2010 July 12th:
Mark:
This morning I woke up by the alarm. I wanted to make sure that we were on the road early. I got myself ready and woke up Niko so that he could get himself ready. We had a bunch of things to do before we could leave.
Once we were ready we left and got on the interstate 15 and headed south. We only stopped a couple of times for gas and another couple of times for short breaks. When we arrived in St George Utah it was 107°F. We were really putting ourselves to the test in this type of heat. We took a road that led up into the hills outside of St George and arrived at a friend’s for a short visit. Evie has been a good friend to me since my teenage years and since I knew that we would be close I wanted to make a point of visiting even if it was for only a short visit.
We spent a couple of hours with her and family visiting and then went on our merry way. We wanted to make it to Zion National Park, but it turned out to be too late to make it to the park before they closed. We found a place to stay about 20 minutes away and so that will be the first thing we see in the morning.
We had a wonderful meal at the restaurant across the street and then went for a swim in a very warm pool. It felt great.
Today was one of those “just get there” kind of days and so we spent far too long on the interstate. We will be riding on smaller less traveled roads over the next few days as we work our way to Phoenix Arizona. We will surely know what hot is by the time we get there.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoy the great work that Niko has done with the website. Good Night.

Niko:
We got up and began packing this morning, and I struggled with my boot buckle. I fed Steve’s cats, and went downstairs to put the bags on my bike that dad parked by the staircase. When I got to it, a man was standing by the BMW and the nearest garage door was open.
When I politely asked if we were in the way and needed to move, he burst into a flurry of unneeded anger and said he’d been waiting for twenty minutes for us to come out, and that we were breaking laws, etc, etc. I asked him to wait and ran upstairs to get dad so he could move his bike. When dad showed up, the irate man began drilling him with questions of his name, room number, etc. We just said we were sorry and that we were not from around town.
He left and we finished up and took off. We ate at Del Taco, and stopped in at Big O Tires to put air in my front tire. Later, we stopped for gas, ice and oil in Cedar City, then quickly moved out and on towards St. George, Utah. I laughed when I noticed that we passed through a town called “Washington” before St. George. “St. George Washington, huh? Bet he’d be unhappy at that honor”.
Soon, our bikes were parked in front of Evie’s house and we went in to chat. I noticed she had many Labradoodles, and one tiny Pomeranian… AKA, fuzzy football. We stayed for a while and met her kids, and the beautiful part Native American, part Hawaiian girl that is frequently around.
We said good bye, and took off in hopes of reaching Zion National Park. I noticed all of the Mormon churches in town, and the concept of a Mormon state was becoming more obvious. We were passing through another town when dad pulled into a motel, because he noticed it getting late and remembered that Zion closes its gates sooner than we’d arrive.
We got out of our slimy heat gear, showered, and dressed nicer so we could eat at a diner across the street. The place had an all you can eat salad/fruit/soup bar, and I had bottomless shrimp with it. The food was scrumptious! We finished dessert with a pie for me and a sundae for dad, and then headed back.
I put on trunks, and went to the outdoor pool for a swim, and met some kids speaking a cool sounding foreign language that sounded east European, and played with them for a while. They were Czech, and their parents didn’t know much English.
We went back to the room and are typing this blog… Thank you for reading and goodnight!