Day Two Hundred and Twenty-Four

It just two days until Halloween so we'd better get carving those pumpkins that have been in sitting in the house since last weekend shopping trips. Given that I'd never seen a pumpkin until this year and that my 'arts and crafts' skill leave more than a lot to be desire, I didn't think Landon's and my attempts were too bad...

Day Two Hundred and Twenty-Three

Its been 153 days since I left England and therefore probably not much longer since I last had one of these. It wasn't quite up to the standard of the good old faithful Curry Centre in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire's oldest curry house, but (even if I do say so myself) it was pretty damn good!

....and I didn't get any complaints from my customers either!

Day Two Hundred and Twenty-Two

Lonely Planet? Not with these, a travellers bible. These books have saved me from probably having to sleeping in a dingy bullet ridden motel. They've lead me to little unknown restaurants as a preference to easier national chain eateries. They've also taken me away from major tourist traps to some of the most spectacular places in the world (most recently on Day 220). I'm still in America, but have spent much of the day reading and planning my forthcoming move down under.

Day Two Hundred and Twenty-One

Weekly planning! To ensure we cut down on the money we spend on take-away/eating out and also in an attempt to eat more healthily all round....we've planned out our meals for the week!

Day Two Hundred and Twenty

Its our final day in Moab before we head back to Cedar City so we took the opportunity to hunt down a few of the most breathtaking views around. The first one here is take at a place called the Gemini Bridges and of the canyon which opens up below it. Its definitely not a place for those with a fear of heights, on the approach to the bridges you're actually walking on a huge overhang but you don't know it until you reach the bridges and look back to see nothing underneath the rock that paved the way there. The cliff faces in the canyon are over 1000 feet.

The second is from a nearby state park called Dead Horse Point (legend has it cowboys left a corral here to die of thirst) which is an peninsula which gives spectacular views of the Colorado River and its canyons below.

Day Two Hundred and Nineteen

After a full day of quad-biking around the countryside near Moab we reach The Uranium Arch, which surprisingly enough is in a cliff face of what was once uranium rich rock. Here's Amanda's family striking a pose on top of the arch.

Day Two Hundred and Eighteen

Today we visited Bluff, a 100 mile drive south from Moab. Its a small town settled by 230 Mormon pioneers in 1880 after seeking out a more direct route from south central Utah to the far south east. The expedition became known for its famous Hole in the Rock route that they took.

Day Two Hundred and Seventeen

I've been here before. Its a 300 mile drive from Cedar City to Moab and not for the first time this year I've crossed paths with an earlier adventure. This time from the legendary roadtrip in Stan back in 2006 with Nate, Luke, Wink and Tommy D.

2006...

Day Two Hundred and Sixteen

All packed up and ready to go....almost. Tomorrow we're heading to Moab (south-western Utah) for a weekend of camping and outdoor fun!

Day Two Hundred and Fifteen

We live at the base of mountains in Cedar City and for the first time this year I stopped to reflect on the amount of the world I've already seen in the past 214 days. Here's some highlights...

The beautiful city of London on Day One.

The untouched British countryside on Day Eighteen.

The White Cliffs of Dover on Day Fifty-Seven.

The capital of America on Day Seventy-One.

The world's widest waterfall on Day Seventy-Seven.

The Michigan countryside where I worked all summer.

The Pacific Ocean reaching into Vancouver on Day One Hundred and Eighty.

The valley in the Zion canyon on Day One Hundred and Eighty-Nine.

Day Two Hundred and Fourteen

Its someone's birthday today! Carson, Amanda's little brother is 6 and the house is full of decorations. There's also a host of Halloween decorations out too, including a Witch (larger than the one pictured) that stands by the front door and scares the life out of me almost every night when I get home.

Day Two Hundred and Thirteen

We had a little surprise for Landon when he got home on Sunday night. A new scarf for his wall and jersey from the game.

Day Two Hundred and Twelve

Its been 156 days since I last went to a football (soccer) game, so despite being in a foreign city and in a country that doesn't really buy into the sport like Europe does, it still felt like a bit of a home coming when we travelled up to Utah's capital to see Real Salt Lake defeat FC Dallas 2-0.

We made the day of it so I could see the sights in what was a surprisingly small, but very pretty city. Two sister missionaries were kind enough to show Amanda and I around Temple Square, and educate me a bit more about the Mormon religion and the history of the area. It was a very insightful day.

Here's Amanda's Temple...

And here's mine...

Day Two Hundred and Eleven

Fast food, the staple diet of too many Americans! A quick internet search told me that there are over 50,000 fast food outlets in the USA where more than $100 billion is spent each year. Tonight we happily added our money and hunger to this statistic!

Day Two Hundred and Ten

You can't get in the way of men and their football. We've been teaching Landon to catch, his killer throw came naturally! Here we are enjoying the late summer sun.

Day Two Hundred and Nine

This evening we headed out to the Pizza Factory for dinner (great pizza by the way). Upon receiving the bill and a couple of complimentary mints Amanda decided she was still hungry and asked for another mint. The generous waitress (undoubtedly searching for a good tip) came back with enough mints to last a short nuclear war....much to Amanda's delight!

