Friday, December 31, 2010

Heat Wave

Well, we made our way up to Williams Lake. The drive up here from Whistler was one of the most beautiful so far. Pictures can't capture even the half of it, but we sure tried. We went through two pretty large mountain passes and then finally hit Cariboo Highway and Ranching Country. Just as my Dad described it, we drove over the hill to see the puddle (Williams Lake) below... completely frozen over. And this is no small lake to freeze.  Pulling into the town we were in a heat wave, it was just under 20 degrees.... that is as high as we've seen it up here.


















Once we finally got settled into our lovely little lakeside motel it was time to start our visits. The last two nights have consisted of great food and even greater conversation. Our first night was with a family I've heard a lot about. A good friend of my Dad's was taken by cancer last December and we went to visit his two girls and their mom (who my dad also knows pretty well). It was definitely a fun experience. Heard lots of stories, laughed, and got to see buddy almost eat a kitten. Really that was probably the highlight story of the night. We walked in and the girls had just gotten a new kitten. Buddy comes in the house and I'm holding him and he notices the little snack. Everyone else in the room was convinced he was just getting to know the kitten and was going to like it... I on the other hand was pretty sure he was going to think it was his dinner. Yet again, Erin was right. I know, not shocking.... So as buddy starts smelling this thing I feel him pull. He licks the little guy and right as my dad says "see, he's just getting to know it" ... he takes a snap. I literally think the kittens head was in Buddy's mouth as I yanked him back salivating. The next few minutes I was holding him back while was licking his lips and wouldn't take his eyes off of the thing... so we put him back in the car.
Williams Lake Stampede grounds from the highway above



The next day we drove around, saw a few places around town (including the stampede grounds) before heading up to our next stop.

View from the bridge
 Our next trip was up to an old cowboy couple that ranched along side my Dad for years. They were the best man/maid of honor in his second wedding (which is a story in itself...). They have a great little place just over the river (on a bride that a man bought in Alaska, took apart, moved back over here, and rebuilt himself.. it's a great little story about how he connected the community around here). So we arrive and again spent the evening telling stories and laughing while getting to know each other. They prepared an amazing ham dinner that was accompanied with some of their spectacular stories of their travels. They were lucky enough to work on a ranch where they got 3 months a year off and spent many many months traveling the world. They literally have stories for days. After staying there last night we returned to town.



I then learned why Canadians are good at sports that you do inside..... I attempted to jog....and even with the heat wave that brought the 6 degree high up to 10 degrees I have never felt my lungs hurt like that. I jogged up the road, and once I saw the kids playing ice hockey on the lake I decided I was ridiculous and it was time to go back. Tomorrow they're doing something called the polar plunge to raise money for the rugby team up here. Basically they're cutting a giant hole in the iced over lake and people are jumping in. At first I was all for it, but after thinking about it the last few days I'll have to still be feeling my celebration tonight and then some before I would jump into that bad boy. It would be a spur of the moment thing... so I guess we will all just have to wait and see.

Picture from our room when I got back from running.. you can kind of see the kids
Never thought I'd see this.....






In light of the new year I have been thinking a little about some sort of resolution... last year I didn't make one and kind of feel like that may be the case this year. I've been trying to figure out what a resolution means to me personally and why I would make one. Because without the reasoning it just seems pretty pointless to me. Sure, we all want to lose a few pounds or get in better shape or eat more vegetables... but what keeps us doing that throughout the year? Do we look back and think to ourselves that we have to stay with it because it was our resolution? I sure don't..... So I'll spend the next few days thinking through the whole idea and see what I come up with before my next post.

In the mean time, I hope everyone has an amazing new years (safely) and a great start to 2011.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

TONS of Pow Pow!

Day 1 on the lift
So here are a few pics from our first day.. The videos are still taking a while to upload so I'm only going to upload the good ones... you won't get to see the one of Shane falling just yet.
Since Shane and I apparently have the exact same camera it was easy to steal his













After our first day, we got some hot chocolate with Bailey's...
After our first day

YUM!















