higher ground

Starting your day with a hearty meal is important. Starting your day with a home-cooked meal from Amy is a total treat. She cooked a wonderful breakfast (read: brunch) of poached eggs, spinach, and an English muffin topped with a delicious cheese sauce (an unexpected improvisation for unsuccessful hollandaise – turned out to be a happy accident). Add a side of wonderful oven-roasted potatoes and I couldn’t have been happier. I can’t wait to be the recipient of many future cooking successes and failures. After the enjoyable meal and lengthy clean-up session we headed upstairs to pack and ready ourselves for the road that was awaiting us. We said goodbye to Alana and Steve (thanks for everything), hopped in the newly organized and cleaned car, and headed for Kanab, UT.

Admittedly, I have a Slurpee addiction. Since living in Kentucky does not afford me the luxury of this treat, it was imperative to me to start the next leg with one of in hand. I’m happy to say it was a success. It only takes about 10 minutes to leave the lights of Vegas behind. And from there, it’s nothing but amazing. The views were stunning and it made the 5-hour drive seem like only 3. We lost an hour due to the time change, but I guess that was to be expected. We made it to Kanab around 9:30pm and checked in to the Quail Park Lodge. During the planning phase of the road trip (i.e. my unemployed days) I found Kanab – a small town that would allow us enough time to mosey out of Vegas and sleep in before the drive to Four Corners National Monument. The accommodations were a retro style motel with a neon sign. Check in was so pleasant that I had a feeling that I had made a good choice. The attendant was helpful and suggested a restaurant for us. Utah closes early; he advised us to head there sooner than later. I’m thankful we took his advice. Rocking V Café was a pleasant surprise (I think Kanab was too). We were delighted by the menu options and had a really nice meal there. We started with the polenta cakes that were topped with green chili sauce. The polenta was really nice and tasty – the cakes even got a little crispy on the outside (as they should be). The sauce was just ok for me, but we had no problem finishing them both. Next course was the soup that came with the main course. I got the tomato-basil soup and Amy got the Tuscan bean soup. Both good, but I liked mine better. (That being said, no tomato soup will ever compare to my mom’s.) The table bread was a soft rosemary focaccia with a balsamic dressing spread – interesting, but I preferred it dipped in the soup (apu). Four my main course I ordered the black bean and corn tacos (only because they used mole in the mixture and I am a complete sucker for mole done right). Oh, and the jicama slaw was a huge selling point. I was so excited to have more than a couple vegetarian options in a small Utah town. Amy got the buffalo meatloaf special. It was wrapped in bacon and topped with their chili con queso and baby heirloom tomatoes, and rested upon mashed potatoes and a garlic sour cream. She really enjoyed her meal as well. We ordered their award-winning key lime pie (I know what your thinking, KLP in Utah?) to go.

We got back to our quaint lodge and settled in for a movie and relaxation (and key lime pie). We hadn’t turned on a television since our departure and it was nice to enjoy the entertainment in the comfort of our suite at the Quail Park Lodge. The key lime pie was fair-to-good. The movie (Away We Go) was great.

Kanab was a treasure. We did a lot of research on the city while we were at dinner and in our room. Turns out Kanab is home to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary and draws dog and cat lovers galore. I’m so glad that we made this a stop on the trip!

Joellen