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Here are our current big rigs. We just added the Ford F150. It is huge, we will need to do some serious greening to offset this beast’s carbon footprint. It is another gas fueled vehicle for our family. We would have loved a diesel option, but for the time this is what we have.
In classic Jonathan style, the truck was modified soon after we brought it home. He didn’t like the extra details that the previous owner had added. There was a bug guard on the front, that had to go. There were running boards along the sides, which apparently were “too grandma-ish”. There were rain/wind shields over the windows, those were just silly to him. I was very surprised when I came outside after a few hours of Jonathan’s tinkering to find a stripped down and simplified version of the truck we purchased. It was just the way he liked it, and I have to agree it looked a lot cleaner.
Why, exactly do we need a truck? We have to get back to Idaho and haul all of our possessions out here. It needs to be able to pull a trailer, and make the road trip. Unfortunately our lovely VW can’t pull the load. The good news is that there is another road trip in our near future. We hope to take a week or more to take the trip, and will take the long way there in order to see some sights and climb some rocks. The travel time will be a little less luxurious than the ever spacious van, but we will just have to pack light and make due. I am angling for a canopy, but we’ll see.
We are also eager to start working on projects as soon as possible. We will need something to facilitate these endeavors, something that can haul lumber, metal, maybe some hay or livestock. Every farm needs a truck. Now that we have the truck we just need the farm.
We’ve thought a lot about what to do with the blog. We thought maybe it was only a blog about this road trip and so we just needed to retire it, but that thought alone made us both sad and unsettled. So we started thinking about maybe re-defining the blog. Start posting about everything and anything: food, love, culture, dreams, adventures, projects, musing, etc. We realized we’d be slamming the breaks on the momentum that this blog had built up over the trip. We didn’t want to turn a great hamburger joint into an amalgamation of American, Chinese, and Caribbean Cuisine all under one roof. So we’re leaving the title, which ‘thank you’ again Darren is a great one, and we’re going to stick to the same theme; except instead of writing about the massive granite walls of Yosemite, we’ll be exploring the vast openness, prairies, fields, lakes, and sunflowers of Kansas and Missouri. We’ll continue to play outside, to search for peaks and valleys, we’ll trade climbing for swimming, biking, and hiking. We’re inspired by Heather who is doing what she calls the ’12 for 12′, starting in the new year she’ll be entering one race each month of next year. I might adopt the baby sister of 12 for 12 and maybe pick the 2 for 12. If I do, I’ll write about that too.
This post marks a definite transition in the blog from road trip to life. It’s maybe a good time to reflect a bit, and thank our friends and family for the support that we’ve received throughout our road trip. Kristine and I didn’t have any idea that the blog would result in such a strong connection between our experiences and our friends and family. A connection that was stronger in the last three months than in the last three years for both Kristine and I. It’s something we have cherished and want to maintain. On our visits to town, to maybe post again, we’d get a chance to see the amount of traffic to our blog. That was the familiar nudge that escalated our commitment to the blog as well as our responsibility to it and its viewers. So, THANK YOU so much to all of our family and friends for the interest and ongoing support throughout our resignation at our very good jobs, the breezy and risky endeavor of the road trip, and CHEERS to the next chapter. We’ve loved sharing it all and will faithfully continue to do just that.
We’ll be continuing all the aspects of the blog that we’ve already developed: we’ll continue to post our portraits each week, we’ll keep the map of the road trip but make another map of Kansas and label it as we explore surrounding areas, the ‘General Delivery’ has changed to ‘Direct Address’. We still encourage paper, pencil, and stamp and want to continue to receive letters, postcards, pictures, etc. We’ll continue to make our own postcards and send them out throughout the year.
We don’t want to be too ambitious, although we often are, but we’re considering a seperate blog for documenting our projects and anything flavored with creativity. When and if this happens you’ll be the first to know. As always, hit us with any comments, suggestions, raving reviews, or anything in between.
