Through Winter Parks (1/4)

Through Winter Parks (1/4)
December 26 - 27, 2000
Attention, attention, win a valuable prize in this issue!!!



	Allegedly world's tallest thermometer

Originally, we were to go skiing. But our neighbor Martin canceled it saying there was little or no snow and his front half-axle needed repair (ok, so it was his car's front half-axle...), hence we reached a mutually supported resolution to refrain from long sleeping in and to be out road-tripping right in the morning. Easy said, easy done. Just as Sid finished a line of checks (bills gotta get paid) and after we ate lunch at a Vietnamese place, we stormed out of the Valley, being only slightly late against the plan, at our usual three o'clock PM, as it sometimes happens :-) .

It took us an hour and half just to leave the Valley behind. I would quite like to find out WHEN there are no horrible traffic jams on those roads. After some 120 miles of freeway, I was totally finished and Sid had to drive. We ordered sandwiches at a Bakersfield Subway. Nothing to rave about, but they make them fresh as you tell them, and you don't waste any time.



	Another architectural jewel

One has little choice in the desert anyway. Close to Baker, settlers ran out of imagination (or finally found some???) and named one road ZZYZX.

Having originally thought we would make it to Las Vegas in one stretch, we gave up in Baker (that's mere 80 miles from LV). We were desperately sleepy and so our chances to spend "wild night at the casino" got sacrificed to sack time.

They had only smoking rooms at the first motel, and we rolled on to see the competition. No luck there either, for $70 we got a room with a breathtaking view to a freeway ramp. Still, it was not a proper hour to play heroes, the room was clean, and after all -- we got our good night's sleep in there (this time, it did not feature those popular spring mattress beds, which for a reason unknown to me are considered the paramount of comfort).

The room featured, however, a funny brochure for tourists. It said that Baker, California, is a proud home of the world's tallest thermometer. It towers a whooping 134 feet up, in memory of the highest recorded temperature in Death Valley (134°F). Those of you who can convert it to centimeters and Celsius degrees, will get a wonderful postcard from our next trip. You can send your solution to Carol.



	Entering Zion NP (it's our wagon there on the right)

The brochure also included advice points for survival in desert. Six of them were sort of obvious (like, drink water and don't f**k up), but the seventh made me laugh: "If you're patronizing borderline (read: at the border with Nevada) casinos, lock your credit cards in your car. Later, when you'll be wanting to get them, unlocking the car will give you extra time to think." As you can see, Baker is an orderly California community and cares deeply for the well-being of their visitors.

On Wednesday morning, we headed towards the casinos, but did not lock anything anywhere, for we did not intend to gamble. And again, I was surprised how hideously and gigantically they appear to be built, maintaining my earlier opinion on turning the architect's diploma in. Here, we stood in front of two veritable monsters surrounded with a roller coaster, an oriental palace and two Mississippi steamboats (a desert specialty, no doubt!!!)



	Layered rock at Zion

Now it was just a small stretch to Las Vegas, which spreads in a rather pretty valley, were it not for a heavy smog lid. Besides, the city keeps growing feverishly, so one always drives through one huge construction site. Then, for a moment, you catch a glimpse of the "Strip" with famous casinos, and you're out again, into a residential area (well, unless you stop to give way to your gambling passion). We hung around the residential district for quite a while, looking for a spot to have our oil changed. Our wagon hummed noisily in the morning, we did not want to torture it any longer. A guy at the oil change wondered if we were leaving Vegas and going home already. We had to explain that we just started our trip. He looked puzzled. Where else in the desert could we find better casinos, Vegas being the most civilized place?

Yet we turned towards the uncivilized wasteland, among beautiful red rocks and canyons, across a corner of Arizona, into Utah's Zion National Park. A ranger at the entrance booth suggested a short hike on Canyon Overlook Trail, which ended - surprise - at an overlook. Considering my fear of heights, I kept few yards away from any edge. Sid is not inhibited, so he took pictures. The evening was approaching, other tourists started disappearing and left room for ravens and goats. We stayed for another half hour, watching the wildlife.



	Sid on an edge of an abyss		Carol (unknowingly) on an edge of an abyss

Enchanted, we decided to stay at Zion for one more day. Right outside the park, in Springdale, we rented a hotel room. For some fifty bucks (compare with seventy at Baker Motel), we received a beautiful room and an access to a hot tub. Being very hungry, we were glad to find out that a restaurant named Switchback was right next door.

Well, we thought we were glad. There really was a restaurant. But it had a receptionist who told us coldly about a waiting list and would we like to leave our name and come back perhaps in thirty minutes or so. It seemed OK and we spent the time browsing through gift shops. Not that we would deeply long for collectible cups or glasses or giant stuffed bears, but Sid announced that his image of a tough guy required a leather hat. We bought one, and optimistically returned to the Switchback. There was an embarrassing line of waiting guests at the reception, the same obviously incompetent woman kept dithering around and continued to tell anybody and everybody that momentarily and so on and try to come back in thirty minutes. We joined the waiting crowd for a long time, hoping she would start mispronouncing our name or informing us about the fate of our reservations (by the way, there were about five couples scattered among the twenty-something tables), but she would not even think about it. Instead, we had all the time to study their menu (steak, burger, pizza), especially its right edge, where I spotted numbers over twenty dollars. And so we figured that we were most likely to dine elsewhere. Why keep begging someone for their attention just to let them strip us of fifty dollars for an evening meal...



	A capricorn seems to wonder

We drove over (quite far, actually) to the next town, name Hurricane, and desperately sought for some diner. Utah is a state of faith, where a community needs several churches, but certainly no place of sin, like a bar. Eventually we found something (we did not even dare to ask for beer, they would certainly lynch us right away), but we received good food and a hiccuping waitress (probably a student help, she looked about fifteen) even convinced us to try a dessert. Giant fudge sundae. Sigh. The whole affair (dinner for two, that is) cost us $24, which is exactly ONE meal at the unfortunate Switchback. We had difficulties fastening our seat belts!!! :-)

We returned to the hotel just in time to drop into the hot tub in the back yard. Sitting in the steaming water, we talked and digested. The tub was supposed to make us sleepy, yet either the hotel was built at a strange spot, or there was something wrong with our beds. We kept waking up the whole night, last time at about 5 a.m., and then we could not fall asleep till seven, only to wake up late - at ten; simply a miserable night.

Next about Angels' Landing, a father the gym teacher, clean underwear on the trail, and about hats.

[Previous] [Home] [Next] [Write] [Česká verze]