Road Trip! DAY ONE: driving to St. George, Utah

In reality, I'm travelling alone.

Honestly, there isn't a lot to see between LA and St. George, UT. It's a lot of trucks, sand, brown mountains, and more trucks. But, there is a sparse gorgeousness to the landscape, kind of like a 1000 yard stare. It begs attention, even while you're cursing the car that's going 55 mph in a 70 mph zone, that stubbornly refuses to move over. That can be a preliminary event to the onset of road rage.

So, what do I see on the way to St. George, UT? A lot of sand and brown mountains. The Southwest is a dreamlike state: expanses of desert, then red blinding beauty. There's also an element of peace, when you're used to an urban landscape. Not that I live in an urban landscape, but I do live close to LA, and sometimes you really feel its influence.

When you drive through California and finally pass into Utah, you start to see dramatic differences: long expanses of flats, with craggy mountains in the distance. Everything is dry and spare. Then, the earth changes colour from brown into a vibrant array of reds. Picture mountains very much like the gif above. The rock formations are beautiful. Little to no vegetation, but then that's the Amrican Southwest.

It's a little like looking back in time--you are able to imagine that much of what you see was once under the ocean's surface. Rarely do you get to see a geographic Time Machine in action, you know, Dear Reader? But, that's the American Southwest--where in Europe does one get to see that? Well, here I sit, in my room at the Ramada Inn in St. George, contemplating tomorrow which will bring me to Monument Valley--think "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade."

Tomorrow, Monument Valley.

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