the pioneer names trail marks where pioneers wrote their names in axle grease:
and these were my favorite, the ram/antelope/big horn sheep:
after all of this, "finishing utah," we were noticeably smeepums, and headed home to salt lake city.
it was still wearing its creepy little life-shoes.
and from death to the cemetery. 
the cemetery was beautiful, and well cared for.
i love these little lambs, usually reserved for children.
poor little bun-bun, soaked from the rain. he wanted to come in our car, and get warm and dry, and eat shredded wheat, but we had to say no (well, judd said no) because this was his home and it was going to be a long drive.
since it was so close to memorial day, flowers were slowly trickling in from local families.
and look, little cottontail! 
the fog was really beginning to roll in as we drove through the winding hills.
we stopped at a beautiful mountain overlook, and this boot was the first thing i saw. it was left, just like this, on this rock. it was at once incredibly creepy and beautiful.
ghost tree! looming over the forest. 
the rain was really coming down, but it sort of made it feel more beautiful, and special, since it's utah, and it's not supposed to rain that much (flash forward 6 weeks and it's still raining).
judd, looking at some sort of map or atlas or information guide thing. what a dork.
couple picture! (self-timer on the shotgun seat)
we pulled off after seeing a tiny sign saying there were anasazi ruins, and walked through a small museum full of artifacts. then we got to walk through a restored anasazi home, and community.
i learned all about the religious significance of this ladder, and room, but now i don't remember it...
no, the houses aren't melting, it's just really rainy.
the anasazi houses were leaking a little through the roofs, and the sunlight was trickling in beautifully.
couple picture (camera balanced in the adobe brick)
as we drove more windy road, i looked down, and it looked like there was a rushing green river where the trees were growing.
at a little pull off, there was an enormous raven type thing perched on the rock.
it hopped down, and started shaking the water from its feathers, and in this moment i noticed that the back of its neck was bright white! if it was a "white necked raven," or a "white necked crow" it was a very very long way from home. this blog is just me guessing at one bird after another...
here it is, being practically hand-fed by a tourist from a motor home. i couldn't bring myself to feed it, as much as i wanted to get close to it, because i couldn't stand the idea of it getting a little tummy ache.
we drove on.
we passed another cemetery down below.
and entered more redrock.
it was deceptively freezing outside.
but absolutely magical.
and, a little outdated.
judd and i both love the open road. it's like our baby in this weird little family.
and judd's other baby, of course, is the atlas.
here's judd @ the site of the mountain meadows massacre, trying to determine from his history book who road in from where and where what was supposed to have occurred...
and here i am on a fence.
there were two monuments. the first that we visited was the one provided by the LDS church. the wrought-iron fence surrounding the monument was absolutely beautiful against the sun, which came out for us by this point, and the grass, and the monument.
VOGUE + massacre site.
i was really hoping this was a mormon cricket. it was not. but that would have been so cool, to be at the mtn meadows site, surrounded by mormon crickets...
oy.
here is the grave marker inside of the monument of the 29 or so bodies they were able to find and bury.
and the... delicately phrased?... plaque on the monument, provided by the LDS church.
here is the entire monument, as viewed through the wrought-iron gate i am obsessed with.
a view of the killing fields.
and the second monument, higher up on a hill, provided a list of everyone in the traveling party, including those killed and those who survived. there were also viewfinders pointed at where the ambush happened, and where the original grave was (i think).
overlooking the fields, able to place it better through the viewfinder, i couldn't help but notice there were several farm residences placed basically ON the site of the massacre now. that must be sort of strange...
flowers had been left at the monument, which we agreed was a lovely touch.
we pressed even further south, into snow canyon. hiking the weird little flat rocks, i carved a little message into the sand.
the combination of afternoon/southern utah left us hot hot hot, with no real change of clothes. i just rolled up my sweat pants to hike around.
couple in snow canyon!
i practically tripped over this amazing rock: you can see the indentation of ancient plant life.
to be continued....
i got the rainbow trout + bagel + fruit. when in southern utah, order the trout. it isn't a colloquialism yet, but it will be.
it was raining, and really early in the morning, and Cowboy Ramble didn't start till later that night. Judd and I decided to set out exploring the capital reef area. others around us were going to play frisbee golf, do some drugs, and/or just lay around.
