Utah Road Trip: Day 4: Canyonlands; Canyonlands to Capitol Reef

 

Quite the Catch

 

This Muffler Man is quite the catch because he is located on private property (technically) but is also right beside the very busy 405 Freeway in Carson (south of L.A.). Fortunately, he is beside an on-ramp AND I have the very best (and most patient) personal driver who goes out of his way to ensure that I get the shot. Yay!

Big Josh

 

(Yes, that's his name, apparently!) He is, of course, in Joshua Tree. He is one of the most well-maintained Muffler Men we've seen...

Dino Time

 ...because you can't drive on the 10 past Cabazon without stopping to see the dinos.

(Although I did prefer them in their "natural" colors. As my friend put it, "That's just embarrassing for those dinos." Indeed. The pink one does look a bit disgruntled...)

Salton Sea: Along the Way

 We made a trip to the Salton Sea. (If you don't know the strange saga of the Salton Sea, definitely Google it!)

We haven't been in a long time, and this time we went specifically to see birds: it's a winter migratory flyover.

Along the way, we came upon this: the International Banana Museum. So marvelous!

 Look at the banana on top of the Banana Man's head! And he appears to light up!

 Banana yellow car.

 Not sure what's going on here...

 And I think they might need a new sign!

 Bananas. Bait. Ice. Beer.

 And the dancing date shake man!

Route 66 Road Trip Day 10: Homeward Bound

Kingman, Arizona, to Hesperia, California, then home (boo, but also yay!).

 Umm...why?

 On the road--a windy, twisty, two-lane road--to Oatman.

 We started off way down there on the desert floor...

 You climb up and up...and then wind back down to Oatman, famous for its "wild" (now exceedingly tame) burros. Allegedly these are the descendents of burros used by miners when Oatman was in its heyday. It is now a rather ticky-tacky touristy place...but the burros are very cute and quite sweet.

This burro did NOT read the message about staying off of the boardwalk.

 Fun with stickers...

 This is Route 66 west out of Kingman, one of the very prettiest drives, especially this time of year with the spectacular wildflowers everywhere. It is, in fact, a designated National Scenic Byway.

 All along the way there were hundreds of these stacked rock sculptures/cairns.

 This is a spot in the road called Goffs.

 Ludlow, where we stopped for pie (sort of good) and coffee (undrinkable, perhaps because there was a notice posted on the cafe warning of higher than normal levels of arsenic in the drinking water...).

 The world's largest fire helmet, in Barstow.

 Amazing amount of snow on the mountains in March...

 Muffler Man #10, in Mentone, in a yard with lots of stuff in it (it can't compare to the yard full o' stuff in Glendale, though...).

And so the trip ends...

It was incredibly fun--so many cool/wacky/beautiful/melancholy places! We hiked, we photographed, we ate ice cream, and we got to spend uninterrupted (relatively unplugged) time together. Heaven!