Curiouser and Curiouser is this part of the country. We left Eureka NV after a nice breakfast and coffee at 9:30 a.m. with plans to make it as close to Bryce Canyon and Zion NPs as possible. Once again, after you leave a town out here, there is nothing but miles and miles and thousands of acres of ranches and very few glimpses of animals or man, for that matter. We saw lots of cattle and lots of folks harvesting and baling hay, getting ready for the winter and the snow. On and on we went, mappage and atlas in hand and hoping that we could make it out of the state by lunch time. It was not to be. We finally got to the Utah state line and a little store was there, but nothing there to eat except more snackage, of which we have plenty. I must say, though, that at every town, no matter if a wide place in the road or a town with a main street, there are always casinos and slot machines. Even the store at the state line had slots, lots of slots and people were playing them????? Weird. We are out in the middle of east Egypt and there is a store with slot machines!! The people are very well done (tan and leathery) and come in all shapes, sizes and ilks. Looking at the pictures again, reminded me that when we were making our way from the Nevada/Utah border, we encountered this lake, which we surmised was a salt basin. Sure enough, there was a small sign indicating that it is the Asan Basin (salt). Very eerie and the whole of this area is like another planet. Very interesting. We finally, finally get through the desert and make it to the middle of Utah and interstate 15! Glory be! Exits with gas and food and motels. Hallelujah! We get a very late lunch and head for Cedar City, which is a relatively big town with a HI Express and Wal Mart! It is on the outskirts of both Bryce Canyon and Zion NP. We will stay here two nights. We had to make a Wal Mart run when we got here and what a difference in the Wal Mart here and back home. We saw Mormon moms with their little boys dressed as cowboys, but mom had on a pioneer dress and hair drawn up in a bun. No little girls were with them. And the assortment of cowboys and lots of older ladies with bright red or burgundy, even purple hair, skin tight jeans and long painted fingernails and very young, hip looking tops. Kind of scary, really! Now we are back in our cozy room for two nights and I am so relieved that we can just sleep in and not worry about checking out and loading all of our various and sundried bags!!! We plan on touring both NPs tomorrow and then on Thursday, we will trek over to Monument Valley and the Four Corners. Then we will make a bee line to Albuquerque, as the balloon races will end on the 8th. I am hoping to get better pictures in the next couple of days. These past two days were travel days, to get us from Sacremento, CA to southern Utah and we have made!