Let’s face it, being sick isn’t any fun. In fact, when I am sick I don’t want to do anything. I certainly don’t want to do physical activities, or have to concentrate or think too hard. I just want to be warm, comfortable, and rest until I feel better. Well, that is the situation we found ourselves in at the tail end of our stay in Tucson.
Jonathan came down with a nasty cold. He is Mr Tough Guy though and indulged my desire to keep going. We left Tucson and headed for Cochise Stronghold. This is a beautiful area in the Dragoon Mountains with huge formations of pink granite. There are lots of multi-pitch climbing routes here, but no guide book in print. We found a few descriptions online, and a few in our Arizona climbing guide, but I think route finding (or making) would be part of the adventure out here.
We camped on the forest service road in the valley below Cochise Stronghold. We woke to a perfect day, except Jonathan wasn’t feeling any better. He didn’t have energy to hike or climb, and certainly not for the route finding or multi-pitch climbing we had planned. We both had books, so tried to rest and read awhile and just see how we felt. This didn’t last long. We needed a plan (and water). We drove into the nearest town to stock up & rejuvenate. The nearest town is Tombstone. We had a good time wandering the nostalgic streets, petting donkeys and goats in the free petting zoo, but we didn’t locate any food worth stopping for or a grocery store. We skipped the gunfight (they wanted $5/each to watch) and drove on. The next town had a grocery store. We picked up food, filled our water containers, and ate some bad Mexican food. Jonathan wasn’t feeling any better. If we couldn’t climb we wanted internet. This town had nothing. We agreed to not go back to Cochise Stronghold, primarily because there isn’t a town close by with decent food or internet & we needed some comforts of a home base.
We thought we would try out New Mexico. We didn’t really have a destination, we just planned on getting to a larger town to hang out for awhile until we were ready to climb again. We made it to Las Cruces, home of New Mexico State University. New Mexico was noticeably colder than Arizona. We found a comfortable coffee shop and were happy to hang out here for awhile. We stayed the night, did a quick driving tour of town and jumped back on the highway.
We still hadn’t come up with much of an agenda. We were just driving, hoping that at some point Jonathan would regain his energy and we could start to play outside again. There were a couple of problems with this. We were driving North, and in central New Mexico we hit snow. We weren’t equipped for playing in the snow. The other issue is that as we approached Albuquerque I started to come down with Jonathan’s cold. By the time we got there, I couldn’t get excited about getting out of the car. We walked around the old town center, which was nice but my energy and enthusiasm was lacking. I am not the good sport Jonathan was when I am sick.
We sat in the van and deliberated. We could stay in Albuqueque maybe a day or two until we regained health. We could keep driving North, Jonathan wanted to show me Colorado Springs. We could drive South to warmer weather, and maybe eventually find some climbing in NM or Texas. Or, we could just end the road trip and make our way to Kansas early. Kansas would mean sleeping in a bed, hot showers, all the comforts of home. It felt like a no brainer. I was ready. Jonathan agreed. We would eat dinner and start on the road to Kansas.
We put two hours into the drive which was all snow and ice. We passed a semi that had jack-knifed. I was nervous, we were tired, so we called it a night and camped at a rest area. We woke early the next day and were on our way. We stopped only for gas and food. We were on a mission now with home calling. We flew through Texas. There was something sad about Texas. Maybe it was small acre-sized pens packed with a dense sea of cows, while just outside their fence were vast open spaces. Perhaps it was a stretch in Texas when I was driving (Jonathan was napping) and I counted 22 dead deer along the road. We kept a steady pace, and soon enough we were passing through the red soils of Oklahoma, and then we crossed into Kansas. The last hour seemed the longest of the whole trip.
We made it. We pulled into the driveway and knew rest was near. We were home, this road trip was over, but new adventures await.