Day Two Hundred and Eight

Why do I continue to bother to watch England? Its never exciting, its rarely entertaining, but for some reason its almost always impossible to turn down the chance to watch a game of football.

Day Two Hundred and Seven

I've written a few times on this blog about things I do to keep fit. Today however, it was Amanda's turn to go out running, and mine to eat the junk food!

Day Two Hundred and Six

Making the most of the sunny weather (apparently you never know when the rain might come in and decide stay for another week in Cedar City, honestly its worse than England), complete with a desire to burn off some of the all-you-can eat breakfast buffet I had in Vegas, I took the mountain bike up the, err, well up the mountain strangely enough.

A hardcore 45 minute uphill climb was well worth it for the view of Cedar City in the setting sun and the 5 minute decent down the mountain that made me happily feel about 10 years old!

Day Two Hundred and Five

Before we left Vegas we to Landon into the Circus Circus children's area, and I just couldn't help myself once I my eyes spotted the Guitar Hero machine! We were rocking like we were Richie and Jonny, the kid size guitar didn't stop us making top score!

Day Two Hundred and Four

In desperate need of sport (there's no sport teams to follow here in Cedar City) we took a trip down to Las Vegas to see the UFL Locomotives play. If I'm honest the quality wasn't a touch on college let alone NFL, but it was live sport nonetheless and anyone who leaves their armchair to venture to a stadium knows that's better than watching it on TV.

Day Two Hundred and Three

I scream! You Scream! We all scream for Ice Cream!

...and yes, you'd be right in guessing I did scream the loudest...

Day Two Hundred and Two

You may be forgiven to thinking I've posted yesterday's picture again. Truth is the storm is really bugging me now, although its starting to ease off and we can at least see some of the mountain now. Its still cold and gloomy though and I'm in need of a snug place like this: Day Sixty

Day Two Hundred and One

I've been in Cedar City for over month now and we've had nothing but clear blue skies and glorious sunshine. That was until about two days ago when i began to rain. It hasn't stopped yet. This is the view from Amanda's front doorstep which usually looks right up at the mountain.

Day Two Hundred

Yes, in hindsight, the fajita wrap I made was far to big to fit in my mouth.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Nine

Hard at work with a cup of tea! Travelling and being far from home and work isn't cheap or as easy as it sounds, today we took a time out for a bit of important financial planning.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Eight

Its a land far far away from the days of my youth spent mountain biking in Burnham Beaches. Far from a time when I was pretty much fearless, where I would cycle up to the forest hoping to catch a glimpse of Kevin Costner filming the lastest Robin Hood movie, where I'd happily disappear for an entire day with my mates from the estate, and willingly launch our mountain bikes of near vertical slopes and hope for the best.

Twenty years on I'm taking it much more easy, cycling around the beautiful Navajo Lake in Dixie National Forest, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't take a moment and close my eyes to dream back to the days in Burnham Beaches.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Seven

I'd earned this! I've been on a strong fitness kick for the past month, as you may have noticed from my blog entries about running and cycling. Together with this I declared September to be a 'Beer Free Month'. I made through easy enough but a month was for sure enough. If a blind man got his sight back would he walk around with his eyes closed? Nooo, and its October now, so I'm having a beer. Cheers.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Six

Its the end of September, the trees are still green, the weather is still hot, autumn is nowhere in sight and somehow I've already been here in Cedar City for a month.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Five

Mountain biking! This evening we donned our biking gear and heading out for a cycle. Its far cry from when I used to cycle (aka dodge crazy commuters) on my way to work in Slough. We took a pretty gentle route just out of town. It was so nice to be out of the town and into the countryside, the scenery around here is pretty awesome and I've already noticed how easy it is to take for granted. We're pretty lucky to be in this area of the world and here's proof that we did make the most of it rather than just pose my the truck with the bikes!

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Four

Sometimes leaving my daily photograph until the last minute hoping something will turn up and spark my imagination pays off. I couldn't capture this very well, but here's the sunset over Cedar City from Amanda's place at the bottom of the mountain.

Day One Hundred and Ninety-Three

Each day I take a four and a half mile run along one of the major streets in Cedar City (there's only two) from where I'm staying to Main Street (that's the other major street).

The street naming system here in Cedar (and I'm lead to believe, the whole of Utah) work a bit differently. Instead of naming the streets, like every other place in the world, each road is numbered by its distance from the main street (or in larger cities distance from the temple). Now, that's pretty logical I thought and fortunately I'm pretty good at maths so its actually made it pretty easier to find my way around. (I often imagine people who can't add or subract number easily must spend hours driving aimlessly around the town trying to get home from work each day. Maybe its modern day natural selection.)

Anyway, leaving the mathematically challenged aside, I think this is a pretty good system as you'll always know where you are in town, no need for a GPS here. I also like it because its different, ok it probably does exist elsewhere in the world, but my point is its not common and it stands out. At least it did until I saw this...

Freedom Boulevard? Yes, it turns out the second major street in town has been given a second name, its not so unique and very common. With imagination like that, my money is on the next two major streets built in the city to be called Liberty and Independence!