Tshikwaras on Tour: The Hoodoo Gurus

One of the joys of road trips is coming across those unexpected quirky little towns that typify rural areas. Salina Utah is just one of those places. We stopped in for fuel and the usual fuel stop suspects (Subway etc) were chock full of escapees from the Moab Car Show. We saw an impressive billboard for “Mom’s café” in Downtown Salina, which promised much, so we took the opportunity for some ‘home cooking’. We were impressed that the café had parking for tumbleweed out the front.

The menu was full of artery cloggers so we went for the chicken noodle soup (how can you go wrong with home-made soup?) I asked if we could have a bread roll or fresh bread with this – it is the American way to have salty crackers with soup. The waitress – we shall call her “Mom”- pondered this unusual request for a bit, then suggested that they could provide scones. Sounds good to me. There would be a bit of a wait on the scones as they were freshly made. Even better.

The soup arrived chock full of home-made noodles, I small piece of chicken and 2 carrot rings. Either something had gone terribly wrong with Mom’s pasta machine, or she got the noodles from Jed’s Ropin’ and Elastic Band Factory. They were as thick as your little finger and 6 inches long, full of chewy starchy goodness. It was like fishing in a vat of albino eels. Because one needs more starch, there were also dumplings. Little wonder there was only one piece of chicken.

Eventually the scones turned up. But not scones as we have ever seen or known before. It was a plate-size slab of fried batter, bit like a hole-less donut. It was accompanied by a squeeze bottle of “Honey Butter”, a sickly sweet yellow goo, with the ingredients honey and butter very low on the long list of ingredients. The ‘scones’ weren’t too bad with jam actually, but to pair them with Chicken Noodle soup, now that’s a stretch! The wellspring of mirth was rising within. When Mom came to refill Mike’s Coke by unceremoniously sploshing another glassful into his glass, spraying Coke over the table, I got the giggles and had to stuff my serviette into my mouth so as not to appear rude. It was certainly an experience.

Scone or Cowpat, you be the judge.

Back on the Interstate, we passed a nice fenced grassed area with trees. After looking at this for a little while, Mike suddenly said “Oh, it’s a cemetery, I thought it was an RV Park”. We decided it amounts to the same thing really.

Our destination was Bryce Canyon, another fabulous area of weird rocks. You’d think we’d be sick of looking at rocks by now, but they just keep getting better and better. Bryce’s rock formations are known as “Hoodoos” and they are really spectacular. There are several lookouts to visit, but the best way is to do some walks into the canyon and get in amongst them. The same applies here as to the Grand Canyon – what goes down, must come up. As Bryce Canyon is at the highest elevation so far this trip, it sure makes you find the bottom of your lungs on the way up.

On our first day, we had planned to do some of the easy walks, but accidently found ourselves on a loop that was like a roller-coaster of steep ups and down. At the end we found we had done “The Ultimate Hike” – so much for taking it easy. An added bonus though was that if you took your photo at certain points and showed the photos at the visitor’s centre, you get a special badge saying “I Hiked the Hoodoos”. So narnie narnie – bet you’re jealous! And here’s me looking special.

On our last day, Mike braved the -5 degree morning and took some sunrise photos. I felt that the best way to support him was to remain in a warm cosy bed, so as not to disturb him with my moaning about the cold. Works for me!

And here’s some pictures…….