Day 31- Monday, 7/20/09 SETTLED

Traveling to Bryce, we go through Red Canyon and it is really red. There is a paved bike trail alongside Highway 63. It goes for miles and miles, elevated above the road so there is no interaction with traffic. What a luxury.

As we enter, we see a group of teens on mules being led down the canyon by 3 real cowboys. The skies look threatening, but what the kids are most worried about is that the mules keep stopping to pee on the trail and they are embarrassed when it happens to their steed. It seems that once the scent is established, each mule wants to urinate in the same spot. The odor really is strong.

We want to hike, but after getting caught at the first overlook by a sudden thunderstorm which included pea-sized hail, we opt for the Shuttlebus. We are soaked. Huddling under a pinion pine tree does not do much good in torrential rain. The temperature drops from 82 to 68 degrees.

With winds blowing around us, we are freezing the rest of the day and never really get dried out. We try to stand under the dryers in the restrooms, but there is only so long you can stand there before someone else wants to use it.

I find an old, thin navy blue airline blanket that I had stashed in the car and wrap it alternately around my legs like a sarape and my shoulders like a shawl. It helps a little, even if it looks funny.

You do what you have to do. We eat lunch in the car so we can turn on the heat.

We see two birds we have never seen before. Very dramatic - a violet-green swallow with a red head. Bob's son Bobby would be proud. He's the birder in the family.

The vistas are amazing, with hoodoos everywhere.

Four hours later, we shelter in our car again and eat the second half of our sandwiches. We notice that the same family is exiting the lodge now as the one that exited the lodge 4 hours earlier when we ate the first half of our sandwiches.

Are we having a deja vue? Or are we again in our own video game and the Video Guy is arranging all this?

Next time when we go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, we'll bring jackets and long pants. I guess we're still in South Rim climate mode.

After finishing all the Shuttle stops, we drive our car to Pariah, Swamp Canyon and Fairview Points. We are lucky enough to see Pronghorn Antelope in the meadow below us.

We see a forest fire for 3 miles on the way to Fairview Point.

We see many varieties of wildflowers - Indian Paintbrush, Nootka Rose, Sego Lily, Manzanita, Arrowleaf Balsamroot, and Rubber Rabbitbush.

At the end of our adventure, we see a group of deaf teens signing, being guided through the park by a signing interpreter. We feel very connected, since Bob's nephew Ryan is profoundly deaf.

We have dinner at the Home Plate Diner, run by the local baseball coach and his wife. Nice place, but they are new and have a lot to learn. The food is good and plentiful.f

There are dummy cops in Glendale and Orderville. They park old cruisers alongside the road, and put manequins in the driver's seat. I guess when you're understaffed, it's a good way to get people to slow down in town. Better than the cardboard cops we had seen in Alaska years ago.