We left Red Rocks and headed South, straight to Tucson. The drive proved to be a pretty long day made longer by a delay due to construction at the Hoover Dam. We drove stopping only to make a quick soup for a late lunch. We arrived in Tucson late in the evening but our friends had waited to have dinner with us. Kim and Keith’s new pad was really nice. It was exciting to hear them talk about all the plans they already had for their new home. Benny was also there making a guest appearance for a couple days, and so we all sat down to some delicious homemade lasagna–Thank You Kim!
It felt a bit like we had arrived at home. Good friends and good food always make you feel that way but especially so for Kristine and I who welcomed the lost comforts we had left in Seattle.
We ended up spending a few days in Tucson. We went climbing at a crag on Mt. Lemon the day after we arrived–Kristine will have more on this. It’s the only time that pictures were taken of our time in Tucson, which is regrettable since the city was so nice and the desert was so beautiful but Kristine will try to recapture the lure of the desert in a future post.
Keith took off early the morning after climbing on Mt. Lemon. He’s on his way back to apply the finishing touches on his masters degree in Salt Lake, as well as lick as much frosting off the climbing and myriad of outdoor opportunities in Utah before he moves down to Tucson in the Spring. Benny also took off that same morning. He had taken care of some maintenance that his motorcycle needed and was ready to get back on the road. I think his destination had something to do with many ‘soaks’ at hot springs, backroads, and adventures. I can’t even begin to concoct the kind of stories I’ll hear when we share a drink together at Free State in Lawrence this Christmas. I just wish him safe and happy travels!
Kristine and I stayed another day and a half after those two boys had left. We stayed long enough for Kim to get us hooked on sitcom that’s now off the air, but has an apparently rising cult-like following that’s growing. The show is Arrested Development. Kristine called it ‘stupid humor’. And I quietly thought to myself how stupid I must be because of how funny I thought it was. It was definitely quirky. In the short time we were there we polished off 2/3 of the first season and Kim sent us packing with the last dvd for the season, which we finished the next day. Should we be looking up the number to ADAA (Arrested Development Addicted Anonymous)?
We hit the road for Cochise Stronghold. A fairly new area that has a bunch of old school climbers constantly putting up new routes on the beautiful pink granite. We were stoked!
Here’s a few of the ‘best of’ pictures of our friends while on Mt. Lemon:
Kristine and Benny sharing a moment while Kristine takes her shoes off after climbing.
Two tough-guy faces.
Kim lovin’ on Keith a bit.
The gang!
A picture I snapped when we got back to the car and everyone got caught staring off in a similar direction.
We woke on the second day to rain. The air was filled with the most intoxicating
aroma of wet desert plants. The fragrance was a sweet earthy smell unlike anything Ihave ever inhaled. The rocks had a mystical appearance, wrapped in thick fog punctuated by sunshine. The trees were dark silhouettes with vivid leafs contrasting damp trunks. Zion seems an appropriate name for such a place. It has an enchanting quality, almost spiritual beauty.
Due to the rain, climbing was out of the question. We decided to at least do the mile approach to the beginning of the Narrows hike. It was a crisp morning, but the sun was out and walking kept us warm. I was giddy, singing and bouncing my way up the trail. The trail follows the Virgin River up the narrows, we stopped frequently to take photos. The mile was over before I was ready to be done. The trail essentially dead-ended into a rocky landing at a bend in the river.
A few people were stepping lightly on the rocks here for a better view up the Narrows, which is a river with rock cliffs on either side. As you go up the river, the Narrows become, well, more narrow. The rock walls become more close together, the dry beaches more infrequent. The ranger at the visitor center told us the water is about 40 degrees this time of year, and to hike it most people wear waders or wet suits. You can walk up most of the river, but some parts are deep enough that people swim.
Standing on the edge of the river was nice, but we were amongst a growing crowd of people. I couldn’t handle it, I wanted to see more. We didn’t have the wetsuit or waders that the park ranger had suggested, but I wanted to do it anyway. Little persuasion was needed to get Jonathan to accompany me, and we rolled up our pants and just started heading in. We crossed diagonally to the other side which had a rocky beach, each wet to our shins. I looked back and another guy had followed us, but had slipped and was standing up unhurt, but soaking wet. I was grateful that my hiking boots kept me stable on the rocky bottom, but they were lead weights when wet. The first crossing wasn’t bad, I was already numb and eager to go on.
