A trip to the east

I took a trip this fall to see my friends who live near Washington DC. Chris and Shayla put me up in grand style!

 

We ate out at a ton of restaurants, sat at home and watched movies, cooked, drank, and generally just had the type of amazing time you have with close friends while on vacation. Some pics -

Fall colors in the Shenandoah's:

 

We hiked along the Potomac at Great Falls park:

We saw the loch system that used to get river boats past the falls:

 

And, of course, we went into the city for a bit of the touristy stuff:

 

I couldn’t have asked for a better break from AZ!

Still don’t feel like writing.

I’m alive, but not in the literary mood, so here’s pictures. Solar eclipse, St. Louis botanical gardens, fishing with family, fireworks:

Katch-up

Far too long since posting. So what’s new in the land de Tom?

Well, my sister Tiffany has moved back from Virginia with the family. We are all pretty excited to have them close by, and we had the opportunity to go see them for my niece Chloe’s 10th birthday. The day started out at the zoo, checking out all the animals:

 

I shot photos of animals. On both sides of the glass:

 

Then it was time for the party. Pizza, cake, and presents – everything a girl could hope for.

 

It was a great time, and I’m super glad to have them.

 

The next big thing was going to the Grand Canyon over spring break. Courtney, myself, my sis Nikki, her beau Michael, and our friend Tony headed down to Phantom Ranch for a few days of vacation. As always, it was amazing. We hiked to Ribbon Falls, which was a real treat, as well as up the Clear Creek Overlook.

 

Pics:

  

 

 

Other than all that, it is spring time in Prescott. I’m still waiting tables, I’m now the trainer for any new servers we get, and I’m training to be a bartender. Lots of time out in the woods with the hound, lots of quiet hours at home with Courtney. Life is, as usual, pretty amazing and awesome.

And then… everything changes. (And oh, I found some photo-mojo!)

My co-workers throw me a going away party. I don’t remember much of it, so I’m sure we had a great time. Everybody having a headache the next day confirms this fact. Our boss lets us go home early, and so I give quick good-byes to all the folks I’ve come to know and admire over the last five months.

 

I go home and I pack all my stuff into the 4Runner, there isn’t much more than when I was on the road. I’m done half an hour later. Sister and I go out for our last dinner together, and after a nice breakfast and coffee the next morning I’m driving a familiar track to Prescott. As soon as I arrive I dump all my stuff in the living room, and immediately begin re-packing for a four day vacation in the north of the state. When I’m done, before I can even realize that I no longer live in Jerome, we throw everything into Courtney’s car and hit the road.

 

We quickly head to Lake Powell, to a camping area called Lone Rock, and setup camp with friends from Prescott and from Massachusetts. We are all headed different directions tomorrow, but tonight we congregate on the sandy shore of the lake:

 

 

The near-full moon provides a nice light by which to admire lone rock:

 

After cooking breakfast and packing it all in, we all get a late start out of the area. Our friends from Prescott are off for a few days of kayaking around the lake, while the friends from Mass decide to join Courtney and I on our next stop – slot canyons. Along the way we stop to check out the ‘Toadstool’ hoodoo formations along the southern section of Escalante:

 

And from there it was just a hop, skip and a jump over to the Wire Pass/Buckskin Gulch slot canyons. It was my first time into a slot canyon and I was super excited to try photographing it. We had a blast:

 

Once we got to Buckskin we trekked upstream along a muddy track that was thankfully created by people earlier that day. It was slick and a fall into the mud was always close at hand, thankfully nobody fell in.

Once the trail came to a watery end we turned around and headed back to the car, me snapping pictures all the way:

 

Once we were out, we parted ways with our Mass friends, as they headed up to Salt Lake City and we headed to a nearby campground for the night where, unfortunately, the restroom vents were blowing our way and made for a bit of a stinky night.

 

The next day, we didn’t know where to go. I wanted to go up into the Escalante monument, but road reports were grim. A big storm had closed one major road, and they didn’t know about the other. In Courtney’s little Toyota corolla we didn’t want to risk it. So we drove out to nearby Kanab, Utah, and grabbed some coffee at the local coffee shop / outdoor outfitter. We asked the great folks there for recommendations, and were pointed in the direction of Kanab Creek Wilderness. We looked up the area in a resource book and decided on the Snake Gulch trail, reported to have lots of petro glyphs and pictograms. Off we went, through the beautiful Kaibab Plateau, and down the cockscomb to the trailhead. The trail was level, and made for a gorgeous afternoon hike:

 

And soon we found little spur trails leading to rock walls. On these walls were some pretty awesome things:

 

 

We hiked about five miles in before the threat of darkness turned us around and we headed back to the car. By the time we got to the trailhead it was sunset, and since we were all alone, we opted to camp right there. Not a bad spot at all, and best of all – no stinky bathroom!

The moon was bright, and I tried shooting a few photos, but it quickly got cold and so we retreated to the sleeping bags.

 

The next morning we decide to call it the end of our trip, and turn southward once more. We stop in the Navajo reservation to snap a few pictures of a graffiti artist’s work:

 

And Courtney plays model for me:

 

From there we stopped into Flagstaff to have dinner with another friend, before finally heading home.  My new home, with the gal I love. Time to move into the next chapter of my life.

 

For all the photos from the trip, check out this link.

A trip across the country

My friends asked me to help them move across the country. I had the time, so I of course said yes:

 

A house’s worth of stuff, trundling across the country:

 

When I’m not driving, Huey and I are enjoying the wind through our respective furs:

 

We stop ad dad’s house for a few days. Besides all the normal shenanigans, they have frogs causing all sorts of ruckus:

 

We left first thing sunday morning, and we were done unpacking the truck into their new apartment on thursday afternoon.  By the weekend the boxes are all unpacked, and the only thing left to do is hang pictures. We have dinner with Chris’ brother, wife, and son who are down from New Jersey. We stop in DC for a few hours, but it’s raining and so we aren’t really into it.

 

For the next five days I teach Chris how to be a man of leisure (since I’ve now had nine months of practicing this fine art). We drink coffee, we work out, we play tennis, we eat at local restaurants, and explore his new home. We turn off the GPS and get lost, and find back ways back to his place through the lusciously green landscape.

 

Thursday rolls around and it’s time for me to hit the road again. Chris drops me off at the greyhound bus station, and from there it is a long trip back to AZ. My cell phone battery runs out on the first day, which means no familiar voices to talk to. Since the phone is also my MP3 player, it means no tunes. I read books, but those run out by noon on the second day. So I talk to all the strangers around me. I get glimpses into their lives, as they get a glimpse into mine. Some are friendly, some are not. Some snore while they sleep, and others sleep not at all. Some are coffee addicts, and others are heroine addicts. Some are just hooked on universal love, and some are hooked on the road.

 

I arrive to phoenix on the third day, 54 hours after leaving my friend. I’m a total space cadet, I haven’t slept much, and the road has turned my brain to mush. Courtney picks me up with a friend, and we all go to get coffee. We run a few other errands before heading back home, where I promptly pass out. Another cross-country trip is done.

 

Now it’s time to figure out what’s next.