DAY 17

An errand post: notes about finances and a plea to leave comments.

Alas, we only stayed at Happy's one night. We were a little frustrated with ourselves--why did we bail so early? Basically, we were too drained to work and too used to our routine of complete independence; we felt odd and slightly stuck residing in another person's home doing their chores. For me, I missed our tent, missed simply lounging at our campsite and reading in mid-afternoon, knowing that I literally had no obligations.

So, we left. Since it was already getting late and we had no real destination in mind, we decided to drive back up to Sedona for the night and figure out where to go the next morning.

And here is where I want to explain to you our ways of thinking when it came to finances. As you've probably realized, Nic and I are very frugal, minimal people. In total, we only spent $800 each on the road, which includes food, campsite/park entrance fees, and gas money. Looking back at the experience, we may have been a little too cheap; it took me a good day and a half to rationalize a vitamin water I bought at a gas station, and Nicole would scoff every time a mocha-iced coffee would be upwards of $3.

Still, we had a system. Throughout the trip, our parents were very generous when it came to lending us some extra cash for either our safety or comfort. For example, there was an instance where the only campsite we stayed at in Albuquerque was in a dangerous area; the night we slept there a bunch of motor-bikes were stolen ( I guess the barbed wire surrounding the site didn't phase us at the time). Since it was the only campground around, my mom said she would pay for us to check into a nice hotel the following night, rather than taking the chance of someone coming in and either viciously murdering us or stealing our gas stove. Another example: due to the only fight we had over a lack of showers, Nic's mom graciously deposited $30 into her account so we could treat ourselves to some comfort food to get over the quarrel.

So, this is how we thought: Mom payed for a hotel room? That saves us a good $20 we would have spent on a campground! Now, we can use that money to go have breakfast at a diner, rather than eat oatmeal. The check was only $15? We still have $5; let's get coffee tomorrow before our long drive. Your dad gave you twenty-bucks? Let's put that toward a motel room; now, the room is only "$30," rather than $50, which means we're only spending $15 each, which is only a few extra dollars than what we would each pay to split a campsite! But-- remember the time we slept in that state park for free? That free night covers the extra bucks we spent on the hotel room. Therefore: hotel room and diner breakfast= totally rational.

Get it?

In other news, feel free to comment on the posts. DO IT. Please? This whole blogging thing is still very new to me and I don't know if I like it yet. Sometimes I think that I am only writing to myself, which would be really odd since this is a public site. So leave a comment! Constructive criticism accepted, a statement of praise and astonishment highly encouraged. Or you can just say hi or tell me a joke. Also, you can become a "follower" if you want. I don't really know what the purpose of this is, but it makes me feel popular. And since this blog is a self-indulgent public-sphere of my thoughts of my trip, it really is all about me, right?

DAY 16

"I'm sick of being a nomad."

That's what Nic told me when we woke up one morning in our forest outside of Flagstaff. I agreed with her; I was sick of putting up camp every other day, always figuring out where to drive to, where to sleep. To remedy this, we drove to Prescott, AZ, to wwoof at a farm we contacted: Happy Oasis. Our original plan was to stay there for five or six days-- sleep in beds and have meals cooked for us in exchange for our labor.

Rather than going over the whole story, I'll just provide some photo-commentary.

OK. Here is Happy Oasis. Yes-first name Happy, last name Oasis. Conveniently, her farm is also called Happy Oasis. Coincidence? I'm not one to judge.

Oh, also, her face isn't deformed. We had just finished putting clay masks on our faces. Talhu decided to cleanse his face as well:

So here's Talhu. He apparently likes clay masks and wearing sunglasses indoors. He has been living at Happy Oasis for a few months, working in exchange for room and board. There were also three Christian bicyclists staying at Happy's, who have been biking around the US for thirteen years. They were staying at Happy's until God told them where to bike next.

This is the farm. Happy lives in the middle of rocks. AKA, not much farming to do. Instead, I bleached a pool in the 100 degree heat and applied sealer to the surrounding pool tiles. Nic prepared raw-vegan oatmeal for everyone and transplanted arugula plants. Unfortunately, all the transplanted plants didn't like being uprooted (ha!) and passed away.

Here is where Nicole slept. Nice, right?

Did I mention that Happy Oasis is a raw-vegan farm? That's right, we were only fed raw food. This is what we had for dinner: assorted vegetables and mashed sunflower/sesame "hummus" wrapped in a leaf. MMM. (Where's my steak? Boiling potatoes doesn't count?) We also had celery smoothies the next day for lunch. That's right. After bleaching a pool that was becoming filled with my own sweat, I nourished myself with celery.

