On this trip, I'll be doing the driving

8/5/2008

On this trip, I'll be doing the driving
inside my shoes
By TAMMY MALGESINI
The Hermiston Herald

I don't want to die in Moab. That's what I told my husband, John, last year as he continued to drive on a treacherous road while exploring some of the back country outside the southeastern Utah town.

Now I must admit I may have contributed to John's hell-bent determination to forge on.

Shortly after we got off the main road he was driving very conservatively.

"You don't have to drive like a grandma, we have four-wheel drive," I said.

These words would come back to haunt me as the road conditions worsened and he was determined to find the Anasazi petroglyphs and hidden arch we were searching for.

We stumbled upon the town in the midst of red rock and desert 11 years ago. Our good friends, Mark and Teri Briley, had moved to Denver and we planned to visit them.

I routed our trip through Moab because I had matured enough to appreciate the beauty of our national parks. Arches and Canyonlands national parks are each within a stone's throw of the town situated in the midst of red rock country and desert.

As I was growing up, my family didn't have much money, so our family vacations consisted of piling into the car and camping - many times near one of the national parks in California.

After serving with the military police, my dad, Robert Stockman, was told he was too short to join the California Highway Patrol. After a stint as a truck driver, he went back to college to become a social studies teacher. At the time it felt like vacations were Stockman's Summer School.

As I was planning this summer's vacation, I pondered where we should go. John and I trade off as to who decides the destination and this year it was my turn.

After our second trip to the area, I recognized the negotiating power of the promise of a trip to Moab.

"This is a place I would be perfectly fine dying in," John proclaimed.

In order to save my precious vacation time, John is more than agreeable to packing up the truck with our luggage and equipment and driving - picking me up at a nearby airport.

I must admit, Moab and the surrounding area have grown on me. It's a virtual nirvana for outdoor enthusiasts with bicycling, off-highway vehicle exploration, white-water rafting, hiking, golfing, rock-climbing and rappelling.

Adding an ATV to our cache of toys, we set out to find the petroglyphs. Although they remained elusive, we did find a hidden arch and I didn't drive like a grandma getting there.
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Tammy Malgesini is a reporter for The Hermiston Herald. Readers may e-mail her at mailto:tmalgesini@hermistonherald.com