ROADSIDE AWAKENING
By Cathy Free
Photography: VisitUtah.com
When I was 16, my mother decided that a 105-degree day with no cloud cover was the ideal time to go see the Grand Canyon in her Plymouth Duster with black interior and no air conditioning.
Halfway from Salt Lake City, with no money for a motel, Mom pulled off a red dirt road and spread out some blankets.
“Where will I wash my hair?” I asked. “What about spiders and snakes?”
“Never mind all that,” my mother said.
She handed me and my sister some peaches and a bag of cherries that she’d bought at a roadside stand for our late dinner. “Look up,” she told us.
The vast, starry sky overwhelmed us and we suddenly understood our small connection to its silver filaments.
Cathy Free is a Salt Lake City-based human-interest correspondent for The Washington Post, covering inspiring stories from coast to coast. She previously wrote features and columns for People magazine, Reader’s Digest and Utah newspapers.