Road Trip: Cedar City

(April 24rd, 2007)








I'm not sure exactly how todays road trip started. I'm quickly running out of days before my lease ends and it feels like there's a ton of stuff to take care of and not much time to do it. You'd think I'd be a little better at it by now, but this happens every time I move. Packing up your life and fitting it into the back of your car is about as easy as it sounds.

Anyway, nothing was going right this morning. The list of things to do kept getting longer and every time I tried to get something done I'd run into more problems and end up adding more things to the list. I wasn't in the greatest moods and during lunch I decided that it was time to forget about everything and just get out of Park City. Southern Utah is waiting for me and I'm supposed to be having fun!

Sadly, a hasty departure is pretty much guaranteed to mean I'll forget a few important things. So far it looks like all I've forgotten is a pillow and my hiking shoes. I'm not sure how my feet are going to handle hiking in my casual shoes, but it's a small price to pay.

With Park City in my rearview mirror things immediately brighten up. I've driven through several state and I have to say Utah is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The drive south along the Wasatch mountain range is beautiful. Snow dusted peaks gradually give way to the red Earth below them, creating a stark contrast as you move south.

The drive to Zion National Park (my first destination) is nearly 5 hours. Since I didn't leave until after lunch I decided I'd stop after about 4 hours, spend one night in a cheap motel, then push on to Zion in the morning. Which is how I arrived at Cedar City, Utah.

Looking at the map, Cedar City is 4 hours south of Park City and appears to be one of the larger towns in southern Utah. Having spent a night there I'm not sure of that anymore, there's nothing there. I pulled into a cheap motel around 7:00pm a little hungry and saw a faded sign for "Pancho and Lefty's Mexican Cantina" which promised the best mexican food in all of Cedar City. With a name -- and a claim -- like that, I felt compelled to give them a visit. After checking in (and discovering that the motel had free wireless!) I made the trek to Main Street to try and find this Pancho and Lefty's.

I passed back and forth through down town about 4 times (I told you it's not very big) and couldn't find any Pancho and Lefty's. The closest thing I could find was Lefty's Hideout, which I decided would be my backup plan. It turns out that Lefty's Hideout was pretty much the only option as most restaurants close between 8:00 and 8:30! I could already tell that this town was a happening place. So I trudged back to Lefty's only to find out that it was Pancho and Lefty's but they had to change the name for some reason that the waitress didn't understand. Also, it was 8:45 at night and I was the only person in the restaurant. Secondly, a big sign out front said this place was a cantina, but there was no bar to be found. And thirdly, this was the absolute worst mexican food I'd ever eaten. I won't go into details, but it was an adventure.

About halfway through my meal, as I'm quietly cursing my fate for choosing chimichangas because the waitress recommended them, I realize something: I'm in the middle of nowhere Utah. Tomorrow morning I'll wake up and can go where ever I want for as long as I want. Can life get any better than this? No, I don't think it can. So I happily finished my meal and warily asked the waitress where I might be able to get a beer and watch the basketball playoffs. Her response:

"Well the Playhouse is pretty trashy." (No kidding! I drove past it twice and was convinced it was a run down strip club. With a name like "The Playhouse", a big sign out front that says "pool - dancing" and the windows conspicuously drawn closed, how can you blame me? Moving on...) "And I heard the 900 Club wasn't doing very well." (True again! Drove past there and all the lights were out.)

"Are those the only bars in town?" I ask. "Well there's Celebrity's, which is off Main St. Last time I was there someone got drunk and fell down the front stairs. They had to bring an ambulance. So I guess if I had to pick one, I'd probably choose Celebrity's."

What a glowing review. I ended up going to The Playhouse, mostly because it was the closest. And, just my luck, there was a pool tournament so there were actually patrons there. Well, 8 guys, to be exact. And they were all smoking. I can't remember the last time I was in a bar where anyone was smoking, let along everyone.

But I was there, so I watched some pool and enjoyed myself. The highlight of the evening was when too locals nearly got in a fight because one guy thought the other was being too distracting while the first guy was shooting his shots. After things calmed down a bit the next half hour was filled with gossip (didn't know a room of 8 could create gossip) as people quietly argued over who was in the right and what should have been done. Entertaining all around.

Sadly, this is Cedar City and in Cedar City the bars close at 11:00pm. So it was back to the motel where I enjoyed a night of cable TV and wireless Internet. My last night of luxuries before a week of camping. :)