Bryce Canyon Driving and Las Vegas Eating

Raining, snowing, raining, snowing, raining, snowing, raining, and more raining. That is what actually happened to me on my last trip. The driving was some of the most scenic, dangerous, and fun I have ever done.

The driving and weather conditions
This is how I got to Bryce Canyon. It was raining as I started my driving. From Larry's house I took the 22 to the 57 to the 60 east to the 15 north. The rain and fog were all around and it was difficult to see the other cars. As I drove into Nevada the rain continued and by the time I made it into Arizona it turned into freezing rain. When I made it into Utah the freezing rain became snow and lightened up. I exited at Ceder City to take Utah 14. It was a mountain road through a forest and a true winter wonderland. It was a winding road that traced shapes I have never seen on street signs before.

After 40 miles of that fun I took US 89 north to Utah 12. As I drove the scenic route at night I could see where the road went under rock arches. I turned off at the 63 and went south until I found Ruby's Inn where we stayed.

Ruby's Inn was more than a hotel; it had a restaurant, general store, liquor store, equipment rentals, laundromat, barber shop, photo place, and tour reservation center. In the general store, they had a lot of gifts. One of them was a glass with an expression on it. What would be your first thoughts on reading it?

Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may be in Utah

I thought it implied being merry did not happen very often in Utah. Before I could voice this sentiment, a person who overheard me reading the glass chimed in "I was born in California and then rudely brought to Utah when I was a few years old, and I emphasize rudely brought."

Then I went on a trip to Zion which I covered in an earlier post.

The Departure
The morning we left Bryce Canyon it was snowing. I planned on taking the same route back I had taken to get there. As I turned onto the 14 it was not ploughed as well as the 89. However, the gates were open so I determined the road was open. As I drove the conditions became progressively worse. I could see where a tree had fallen into the road and had been cut by a chainsaw to clear the road. There were fresh tire tracks in the road, so I was not worried.

About a quarter of the way through this 40 mile road the path narrowed. There was only one ploughed lane. Then I came across a car that was going the other way. Since there was over two feet of snow on the ground and only one lane was ploughed we had a problem. We got out of our cars and conferenced with the drivers of the two trucks that were following me. I learned a service vehicle was stuck on the road ahead and the car in front of me had turned around because the road was impassable. The other people suggested I back my car out until the road became wide enough to turn my car around. A helpful local person I talked to said this was one of the worst storms he had seen in the last 30 years of living there.

I started backing my car out, but it was difficult for me to follow the road. I asked Peter to get out and walk the route so I could follow his black jacket instead of white tracks in white snow. After half a mile of this and almost running over Peter a few times I decided to turn the car around. I slammed the back of the car as far as I could into one side of the road. I did not get very far because the front tires got caught in the snow. I cleared the snow but the tires were still spinning. The other driver, Larry, and Peter pushed the car as I slammed on the gas. After some maneuvering and coordinated pushing, the car was successfully turned around.

After backing my car up for over half a mile I had a new appreciation for driving forward in the normal way.

A Detour to a Detour
Since Utah 14 was closed I needed to find an alternate route to get to the 15. After talking to the kind person who helped me turn my car around and a friendly gas station employee, I learned the snow became rain only a short distance to the south. I headed south and planned on taking Utah 9 through Zion National Park. I had driven to Zion a few days earlier so my entry fee had already been paid.

The snow turned into rain as I was traveling south on the 89. I turned on the radio for Zion travel information. The radio said part of Utah 9 was washed out in the park due to heavy rain and the road would be impassable for several days. I made a detour on top of the detour. I drove south and in Kanab took 89 A (an alternate 89) to Arizona where I hopped on Arizona 389. This undivided highway (or single carriageway) had wonderful landscapes. There was nothing except desert and mountains in the distance.

Arizona 389 became Utah 59 and that dumped me onto Utah 9. I followed it to the 15 and then stopped in St. George for some food. A 72 mile trip that should take 1 hour and 18 minutes became a 123 mile and 3+ hour jaunt into the deserts of Arizona.

In Arizona the 15 follows the path of the Virgin River. This is the same river that runs through Zion. The river was a raging torrent with all the rain and it was fun to drive the curves in the road following it.

In Las Vegas
Eventually I made it into Las Vegas where the cloud cover was thick and the rain unabated. As I was driving it looked like the Imperial Palace was going to be washed away; there was a lot of water rolling out of their parking structure. It ended up OK even though the river I drove through was featured on the news that night.

While in Las Vegas we went to the Palazzo and saw Jersey Boys. It followed Frankie Valli and the singing group the Four Seasons. I am not familiar with the people or the music involved, but I did recognize the names or parts of a few of the songs as songs that were popular once upon a time. Larry said if they made a musical like that about the Backstreet Boys it would make more sense to him. Even though the music was not meaningful for me, I enjoyed the performance.

For dinner one day Peter made spam musubi. He did this during our last trip. Like last time, he cooked rice in a pot and managed to burn the rice and really mess up the pot. In spite of this, the food was good and I furnished a picture of it below.

Spam Musubi

This recipe is imprecise. It is the type of thing that is best shown instead of written down. However, I want you to be able to experience this if you wish so here is my description of what Peter did. Consult the Unnamed Geniuses and look at a few pictures online to get an idea what the final product looks like.

Rice
Seaweed paper
Spam
Mr. Yoshida's Sauce

Cook the rice as indicated on the package or your own way. Cut the spam horizontally so you have several pieces the same size as the top of a spam can. The pieces can be as thick as you like. I think Peter made them less than 1/4 inch thick. Boil the pieces of spam in water for a few minutes. While I do not think the boiling is necessary, it helps get rid of some of the sodium. Next, fry the pieces of spam in a pan with some Mr. Yoshida's Sauce. Let the spam soak up the flavor of the sauce and flip them over to get it on both sides. Remove from the pan.

Take some rice and mold it on top of one of the pieces of spam. I would guess half an inch of rice on top of the spam would be good. Then wrap the rice and spam in some seaweed paper leaving the ends open. The seaweed paper we used worked well after it was cut in half. If you are making it and any questions come up you can give me a call.

To finish off the route, I took the 15 to the 60 west. On the 60 I got into the carpool lane and stayed there for my next 3 freeway changes. I took the 57 south to the 5 south to the 55 south.

In case you were not keeping track, the entire trip took me through four different states multiple times. I went California - Nevada - Arizona - Utah - Arizona - Utah - Arizona - Nevada - California. This trip was 1356.8 miles, which makes it the longest road trip I have ever driven.