Waking up sore and tired the second day, but we got up, I got starbucks... and we headed up for round two. We didn't have to get tickets or anything so we got there right as the lifts opened. Riding to the top we got to see the sun rise over the mountain and eventually made it above the clouds. I'll post a few pics below. Coming down from the top we had freshly groomed runs and freshhhhh POWDER like I've never experienced. It was crazy how hard it is to board through powder like that. We had a blast (and I got another box on camera), but by the end of the day I was so exhausted I could barely move. My legs started giving out on the last run after getting beaten up and thrown around for two days, and the slopes near the bottom had gotten pretty icy. Anyways, enjoy the pictures/video

Oh, quick add on. I forgot to mention this yesterday and thought about it all day today.... holy crap there are a lot of different languages being spoken up here! And a lot of the people working are from all over the world. It's really interesting. Everyone looks exactly the same going down the mountain though. And that's how it should be. 

First lift up... the sun just coming up over the other mountain


Pictures can't show the beauty of this place.

Notice the clouds...we saw blue sky!
At the top before our first run of Day 2

I had to use some of my awesome skills to tighten up my bindings

Shane. All black. If you lost him you probably weren't finding him

Last run. Exhausted. Enjoying the view a bit.


And now for my SECOND box!



I have a few more video's of us actually boarding but I'll have to upload those later... slow interwebs. Mr. Smarty pants next to me says it will take forever.

Also.. figure I'll give a little heads up here...aka warning for you mom... (even though a few of you already are aware) I'm pretty dead set on a tattoo. I've been thinking about this one for a longggg time. Started thinking about a little red maple leaf on my foot a few months ago. So that will be happening at some point. And don't worry (mom) it will be just small enough to be able to be covered with a band-aid.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Pow Pow!


Blah Blah Blah we drove from Idaho, through Oregon, into Washington.. got to Seattle late on the 25th.. but the real fun started today! Quick recap of anything I found interesting:

-There are rednecks in the west; in case you thought they only resided in the South… you’re wrong. 

-The 45th Parallel is ½ way between the equator and the North Pole. We passed it. I didn’t get a picture.

-I went through two reservations in Washington and didn’t see any warewolves. One day I’ll have to head to forks (which is on the coast, don’t worry, I looked…) to see if I can spot any so I can follow them home. 

-I decided while driving in the next year I’m going to get a huge world map, stick it on a cork board, hang it up and be that person that has different colored pins for different reasons. I think I may even roll up a tiny note under some of them if the location is memorable enough. 

-as I was introducing my Dad to some more Country Music, “My Wish” by Rascal Flats came on and we decided it would be good for a father daughter dance.

…. and then we picked up Shane! And headed into CANADA!!! And it has been AWESOME! (and we’re still alive, no broken bones..yet..and SOREEEE!) 

So driving into Canada was a fun experience. We got to stop, give the lady our passports, and get asked 10 random questions. The woman did not seem very happy to be doing what she was doing. She also criticized the fact that my dad called a “bottle of booze” a “jug of booze” … cause that’s against the law.

Once we got in, driving through the southern part of British Columbia, up to Squamish (our first stop) we saw some beautiful scenery. Vancouver is as big and beautiful as they make it out to be. Right on the water, a mix between an old industrial feel and new high tech thing going on. Downside, it’s like Seattle, it rains a lot. I would be depressed if I lived here. Cross that off the list of possible future homes. 

Unfortunately we got to the most beautiful part of our drive that day as it was just getting to dusk. Our pictures didn’t turn out too well but we got a few (I’ll be posting tons of pic’s on Facebook once we get back). The Mountains soaring up as high as you could see on the right and the water to the left… it was a scene straight out of a movie. 

Once we got settled we went and got dinner at a little restraurant/semi-casino down the road (semi because it was only slots and bingo)… but after dinner when I walked over to lose $5 on the penny slots I see an electronic ROULETTE machine! And we all know how I feel about that game (if you don’t, I love it…. I don’t know why. I can’t get enough…until I’m out about $100). So, anyways, since I’ve been feeling lucky (and won $18 on a scratch off in Idaho) I decided to put twenty bucks in and go with it. Ended up cashing out $16 up. Woo! 

