Freakin' Idiot

After leaving Las Vegas we visited Hoover Dam. Being too chatty to pay for an undercover park near the visitors centre we found free parking on the Arizonian side of the river, a little up the hill. We walked in the sun and heat partway across the engineering marvel, Kat complaining all the way. On we drove to charming Flagstaff to spend the night. The nearby university injects the otherwise stolid place with an appropriate amount of pseudo bohemian presence to give it a funky old-town complete with microbrewery, hostel, European coffee shop and boutique thrift stores. We made good use of Macey's coffeehouse and Vegan cafe in the evening then competed with the freight trains for sleep.



From flagstaff we visited the Grand Canyon. As I'm sure most people say, it was much, much bigger than I'd expected and a sight everyone should see in their lifetime. We were lucky enough to arrive on National Lands Day or something so the twenty five dollar entrance fee was waived. Tops.


We drove through Navajo country at sunset. Quite a few hours later we stopped for the night at Cedar City, a nondescript highway town in the middle of Mormon country.


Driving from Cedar City to Idaho Falls Kat made me take a hundred k sidestep from the I-15 to make a pilgrimage to Preston, the town made famous in Napoleon Dynamite. After driving around the town for a while we stopped at a Gas station to ask directions to the High School. "Oh, you mean the tether-ball scene? That movie was so long ago, we haven't been asked about that for ages." Kat was thrilled.


Highway 91 leads back to the I-15 and it seemed like a backroad, only used for local traffic. Everyone in America speeds and I was pushing it a little when we rose over a crest and I saw the white car facing me, radar a-blazing. Before I could even react to brake I glanced down at the speedo then to the rear mirror where I saw the car pull a u-turn and start the sheriff's blue 'n' red disco revue. I immediately pulled over and waited while he halted behind us and radioed our number plate in. Then I watched the young khaki cop stroll up to my window.

"How are you going?" Officer Husson asked friendly enough.
"Ok," I nervously reply while my mind churning.
"Do you know why I pulled you over?"
"I think I was doing about five over the limit."
"You were doing seventy seven miles in a sixty five zone."
Silence
"Can I see some ID?"

He thankfully accepted my decaying drivers license that had been refused at two Californian bars and checked over the rego. He asked us a few questions about where we were going and where we had come from. Then he let us go with a warning. My heart rate drops and I breathe deep. Kat and I just look at each other and let out a nervous laugh as he returns to his vehicle. Too much paperwork I guess.