5. Love’s and Ice Cream

Landscape is usually enough to tell you you’ve traveled outside your home area but sometimes it’s something as simple as a gas station. Daniel and I left Las Vegas and made our way to Utah- our final destination being Zion National Park. We desperately needed to fill up the car before we got too far into our journey. Lucky for us we spotted a service area in what felt like the middle of nowhere. We pulled off the I-15 just passed Arrolime and made our way to Love’s Travel Stop. I’ve never seen a Love’s before. It’s fascinating to find chains like this that aren’t prevalent where you live, it’s like landing on an alien planet. What is this foreign sign? And what is this Godfather’s Pizza chain inside? Who are you and where did you come from? And most importantly why are you trying to sell me a pizza with pickles on it?

Pumping gas I marinated on the idea of pickles on a pizza. Who thought that one up? Don’t get me wrong, I like pickles quite a bit, but on top of a pizza? No. That’s just got to be a no, right? Am I alone in my horror of this thought? 

Back on the road (but still thinking about pickles) I eagerly awaited the change in scenery. Being a passenger affords itself certain advantages. One of them being the ability to stare out the window unabashedly while taking copious amounts of photos and not having to pay attention to anything beyond that. I’ve never been to Utah before and only briefly to Arizona so the next part of our trip was entirely new to us. I was so excited to see the abundance of red earth and sandstone cliffs. I couldn’t wait to cross state lines. I get irrationally excited about crossing state lines. We didn’t travel much when I was a child, it was such an exotic luxury meant for other people that even at the age of 41 I still get a thrill when I get to check another state (or country) off of my list. I do not take travel for granted- I look blasé on the outside but inside I’m a giddy kid who can’t believe I’ve left my home county. We drove north and had to cross through just the very top north western edge of Arizona before entering Utah. Part of me was in awe that we had been through 3 states in one day. I can be easily pleased sometimes. 

As we got closer to the town of St. George the scenery started to take on the look of what I had imagined, up until that point it just looked like the same desert that was outside Las Vegas. Located in the Sun Belt, St. George finds itself in a rather unique geological location. It sits at the northeastern most part of the Mojave Desert, adjacent to the Pine Valley Mountains as well as near the convergence of three distinct geological areas: the Mojave as mentioned, the Colorado Plateau and the Great Basin. What a pretty little place, too bad it was contaminated by nuclear fallout in the 1950’s. They’re trying to convince us that it hasn’t been a problem since the 1980’s but I smell a rat. I mean, I’m pretty sure I was taught that nuclear contamination lingers for a ridiculously long amount of time, right? I’ve researched and can’t find a good answer. It’s a real shame because I really liked St. George. Like I already had us moved there in my head and was checking out real estate on Zillow. Damn you nuclear testing for so many things but at the moment for shortening my list of potential places to live.  

Daniel and I have a habit when we travel of going to the grocery story and stocking up on non-perishable foods to save money on our meals. When we got to St. George we made a beeline for the grocery store. Why on earth am I mentioning something so mundane as a trip to the grocery store? Because I forgot we were in Utah my friends and guess what was on the top of my list for supplies for our 3 full days gloriously in one place with no driving involved? Alcohol. I mean, I packed a wine opener for just such an occasion. What do they not sell in a grocery store in Utah? Alcohol. Okay actually I’m being a little untruthful. They can sell low alcohol beer in grocery stores but I am not a beer drinker so to me this little grocery run was kind of fruitless. But wait you say, they sell alcohol in designated liquor stores, all is not lost. Well, my friends I am lazy. I didn’t want to have to go in search of a licensed liquor store. More calories for ice cream anyway, I reasoned. But also, welcome to Utah.

As we approached Zion I got more excited. Driving through the little towns of Toquerville, Virgin, Rockville, I felt like I needed to suit up. Have I got my chaps? How about a bandana? Did I remember to bring a horse? No? Well, I did have a straw hat and that’s a start. The landscape had begun to change. The Virgin River was winding along to our right and we could finally see the Watchman looming up ahead. Zion and the town of Springdale was coming into view. I hadn’t been this excited to arrive at a place since the time we journeyed to Hever Castle in Kent, England. It officially felt like leaving the world behind, as more and more of Zion Canyon opened up before us. I knew that we had 3 full days of being in one place, no need to get in the car or think about anything outside the canyon and the magic of this place. At this point I didn’t even know the majesty we were about to experience. We arrived too late in the day to do any serious hiking, so we didn’t even enter the actual national park that first day. It was still a present we had yet to unwrap. 