Then today arrived…. And as much as I hated getting up at 6:30 in the morning, I was beyond excited to get up to Whistler. I mean, this place is exactly like you would imagine. Huge village with all kinds of places to stay, eat, drink, party, shop, etc. Once we finally found where we needed to be to do that whole snowboarding thing we were off. And I’ll go ahead and tell you now, I was a little afraid of how good Shane’s snowboarding abilities truly were. We’d talked about it a little bit but you never really know. If he was a lot better than I was he would have secretly gotten annoyed at having to wait for me the whole time. If he was worse… well I would have (probably not secretly) gotten annoyed at having to wait on him…. Turns out we’re right about on the same level (obviously I’m slightly better, but we all know that) 

It’s hard to describe the experience of boarding at a place like this (especially if you aren’t a skier/boarder) but I’ll do my best. The bottom was a little icy (it’s been raining a little near the base because it’s not quite cold enough to turn to snow down there). But once you get up one or two lifts (the mountain has lifts after lifts after lifts….so to get to the actual top you’re looking at at least 3 or 4 lifts). The very top was actually still closed, but you wouldn’t have known it considering the size of this place. It’s actually two “mountains” in one, Whister and Blackcomb, and we only really got to Blackcomb today. We’re starting on Whister tomorrow morning. Once we finally got back in the swing of things, we started hitting the higher lifts (and the more cold, windy environment). I have NEVER boarded powder like that. I kept saying to myself as I was carving through this stuff “pow pow! Pow pow! Holyyy pow pow!” (really, I did….)

There’s really no way to describe the day. It was SPECTACULAR. And, on top of it, I hit my first box! There’s a good story here too, don’t worry. So we decide to go left at the top to avoid moguls and the terrain park (moguls are little hills skiers make and they are death to boarders… we can’t carve them so you just have to go heel side the whole way down and end up with a killer cramp in your calf by the bottom… and the terrain park is where all of the jumps/poles/boxes are for fun)… Anyways, it just so happened that as we curved back around we ended up in the middle of the terrain park. I look up and stop (to wait for the slow guy behind me….cough…. but really, he was in front most of the day) and I see this little box that curves up and over and these boarders hitting it really slow and just gliding right over. I think to myself “Erin, this is the perfect first box to land, look how easy that looks, just do what they do” …. So I crawl up the hill a little, get Shane to record (because I KNOW this is gonna be it, the moment, the FIRST EVER landed box attempt) … so I get going, loop around to get straight, slow down a bit, and hit the box dead on. Slide off to the left slightly before the end but land it perfectly…. As I throw my hands up in excitement I couldn’t be more stoked that this is actually on video. As I’m crawling back up to tape Shane trying it out I notice a disturbed look, and learn that he was so mesmerized by my awesomeness that he took his eyes off the camera and missed the whole thing  (minus the hands up at the end….). I told him he will never live this down, and I’ll hold true to that. Which is why I’m going to put the video on here. Oh, and he fell. I have that on video too. Mwahahaha. Revenge is sweet.

Anyways, after an exhausting day, we got lucky and found the community center with a pool/hot tub. Hopefully our muscles will thank us at least a little tomorrow. I have a feeling Wednesday is going to be a painful day! Tomorrow we’re trying out a little more of the terrain park and going from open-close. If I end up with a broken bone again, at least I’ll have something good to blog about.

Okay, well scratch the picture/video thing… the internet here is too slow. We’ll hit up Starbucks tomorrow night.

The only other thing that happened today was a curious question that came to my head. I’ve asked my Dad, and I’ve inquired Shane’s opinion, but we still don’t have an answer. So if you know, please tell me. I’m legitimately curious. In Canada instead of having 1 dollar bills they have 1 and 2 dollar coins. And then 5/10/20 dollar bills, etc. So my question is…. How the hell do you pay strippers?

