Red the Traveling Dal Visits the American Southwest

[davidd]

Hey! It's been a while! Bet'cha thought we were done with the Southwest pics, huh?
Yeah, right! How many movie stars have we seen so far? None? Okay! And how many dinosaurs? Gotta see some dinosaurs, right? So come on, what are you waiting for!

First, tell me this: how many restaurant pics did you get from the other stops on this trip? Yeah, that's what I thought! So here are some more:

These o-rings oughtta hold me for a while!

Oh, look! Are they filming a movie?

Kanab, Utah was once known as "Little Hollywood" because hundreds - no kidding, hundreds of motion pictures were filmed here!

You Blew It Up! Darn You All To... Heck!

I think this is a rare Copper Banded Bison.

Oh, great! I get to meet Clint Eastwood... right after I've stuffed my face full of onion rings! So much for the silver screen's greatest love scene!

Speaking of silver - Hi Yo!

I'd ask you if you know who this next fella is, but I'm afraid you'll say "I dunno," so I won't ask - and if I have to tell you, there's no point in continuing this conversation... Pilgrim!

RANDOM HORSE-DRAWN FARM EQUIPMENT!

(It's a hay rake, if you don't know. Dorothy walks past one in the farmyard while she's signing "Over the Rainbow" in The Wizard of Oz. Probably not this very one, but one very like this very one!)

No movie stars in this next pic, but Henry Fonda may have stood right here on this very spot! No, sillies, it's not Golden Pond! Go watch "Drums Along the Mohawk" sometimes. You'll see young Henry - he was young, then, not like in that "Golden Pond" thing - fall down in the stream leading in to this pond. John Carradine is lurking around in the woods here, somewhere, too. If you don't know who John Carradine is, I'm done talking to you.

As long as we're up here in the forest, let's check out the autumn leaves. Remember this was last autumn... what year? Twenty-one, I think? The night-time temps were getting nippy and the leaves were just beginning to turn.

Oh... this is really close to the actual spot where Henry Fonda fell down in that movie.

But there are some more nice leaves over there. Follow me!

Artsy lens flare 'n' everything! We're making the most of those Little Hollywood production values!

How about another dead tree? Because it seems to be a recurring theme here in Utah:

And some lava rocks, for dramatic visual contrast:

Did I show you the national monument yet? The one that hardly anyone has ever heard of? Well, actually, there are a lot of national monuments that hardly anyone has ever heard of, but this is one of  'em:

Good thing I gave up smoking a while back! I shoulda worn my heart rate monitor!

Before we go any further, you might want to stock up on ammo. Or beer. Better make it both.

Museum Quality? So we're finally gonna see some quality?

Ooooh! Ahhhh! Fake exotic minerals... made of glass!

Oh, look! Tiny arches! This is my kind of hiking!

Dwelt a miner, forty-niner, and his daughter Clementiiiine!

So much for 'museum quality.' Wasn't there something else you said you wanted to see?

How about a dead guy in a stew pot? No, that wasn't it?

Oh, now I remember:

DINOSAURS!

M'kay, we can do dinosuars! Didn't I tell ya I'd show ya dinosaurs?

This stuff always goes downhill pretty quickly, doesn't it?

I'm sure you're figuring... or hoping... that we're almost done here in Utah, or Arizona, or wherever we are, right? Yeah, well, almost. Just a few more pix as a quick "coda," so to speak, to wrap things up, and then we'll be done... finally!

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Do you remember that Lotto Guns Ammo Beer place? While you guys were buying beer, I purchased a lottery ticket! I was gonna split the winnings with all you guys! No, seriously, I was! But... we didn't win. Bummer.

You already saw me with Smokey the Bear, but that was fun, so here's another look!

Here I am sending postcards:

And finally... in addition to pictures taken in trees, it seems like

none of my stops are complete without...

... a lighthouse! In this case, the tallest lighthouse in the landlocked state of Utah, 843 driving miles (that's a lot in kilometers) or about 700 straight-line miles (still a lot in kilometers, about 1200 – there, I did the math for ya) from the nearest ocean.

And now I am off to my next host! See ya in a coupla weeks!