I may be sounding a bit bitter, but we did have a good time. Here is us posing for our "broccoli cult" picture. We also sat in the bathroom one night and talked about how one of the Christian bicyclists changed her name from Brittany to Shalamede after a bout with meth at age 14.

Maybe if we went to Happy Oasis earlier in our trip, we would've been up for more work, more celery smoothies. But granted, we were tired, Arizona was hot (who knew?) and the farm work wasn't really what we expected. So yeah, we didn't stay the planned 5-6 days, thus continuing our nomadic lifestyle.

DAY 14&15

Arizona: meeting friends younger than sixty and a sunny hike in Sedona

Flagstaff ended up being both a fun and funny experience. When we were walking around town, we acquired one of those big touristy maps (you know, the colorful ones with all the cartoons and bubble letters) and spread it out in the middle of the town square. Soon after, three gentlemen came over to us and asked if we knew of anything fun going on, since they weren't from the area. We replied no (duh), and so they asked us if we wanted to explore the town later and maybe get a drink or two. Later on, I realized their scheme was a pretty poor attempt in simply asking for our numbers. After all, we were gushing over a huge map of Flagstaff at the time..... we certainly weren't locals. I don't do well with "signals."

We had a good time, though! They asked us to get dinner beforehand, but our schedule was pretty full. First off, we had to set up camp in our forest. Here she is!

Then we had to do something about the fact that we hadn't showered in a few days. We could take an eight-minute shower at the campgrounds for $4, but that was obviously way out of our budget. Instead, we filled up our jerry-jug with water at the tap and took sponge baths. Same concept, and now we were $4 ahead of the game! After clean, we had to go grocery shopping to stock up on essentials. We got the usual invigorating foodstuffs: bread, salsa, rice, cookies, vegetables.

Our night out was fun; our new-found friends were in no way creepy or aggressive. It was actually really interesting to talk to them, as they grew up in a totally different environment from the all-competitve east-coast. They didn't have college degrees, yet seemed to be content, intelligent, and financially comfortable. They had different goals for themselves. Even better, they bought all the drinks! Rest assured, we were also responsible; can't forget that we have to drive back to our sleeping bags in the forest.

The following day was..hot. Very hot. So what do we decide to do? Go for a hike at noon in Sedona. So smart! We almost ended up doing a 5 mile loop (another Moab mishap), but an elderly couple told us the direction we were heading was going to probably lead us to dehydration. So we turned around.

DAY 14

Escaping the desert...in Arizona?

We woke up the next day here: the sun was out and we finally felt rejuvenated, ready to tackle a new state. With hindsight, I almost wished we stayed in Canyonlands another day. We barely tapped into the National Park; it's actually quite huge. We were staying in the Needles District (named so because many of the rocks resemble needles), but the park also includes Island in the Sky, Horseshoe Canyon, and the Maze District. What is even more provocative is there are no roads that link the districts, and much of the park is only accessible via foot. Still, we were eager to move on, to keep increasing our car mileage and opening our eyes to new surroundings.

I wouldn't change a thing about our trip, but I think when I go on my next USA adventure, I might pick two or three main destinations and stay there for an extended period of time-- really get to know an area. For our trip, we sort of just skimmed surfaces, visiting a variety of places and comparing first impressions. Interacting with mountain men, native americans, and southern sweethearts all in one week. America 101. This is not a bad thing, it's just a different way to go about traveling.

Enough of that. After a hearty breakfast of ..oatmeal, we said goodbye to our elderly friends that were camping out next door, and continued south. At this point of our trip, we really didn't have a plan, so we started playing the game "let's look at a map and pick where to go next." When we played this particular morning, we saw that Flagstaff AZ had several major highways intersecting the town, and there were many little tents pictured, indicating camping availability. "Flagstaff" was even written in bold. It seemed like a promising place to visit.

It took us about five or six hours to reach the town, and when we saw that initial "welcome to flagstaff!" sign, I began to silently panic. I looked to my left: A Target. Grocery Store. Strip Mall. To my right: KOA Campsite filled with bikers. Another strip mall. A car dealership. I was scared that Flagstaff was nothing but a Jericho Turnpike, that our bolded (!) town was only a place to buy produce, throw pillows, and BMW's. Luckily, I was wrong. As we kept driving, we found ourselves in a quaint, culturally rich town. We walked around for a little while and asked for camping suggestions. A friendly barista told us about a national forest about 10 miles outside of Flagstaff. A forest?! Trees! Woodland! In Arizona! We had to go.

