is everybody here okay?

sunday. the third. and final. day of our bryce/escalante trip. it was a fabulous day. we woke up. showered. packed up camp. stopped one last time at the canyon country gas station. then hit the road to bryce. bryce was full of surprises. it turned out better than we could even have hoped.

our first encounter was mary kay. she will live on in our hearts forever. she made us these signs. if you ask the right person for a sharpie and a piece of paper you'll come out on top with printed signs like these. our dear mary kay also had to deliver the bad news to us. the hike we wanted to go on was closed due to rock slides...seems like a minor detail to me. but i'm a rule-follower so i'll take it. instead of the hike we drove to every lookout in the park. mostly. it was great. we were glad we did.

we were especially glad that we went to the bryce point lookout. where we watched this shit show go down. the lady in black. she was a treat. as we walked back to the main path from the point lookout we heard a squelch. when we looked up it was blacky yelling at her 13 year old son. he was minding his own business walking down the sidewalk that was flat and at least 6 feet in width. safe ground. because he wasn't walking in the middle of the path she was sure he was going to fall to his death off of one of the side cliffs because there weren't fences to protect him. oh honey. we watched the show that was her panic attack. i think maybe she confused having her breath taken away by the beauty for having a need to worry. she should have read that paper in the car about the number of deaths in bryce national park annually. it's low. very low. like one a year. i guess this year it coulda been her son. or her if she hadn't kept breathing through the meltdown. don't get me wrong. i have an appreciation for the fear of heights. one of my nearest and dearest is very fearful of heights and cliffs and such. i was privelidged to hike angels landing with her. the fear is real. but blacky, well....i dont' know what to say about her or to her except, "thanks for the entertainment." and thanks to grandpappy who sat next to us and enjoyed it with us.

after hanging in the park. we were off to more adventure. we stopped at ruby's. it's a giant tourist mall right outstide of the park. it's a store the size of a mall but it's filled with all of those touristy souvenirs and knick-knacks. pretty much our kind of paradise. and to top it off the cashiers were two lady's who portrayed a 65 year old version of braymee. how perfect. they had us laughing. hard. real hard. like i think i might have had tears in my eyes at one point.

my stellar find of the shopping trip was the wooden postcard. of course i bought one. one bit of advice...don't ever tell those two grey haired cashiers you aren't sure of your loved one's zip code. i know the entire address but for some reason i can NEVER remember the zip code. they'll tell ya how many texts and emails they get..."what's your zip code again?" ha. someday i'll get it right. i'd like to credit myself with rememering it for the last 48 hours. 45140.

after ruby's it was off to bryce canyon pines restaurant. at the advice of mary kay. all weekend i'd been craving a bacon cheeseburger. but i needed real bacon. REAL bacon. mary kay said this was just the place. was she ever right. alfred had me before hello. we sat at the bar. it was great. that's were all the action was. just how we like it. we left with a slice of pie to go and a junior ranger hat and badge for our dear comrade natalie allen. turns out the hat was more useful than we initially realized.

after lunch it was time for the beloved drive home. i wasn't really ready to leave. but we had work the next day. and natalie allen said we could visit her on our way through slc. that alone was motivation to return north.

there was but one small mishap on the drive. the sun was shining. just the way we like it. it was a little bright as it began to set in the west. jaymee was driving. i was minding my own business writing a blog in the passenger seat. as i took a drink of coke jaymee asked me to take the wheel while she attempted to hang a pillowcase in the window to block the sun. no the built in visor was not sufficient...don't expect that we didnt' think of that. as i took the wheel with a mouthful of coke something VERY funny happened....oddly, i don't remember what. before i knew it coke was coming out of my nose. i had a computer on my lap. that stuff eats battery acid. i can't imagine that it would be a good thing to upchuck coke on my laptop. so remembering that we can "hose this thing out" i put my head between the seats and released the remainder of the soda from my nose and mouth. it was at this point that i suddenly remembered that it is ME who is in charge of steering as i heard our wheels cross the safety rumble strips on the side of the road. during all of this jaymee is happily hanging her pillowcase. unaware of what is unfolding right next to her. when she hears the rumble strip she turns to see our predicament. to include me. red-faced. tears in my eyes. soda dripping down my chin. she resumed responsibility of the wheel. we were safe. THAT was funny.

we made it to slc in one piece. we visited our friend natalie. presented her with the gift of fish flavored candy. don't be fooled we do love her. a lot actually. we think the world of her as our friend. we appreciate her. probably as much as you can possibly appreciate someone you met in costco 7 months ago. she's great. makes us laugh. a lot. i hope she stays friends with us for a real long time.