The Things We Learn When We Travel

I've known for a long time that I am not good with geography, except for Michigan geography.  When we travel, I begin to add to my internal map and get a better feel for where the states are and what they look like.  This helps when we hear about weather disasters and other news items from other states.  I know how populous Michigan is and how many miles you can drive and still be in Michigan.  I know  that it is green, watery and blue-skied in the summer.  I never really knew how mountainous, rocky, dry and hot Utah is.  The weather is not as changeable - in the summer it is sunny and hot.  For example, the weather report this morning looked ahead to next week when school starts.  The weather will be sunny and in the low 90s and, as the weather reporter said, "Warm, but not too bad for August."  Now, when I am home and hear about Utah, I will visualize the terrain I have seen and Utah will be more real to me.  I really love this learning process.

When we travel, we like to find local restaurants and try any local food specialties.  Today I tried Navajo fry bread for the first time.  This is not the sort of food I need, deep fried flat bread, but it was delicious and I'm glad I tried it.  When we order beer in a restaurant or pub, we always ask if there are any local brews on tap - and we usually brag a bit about Michigan's awesome craft brews.  This is how we found about about another difference from state to state -- the alcohol laws.

We went to the Moab Brewery for dinner when we were in Moab and Dennis asked about the IPA beers.  Our waiter explained that restaurants are not allowed to sell on-tap beers with a higher alcohol percentage than 4%.  As a result, he said, their IPA on tap is very different from their IPA in cans.  The restaurants are allowed to sell canned and bottled beer as is.  So, my draft lager and Dennis' can of local IPA were very different beers!  Who knew?  We have learned to ask where we can buy beer and wine because it is not always available in supermarkets, but we had never heard of this twist before between on tap and bottled beer.

The other thing that fascinates me is population density.  Today we drove south from Moab to Blanding and then southeast into Colorado to the Four Corners National Monument.  The towns we drove through were tiny, but outside of those towns we saw some folks who lived in houses that could appear in Webster's dictionary as the definition of isolated!  Some were using solar collectors as their only source of power.  As usual, I asked "What do these folks do for a living?  How do they keep a roof over their heads and food on the table?"  I do not know the answer, but I do know that our nation is vast and there are many wide open spaces.

Dennis making a video of the Four Corners Monument.

Dennis and I standing in four states.

Today we also learned that some towns only have one restaurant.  But, I reminded Dennis that we had encountered a town in northern Maine that didn't have any restaurants.  I think we'll go to the grocery store today and select a few items for a dinner repast.  Tomorrow we will be driving through even more remote areas through the mountains and national park lands to Bryce Canyon.  Who knows what learning is still in store?

Is this the Emerald City in the distance?  It turns out to be Shiprock seen from 25 miles away!