More on that in the next post. Until then, here is the map. Unlike the last map written on the back of a receipt, this one was actually correct. So, if you just caaaan't wait to hear all about this next camping adventure, feel free to use the map and go yourself.

DAY 13

Canyonlands: Flintstone Land or Surface of the Moon?

While Nicole and I took the previous day to rest up and reenergize, we soon learned that one day may not have been enough. We got up after sleeping for a modest, uh, 13 hours, and then hit the road with the map that our friendly waiter so kindly drew out for us (pictured in last post). As you can see, there is only one road--300 South--which was supposed to lead us to a back way into the national park.

Turns out that 300S was the wrong road. After many confusing twists and turns, we found ourselves at the Monticello visitor center (yeah, I wondered why there was one too) and were given proper directions.

We made it into the park and set up camp. It began to rain so we hung out in the car and read, and proceeded to fall asleep for three hours. We woke up sometime in the afternoon, and felt it was necessary to hike at least a few miles around Canyonlands, despite our definite delirium. And the rain.

We walked two trails, one that was a little over a mile, and another that was three and change. We saw some cave art, Asian tourists, and a landscape that curiously resembled the surface of the moon (see picture above). With hindsight, our surroundings were particularly enjoyable and unique. Yet, we were just too tired, too out of it. We began to believe we were situated in Bedrock, and started pointing out needles and fins in the distance and deeming them the Flintstone post-office, bank, hospital, etc. Get my drift?

When we returned back "home" to our tent, the rain started to come down harder. We found refuge back in our car and finished eating our chocolate chip cookies, which now tasted like onions (they were nestled next to each other in our cooler). Then, I took a video to capture the delirium. Unfortunately, blogspot does not want to cooperate and upload the movie, and I am not really up for "reporting the error." Maybe it will work in the next post.

Cheers!

DAY 12

Rest

In twelve days, Nic and I managed to clock somewhere around 2,500 driving miles and 50 or so hiking miles. We set up and took down camp eight times, and became terribly sick of everything peanut-butter. We had a shower at our disposal every three days or so, and soon learned that a drastic change in altitude is not something one adapts to immediately.

So when we woke up, day twelve in Moab, Utah, we were tired.

To make matters slightly more uncomfortable, it was raining. Hard. And for those that have camped when it has rained all night and into the morning, you know that it's not particularly enjoyable. For those that haven't, I'll let you in on a secret: it's not particularly enjoyable. We got out of our tent- sore, cranky, and wet- and proceeded to get our electric water heater so we could boil hot water in the car. We plugged it into our fancy-electrical-output-connection-thingy, and fail. Didn't work. So we went outside and boiled water on our gas stove, in the rain, and ate our oatmeal in the car. Afterwards, we got out to quickly pack away our tent and guess what! One of the stakes snapped!

Rather than freaking out, Nic and I remained level-headed and made a plan. We knew we wanted to spend a few more hours in Arches before heading to Canyonlands, another National Park about an hour south. We decided we would drive around the park and sight-see from the car to save energy. Totally not lame if you're feeling like how we were. Then we would go back into town and go to a laundromat, because yes--our clothes were still full of red dirt, and we were running out of underwear. Then, we were going to get our tent repaired at a camping goods store. Then, then(!), we were going to....book a hotel. Yes. Stay a night in Monticello, a small town near Canyonlands, so we could take showers, sleep in a bed, and refuel.

Check, check, and check. Clothes clean, tent fixed, and two girls in a $45 hotel room fully equipped with mattress and tub. We arrived at Monticello at 4pm and immediately crashed. We woke up three hours later and contemplated getting our stove from the car and making soup in our room. But at the rate we were going, why not keep "pampering" ourselves? We drove into Monticello (population 1,958), and found a place to eat. I had the most amazing bacon cheeseburger ever. I forget what Nic had, but I know it came with really delicious fries. Then our waiter drew us a map so we could easily get ourselves to Canyonlands the next morning (more on that in the next post). We left, and found ourselves back in bed, asleep by 9pm.

DAY 11 cont.

The Beauty never ends

You would think after what felt like a never-ending climbing battles against rocks, our calves would call it quits for the day. Nah. One of the most sought-out hikes in Arches is up to Delicate Arch, which is a little over three miles round trip. After resting in the afternoon and having chocolate chip cookies and soup for dinner (?), we conveniently timed a trek to Delicate Arch just as the sun was setting.

Before we saw the arch though, we had to climb up this:

And then we saw this:

And, finally, this:

And since Delicate Arch was so beautiful, we tried to be an arch ourselves. I'd say we were pretty successful.