Where have we been ,you ask? We've been very very busy. We have been to Zion National Park, The North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Bakersfield, Sequoia National Park, and now we're in Berkeley. That is an incredible amount of miles under our butts over the span of a week!
Also happy road trip anniversary to us. We have been on the road for 63 days now! I should have posted Monday but... I've been tired! One would think, by now, that the excitement would now be washed out of every day. Honestly, it has come to the point where there are more frequently times when one or both of us is feeling a bit cranky and we start to think affectionately of home, but every day is a new adventure. Every day we take chances. Every day we see something that we have never seen before or we do something that we have never done before. We have ,as it stands, just a few more weeks on the road. While we can't wait for the adventures that still lay ahead, we are now at the point where we also can't wait to crawl into our own bed and sit around doing nothing for a little bit as well.
Zion was amazing. (That being said, we've been to many amazing places lately.) We hiked to a beautiful waterfall over a green oasis-like body of water. There were 3 total but the hike to the higher ones was a bit more than we were ready to handle. They were called the Emerald Pools and it was a breathtaking sight. What sets Zion apart from the other national Parks that we've visited is that no cars are allowed beyond a certain point. They provide free shuttles to the many trail heads throughout the park. Although that meant that we were forced to listen to two teenage girls that sounded like valley girls( still... I thought that the valley girl thing went out with Clueless!) babble mindlessly for half an hour, we didn't put nearly as much strain on our car.
The whole park at the bottom of a canyon and was wonderful to look up at the beautiful rusty formations that cast shadows down upon us. We visited weeping rock and we walked the nature trail the leads to a popular hike called the narrows. The narrows involve an 8 hour hike that is at least partly wading through the Virgin river.( This one was not for us, though Tony told me at some point that he didn't want to do a certain trail and I kicked the dirt and said," I never get to see anything!" Tony laughed. We are on a 3 month trip across the country and were about to see the Grand Canyon but I never get to see anything! Ha ha)
Two things occurred simultaneously as we stepped out onto the overlook to get our first peek at the Grand Canyon. We both ceased any conversational chatter and became quieter than ether of us are typically capable of being, and my knees began to shake with such force that I was momentarily glued to the rock that we were standing upon.( Although I am usually the more adventurous one out of the pair of us, despite my love of roller coasters, desire to sky dive and dream of para-sailing, I have a minor confession. I am irrecoverably afraid of heights. It may seem absurd but it is embarrassingly true.) After what seemed like forever I managed to move myself to the edge where Tony was standing fearlessly looking over the handrail at the edge of the cliff. ( I had to lean forward in order to grasp the handrail and then I forced my feet to walk up in order to meet the front half of my body. It was goofy!) It was magnificent! Words and pictures do not give it justice.
We went to the North Rim of the canyon which is visited much less than the South Rim. It was also about 20 degrees cooler than it was at Zion. It was quiet and green and the tall spruce and pinyon pines made us think fondly of the lush green Pennsylvania forests of home. We were taken by surprise when we passed through meadows and forest and ended up looking down at the Grand canyon! The second day that we were there we woke up at 4:30am , drove into the park, as we were camping in the national forest just outside of the park, and watched the sunrise over the Canyon. The lovely pink, orange and purple hues danced across the sky and we watched as the lovely yellowy light of the sun slowly wandered down down into the valley little by little. In all my life, I've never seen something that made me feel so small and yet so special. ( that is until we met the Giant redwoods of Sequoia. )
The day we left the Grand Canyon we drove to a town about an hour outside of Las Vegas, called Mesquite, where we broke one of our own road trip rules. We rented a motel room! It was 30 dollars for the night. We checked in early, sat around and watched TV. We just needed a little bit of space to ourselves for a day. Our camp sites have been so close to other people that their snoring could keep us up or we'd be couch surfing for so long. We love surfing. It has made our trip interesting and we have met some of the most incredible people. That being said, couch surfing requires one to be social. We needed one day not to be social.
The next day we were off to Vegas. We met our host, a male model, Lorenzo and for the next two days we didn't see much of him. We were busy. He was busy. He didn't sleep. We did. We headed out at 2pm to wander down the strip.
(I wasn't sure if I was going to like Las Vegas or not. It's crowded. I don't like to waste money, I've never gambled and it seemed a bit crazy for me. )
Las Vegas was so much fun! We spent hours walking up and down the strip. There are small cites in those casinos! One of them has a lion habitat right across from some slot machines. There were free shows in front of the some of the casinos and Circus Circus has a whole indoor amusement park. We drank a little and Tony convinced me to play a slot machine. I lost $5 in the penny slots and decided that I was done. Tony played roulette and won $20! He lost it again because he wanted to play again and he was up.... so we spent a bit more than we intended to but we only lost $5 to gambling.
We had such a great time. There were so many things to see and do. We decided that one day we'll come back when we can afford to spend a little bit more money.
We left Las Vegas early in the morning and drove to Bakersfield, CA. On the was we drove through Death Valley National Park. It was 10am the first time that we stepped out of the car and the heat hit us like a ton of lead. In Death Valley the temperature reaches 115 in July. We picked the worst time of the year to drive through. ( Our plan was to camp there until our host in Vegas told us that it was very bad idea.) We stopped at Devils golf course, a unique salt formation that makes the ground impossible to walk on, but is very interesting to see. We didn't get out of the car much because the heat was just too much for us. When we did get out, it was to walk out onto the Badwater salt flat which is the lowest point in the western hemisphere! The walk wasn't very far but it took us so long to get out there. The saltly ground crunched under our feet and as I looked down at the ground I realize that someone had cracked an egg into one of the divits in the ground. They were trying to see how long it would take to cook out in the dessert. I couldn't help but laugh! Every step seemed to be a wasted effort.. It felt as though we weren't getting anywhere.
Tony looked at me with his hand shading his eyes and said relatively seriously," When I watch a movie with someone walking through the desert, looking miserable and sad, I'll know how they feel." When we finally made out to the salt flats, it looked as if we were standing in snow but when we reached down to touch the ground it was hot a glassy feeling. Although it was an interesting experience the trudge back to the car was not worth it. We exhausted the water we had left and spent the rest of our time staring out at the desert beauty from the car window. When we got out of the park, there was still nothing for about an hour. At the first gas station along the way we bought two 1 gal water bottles and downed them.
Bakersfield was a pleasant place to stay and our host Sarah was lovely. We hit it off right away, chit-chatting through the evening.
We're on our way out into the city today so you'll have to wait until tomorrow to learn about Sequoia and San fran!