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Santa Claus Came To Town!


The middle of our winter road trip brought us to Declo, Idaho, Population 338. If you’re wondering why I’m spending my Christmas in a random town, don’t worry, I’ll tell you. The Kunau Family comes to us courtesy of my Dad’s second marriage. In his words, his first “lasted 35 days…just long enough to not get it annulled.” His second wife came to him from his ranching days in British Columbia. Apparently he saw her building her log cabin with her bare hands and knew she was for him. She had a 4 year old daughter named Norma that my Dad stayed in touch with over the years after he moved to Colorado and they seperated. Norma’s two girls, Delaney and Rayn, just love him (and buddy). My dad visits them relatively often and I even helped build one of the girl’s first bikes a few years ago for my dad to bring up here. It was nice to finally meet the people my dad speaks so much of. And let me tell you, I fit right in. They own about 400 cattle and were bringing home “fresh” meat for dinner. I found out later that you don’t actually want meat fresh. The steaks we had for dinner our first night had been hanging for 21 days. Normally Richard will only hang his cows for 14 days to age but he heard a lot of people doing it for 21 days so he tried it on this 1400 lb beast…. I’ll just say that 21 days was perfect! Talk about fresh tender steak. And of course some potatoes, because what would you be if you came to Idaho and didn’t eat a potato. 

We had to run for this one, it was raining a bit!


After dinner it was like being back in Auburn. We turned on the Boise game (people around here don’t talk about kicks, or field goals, or anything related to a school called Nevada… apparently all the big wigs here already had plane tickets and hotels for the Rose Bowl…) and all sat around having a few drinks and just getting to know each other. I knew I belonged when we were talking about the equestrian team at Auburn and Norma said  “You know the difference between equestrian girls and rodeo girls? .... equestrian girls jump poles… rodeo girls jump bars.. the drinking kind.” They’re a big rodeo family; Delaney showed me some of her buckles she’s won and some of the pictures from her competitions. She’s 11 years old and beat a senior in high school this summer to win the barrels. 

On our first full day here we got up and did a little ranch work. Fed the horses, bunnies, cats, dogs, pony, etc. And then Delaney and I headed up to the mountain to snowboard for half a day. Sitting here now I can tell you I’ve missed the sore feeling that comes from that kind of activity. It also didn’t help that I was completely confident approaching my first ever box, hoped right on and fell (more like tumbled) right off. I laid there for about 2 seconds, laughed, and got up. My wrist can definitely feel that today. Luckily all the girls got in the hot tub last night so I think that may have helped a little… Whistler should be interesting that’s for sure.
That night we went to Edith’s Restaurant… “Home of the best burgers in town” … and also home of the only restaurant I’ve ever been to without a menu. You can only get one thing (two if you include some of the best, most fresh French fries I’ve ever eaten… Idaho sure knows how to do potatoes) and that’s an Edith’s Burger! Edith is the guy that owns the place and he knows everyone that walks in the door. His meat is the freshest you’ll get at a restaurant and it was by far one of the best burgers I’ve ever had. I definitely didn’t mind that I only had one option. 

It was a little sunny, we couldn't keep our eyes open


Christmas Eve consisted of sleeping in, lazying around, playing video games with the girls, doing more zip lining (I forgot to mention earlier, but Richard put in a zip line for the girls and I was the first adult to try it out.. video to follow) and just kind of hanging out. For dinner we had one of the biggest roasts I’ve ever seen (from the same 1400lb beast we had steak from the other day). After tracking Santa for a while online and helping the girls make sugar cookies to leave out we all headed to bed. 


  
Rayn is so small she fly's up when she gets to the end!



Christmas morning has been thoroughly enjoyable. This is the first Christmas I’ve just sat back and watched the joy that comes from kids seeing what Santa brought and trying to be patient to take turns opening gifts. I also heard from a certain someone in Madison that they woke up to a WHITE CHRISTMAS! How exciting is that?! We are actually happy about not having a white Christmas here (granted, there’s still snow on the ground the mountains right up the road are still covered) because my dad and I are leaving in  about an hour to head up to Seattle for the next leg of our trip. 

