We have a little ritual we go through every time we travel to a new cool place. We sit in our camp site in our lawn chairs looking out over the view, and muse "wouldn't it be nice to live here"? Usually within four or five sentences we've talked ourselves out of it - too hot, too cold, too far from a grocery store, no cell service, no UPS deliveries; you get the idea. It seems, though, that ever since we first visited Moab in 2004, we have spent the rest of our time trying to figure out how to get back there. At first, it was a matter of when we could manage another vacation trip there. The conversation at Grand View Point in Canyonlands National Park in September of 2004 went something like this: ' hey - is that a road down there? I wonder if you can actually drive on it' - and as it turns out - you CAN drive on it - it's called the White Rim Trail, 100 4WD miles of old uranium prospecting road that circumnavigates the "Island in the Sky" district of Canyonlands National Park, about 1000 (elevation) feet below the island plateau. Over the following two years, we outfitted, permitted, and finally returned in 2006 to drive that road over a two-day period.
It was during that trip that it sunk in - we really, really LOVE Moab and the whole Colorado Plateau region! It isn't really any hotter or colder than where we live now - they have a couple of great grocery stores - there IS cell service - UPS knows how to find it - they have internet and satellite service; and as a mega-bonus, the scenery is knock-your-eyes-out, drop-dead gorgeous. Big Red Rocks. The Colorado River. Arches & Canyonlands National Parks. Dead Horse Point. Matrimony Spring. A small, but gorgeous laccolithic mountain range with snow-capped peaks called the La Sals where aspen and fir trees mock the desert that surrounds them. Hundreds of miles of canyons and wilderness.
There are lots of other great reasons to move to Utah - Lynette can retire about 10 years sooner than if we stayed in California. No humidity! No sustained fog. Seasons. Get out of California before it self-destructs and falls into the ocean, and while our home equity is still worth something. We will be getting away from earth quakes but not so far east to run into the tornado belt. ;
We realized somewhere along the line
that we're desert rats at heart. It
seems that nearly every time we get a chance to take a trip, we head for the
desert. Grand Canyon (at least
three times). Death Valley (more
than three!). Tombstone. Glen Canyon. Joshua Tree. Lynette's history with the
Colorado River goes back to diapers - the Colorado River at Paradise Point, Lake
Havasu, Lake Mojave, Powell Reservoir (known to most as "Lake Powell" - I'll rant about
that some other time), Glenwood Springs. And camping in the desert as long as I've been alive - Anza Borego, Daly
Ranch, Agua Caliente. Dick is a
little more recent convert, but no less enthusiastic - ask him some time about
hot night winds in Death Valley, or really seeing the Milky Way in a totally
dark sky desert. We have red dust in
our veins.
We've come to know the difference between a happy existence (plodding along through day after day of routine - cheerfully carrying on, but locked in to an inexplicable sameness - and having a hopeful plan. The soliloquy that Morgan Freeman delivers at the end of the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" has taken on new meaning for me since we've decided to relocate:
"I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope."
In our case - I hope the towering slick rock is as red as it has been in my dreams.
"No man comes back from a trip into the deep recesses of the Maze or the inner gorge of the Colorado River without a lasting memory of the experience. The beauty and grandeur settle into his spirit and remain a sweetness savored for the rest of his life. To us who lived there, it is a glory in our hearts that can never die." (Pearl Baker - Robbers Roost Recollections)
"The Colorado Plateau selects its people. If chosen, you know: this landscape speaks to your emotions and spirit." (Gibbs Smith - Blessed in Light)
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