I met a wonderful Professor of Psychology, Grant Corser in Dublin when he brought a group of his students on the 1916 Walking Tour. With his colleague Professor Gene, we hung around after and chatted. We briefly talked about a number of colleges I had visited in the US over the years and Grant said he’d like to look into getting me over to his university in Utah to give a talk.

I mentioned that I might be in Las Vegas in September so we worked around that date. Grant’s colleague, Professor Ryan Paul made contact and explained that they have a monthly speaker through their Eccles APEX Program and before long I found myself hiring a car for a road trip from Vegas to Utah.

Before I tell you about that, Professor Ryan is a historian and expert on Irish Literature too. He’s also a book collector, and loves his films and I knew when we had our first Zoom meeting to talk about coming to Utah, I’d found a new friend in the US.

So of course I hired the car (without Sat Nav) but it’s a fairly straight run from Vegas to Cedar City. I took a good few wrong turns but soon I was on the road. I was wishing I wasn’t driving though. The scenery was mind blowing. The incredible desert, the mountains, the big blue skies. On the right the Valley of Fire and soon enough the Grand Canyon.

It’s hard to take it in when there’s a line of 18-wheelers behind my slow driving ass, desperate to pass me. I was delighted to pull into Moapa River Indian Reservation. I went for some fuel and ended up chatting with a few of the Moapa people and of course they had very interesting stories and also wanted to hear all about Ireland too.

I only had a few hundred kilometres to drive but the sun was beating down and the scenery was so incredible that I would have been happy to drive all day.

The mountains in the image below are amazing. But as I was driving towards them I kept asking myself, “do I go around these or what?” Then all of a sudden the road brings you through this canyon and although I wouldn’t consider myself a nervous driver it was a hairy road. Trucks honking behind me, signs that said “beware of falling rocks,” a crazy drop on one side into Hell, the sloping road, the twists and turns. Crazy! I spoke to a few people about it in Cedar City later on and they told me a good few friends of theirs drive a different road to avoid it, so I didn’t feel too bad when I heard that. I’ve no pictures of it because I’d both hands on the wheel!!

The very best of a welcome when I arrived in Cedar City topped off with a visit to a great steak house with Grant and a few of the faculty!

There was a great turn out for the talk on Irish Revolutionary History. The Gilbert Great Hall as they call it, is massive. It looks like something from Game of Thrones. I would learn in time that SUU are heavily involved with Shakespeare and they’ve a replica of the Globe Theatre. They’ve a heap of bronze statues of characters from Shakespeare’s plays too.

After my talk I signed a few books too and had a chat with a few of the students. SUU has a very impressive set up and I was given a great tour of the campus from Professor Ryan.

The images above and the one below were taken by the SUU photographer.

Professor Ryan also has a radio show so I was a guest in the afternoon. They played five or six songs that mean a lot to me. I love that Back Home in Derry by Christy Moore and Factories by Damien Dempsey were broadcast over Southern Utah for an afternoon.

A good crowd from the faculty met up that evening for dinner. My friend Professor Grant, despite being a father of young children, kindly drove me up to the mountains to Cedar Breaks National Monument and nearby Brian Head. It’s beyond description. It’s so high up, the highest I’ve ever been. Around 11,000 feet if I recall. It was even a little hard to breathe! When the sun went down the stars were unbelievably clear. I never saw our Milky Way so clearly. It was incredible. I’d have spent the night looking at the stars but the problem was it was also freezing cold so if you’re ever lucky enough to get up that high make sure to bring your coat.

To all the great people I met in Utah, thank you very much for the great welcome, the chats and the tours. I hope to be back someday.