Hope everyone else has enjoyed Christmas as much as we have.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Life In The Fast Lane



After a 6 hour drive to Salt Lake City, Utah, a nights stay there, and another 3 hour drive north. Here we are in Declo, Idaho. Time to backtrack a bit so I can tell you a little about our last few days. Our drive to Utah didn’t consist of too much talking. We were busy taking in all the natural beauty. I’ve never been to Utah, and I’m here to tell you I’ll be back. Between the beautifully snow covered mountains surrounding Salt Lake on all sides to the rivers and natural beauty of the rest of the state (you could spend a week in Moab during the warmer months). It’s a place I’ll be returning to for some more adventure some time later. Other than the beauty of the drive, not too much else exciting happened other than a subway experience in a little town. This is important for two reasons. First, they were out of pickles. Second, they had red Gatorade in their machine that I decided to try. Bad idea, I was reminded on the first sip why I stopped drinking red Gatorade (If you don’t know why, don’t worry about it...) 

Also, apparently Colorado is the bean capital of the nation or something. We passed countless bean plants and saw the exact same two trucks completely overflowing with these huge bags of beans 3 times on our drive. This lead to our conversation about properly securing whatever is in the bed of your truck. And here is Erin's Lesson Of The Day! …. Tie your crap down people! The bean trucks did an excellent job as you see below. But the story I shared with my dad of the day Holt almost got ran off the road by someone’s ladder that magically flew out of the bed of their truck. Or how my dad saw a mattress fall over a bridge onto another highway below…and the wreck that it caused ended up killing someone. So, Lesson of the day… spend the money on the bungee. 



Enough of that.. The next character that enters our story is Doc. Doc was my Dad’s medic in Vietnam, were they became very close and reunited in 1998 when Doc found my Dad. A little background on Doc, He is a Mormon that was born and raised in Utah. Found his way to Vietnam with my dad. Was a POW (prisoner of war for those of you who don’t know the slang) for several months and escaped by running directly into the fire of his own men, only to make it back and collapse at the feet of one of them. His first memory waking up was the American Flag waving above his head. Once he came home and got better, he met his wife who’s an amazing woman that wrote him a letter a day when he returned to Vietnam to finish. Long story short they now have 6 children and 24 grandchildren…. And the night we were there he wanted his family to finally meet my Dad since they have not been able to on his previous visits. So the night we were there 5 of the children and their children came over and we got to know them for a few hours while hearing some hilarious and crazy stories. I heard the full story of my Dad’s friend Russ for the first time, a guy that my dad has talked about since I was little and I was able to find his name on the Wall when I was up in D.C. earlier this year.

The next day I woke up and went for a run over to the Utah campus. It’s about a 2 mile run from Doc’s front door to the stadium, and it’s amazing how much more you can enjoy a 25 degree run when you’re taking in everything else around you. I also got a little to far out of it because I didn’t pay attention to the road names as I was running so I got a little lost on the way back, but that’s perfectly find because as I was walking trying to figure out where I was I look over and see a scene straight out of A Christmas Story. I literally stopped in awe, because even the little house looked like their house from the movie. So getting lost isn’t always bad…. 







The only other highlight was getting to eat at Crown Burger, a Salt Lake original that has 5 locations in the area. Started by a Greek family many years ago, they have been on the travel channel a few times and when we were driving the day before my Dad couldn’t stop talking about this burger we were going to try. The crown burger has a special sauce and is covered in pastrami. Sounds gross, maybe, but it sure was good. The onion rings were superb as well, I would suggest everyone try a crown burger at some point.

