The Beehive-less state

As we traveled across the country we noted some of our favorite state mottos and nicknames.
Some were rather obvious:
Tennessee – The Volunteer State
Kentucky – The Bluegrass State
Texas – The Lone Star State
Arizona – The Grand Canyon State
California – The Golden State

Some were a bit less obvious – you had to use your imagination a bit:
Arkansas – The Natural State
Virginia – Old Dominion
New Mexico – Land of Enchantment

Then there is the one that made absolutely no sense to me at all:
Utah – The Beehive State

We saw many things in Utah worth noting. Utah has some of the most stunning landscapes I’ve ever set eyes on. It had geological rock formations that were mind boggling. As we traveled the backroads and national parks of Utah for 2 days, we personally saw many different types of wildlife such as deer, elk, turkeys, mules, and even ostriches. But not once….never ….did we see a bee, let alone a beehive. Hell, I didn’t even see anyone selling honey. We were utterly baffled as to why Utah’s state motto was ‘The Beehive State’! I personally thought the Utah motto should have been “The non-Alcoholic State”, or it could even be called “The Mormon State”…but bees…that’s absurd. I really didn’t even see any flowers!

The Grand Canyon was stunning, but Utah took my breath away. As we drove over the state line from Arizona to Utah from the south east corner, we immediately entered an area called Monument Valley. It was quite a welcome into Utah as random orange colored rock formations stood tall in the middle of flat desert land. It reminded me of Southern Thailand with huge rock formations jutting out of the water, but instead – this was the desert – something I had never really encountered before. We decided to stop pay to get a closer look. Here’s some trivia, Monument Valley has been the setting for more Western movies than any other site in the United States. The unique sandstone formations, the Navajo Indian Nation and the Four Corners Monument define this vast, open desert region. Monument Valley is not a national park, instead, it is located on a Navajo Indian reservation, however at a cost of $5 a person, the Monument Valley drive was still worth the admission! However, it is not recommended that you eat prior to taking the ‘scenic drive’ around the monuments – else you may need a barf bag. The road is not paved (not really sure what they are doing with that $5 a person – but it’s not going to roads), it’s gravel and not very well maintained. At least we had a Jeep Cheroke, however the people in the 4 door sedan didn’t fare as well – it was really slow going for them. Kathleen of course loved the dirt road as it brought back memories of 4 wheelin’ for her! I decided that the road was really only fun for the driver…not the passenger.

Photo: This is no Bee…
It was a 17 mile drive around the valley and we even spotted mountain goats, sheep, and wild horses…but for the record, no bees were found. The orangish color of the rock formations against the blue sky was beautiful – a great introduction into the beauty of Utah.

Our stop for the night was Monticello, Utah – a small town of 2,000 people at an altitude of 6000+ ft. Why Monticello? It is where Kathleen’s step-mom, Barb, lived…that’s right…time to start mooching off family members for accommodation! When we arrived there it was nice to know that we were staying put for a day. Actually sleeping in the same bed for two nights in a row sounded like heaven. I went with Kathleen and did the relative rounds – meeting her step-family all over town. The town had an amazing view of the mountains, was cozy, and it even had a large horse shoe park. Who needs baseball when you have a horse-shoe pit?

The next morning we woke up to a sight that I wasn’t expecting to see again for months…snow. Yes, snow in mid April. Good thing we had nowhere to be as it ended up snowing and blowing all day. That morning Barb’s mother came over to hold a ‘cooking class’ for Kathleen and me. We had to get up early because Vincente was teaching us how to make eggs with green chilis and homemade tortillas…yum! A good, hearty breakfast for a snowy April morning! Vincente was a breath of fresh air. At 81 yrs she had spunk and creativity like I only hope I can have when I’m her age! She showed up wearing a little apron that said Torres Tortillas.com; a hand-stitched gift from a friend. I don’t think that Vincente has ever even used a website, so it was cute to see her wearing the apron. We sat around in our pajamas watching it snow and eating fresh tortillas and green chilis…all in all, a pretty good morning! The day continued on in a lazy non site-seeing fashion with movies and card games. It was a nice break from being on the road.

Our final push to the coast remained ahead of us. After a day of rest and belly full of tortillas and chilis, we were ready to go experience the rest of the parks in Utah – on a quest to fine those famous Utah bees!