“Moab” sounds like it should be an acronym for something: Mother of all bombs? or buffets?

Stephanie called shotgun on using the computer when we got to Moab (I think her words were, “I’m going to hijack your computer”), so she’s already managed to do a brain dump on the trip so far: Sleep, eat, dance, hot tub, go!—including the chunk of today we spent getting here.

In order to keep things short and sweet (so that I may sleep), here’s a few of many pictures I took today on the road (aka driver’s seat photography) between Salt Lake City and Moab.

Which makes me think of that song by Band of Horses.

I’m not even sure if we’re going to end up seeing the Great Salt Lake. It was raining and SNOWING when I landed, so I didn’t really see much at all. Yesterday I hear it was hot here and folks were wearing flip flops. Today it’s very cold.

Stephanie’s been here since Wednesday night with Loose Change, her dance company. Last night was their first performance, and they say it went amazingly well. She thinks it’s even better than the version we saw in San Francisco in the spring. I’ll be heading over to the theater in a little bit to finally see it—with Stephanie in it—myself.

Then tomorrow: vacation.

I don’t know how the idea came about. I think I was just wondering aloud whether we couldn’t turn her Utah dance trip into a reason to visit some National Parks. I had a great time at Zion National Park as I was driving across the country, and wished I’d had more time to visit Bryce, Arches, and others.

The idea evolved, so we decided to fly into Salt Lake City (separately) and out of Las Vegas (together), visiting as many National Parks along the way as we could, and then finishing it off with a Cirque du Soleil show in Vegas. The lady at the rental car desk today wondered if we were going all the way to Vegas to get married. Funny, the idea hadn’t occurred to us before.

Other than our flights, the rental car, and the hotel tonight and in Vegas, we’ve got no plans in between, which is just the way I like it. We’ll see what happens.

Joy and Kyle contemplating a road trip:

But here’s the thing: We plan to be completely wired the entire time. As long as there will be cell phone coverage, we will be on the Internet and e-mail. We may even have a GPS with us.

I’m finding vacation auto-responders and voicemail away messages and statements like “I’ll be offline until mm/dd” increasingly strange. I mean, really, you’re going on some adventurous trip and you’re not bringing your cell phone/pda or a wireless laptop?

How would you blog? How would you look stuff up to do? What would you do without Google Maps??? Back in the day, that’d be the equivalent of not bringing a map. Or a compass.

The night before Stephanie and I left for North Carolina, I mentioned I’d be bringing my laptop, and she asked with an incredulity that I think surprised even her, “You are?” because she already knew the answer, even though it was such short trip. “Yeah, of course,” I thought to myself. I might want to work on something on the plane, or edit photos for the blog on the way home. Or maybe look something up at the hotel from the comfort of our room.

I could envision an uber-outdoorsy trip where I didn’t bring one (though I’d probably at least bring a cell phone), but this wasn’t that trip. In the end having it was instrumental in ensuring that we all got a decent plate of North Carolina barbecue for lunch on a Sunday in Chapel Hill.

For lunch on Sunday, Christy and Patrick agreed (without much arm-twisting) to accompany us out to a very important meal: North Carolina barbecue.

It was looking a little hairy for a moment when I discovered that my first choice, the excellent Barbecue Joint on Weaver Dairy Road was closed Sundays. It was they who catered me and Patrick’s joint birthday extravaganza back in 2004 (NSFV).

Allen and Son, not my favorite, but the closest location on The NC Barbecue Society Historic Trail was also closed.

So some quick googling brought up Bon’s Home Cookin’ which I’d only been to a time or two because they were located way out in Carrboro Plaza. But now they’re at University Square right in downtown Chapel Hill. Oh and they’re open till 3pm on Sunday.

It was a little silly that they don’t offer BBQ sandwiches on Sundays (no worries, I’m happy to order a plate), and I got some grief asking for pulled pork and not chopped pork as they list it on their menu, but that didn’t make it taste any less good.

Christy, Stephanie, and I all got chopped pork plates with a variety of sides, Patrick had fried chicken with some barbecue. Stephanie loved the hushpuppies. We went through two baskets. It’d be deadly with this place directly across the street from where I used to work.

The weather was incredibly beautiful and warm, so we walked to Carrboro, gave our respects to the Weave (trying to be good neighbors and all) and then headed back down Franklin Street to cool off at LocoPops. Lo and behold it was getting on 3pm (our flight was at 5), so we walked back to the car (bumped into Tim, Todd, and Niamh on the way), and said our goodbyes.

Common knowledge to those of you in Chapel Hill, but for everyone else, here are three glimpses of Carolina. On Saturday Stephanie and I walked through campus after lunch with Christy and Patrick. We started at the post office and headed towards Old West. Got drinks from the Old Well and then walked around South Building for the expansive view of Polk Place.

From there we walked through the quad past Manning Hall, where I spent 2+ years at SILS.

We walked past the Undergraduate Library, through the Pit, and into a very swankily redesigned Student Stores. Detail I loved the most: the new escalators (remember that old giant staircase?) have carolina blue rubber hand-holds.

We walked past Davis Library towards my first undergraduate dorm, Grimes, then through Coker Arboretum.

From there we walked past Spencer, where I lived for the last three years of undergrad, and finally to the Morehead Planetarium’s sundial before returning to our car.