See where I was on these dates:
May: 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
June: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
July: ?
May 24 Monticello, Utah

Current Odometer Reading In The Van:

Yes, Mrschwee, I'm still here, and it's about bloody time I took some decent photos, eh? This is a photo of a nice rock formation in The Great Arches National Park, right here in beautiful Southern Utah! It was getting close to sunset when I took the picture; the sun was behind the rocks, so you can't really see it too good. That there hole in the rock is 85ft high or so....and hey! Up here, I'm driving the van around on dirt tracks at 7,000ft elevation. She's still going strong! And, I just found another picture, so here's proof.
I'll try not to bore you with too many scenic wonders, but I caught the sun's rays just right in this one. (I know all you schmutsers out there want insider underdealings, well you're not getting any - Get down to the docks and use up those favours you're owed). This picture is of Karen balancing under "Balanced Rock". Click on the pick for a bigger version (please refrain from sexual innuendos). Ahem, anyway, if an earthquake happened right then, I'd be writing a different kind of web page, altogether.....Anyway, there were a lot of sandy tracks leading up to and around these rocks. There was this one other touristy woman who was really interested in the many tracks laid by all the different people's shoes. She took a whole lot of pictures of footprints. She Looked red when saying: "It's for my paintings; I paint......". I'm babbling -- Must Focus!

So, this is pretty much all we did all day, was knock around this state park, and look at the cool rocks. There was plenty of 'iking involved, and, I must say, Karen did some pretty impressive rock scaling in and around this arch you see over here ------>
Hmmmm, put this picture together with the last and......There's a few other arches, holes and outcrops that we sauntered around here. Lots of knee scratching and stuff. And yes, lots of phalluses....Must focus on nature....Again, click on the photo for an enlarged hole, and if you're lucky AND you're wearing your glasses, you'll see that I have one eyebrow raised. We were pretty bloody wrecked toward the end of the afternoon, but there was still the famed delicate arch to get to.
So, below is the arch that you see on all the touristy mags: Delicate Arch. We didn't actually go right up to it, cos we were running out of time, (sun sets quickly down here, but Oh! The Sunsets!)...(to quote myself, "We'd better get a move on, the sunset is sunsetting") -- we climbed up a neighbouring hillrock for a bit of perspective. The hole of the arch up in the left is 185ft tall. The sheer scale of these sights never comes through in cheap photography, but hey! I'm having fun! There's another picture I took of this area, it's much better, but it may take a minute for you to download it. Just click on the picture....

Well, we only made it as far as a little town called Monticello, Utah, before I had enough of driving. There a wicked cafe latte to drink if you go into a little coffee shop on Main Street, called Mesa Java. It's Da Bomb! I stayed up late chatting to a local about Utah stuff -- polygamy, illegal drinking parties, drug dealers who crash planes right in the centre of town, while carrying a few hundred pounds, (but who were actually quite nice guys), hick yahoos who have rifles on gun racks in their pickups, tree huggers, stupid tourists and just general cud chewing.
I came to the conclusion that anyone choosing to live in Utah is a couple of beers short of a six pack.

John Kenny, are you reading this? email me at conal@ibm.net
See where I am today......... Tell me where I could go tomorrow.....