Cedar City to St. George

Wow – it took all day to get a half-inch on the map. Of course, we had to check out Zion-Kolob Canyon, the northern area of Zion (Don says he's never been) and then into Zion itself. Boy, was it crowded. No parking in the park. You can park outside (very commercialized area – shops, eateries everywhere) and wait for the shuttle to go in. We were very happy for our Senior Pass to the parks - $25 per vehicle to drive through. So we drove in, went through the tunnels (they stop traffic when a bus or RV goes through – down the middle) stopped a few times to admire the views, then turned around to go back and on to St. George. We assumed weekends would be crowded times but were later told it's always that way, except midwinter.

So, on to St. George and what a nice town. We shared a meal at Texas Roadhouse (we'd seen them other places but had never been) – it was good – finally got some vegetables (salads aren't veggies) and it was still plenty of food – we needed to walk it off (e.g., unlimited fresh-baked rolls with honey butter). We found the Historic District downtown and noticed all the printing businesses still going strong apparently. How the printing world has changed – all advertise graphics, some large format color printers, one even sells scrapbooking supplies. We had noticed one man working in the back of a shop near our parking spot. He was leaving when we came back so of course Don has a new best friend. Turns out he's the manager (not owner as we assumed), he was working on a major project for a picky customer and the machine was acting up, the business has three locations (i.e., not competition), they get a lot of business from Las Vegas, and his wife is an author who gives writing classes around the country so she wasn't home to complain about his going in on a Sunday. Also, he is 62 and would like to retire but doesn't have a big enough nest egg yet. The only thing we didn't find out was how many kids and grandkids he has.

Tony and his wife, our neighbors next door at the motel, have several, but that's another story.

Anyway, back to the really neat town of St. George. Their downtown is peppered with old brick buildings and great sculptures – young kids reading and playing outside the preserved historic school house, a kid in rain slicker and hat stomping in a puddle in the central park – the park was being used by Spanish-speaking families, reminding us of Sunday paseos throughout Mexico. Too bad we didn't bring the camera