JOUVI.. as in jouvenile delinquints in a chain gang (minus the chains) out in the middle of no where having to work (orange suits and all!) i felt so bad, but it was just another thing to add to the list of things seen.
we saw some buffalo and deer as well... and a whole lot of awesome natural wonders...

as i fall more in love with road trips and going places that the majority of people wouldn't go or even see in their lifetime, i just get so excited that i am doing this... i also realize how much you DONT see when you fly... i couldn't imagin ever skipping over all of this.
so awesome.

well, that got long, and that because it's been a long day... started at 6am, ended at almost 1am... almost 8 hours of driving today, and i completed all of it... it's a lot easier to drive when jenny is awake, and she was for most of the day today, so i had no problem driving today.

tomorrow will be long too... three national parks in one day and making it in to colorado... we're looking at about 5-6 hours of driving tomorrow.

hoo roo