Hope Springs and Moab Arches

Actually, we didn’t visit a place called Hope Springs, but that was what a new Labour government feels like. I fell asleep when Grant Shapps lost but Bert stayed up watching events unfold in real time. He won the betting – we lost count of all the bets we had made but I called the Greens getting more than 3 and he called Farage. Sadly, the people of Godalming let me down badly. The only fly in the ointment of an otherwise amazing night.

Another American hotel breakfast – the yoghurt machine was keen to explain that it was 100% organic so I had expectations of the yummy Greek yoghurt we have at home. It turned out to be a sugary substance that was more akin to some crappy supermarket own brand. The granola was also heavily sugared. Bert had three “sausages”.

We had a 9am entry slot for the Moab Arches. I hadn’t really researched exactly what we would actually be doing. Vaguely thought there would be a visitor centre where you could have a coffee and a pastry, and then drive around. First, no coffee or pastry on offer. Second, it seemed to be a place where you could do short hikes graded easy, moderately easy, and difficult. I hadn’t prepped for hiking. But we had water and some wine gums. And I bought another water bottle and some Moab Mountain Snax. We had our walking boots but only one pair of socks. I offered them to Bert who tried them on but they were too small. So he wore his boots sockless.

As I was getting ready, I had a brief thought about Michael Mosley. There were big warning signs saying ‘Allow a quarter of a litre of water per person’. I felt I hadn’t planned a hike and it would be high 20s/early 30s degrees by the time we got to the Delicate Arch. But then Bert said he could see small children heading up. So while it was graded difficult and with areas of no shade, we set off.

It was a tough hike. There were a few trees dotted about that soon filled up with people trying to get out of the sun. And we stopped at almost every one. Just as I thought I really couldn’t make it, a family walked by on the way back and said it wasn’t too much further – maybe 10 minutes. That, and the last of the wine gums, spurred me on and with Bertie’s patience and kindness, we arrived at the most amazing viewpoint. And all that dizziness and sweating, and doubt, fizzled away. Here is what we saw.

The path back down was joyful.

Tonight we have been to the Dead Horse point or valley to look at the dark skies with a guide. We saw the Milky Way, two galaxies, a nebula, and a star that had just been born. Mind blowing.

It’s 1am and we have another great day planned.

PS. Just reread this and fixed the terrible typos. Forgot to mention the food from yesterday which was pretty ok. For lunch we went to the Moab Garage Co and had some delicious tacos – Bert even said the chicken taco was one of the best he had ever tasted!

And for dinner we went to Pasta Jay’s where I ordered a tomato and mozzarella salad which, for the first time, was smaller than I expected. Maybe my brain has changed to expect monster plates. Bert ordered Chicken Parmigiana which came on two big plates. We shared.