Subject: the horror, the horror

barstow.  shit.

i've hard so many stories about barstow that i just had to stop
there.  twice.  (two different exits, plus an accidental detour onto      
i40.)  i knew a couple who got stopped there by police multiple times for
looking sort of "foreign."  luckily i was not harrassed.

spent some time with my dad last night, which was fun.  we tried to look
at my natz cd of photos but it crashed the computer.  my
nightmare: sititing with my father while a photo of justin lillie with two
co-eds, with two magic marker'd arrows pointing down his pants, is stuck
on the screen.

i got to see the flight school where my dad works this morning.  it was
pretty nice, and then that was it for bakersfield.

i made good time to vegas.  i know, i know, i vowed to avoid it, but it
rose up out of the desert and i couldn't resist.  i went to new york new
york, which opened a day after i left vegas when i was there 4 years
ago.  i wandered around and rode the roller coaster (relies too much on
negative gs, which i hate).  here's why new york new york is better than     
the real thing: you only have to walk about 15 minutes to see everything,
it's cleaner, there are less pedestrians, and since i15 is right there is
pretty easy to get away from.

my rear-view mirror borke off in glendale, nevada.  i was not happy, but i
probably broke it by stuffing fuzzy dice that say "las vegas" that i
bought in barstow between the mirror and the windshield.  so after driving
through arizona, i stopped in st. george  and bought some stuff to stick
the rearview mirror back on.  my quality of life has improved 100%.

next i went to the kolob canyon section of zion nat park.  gorgeous.  i
intended to do an easy spin today, and the 5-mile road seemed
perfect.  however it turned out to be a 1000 ft climb, not too steep but
tougher than i was bargaining for.  my reward at the top: two vans from
bob jones university.

now i'm parowan, utah.  it's about 20 miles from i70.the guy at subway who
made my sandwich told me i could get free internet access here.  i'll
probably find a motel pretty soon and call it a night.

tomorrow: cycling in aspen and spending the night in westminster, just
outside denver.