Jonathan followed the rock out a ways and ended up waist deep. I decided to hike up
the middle and found it a bit shallower. We had crossed again and walked on dry land for awhile. The next plunge into the water seemed to be much deeper. I ventured out in a few directions, but couldn’t find a route that would be less than waist deep. We weren’t equipped to swim up this thing, so we decided this was enough. It was beautiful. We took a few more pictures, and carefully made our way back.
We were soaked and happy. We walked more quickly back to the car so that we could change out of wet clothes and warm up. Once we had on dry clothes, we sat on a warm rock by the river and enjoyed the sun on our skin. The wind picked up though and we jumped back in the car, it was time for us to head back to the warmer rocks of Vegas.
The day after all the hard climbing that Queen Rockstar did we decided our bodies could use a day off and we embarked on the three hour drive to Zion National Park. We arrived around noon to an overcast park. We really weren’t planning on doing any climbing while we were there, and we really didn’t know how long we’d be there anyway, but my curiosity decided it was worth the 25 bucks for the climbing guide – that we would at least return at some point in the future. I quickly became submerged in the book and started to see all the potential at Zion. Kristine was on somewhat of a desperate search for a pair of Native American earrings. The seed was planted when
we drove through Bishop, CA and she saw the perfect earrings. She decided against buying them since they were at the gas station next to a casino and she thought that was a bit shabby and that she’d run into something a little more authentic. Well, she hadn’t up until this point and has regretting not buying the earrings ever since. The town just outside Zion had a number of Indian craft and jewelry stores, so while I drooled over the climbing guide she left me to wander and look for ‘the perfect earrings’. She finally found them after having lost all hope and it was at the last store that we entered at the end of the day that she saw them. It was love at first sight and her ears tingled with anticipation as she tried them on. I admit they were very much her, although nothing like the earrings she saw in Bishop.
That first day, we drove around Zion and scouted a few climbs, which made my finger tips sweat from just looking at them. They were beautiful, clean cracks with very few or no face holds. It was a type of climbing that I dreamt about but had yet to climb. We decided on climbing the following day and so that day we simply let the anticipation build while we check out the climbs. In the late afternoon the heavy grey sky parted and gave way to a sun that lit up the rock and the sky and everything. It was mystical. Zion has been called a Yosemite with the rock from Red Rocks, which is a multicolored sandstone. I totally agreed!
At night the wind picked up. We cooked an Indian fare for dinner and had to bundle up to stay warm. A beer a piece also helped, but the 4000 foot elevation at Zion was definitely much cooler than Red Rocks had been. While falling asleep I heard what
might have been a few rain drops tickle the top of the van. I popped my head outside to assure myself it was dust or some other UFO, but not rain! I fell asleep without hearing any other suspicious sounds, but was woken up around 2AM to the sure sound of rain falling steadily. I couldn’t believe it. I thought maybe the rain was coming from a ‘snoopy cloud’ that was only raining down on our van in an attempt to depress me. I guess it worked since I cried myself to sleep knowing the chance of climbing that day had been crushed.
The next morning I found solace from the grey somber clouds in warms pancakes, apple-sauce, an egg, and plenty of maple syrup.
We came here on a mission: rest (for my foot primarily), eat good food, and get me some new climbing shoes.
We were bummed to leave Yosemite so soon after we arrived, but San Francisco is a nice compromise for a rest day (or two). We pulled into town, jumped on our bikes and enjoyed the city and the sunshine. We rode through the parks and alleys, Jonathan shirtless with his camera slung over his shoulder. He did get some nice photos along with a lot of lusty looks.
