America by car, part 6/10 - Lake Powell, Monument Valley

Today we noticed that we start to wake up later and later - 8:00 and go to bed later and later 2:00, which means - we are slowly switching to the American time J Lamp from the morning, which makes me and Gmurcia very happy, because yesterday we were a bit blown in Grand Canyon.

Śniadanko, as in a roadside motel, quite modest, so Jeż bought some ham and cheese so that we would not starve. We didn't start until 10:30 and it was a completely unplanned place.

We bought a rally to Antelope Slot Canyon - a paradise for photographers, a very picturesque land, simply a miracle !!!! I was furious since the morning, because there is a fate hanging over my photographic equipment from the beginning of the expedition - one lens completely broken, yesterday in the Grand Canyon the "fool" fell and something is not in contact there and this problem with the batteries ... Luckily we have one more long lens and the great equipment of Jeż J, everyone admired him today, and the photos from the canyon were really amazing.

Before the route to Monument Valley, we veered off the Page route to the dam, and only then experienced a visual shock. Sometimes it is worth changing the direction of the road, because the beautiful Lake Powell has appeared in front of us, with many bays - almost like "Norwegian fjords", all surrounded, of course, by mountains.

We got to Monument Valley - a place known to everyone from westerns, fortunately we arrived before sunset, red rock blocks of various shapes, resembling people, dogs and even ET, red earth and poor vegetation - a real film landscape.

And then on the road, there are over 200 miles of journey ahead of us, this time a super driver GmurciaJ behind the wheel. She quickly learned what and how in this great car and she liked the cruise control the most.

At 8:30 PM we got to Page, for dinner at a typical country pub with live music, where we tasted a real American steak - yummy !!!!

The pubs are closed quickly, so at 10 p.m. we moved on, as it turned out later - on a road full of surprises. Marcin took the helm.

Initially everything was going as planned, all the way to Kanab (about halfway from Page, our dinner - to Cedar City, Utah, where we were staying. Then we took one of the two options - a shorter route but through the mountains (shortcut) ...

It was past midnight. With time it started to get a bit dramatic - we drove, drove, drove ...
Our Chrysler, which had been burning decently so far, on the winding mountain roads began to eat like a dragon and the fuel pointer dynamically moved towards the letter E for Empty. The moon on the left like from a fairy tale, hmm, rather like from a horror movie it was timidly low above the trees, then seeing our progressive stress with the situation, decided to throw in his three pennies and went out behind the clouds. So it got completely dark, we were driving with minimal visibility, and it started ...

The first one shouted Ela: "BEWARE! ROE!!!" On the left side, out of nowhere, a giant deer suddenly jumped out in front of the car's hood (Marcin braked suddenly) and then passed (flew over) on his right side, passing the mirror with his hoof by about 5 cm ... Terrified, but at the same time happy that we are in one piece, we moved on with minimum speed and soul on our shoulder ...

From then on, we looked for glistening - sinister - eyes on the roadside. And finally we saw - a fox, more deer, some furry the size of a monstrous nutria (or maybe a beaver?), A few more deer ... To turn up the already very tense atmosphere - only a hitchhiker with a saw was missing ...

And our target town of Cedar City was still not on the horizon. Imagine our surprise when it turned out that we were driving at an altitude of over 3,000 meters and that we were surrounded by heaps of snow. At one point we passed over a meter long snowdrifts… Finally, a signpost appeared, which confirmed that we were going at least in the right direction - after 1 am we drove to the dormant, Mormon Cedar City in Utah.

It is not difficult to guess that after these emotions we dreamed of a bottle of cold beer, but what was our disappointment when, at one of the few open stations, we found out that, first of all: after 1 am (until 7 am) in the whole city will not sell us any alcohol, and secondly: the time has changed - watches an hour ahead ... With our noses on the fifth, we were looking for our motel, going back and forth on Main Street - nowhere to find it. Desperate, we finally stopped the police (exactly) and here a pleasant surprise once again - after a short exchange of views, the policeman patrolling the city agreed, huh, he himself suggested that he would lead us to the place! And so - almost escorted by the police, in the middle of the night, thousands of miles from home, we happily drove to the next motel on our route. A very young and handsome (as the girls said) the policeman said goodbye to us with the words - "BE SAFE, GUYS".
After 3:30 we went to bed and it was the shortest night so far.