Stephanie: Ironman St. George

Last weekend was Rita's Ironman in St. George. And because I like to be supported when I need it, I flew out to support Rita in her time of need. Maybe I also was itching to leave the state and hang with Kristy for a day.

Kristy and I stayed with some of her brother's friends and when we noticed that they had 2 couches, we immediately pushed them together to make a "hot tub" a-la Zach Pond's house. Unfortunately, this tub was a great deal smaller than Zach's, so Kristy dubbed it "The Birthing Tub". Imagine the two of us sleeping in that thing. Also imagine legs and arms hanging off the sides while we slept for about 3 hours.

We had to get up at 5:15am to make it to the parking lot in time to catch the bus that took us to the startling line for Rita's race. The gun shot went off at 7am on the dot, right after the National Anthem was sung karaoke style in the early morning light. Then the scene looked a little like this...

...and this. I know for a fact that several people got hypothermia in that water. Brr!

a few hours later, we got a huge smile from Rita as she moved on to the second event.

And off she went to start on her 112 mile bike ride.

And then we were off on our 183 mile tour around southern Utah.
Aren't the mountains there beautiful?

Of course Kristy and I had to go to Colorado City. I've dressed like them before, so I wanted to see them with my own two eyes. So strange!

Turns out that people don't quite finish their houses there since it is a way to avoid paying taxes on them. Yet again, strange.

It was a Saturday morning, so we saw lots of people out and about. My boss says this looks just like it does in "Big Love." I guess I'll take her word for it. :)

Other than strange people in unfinished houses, there's nothing else to see in Colorado City, so we were off to Kanab and to Frontier Movie Town! Yeehaw!

Behind a little tourist shop there is a yard with old movie sets and props. Reminded me of Portugal Dos Pequenitos, but for Country Westerns or something.

"Go faster, Bessie!"

And maybe it is because I have "Gone With the Wind" on my mind, but I fear that I look a little like Belle Watling in this photo.

Kristy enjoyed the porch and watching her cows go out to pasture...

And all I could think was that I was making Rachael jealous, by being dead.
(inside joke? was it funny for anyone but me or rachael?)

Ok enough silly pictures from Frontier Movie Town and Kanab. Westward, ho! On to the Moqui Cave. I guess the cave was once a bar/dancehall in the 50's. Now it is a museum that pays respect to one of its previous owners, Garth Chamberlain. His son Lex now owns the cave and he has a lot of artifacts such as dinosaur tracks, glowing rocks, and other family memorabilia. Nice people, those Chamberlains.

The next stop on our tour was at Zions National Park. I didn't look at the map closely enough to realize that we had to drive through Zions to get to our next destination, but it was a super bonus that we got to drive through. Kristy had never been, and the last time I went was about 8 years ago, and I didn't remember just how amazing it was. What a beautiful place. If you haven't been, go. And here we are, looking our finest. (remember - 3 hours of sleep, no showers, up since 5:30, etc.)

Going west from Zions back to St. George, you drive through the town of Springdale, which was next on our stop. Bumbleberry Pie was something we both wanted to try. Don't ask what a bumbleberry is - something to do with fairies and giggling huckleberries. We even heard someone calling it bumblebee pie on our way out. This lady who served us the pie was quite upset that I wanted vanilla ice cream with my pie instead of bumbleberry ice cream. Lady, have you ever heard of bumbleberry overkill? :)

But it was delicious.

On our way back into St. George we stopped at the Historical Museum in Hurricane, Utah. The most disgusting/awesome thing in the museum is this piece of 103 year old fruit cake. Not even kidding. It was made in 1907 and apparently is here in the museum to show you how resilient fruit cake is? Or maybe to convince you never to eat it? Maybe they should be having a competition between a McDonald's Happy Meal and the Hurricane Fruit Cake. Wow.

And back to St. George to see Rita at mile 13 of her marathon. Still smiling. Since we are both at home now, we have laughed about how much caffeine she had that day because as she ran by us at mile 13, she yelled at us that she wanted us to all come over that night to hang out. hahaha. Let me just say that after running a marathon, I was not asking people to come over. hahaha! Rita is so awesome.

Cafe Rio for dinner and then back to the finish line to see her bring it home. 14 hours and 59 minutes of competition. And here she is, smiling and high-fiving the spectators as she crosses the finish line. SOOOOO amazing. She put in the hours, people. Only missed 1 workout the entire time she was training. And she didn't have just 1 workout a day - it was always at least 2. Can you believe that? Yep, she's awesome.

Here is our group of cheerleaders after Rita finished. Somehow this is the only photo of the poster Uzi and I made. But it was seen by Rita several times. :)

Sunday morning I decided at the last minute to go to the Grand Canyon. I mean - it is on my bucket list, and my flight wasn't until about 9pm that night out of Vegas. I was up and at'em at 6am Sunday morning and by 11am, I was looking at this. And yelling expletives, as previously mentioned.

I think my mom was sad that I wasn't there sharing it with anyone, but there were strangers there who took my photo. Plus, although you can't tell from the photo, it was snowing. And it was freezing. I did not want to be out of the car any more than necessary. May in Arizona and it was freezing. Yep. Believe me.

Then of course I pulled over at Flinestone-ville or Bedrock, or something on my way to Vegas because why wouldn't you? It is a hotel and little tourist stop. I didn't pay to go in, but I maybe should have. Maybe I'd like to stay at the hotel one day. Just because that would be hilarious.

And a few hours later, I was at the Hoover Dam, stuck in traffic for more than 3 hours. Damn traffic, I tell you! Seriously though - we were at a standstill for more than an hour, so I made friends with the car behind me and took a nap. Since I'm friendly like that. And when the traffic started to move, they came and knocked on my window and told me to wake up. Friendly people in Arizona. There is a new bridge being built over the damn dam to help traffic move faster, which is pretty necessary considering all the tourists and that it is BY FAR the fastest way to get from Arizona to Las Vegas. 'Bout time, people. 'bout time.

I was glad that I had driven fast enough to be able to put 3 extra hours into my schedule on Sunday and make it to the airport on time for my flight.

A few lessons I re-learned this weekend:

Rita is amazing.
Kristy is hilarious. We have the best time together.
I run into people I know EVERYWHERE I go.
Cheering for people based on what they are wearing is always the way to go. Screaming "Way to go deep V-neck tank!" or "Keep it up backwards visor!" can keep you entertained for hours. Thank you to Scott Porter for helping me see the light with that.

PS - here are some more photos that Ann took if you'd like to see more of how awesome Rita is. I know you do. Here are the rest of Uzi and I's photos if you'd like to look at them too.