Early in the week I didn’t feel real good so I took it easy, did a few short hikes with Abbey, did laundry, cleaned the RV and did other exciting things like that. Tommy arrived early Thursday morning and we kicked off his visit with a stop at the venerable Moab Diner. He had been salivating over one of their breakfast burritos ever since he booked his flights to come out, and the diner did not disappoint. I had rented bikes for a couple of days so after breakfast we did a nice warmup ride to a place called Gemini Bridges, where there are two, you guessed it, natural bridges. It was also convenient that the ride was mostly downhill except for one killer climb at the end. It was a good way to start the trip. The next day we decided for a little more ambitious of a ride, even though the guys at the bike shop seemed to think it would be fairly easy. We started up in Canyonlands NP and right in the beginning we rode down some very steep switchbacks dropping about 1000 ft. in a few miles. The views from the top were spectacular.
After lunch overlooking the Colorado River (see previous pic), we rode further out on a 4WD trail called the White Rim. It is actually a 100 mile loop, but we didn’t entertain the notion of doing the whole thing for even a second. We made it out to Musselman’s Arch where Tommy decided to show that he still had some of the guts of his youth by riding across the arch. The drop was well over a 100 ft. so I decided to just take pictures and leave the riding up to him. 
We underestimated the time it would take to get back to where we left my RV down by the river. There was no way we were riding up those switchbacks so we left his car at the top and my RV at the bottom as a shuttle. Unfortunately, the “easy” road down was about 10 miles and it actually had quite a few uphill parts with a lot of gravel. So it took quite a bit longer than we had hoped. All day Tommy would cruise by me on the downhills, but I usually beat him up the hills. Well, on this last stretch to the RV I was pretty proud that I beat him back by enough of a distance that I went and picked him up about a mile back. We were about an hour late returning the bikes but they didn’t say anything.
On Saturday we decided to take it easy and do a little hiking. We took Abbey up Negro Bill Canyon for the 3rd time since I had been there. It’s a great hike for her because there’s a creek the whole way and she has a ball running in the stream. After tiring her out in the morning with that five mile hike, we went up to Canyonlands again and did what we thought would be a leisurely scenic hike. About halfway through we met a group who had turned around because they lost the trail. Undaunted, and not wanting to go back the way we came, we pressed on and found where they made their mistake. Unfortunately, the way out was quite a steep climb out of the canyon we were in and our legs were really feeling it. Our rest day turned out to be 11 miles of hiking. 
So, on Sunday, we took a real rest day. We drove out to Goblin Valley State Park. We had no urge to do any of the short trails, but we did wander into the valley itself where the “goblins” were. They are actually strange stone formations that look like some kind of cartoon stone babies. 
At least, that was an alternative description that we had read. In any case, we took it easy and didn’t wander too far. It was a little warm so even Abbey didn’t want to wander.
We thought about renting bikes again on Monday but Tommy wanted to see Arches NP and I didn’t mind going back. I found out that Tommy is a closet geologist. I never saw anyone who was so awed and excited by rocks. OK, there not just any rocks. Utah really is a geological wonderland and Arches really is pretty amazing which was evidenced by the crowds on the trails. We even tried going back at sunset to get some pictures, but it clouded up right before the sun went down. 
We capped off his visit with some good food and beer at a place in town. If you’ve ever been to Utah you probably know about the strange, arcane alcohol laws they have. While waiting for our table we had a beer in the bar, which has to be completely separate from the restaurant. When our table was ready, the waitress had to carry our beers to our table. Seeing that she was pretty cute we really didn’t mind, but it was kind of funny. There are more strange laws, but I will spare you.
All in all we had a great visit and we didn’t even get a scratch from the biking. We both left all in one piece and I left with more “Tommy” stories that I hadn’t heard before. That’s one good thing. He always keeps you laughing, even though you might not be able to repeat some of the stories in mixed company.
