Racketeering: It's not just for the mob!

Ok, so. There was this really awesome abandoned motel in Sego that Frubs was fairly positive used to be a meth den. I suppose I can see that...the kitchen was torn apart, but the additions were highly suspicious. Also, there were bizarre white hand prints all about the thing:

MYSTERY PLACE!!! Very mysterious. 

Those hand prints were EVERYWHERE, except for one room. This room, with the two chairs I fell in love with (someone had to):

Sit in us! We don't have chlamydia!

They were dirty and broken, but an absolutely fabulous chartreuse color, and it's hard not to love something that's retro and unwanted. Or at least, it's hard for me. 

The outside of the motel was run-down and bolted shut, thankfully it all connected to the one room that I broke the door into (I apparently give zero fucks about property damage?). But every door was a different color. 

Blue Seven! Like Bingo, but haunted. 

It smelled absolutely putrid in there, and I half expected one of us to find one or several dead things. Probably people. We didn't. I actually got a bit wigged out and didn't want to explore any more of the hotel. 

From there, it was straight to Bryce. 

Except not. 

I didn't realize Moab was on the way (ish) to Bryce Canyon, so I demanded a stop in Moab to stretch my legs and take some pictures. Holy. Fucking. SHIT. 

This was the first vantage point in Arches National Park, and the sky goes on forever. I sat here for at least twenty minutes, ignoring all of the voices around me, and listening to everything else. It was magical. I know I use that word a lot as a descriptor, but it's always, always accurate. 

Here's Frubs, doing what we do best:

There was a staircase down into the canyon, and the trail looked pretty long. Under ordinary circumstances, I would have been all the fuck about it. However, the combination of feeling ill and knowing we had five more hours on the road sort of hampered that desire, so I just took a picture instead.

If I'm being honest, I cannot remember the names of the places we stopped while we were at Arches National Park. They completely escape me. However, they were all absolutely beautiful.

Just Utah being Utah. You know, sans Mormonism. Overtly, anyway. 

I'm so glad I bought wide lenses. But it didn't even matter. This space is so expansive and wonderful that I missed something incredible no matter where I stood, what I did, or how wide open I shot. 

And none of these pictures are even good. Everything is lost in translation, and my pictures don't even matter. Which is upsetting, but fucking amazing at the same time. 

One of the last pit stops we made (at which I threw the most amazing temper-tantrum, and consequently broke my sunglasses in the process) had the most amazing tree. And I do love trees. 

Looking out over everything, not giving a single fuck. It was an immediate favorite. Thanks, Utah!

A few hours later, we reached Bryce Canyon. And let me fucking tell you something about Bryce Canyon: If you're thinking of going there without bringing every single things you own, DON'T. 

There is nothing out there. not for miles. Everything that IS out there is owned by Best Western, and it's all middling quality at best. The alcohol is extremely expensive, and you can only buy for three hours. There's a general store (owned by Ruby's, owned by Best Western) that sells normal things...sort of...for at least 65% mark up, which isn't an exaggeration. We did the math. There are three restaurants. Two of which are closed for winter, so really, there's one restaurant. And it's awful. Awful and expensive. And since it's the only game in town, the wait is hideously long. And they don't take reservations. So if you're not camping, with your own food, you have no choice but to either buy overpriced lunchables at the general store, or wait two hours for a shit buffet that starving people would rather die than eat at. They've set themselves up a fairly cushy little racket there. 

Our room was nice, though. Clean, quiet, right at the end. 

The one thing I didn't enjoy, and here is the only place I'll really vent about this, because I've gotten so used to it from the other side out here that it doesn't even register anymore:

There was an entire hotel full of Koreans staying with us. I honestly think we...well, I...was the only white person there that wasn't staff. Here, Derek and I get a lot of disapproving looks from older white couples. A lot. We both notice it. Noticed it. We ignore it completely now. Because really, a white woman with a Korean man isn't all that odd a thing, particularly in a town with such a strong military presence. 

Bryce was nowhere NEAR as tolerant as the racist fucks here at home, and we got it tenfold from the Korean tourists. Points, stares, gossip. I didn't understand it, but I suppose it doesn't matter. It was worst when we would go to the pool at night to start unwinding from whatever busy day we had, and it wasn't as bad with the men as it was with the women. I'm not generally one to assume people are talking about me, but Derek and i are positive all of the idle gossip and the pointing and the disapproving looks? They were for us. It made me sad and uncomfortable. 

Next entry: Bryce Canyon, Sunrise, and a hideous lack of hiking boots.