8 March

Today it was up at 6 have a little breakfast in my room (none included), get ready, pack, check out and off. So by 7:30 I was heading down the highway – and at 7:35 I was heading back, as I had forgotten my mobile. In an effort to have the alarm wake only me, I had the mobile under the pillow and therefore didn’t see it on my quick scan of the room.
When I was checking out, the young man on the desk knew my room number. I asked him how, expecting to get a rundown on the secret ways of the Navajo and their ability to read minds, but he had just seen the room number on the card.
It was a quick run down to Page in Arizona (all these places yesterday, today and tomorrow are around the Utah-Arizona border, so I am changing states almost each time I turn on the road) and so I decided I could post off my second (very heavy) parcel of material I have picked up. Naturally I forgot it was Saturday, so wondered why hardly anyone was there. The Post Office only opens on Saturday AFTERNOON – not in the morning! Equipped with this vital piece of information I went off to the dam – a concrete structure over two hundred metres tall and holding back twenty-four million acre feet of water (I’ll find that in gigalitres later). All the time spent finding the opening hours meant I arrived just as the tour of the dam left (damn!). I spent two hours looking at the exhibits and watching the films in the theatrette. The tour was down to the dam wall, along it, down to the power hall and then a look around there and finally a return to the top. The dam does not have a fish ladder and the operation of the turbines is controlled from there (and also for seven other smaller dams upstream). They also are in a drought and the water level is down thirty-four metres from full. They are hoping the current snowfall melt will raise the level considerably.
Then I went back to town to try to post the parcel but – they were only open to give out parcels, not take them. Another good idea has to wait.
I headed off on Highway 89 (all the roads have numerical names, but everything else is named in honour of some person – why not the roads?) and soon came across a Visitors Centre south of the road. I called in and they had some wonderful material on dinosaurs and the formation of the whole Colorado Plateau. After a chat with the ranger, it was back on the road.
In Kanab I had a break for some food and refuelled the car. After that, as I headed to Bryce Canyon, the snow began to fall. I was just able to get some pictures in Red Canyon (and the rocks really are red!) before visibility dropped. By the time I got to the canyon turnoff, visibility was low and I couldn’t read the road signs. I headed into Tropic, which fortunately is at a much lower elevation and had no snow falling (mind you, it was cold enough!). Here I booked in to the local Inn, one of the America’s Best chain, and got a reasonable room and even better with an RACV discount (10%). After unpacking the car and recognising some German tourists I had seen in Kanab (and helping them work out how to lock the room door) I went over to the local store and got some food for tea (and breakfast in the morning – cheap WalMart toaster to the rescue!), then came back, had that while fixing up the photos and writing this blog. After all was posted it was into bed and hopefully enough sleep to keep me going tomorrow.