We popped into a few thrift stores, a cafe for coffee, but the pinnacle was The Butler & the Chef. Jonathan chose it as our destination for brunch, a French Bistro in South Park with great reviews. We arrived minutes before they opened to a crowd already congregating outside. The doors opened and we fell inside with the others. It is quaint and small, but not squished, though seating was limited and left a line still outside waiting their turn. The atmosphere is fun, French and eclectic. Freshly baked breads and pastries on display, colorful wall and vintage enamel tables.
The menu looks so good it is really hard to choose what to order. We had settled on french toast and crepes, until a neighboring table had their eggs benedict delivered. We changed our mind just in time to order. Jonathan took his with salmon, mine with tomatoes. It came served on homemade crusty olive bread with a side of spinach salad. It was the perfect combination. I could only eat half my order because I was so full and couldn’t over indulge in this richness though my taste-buds told me otherwise. We coupled it with an espresso and Jonathan took a fluffy croissant to go. I think I died and went to French breakfast heaven. I was on such a food high that I couldn’t jump back on my bike immediately, but rather strolled the park and rested on the swings before we continued on our ride.
the alley gate
We did find larger shoes for my foot and some sandals so that I don’t have any pressure on it at all. I think I am all set to get climbing again. A few days in the city was enough. Urban camping really is a bit lack-luster, we miss the rocks and the woods. We will be on the rode again today back to Yosemite.
A few of Jonathan’s pics from the city:
I don’t know what day it is but i know it’s been too long since our last post. So Here’s a Recap:
Sadness dripping from my face in my last Seattle coffeeshop.
We sold our beloved VW diesel Golf the night before we set out on the road. It was definitely one of those things that was meant to be.
Our first meal out of the Eurovan at Golden Gardens.
Eggs on toast with salt, pepper, and paprika. Delicious!
Our first morning out at Index. We read around the fire all morning.
Kristine lookin’ so good!
Kristine lovin’ on some rocks.
A candid shot part way up Mt. Persus.
Filtering much needed water on Mt. Persus.
*I’m still an HTML retard and spent a long time trying to format this better, but it is what it is.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!!!!!
HAHAHAHAAHAAAAAAAAAAA
MY CAPS LOCK STORMED THE CASTLE
LIKE THE DOOR KRISTINE AND I RAN OUT OF LATE YESTERDAY
WE NEARLY RIPPED THE HINGES OFF THE WALL
WE KICKED AND SCREAMED AND RAN INTO A BAR AT FOUR
(WITH CO-WORKERS OF COURSE)
IT WAS SWEET SWEET SWEET!
WE LET LOOSE FOR OUR DAILY PORTRAIT LIKE A CALVIN AND HOBBES DANCE SEQUENCE… THE PICTURES SAY IT ALL!
Kristine and I will take a standard portrait of each other every day of the trip, starting today, with the hopes that we capture as much change by the end of the trip as the water fountains in the Plaza of Kansas City. We’ll only post one picture a week in the page ‘Portraits’. We won’t be posting every days picture thinking that you can’t watch a flower grow if you stare at it, but we will make a virtual flip-book of each of us at the end of the trip that is made up of all the pictures. There’ll be incremental satisfaction each week as one new portrait pops up every Sunday, all leading up to the grand finale and the explosion of all our portraits.
We’re kicking this off with pictures taken this morning after cooking our first meal out of the eurovan at Golden Gardens Park. It was a beautiful morning, windy, and the lake was filled with sailboats, kick surfers, and wind surfer.
Our meal was simple: toast, cream cheese, scrambled egg, salt, peper, and a bit of paprika, which Kristine noted was especially good with the egg. Stove top espresso was icing on the cake, which we enjoying laying in the grass, soaking the rays.
Two notes about the pictures:
1. My picture is a bit blurry. This was due to a technical issue that should be resolved for future portraits.
2. I shaved yesterday. It was explicitly for the beginning of the beginning and I won’t shave again until 2010, unless of course Kristine stops kissing me goodnight.
jonathan
kristine
