A photo from the Utah trip

Just figured out how to blog a Flickr photo straight from Flickr, so here's a vacation snapshot.

I loved this long drive through the scenic roads. We hardly got on the Interstates at all. We saw some big ranches and a lot of "empty" country full of hills, sage, pinyon pine, mines, dry salt lake beds, and rocks. We were at well over 4,000 feet elevation the entire time we were in Utah and Nevada. The sky was so blue!

We stopped to eat at several mom and pop restaurants. The Ranch House Diner in Snowville, Utah; Big Moe's Restaurant in Price, Utah; the Golden Stake in Moab; Top's City Cafe in Delta, Utah; the International Cafe and the Toiyabe Cafe in Austin, Nevada; and the Most Likely Cafe in Likely, California.

Price, Utah, was an interesting place. Flat country, huge open sky, wide streets and sunshine, friendly people in Big Moe's. Price is located at the foot of a high plateau (as is the town of Helper--look at this cool picture of it). We had been driving a long time on the top without knowing how far we were going to drop. We got out of the car on a small road up high, and walked onto a ranch to admire a tiny creek in the silent air. Occasionally a bird would sing. The sky was royal blue in the thin air. Then the road plunged down past some cliffs, below the ranch, into mining country. A lot of people in Price work in the mines, the cafe waitress told me.