This is a friendly town.  It is full of energetic young people who are into healthy living and exercise of all kinds, but especially the out-of-doors.

Consequently, the town is full of interesting places to shop, eat, and just hang out.  We've had breakfast twice in a little restaurant appropriately called the "Eclectic Cafe".  In one way, it is a leftover from the 60's, but also carries some real antiques!  The food is great; the coffee choices can stand up to Starbucks any day.

Then there is the Moab Coffee Roasters:  organic, free trade coffee, with some light food offerings like organic tomato-with-lentil soup.  They also carry an amazing collectionof batiks from Indonesia, all made for the 20-30 somethings, of course.

Moab Brewery features their own beers and an interior decoration made up of every outdoor sport known to man or woman.  It's a hangout for the young, but the food is delicious and the beer great.

The Old Geezers sell their own sausage, as well as some of the finest cuts of meat any where.  Oh, and organic, free-range fresh turkeys for Thanksgiving.

The Book Store is a favorite of mine (I HAVE to stop buying books; I've already had to ship a big box of them to my daughter's to keep for me).  I like to just go in and browse and talk with the salespeople.  Remember Carolyn Seymour's wonderful book store?  This is just as friendly.  They have coffee, of course, and a hot spot for lap tops, and some art supplies.  They are knowledgable about the area and are willing to chat when not too busy.

Today, I went into the "general store", which has everything one could wish for, except for food.  I bought a dish drainer to replace the one we inadvertantly baked in the oven, a hand vac to try to get ahead of the Snuggle-hair, and three men's hankerchiefs ( Dave REFUSES  to use Kleenex).  There wasn't too much I couldn't have purchased there; and attached to this store (named Walker's Drug Store, by the way) is a True Value, in case you are in the market for heavy duty hardware.

I also stopped in at St. Francis' yard sale.  I had hoped to find an old metal dish drainer there for pennies, but all they had was a plastic one.  As I've already baked two of those in the oven, I passed it up for the metal one at Walker's Drugs.

On the way home, I picked up another pound each of the wonderful bacon and sausage and ground round from the Old Geezer's.  When Dave wakes up from his nap, I will grind some more of the Anaconda Dark Roast coffee beans I also got today.

Did you get the heavy stress on organic, free trade?  This is the area for all of that, plus homemade, handmade anything and everything.  Now, I have to have some of that coffee I've been talking about.  It is still in the low 40's, even in the bright sun, and coffee is called for.  Besides, I can't just sit here and smell it; I have to have some!