I am still up most mornings planning! Planning to leave now for the day… which becomes later knowing about the days that have now become much longer. There must still be a residual left of all these years working on a schedule, when it comes right down to it, to the present they just vaporize, and the new unplanned day seems so much more welcomed than the previous thoughts! My Life is in "Jello"… and I am starting to like it that way… another step forward. Maybe it is not a matter of liking it or not, it is more a matter that I can deal with it… I am OK with it. There was a father and son last evening that pulled in on a BMW GS as I was walking Spirit for a Sunset stroll. He was on his cell phone, his son on his I Pod, it took me back a bit, thoughtful… such a simple image in the middle of nowhere with the Lasal Mountains glowing in their glory, but, they were not looking… It is so hard to let go of that umbilical cord that has tied us to the society we have lived in. I wanted to walk back and pull those wires off… flip that phone… offer a coffee… something… but look! feel! I overheard walking by "concrete"… "slab"… "how much?"… I know it was a Saturday night of all nights, but I guess it did not matter…

This has been our backyard these past few days…  We got back from walking a long loop, I glanced across the field and yet, as the sun was finally setting… their eyes still never witnessed another day’s thumbprint gone by. And sometimes for those simple images that I witness I feel fortunate of our Lifestyle. I do not feel fortunate for its cause of being but I also know that this is the path Lance wanted us on. He has been on my mind a lot lately. Emotions are like a graph, unexplainable however… I know that Father’s Day is coming up soon… I can feel it and it is just one of those times around that seems to darken it all again, this is when the heart beat seems to miss a turn or two when still such an unexplained event of my Life is freshly laid out in front of me.

We can only go on, feel the emotions and survive them by being strong… I still cannot accept it, I guess I never will, and these words, writing them, well, the pages are, have been and always will be my sounding boards, my Friends that I reach, my Good People as I call them, they all understand… I am not the only one wearing these shoes, they are not alone either as I also reach for them and together we… try… to stay strong.

So…. this is Needles, the pictures are, and by the way the road off 191 to get there is 211, not 221… I stand corrected by the Park Ranger who wrote me and who is also thinking about a bike with a sidecar! Hope to see him on the road some day with his own buddy… It amazed me how different Needles is from Island in the Sky. So much erosion over the years has fabricated the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa Sandstone and like giant mushrooms they stand out unlike a Canyon down below where one can only look and not touch.

I have been thinking a lot about the content of this Blog also lately. I think about one comment criticizing me that its writing at times does not match the images, well, it will not! This is my Journal, there are many thoughts image less that fill this Journey and I feel so incomplete when I don’t write them down. Images for most part speak for themselves and the content of a mind truly does not have photos but words… I guess this is my answer to such comment…

Fast forward this morning to a new day. It seems like the Universe has changed its course, nice clear blue skies, no heater needed and at the same time nice brisk temperatures overnight for some good deep and sound sleep. Today at noon we are meeting another reader "Peter" with a couple of his friends, and we are going to do Lasal Loop. Peter has been about a day or two behind us for a couple weeks now… he is my source of my new expression "Life is in Jello" as we have never been able to connect all the way back from when we were in "The Valley of the Gods" and "Bluff"! Finally we are in the same town… Moab of course, and they want to witness how I take my pictures! No brain surgery here… but it should be fun. They are camping themselves somewhere for free and will go check it out when we are done with our ride… I think a bit of company will be nice… we might then even get some cooking done.

We are going to eventually camp near Needles. I am determined to do that! We have some friends camping there right now, I send word to let me know when they are moving as we will take their spot. Why?… because I am now understanding that this area is filled to the brim. Don’t expect to find a single campsite or motel room on the weekend! We met in Needles two riders from Arkansas! David and Larry, two brothers, two Paramedics (I felt so safe for a few minutes!) on their own little Journey West. They could not find a single campsite or motel room and had to travel over 50 miles north to the Green River to finally find one! You have been warned!

How often will you meet two brothers with the same interests and profession… with the same bike and gear! I love Arkansas, it is for motorcyclists the last frontier as we call it, with some great roads and no traffic unlike a bit further east where we use to live in the Georgia Mountains. It was great talking to them! We started heading back a bit later that day, a slight wind on my tail and the riding itself was awesome, still managed to stop a couple times for more pictures on 211 with the sun setting down, the better time for images when the light is not so intense.

These images above are of BLM land, the area fenced in with gates bearing the sign to keep them closed. We took a short ride there yesterday afternoon and realized that "White Elephant" will never be able to get in there… Of course I was disappointed and feel that the time is approaching to start going through the camping gear, sorting it out, practice again to set up this tent designed by engineers probably on a Monday,  and do some tent outing as "Old Faithful" could easily get through. Just a matter of finding a storage for a few days at the time.

Back to the "Hole in the Wall" which is 7 miles or so south of Moab where we stopped that morning on the way to Needles. Unlike inside, cameras where allowed outside! It was still early and uncrowded, I should have asked the story behind this Jeep, how many hours did it take to built it! It was fun to walk around, some tongue and cheek artifacts on display such as "Jail House Rock" and the "Big Foot"… (please smile!… I am trying). It could be that I lost my sense of humor after finding out that I could not take pictures inside the rock house…

They have also a petting Zoo, I would call it more a "feeding Zoo" and "this face" has to make you smile!… Hello….

So that is about it all for today… we have to get ready for our loop, feed Spirit, take a walk, check the tires… you name it! Maybe pack a bit of lunch and make sure we have plenty of water. Below, one more picture of Needles… I love rocks, I always think what they were like millions of years ago…

Till next time… have a great day, come and visit! Utah is beautiful…

You be well and stay well…   Ara & Spirit

Have you checked the T-shirts? "Throw the Dog a Bone!"… T-shirts… Mouse pads… Photography…

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Ara Gureghian   853 Vanderbilt Beach Rd #245   Naples, Fl 34108

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 7:38 am and is filed under travel, spirituality, pit bull, sidecar, motorcycle, cooking, photography, riding, homeless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.