Our amazing drive along Utah's Scenic Byways on September 22 ended with a breathtaking ride along the Mt. Carmel Highway - the winding road that starts at the East Entrance to Zion National Park. We enjoyed views of massive sandstone cliffs of cream, pink, and red that soar into a brilliant blue sky as the sun set before us.
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As Richard packed up the car on the morning of September 21, Nancy found a quiet bench outside our hotel to have a coaching call. As she wrapped it up she noticed a middle-aged couple packing their copper Harley Davidson touring bike - talk about traveling light. “Would it be weird to say that’s the most beautiful motorcycle I’ve ever seen?” Nancy asked the wife. “Not at all! That’s why I bought it for his last birthday!” A lively conversation - safely distanced - followed and, before it was over, our planned route from Arches to Zion would avoid the interstate and instead follow Utah’s State Routes 24 and 12 - arguably two of the most picturesque roads in the country. Still on a high from our unplanned tour of Mesa Verde National Park, we got back on the road on the afternoon of September 21, 2020, and headed for our planned destination - Arches National Park in Utah. The Mesa Verde visit set us up for a perfect arrival time at Arches - it was just after 5:00 pm and the sun was bathing the amazing rock formations in striking afternoon shadows. We set a strategy to drive through the park, stop at just about every lookout, snap some photos, and stand in awe of the unique and sometimes whimsical terrain that typifies this place.
We take a pause from our travel blogging to wish everyone the very happiest holidays and a Fascinating New Year. 2020 certainly has been a year that we won't miss in many ways and will long remember in others. After the New Year we will resume our sharing of visits to a slew of National Parks and our stays in Austin TX and San Diego CA. For now, we offer you this video of Richard performing one of his favorite Christmas songs. Blessings to you all. "Some Children See Him"
Music by Alfred Burt, Lyrics by Wihla Hutson Piano Arrangement by Dave Grusin Richard Curzi, Piano, Vocal, and sound / video engineering. We headed off on September 19, excited for 2 days in Santa Fe NM. On the ride from Amarillo we streamed "A Celtic Soujourn" - Brian O'Donovan's Saturday afternoon program on WGBH radio. It reminded us of the stark contrast between the lush green countryside of Ireland and the brown, dry plains of New Mexico. A bit further along the topography shifted dramatically, with mesas rising in all directions. We imagined the harsh and challenging existence of the early settlers here - and we're griping about spotty cell service. We crossed the Mississippi River from Memphis into Arkansas and we quickly discovered that tractor-trailers ruled the road on Interstate 40 - Nancy remarked that the trucks looked like a traffic "fjord" as we cautiously weaved between them. We were on our way to one of the lesser-known National Parks - Hot Springs: the second smallest National Park and the oldest one maintained by the National Park Service, which earned it the honor of being the first to be featured on a US Quarter for the "America the Beautiful Quarters" coin series. Our journey west took us through two Tennessee cities renowned for their live music scenes - Nashville and Memphis. Sadly, with the onset of COVID-19, both of these towns are temporarily "on mute" - their live music venues shuttered. Still we had memorable visits that encouraged us to return in better times. On September 6 we settled into our Richmond AirBnB, located on the controversial Monument Ave - recently in the national news for protests that brought down a number of Confederate monuments. We were walking distance to some of our favorite Richmond haunts - the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA) and "Carytown" - a funky street filled with great restaurants, cafes, and shops. We stayed 10 days in our daughter Laura's adopted home town and enjoyed many visits with her and her husband Mark.
Mid-pandemic we spent a quiet summer in Cambridge MA, enjoying long talks with friends and family in our courtyard Adirondack chairs, hosting a few socially-distant tapas parties, and day-tripping to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Marion MA. We biked and walked our Cambridge neighborhood just a few blocks from Richard's undergraduate dorm from more than 40 years ago, passed by Senator Elizabeth Warren's home, and had an occasional sighting of local celeb, John Malkovitch.
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