Quick add on. If you remember reading about Buddy.. he's an escape artist.. and he made sure to show us that he hasn't forgotten his ways. Our plan was to leave at 11 to head to Crown Burger, and at 10:45 as I was taking my bag out, I push Buddy back, open the door, lift my bag, and there he goes... flying under my bag and out the door. He's very smart, he'll stay right around the same area and will come within 5 feet of you only to flick you off and run in the other direction if you approach him. Normally my dad has to feed him something to knock him out and we had it all set up. As soon as he was about to eat the treat full of tranquilizer, Doc opened his back gate and buddy just ran right in. We trapped him! It only took an hour too, which considering some of Buddy's other escapes is pretty good... 

We finally left and made it to Idaho, a place that according to my Dad, “they farm on every inch of land they can find” and instead of having signs that say watch for deer, they simply say “Watch For Game”. I’ll save Idaho its own post…. Because it’s a fun little place with some spectacular people.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Into The Great Wide Open

My brother reminded me that I forgot introductions, so here you go people.



Leading the way we have my Dad, aka MOOSE


A proud Canadian, lover of Jeopardy and USC fan he became a dual citizen at a young age and spent his high school years in LA. A proud American and Vietnam Veteran, and just as crazy as you could imagine. He’s a rancher, a miner, a construction worker, a car and mobile home salesman (and the best damn salesman around)… if you can think of it he could probably do it. His laid back attitude will drive you crazy and help you have fun all at the same time. He has more stories than a book and will tell anyone with an ear how awesome his kids are.


Dad picked up a friend a few years back, and they’ve been inseparable ever since.  The next addition to our trip is Buddy, the perfect companion for the moose. 

 
. If you’ve never heard of a Jindo, you should. A breed of dog from Asia, they even have slightly slanted eyes. Buddy is as white as snow (don’t worry, we have a few bandanas so we don’t lose him in Canada) and as calm as a cucumber. He goes perfect with my dad; I’ve only heard him bark a handful of times. One of his favorite activities is hanging loose at 50 miles per hour, basically living life on the edge. He enjoys long jogs with me and cuddling up next to my dad. If you know anyone interested inquire below. 



On our way out!




  
A trip wouldn’t be complete without a car, and for that we have The Moose Mobile. It’s changed and been updated over the years, but only for the better. It’s recently gotten a few additions, including a snowboard rack and Sirius radio… but it continues to trek on just as strong as ever. 






And, of course, you all know me. I’m the smartest, funniest, most interesting person you know. Admit it.















 
And onto the fun: 

My ten favorite moments from our first day on the road (Albuquerque, through the four corners, up into Cortez, Colorado) 

1.     1.   “Those are perfect skipping stones for giants!” : Driving in this part of the country you get to see some of the most beautiful natural beauty of the country. I still think it’s amazing how corrosion, wind, water, etc. can cause rocks to look the way they do. So as we’re passing another random looking giant rock this is the quote that comes out of my dad’s mouth. Loved it. 

2.     2.   McDonalds Security: This is awesome for two reasons. First, we were confused as to why a random McDonalds in Gallup, NM (a reservation) would need a security guard standing at the door. Second, and most awesome, as we’re walking out the guy see’s my Auburn sweatshirt and says “oh, are you from Alabama” … I respond with “yes, I go to school in Auburn” … and to this he reply’s “oh, I’m from Huntsville, I went to Butler High”

3.     3.  Cowboys and Indians: I forgot how many Cowboy’s fans I always see around this part of the country… and does anyone else find it funny that a lot of Indians (native Americans) are Cowboys fans? 

4.      4.  “Texans should be banned from the Planet” : After this comment when a few trucks that had Texas license plates drove by I had to inquire as to why my dad hated Texans so much. I know he hates Bush… but I figured there had to be more. From this I got one of my favorite Moose stories from the day. He was stationed in San Antonio for a while and would go out every now and again. He had heard about Aretha Franklin playing at a local bar (“an all dark bar” is how he described it). But he wanted to go, because R.E.S.P.E.C.T had just made it big and he sure liked him some Aretha Franklin. So he went by himself… assuming it wouldn’t be a big deal because when he went to high school in LA he hung out with a lot of the black crowd because he played football. Anyways, he’s dancing and totally having a good time with all these women (they loved him apparently, I think that’s where my brother gets it from). Well You  would think he had a problem with there boyfriends or something, but no, the trouble didn’t start until he got outside. Apparently as he was leaving there were “a couple red neck boys sitting on the tailgate of a truck” that came up to him and decided to give him a hard time for no reason. “and with a cop sitting in eye sight just watching… as one of them nudged me… I leaned in and knocked the shit out of him… then ran before his friends knew what happened” …. For all you Texas fans out there, don’t worry, when we got to four corners we met a younger Big Red 1 guy and he was from Texas so my dad said not everyone is bad. 

