Mary Panttaja

Wednesday morning we bought a USA Today at a truck stop where we had a nice simple lunch. A few interesting articles—no impending catastrophic news about the Tour de France, thank goodness. (We’re traveling to help us get over our withdrawal from watching the tour.)

In the paper, I was shocked to see the large format weather map of the United States showing the high temperatures for the day. A few small yellow islands surrounded by orange and red. Everywhere. Orange and red range from the 80’s to the 100’s. The whole country was baking hot, except a few corners in the 70’s (including San Francisco).

Anyway, it was a little unnerving, knowing all the news about global warming and radical weather, a seeing such a uniform swelter holding sway over the country.

But today it’s sprinkling here in—where are we?—Vernal, UT, Dinosaur National Monument, and Palisade, CO—or at least overcast much of the day. Only 87 degrees.

Tomorrow we’re off to Moab and we’ll see how this moderating pattern holds up. Or not.