After a beautiful day of hiking and admiring the amazing landscapes found in Bryce Canyon, Stella treated us to a little evening entertainment: a modern-day hoedown of sorts. If you’re staying at the Best Western, you pay full price to go to Ebenezer’s Barn and Grill. But if you camp, they give you discount coupons.  Growing up I’ve attended several types of dinner shows, including Medieval Times and a country western dinner show near Jackson Hole. But Stella had not yet relished in these cheesy American past times and was understandably intrigued. She bought our tickets and we got ready after thawing out in the hot tub. 

We hopped aboard the train which took us through the campground and the Best Western, across the street to the shops, and on to the dinner show. It was still early so we told the conductor that we wanted to go for another ride. It was ridiculously exciting… okay, now I’m just exaggerating. However, the conductor was so cute as he blew the horn and yelled something to the effect of ‘All Aboard’ as we passed stops on the route.

Since we had already purchased our tickets, when the doors opened, we got a table right on the first row near the stage. We met the other people at our table- a Dutch couple that are taking an RV around the Western US for six weeks, a retired Arizona couple who travels frequently, and a retired Welsh couple who told me how broke they were when they got married because they spent all of their money on travel. Yes, these were my kind of people. They had some pre-show entertainment and then had an organized system for everyone to get their food. Once seated with our cowboy-style dinner, the show began.

Stella and I had an enjoyable evening. The food was fantastic, and the show was just what we expected. And, we were definitely sad when it ended because that meant it was getting closer to camping out in the cold again. We didn’t want to do it. We went back to the hotel to hot tub and stopped in the gift shop. We started talking to one of the nice older ladies that works there and she invited us to stay in her guest bedroom. It was so thoughtful of her and she told us that she’s met some of her closest friends from working in the gift shop. Unfortunately, she lives in a town 30 minutes away and we wanted to leave early the next day to go on to Zion. We had to politely decline. We soaked in the hot tub for quite some time. We showered and changed, debating whether we could just sleep on the couches in the back lounge of the hotel so we didn’t have to camp out in the cold.

Just then, our nudist friends walked by that we met the day before. They were late coming to the hot tub, because not only was it her birthday, but the couple also got engaged! That’s right- these crazy kids decided to go for it. We exchanged stories about our day spent hiking, about how they shopped for her ring weeks ago, and the fact that they’re keeping the engagement from their children, for now. We exchanged contact info and they invited us to a nudist body painting festival in Florida (though they assured us that we could go fully clothed).

And that, my friends, is how we wrapped up our quick stay in Bryce Canyon. Have you met any  interesting characters on the road that left you fascinated and inspired? (No, I have no plans of becoming a nudist but these people really knew how to enjoy life!)