Funny add on, literally as I’m typing about Texas this happens.. my dad just said “how’s Shane, what’s he doing for Christmas” and I said “Huntsville” to which I get “he’s a f#@king Texan?!?!” .. Then after correcting he responds with “oh.. sorry… I thought you said El Paso.. never mind”

5.   5.     Hogans: If you’re thinking Hulk, you’re wrong. But don’t worry, I didn’t know what it was either. I’ve learned a lot so far. We’re driving through “Navaho Nation” and everytime we pass a reservation, trailer, etc. you see these weird round extra large outhouse looking things. At first I noticed one or two but didnm’t think much. Probably because I’m used to seeing the occasional storm shelter. But as we see more my dad makes a comment “you see all those Hogans.” To this, like any of you would respond “Like Hulk?” He says yes, and then explains that he think’s their sweat houses or something for ceremonial stuff. He didn’t really know so I did a little research so I can teach all of you a little something. Instead of typing out info from wiki I'll just leave you the link, feel free to read. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogan

6.      6.  “Is that a Llama?!”: Driving in the middle of nothing but Mesa, I look to my left, more mesa, look to my right, more mesa, to the left, even more mesa… then back to the right. And what do I see? A black Llama.

      7. Rock Names: I would love to know who names rocks. Church rock, chimney rock, Ship rock, all kinds of different rocks. And so far none of them look like their name. I’m thoroughly confused. They’re just big and in the middle of nowhere and have weird names. Maybe I’ll “see the rock” tomorrow as we travel into Utah. 

8.     8.   The Hippi In San Fran: Another story I heard today (I’ve heard it before but today got a few more details). Basically, when my Dad returned from Vietnam as a “21 year old in the best shape of my life” He didn’t come home to welcome signs. Apparently the Vietnam War and our men fighting over there was not accepted by everyone. And our troops weren’t welcomed home like they are today. So my dad gets back, and him and some of his war buddies are meeting at a little bar in the airport (same bar the woman refused to give him a drink the day he was shipping out to war just a year before). As he gets there, he notices he’s the first one so just starts walking up to the bar. On the way, passes a few hippi’s leaving and one makes a few comments under his breath and then SPITS on my dad. Well… being that he is in the best shape of his life he had no other choice but to knock this guy down in one punch. “He should have expected it, I was in amazing shape and just got home from nam.. so I was a little crazy.” 

9.       9. Our first hotel Toilet: So if you picture your toilet, and you picture the hole and what happens when you flush. You’ll notice that your brain see’s a hole directly in the back lower corner, and the water moves away from you, out the back of the toilet. If you’re confused then just move to 10. The toilet in our Hotel has a hole in the front and when you flush all the water moves at a downward/forward angel kind of in the direction of your ankles. It’s very strange. 

10.   10. Honey raspberry wheat ale. Yes, you read right.  It was amazing and smooth and from a little brewery/restaurant in Cortez. There moto was “Avoid heart attacks, Drink beer!”

11.11.    I know I said 10. But this is my Blog. And as I’m sitting here eating craisin oatmeal walnut spice white chocolate chip cookies from a cute little bakery off 4th street in Albuquerque I decided the world needed to know how amazing they are. They also have Chocolate Red Chili cookies (don’t worry, mom, I’m bringing a     few home)

Here are a few pictures from our first day:
4 Corners (NM, AZ, CO, UT)


A And now to finish my coffee at a cute little place in Cortez and hit the road to Utah!