this truck, for some reason, wouldn't start. good thing, cuz i woulda done stolen it.
we found something called the NIELSEN MILL. judd is a nielsen!
i hope they aren't too related, because whoever insists on a lifeguard before someone goes swimming here can't have the strongest argument for a gene pool...
here's the mill. according to the sign, there's original equipment still inside.
it was pouring rain, but we were really having a blast.
next stop was a very very old settlement of Fruita. i think the rule in utah was whoever got here first had to have the stupidest town name... 
here's judd, getting in on the relaxation rock:
so we finally got up and got around to entering capital reef national park. 
probably my favorite picture from the trip.
a pioneer wall-- carvings of those who came before us. the ones above these had a lot more dates, but note under elmer huntsman: october 5 1883.
<3
a few miles from scipio we spotted a dark cloud. turns out, it was a controlled burn. but it actually appeared to be not so much controlled as just burning.
we stopped @... scipio... stop... to satisfy some weird cravings, including chocolate donettes, cheetos, coke(ca cola, by the way), and salt and vinegar potato chips.
one of the most beautiful parts of traveling through rural areas are moments like these: (rust, overgrown farm equipment, abandoned or maybe not...)
our utah history started early with this seagull-infested field. i imagined them eating mormon crickets.
we arrived @ the venue for cowboy ramble, BOA, and the electric co (seriously, the photo below is the backdrop for the show). judd and i immediately set out into the outback to explore what turned out to be an enormous court for frisbee golf... but still... beautiful. aside from the markers for the frolf game, it did feel like we were in BLOOD MERIDIAN. i kept waiting to be beheaded.
ah, the moment has arrived. BOA live in the desert.
when it was time to sleep, we all returned to this little shantytown built next door to david williams's house, in the backyard of his dear friend (torrey, utah). 
here's mine and judd's tent. i named it Little Foot, because i thought it looked like a dinosaur. i'm really glad he was an eagle scout... it was my job to kick away rocks... and supervise... oh, and say "good job." 
while on tour with the crate lung co-op we stopped in barnes and noble in austin texas, mainly to use their bathroom and wireless internet. we, of course, took some time to explore their graphic novels, poetry, and (extensive) literary magazine sections. i also stumbled upon the book SMALL DEATHS by Kate Breakey, and fell in love. 
I fell in absolute love with the book because of the idea behind it, small deaths. Kate Breakey photographs the small deaths (be they of tiny animals, flowers, insects) that happen every day, all around us, and are easily passed over or forgotten, but are perhaps not any less significant. and, are even beautiful. one review i read said that these small deaths, finding the little animals and plants that had died, while she was growing up in australia, used to overwhelm her. i think a lot of us can relate to that, passing roadkill as children, or finding animals in the bushes. for one, it puts them in a state of stillness not common to wild animals, and allows us to approach and observe them in a state we're not used to. for another, it is death, and we are certainly not accustomed to that.
birds tend to crash into my bedroom window quite often-- i'm not really sure why my bedroom. it doesn't get less traumatic for me, and i'm sure it's no real picnic for the bird. while i was in southern utah i was leafing through my mom's bird-book (that i intend to buy borrow or steal) BIRDS OF NORTH AMERICA, and i believe this is an oriole.
but, as with all cases of bird identification, i could be wrong. it's really really hard. there's a different bird for every slight change of feather color and arrangement. it's mainly an excuse, i think, for english/old world men for insert their last name onto something else.
humans have this natural thing with sharks. we see them and we sort of panic. confession: i am still a little scared of sharks in the bathtub and swimming pools. and if i were to walk into a room where this shark were floating in a tank, i would probably jump. beyond that, it's obviously dead, and it's obviously no threat. thus, the (brilliant) title.
isn't this one just so sweet and magic:
delicious:
this reminds me of heroin, somehow:
one of my favorite things about polly, besides the vintage name and the fact that she pals around with jude law, is that she dresses exactly like me:
seriously polly. we are the last two hipsters art nerd weirdos in these boots. and tim gunn said we're not supposed to wear leggings anymore. 
assorted picture frames donated by judd's mama:
lovely end tables donated by judd's mom:
paneled mirror:
we all have about a thousand books for sale:
please join us.