 We stayed at the Zion Park Motel during our time in Springdale and I didn’t know what to expect. When I booked it online I was going strictly by budget and as I’m sure you can guess places to stay near the park are expensive. I almost decided to throw caution to the wind and splurge with one of the fancier hotels, and while that would have been very nice I’m really happy we ended up at the Zion Park Motel. Opened in 1972, it still looks like it’s stuck in 1972. It’s been remodeled but done in the same style, which is to say there is a lot of wood paneling, bulky oak dressers and heavily textured ceilings. It’s not going to win any beauty contests, but you know what? It was clean, quiet, and the staff were so incredibly nice! I had a few encounters with various people who worked there and they really added to my time there. Also, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention it’s perfect location. Right next door to a laundromat, across the street from a deli with good sandwiches, walking distance to restaurants, a market and right next to one of the shuttle stops to get into the park.

Daniel started unpacking the car while I went into the office to check in. The front desk area was an old school room with large windows looking out to the street and over a water feature. The woman who checked me in was so friendly and took a lot of extra time to explain the shuttle system and give me a lot of recommendations for places to eat. With keys in hand we deposited our stuff in the room and immediately took our clothes to the laundromat next door. 

Let me tell you, the smell that hit us when we opened the door to the laundromat was one I am unlikely to forget. Let me put it this way: someone had clearly had an accident in their smallclothes. There was a laundry basket full of clothes just sitting in the corner of the room which we think the smell was coming from. It was unbearable, like raw sewage. We pulled our shirts up over our noses and quickly put our dirty clothes in a washing machine before running outside to take deep breathes of clean air.  We spent the duration of washing and drying cycle sitting outside on a bench first discussing what the hell had happened inside that laundromat and secondly marveling at the view from the bench.  Was this our reward for enduring grouchy in laws in over stimulating Las Vegas? The stench was not, but the view was. 

I don’t even want to try to imagine what the little town of Springdale is like in the busy season. It was busy enough while we were there, bustling and lively, but not so crowded that you couldn’t get a table at a restaurant. What a change of pace from Las Vegas where I couldn’t move without brushing up against someone and all my attempts at being in nature were thwarted. This is what I had wanted the for the entire vacation. I only truly recharge in less populated areas- give me nature, fresh air and the quiet over a hustle of a city. Don’t get me wrong, I can enjoy a city- a few of my favorite places are cities- but when I need to get myself right, make some space inside and remember to breathe then give me a big uninterrupted dose of wide open space. 

With laundry done and that stench thankfully left behind we each went off to explore Springdale. Daniel went off for a run and I went for an ice cream. Priorities my friends. This is perfectly indicative of our personalities but I couldn’t escape that inner voice so I took off for a jog as soon as that last bit of ice cream went down. Little did I know that this jog on concrete would have consequences the next day. Note to self: don’t go for a jog on a hard surface the day before a huge hike that would challenge your already messed up knees. In a perfect world I would be an ultra marathon runner, but it isn’t so I’m doing my best. 

What better way to see the little town of Springdale than to lace up your shoes and get your jog on up and down the Main Street? Pictures don’t do it justice and I feel like I don’t have a vocabulary expansive enough to describe it properly. Huffing and puffing up and down highway 9 I tried to really drink in my surroundings. When am I ever going to be ambling along with the most spectacular rock formations I’ve seen since Half Dome looming over me? Yes, you’ve got a stitch in your side from the ice cream but wouldn’t you rather have a stitch in your side while breathing fresh air than have stayed in the hotel room? 

Somehow Springdale feels like a real town and not just the row of hotels that it actually is. The entire town seems to cater to tourists but right next to a restaurant or souvenir shop sits the residence of someone who actually lives and works in the town. A little dose of reality in this mountain Disneyland.  I liked it, I liked it a lot

We made pb&j sandwiches in the room and called it an early night. We had an early rise ahead of us and a class 3 difficulty (this is the rating right before a hike that requires climbing ropes, people!) rated hike waiting for me to conquer.