Know Who You Are

Hello from Torrey, Utah (unfortunately there’s no web cam out there for Torrey, which is a damn shame because it’s an incredibly beautiful place), the town closest to one of my favorite places on Earth, Capitol Reef National Park (where, incidentally, I asked Wife to marry me some years ago). Drove up today from Las Vegas, and took the long route: Vegas to St. George, then through Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Grand Staircase, and Boulder, Utah (one of the last locales in the 48 contiguous states to get telephone service, BTW), over the top of Boulder Mountain and finally into Torrey.

The trek took about seven hours, but the sky was completely without clouds and in the mountains the air was crisp … a perfect compliment to the low, warm light of the setting sun on the crevasses of Grand Staircase and the golden aspen of Boulder Mountain. I took some snaps, but seeing as I’m on a … uh … 16.8 Kbs connection, I’ll likely post them when I find better bandwidth.

What a change seven hours makes. Just this morning I awoke surrounded by cacophony and people and poseurs, and now I sit in my room at Red River Ranch, no TV to be seen, the silence only occasionally rippled by the whinny of nearby horse. Last night I ate steak and trimmings at Emeril’s Delmonicos, a meal which cost many, many dollars; tonight I ate a take-out dinner of local trout, baked potato, and green beans (from the garden across the street) from the Capitol Reef Inn … and frankly, tonight’s meal was just as good, if not better.

It’s easy to get caught in the swirl of all that is fast and shiny and glowing and loud. It’s more difficult to remember the places of silence of substance, where the food, people, and buildings are real. But they’re out there, and the fact is that they’re there all the time, moments of peace for the taking. It’s where I’d rather be.