Home Alone on Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving, and a beautiful one, at that.

The sun is bursting through the windows as I type.
The birds are singing sweet melodies that fill my ears and bring a hint of a smile to my lips.
The air outside is the kind of crisp that takes your breath away and leaves you feeling like anything is possible.
My dogs are lying at my feet... and on my feet.
I have a warm cup of coffee in my hand (which is complicating my typing abilities), it's aroma making my soul feel content.


And through a series of events related to work,

I am home alone. 

Some people say that it is a sad thing to be alone on the holidays, because the holidays are about being with/giving thanks and appreciating your family. 

And my thoughts on that are: 

Do I have something in my teeth?

First dates are without a doubt the best and the worst things ever.

You know that feeling where you are getting ready and just feel so great about yourself?
And then you know how when you smudge a little mascara on your eyelid and you tell yourself that you "knew this was a bad idea" and that you "never even should have considered going on a date in the first place"?

Then you resort to thinking up every possible excuse to cancel that doesn't sound cliche... and the best you can come up with is that there is "laundry that needs to be done... like...you know...
urgent
...laundry."

Then you remember that you are really interested in this person you're about to go on a date with. (Not to mention, you came to realize how lame your excuse was... Laundry? Really?)

So, you finally tell yourself that it will all be okay. Just be yourself! Smile! It'll all work out.

... then you look back in the mirror again.

GAH!

*Remove smudged mascara* Okay. Okay. They are supposed to like you for who you are as a person, not your perfect, or in this case, imperfect, makeup.

Let's focus on something different. Clothing! You need clothing.. duh. This will be easier than your little makeup fiasco, right?

No bones about it... or in this case, a lot of bones.

Alrighty, let me set up my most recent endeavor for you:

So, we left the California coast and all of its tan-ness and headed northeast on our slow journey back home.

The Salton Sea was our decided destination. This “sea” looks more like a very large lake. What makes this body of water a sea? Well, I’ll tell ya why. See, it’s salinity can become so high at times that it’s salty smell overpowers that of the ocean. To add to its incredibly strong smell, there are times where its salinity rises even more so and makes it impossible for the fish to survive in their usual habitat. Where do all these dying fish go, you ask? Why yes, you assumed correctly. They all wash up along the shoreline… thousands of dead fish along the salty beach.

But no worries, the time we decided to go, there were no dead fish. So that was nice.

Now let me draw you a picture of my experience at the Salton Sea. A very funny experience…

An unexpected (right) turn of events...

Well, we have been on a trip where reception is iffy and wifi is a luxury, and it is absolutely great. However, that also means that I will be giving an update via photos/stories on the past four days. Which is basically my way of warning you of the amount of pictures that will be included at the end of this post.

Alright. Where were we...
Ah yes.
We were heading south through Arizona, and nearing the border we thought we would turn left and head east. At our turning point, we hit a small town out in the middle of the desert, which, mind you, is still quite hot this time of year. (Especially for two pale mountain girls.) And here we decide to stop and fill up on gas. When we get back in the van after filling up, it decides to throw a fit and not start at all. Like, not even a little bit. After about twenty minutes of stressing out, our trusty steed decides to start back up, but knowing us, we're not just going to take off into the desert with an iffy engine status. So we find the town's mechanic and he says we need a new battery.

This guy was super nice and working as quickly as he could, but it still took over an hour. I was handling the whole thing with this mechanic while my mom and dog took refuge in the shade. Now, this place, as I mentioned, was in the middle of the desert, and landscaping was obviously not a priority so there were no trees around. Literally not a single tree. So my travel companions are sitting in the shade provided by the Napa auto parts building just next to the mechanic's shop.

So there's my mom sitting on the sidewalk with a water bowl for Trevor at her feet and a scarf in her hair. And when some nice gentleman walks by, he assumes her to be homeless and offers her a ride or some cash. Obviously not knowing that by work-week her image is polar opposite of what it is at this moment. Once her situation was revealed they both just giggled it off and he went about his way. I wonder why he thought she was homeless?

So, after sitting in this hot desert for a little over an hour, we got back in the van (with a fresh new battery) and we both agreed in a matter of minutes that the ocean sounds nice. And when we got to our intended left turn, we turned right instead. 

And within about four hours, there we were! We grabbed a cabin in San Diego for the next two evenings and woke up with the rising sun shining on the Pacific. We just lazily enjoyed Encinitas for one day and Coronado Island the next. It was nice having a couple of days just soaking up the sun and sound of the ocean instead of letting the sound of our own wheels make us crazy. (Eagles reference. Whoop!) 

Today we are heading out onto the open road again.

Joshua Tree is one thing mom has always wanted to see, so we're heading back east, and then probably north, and then east again. Slowly making our way back home to Coloradical.  

Who knows what today has in store for us. (: 

Aloha ke akua. 

-Dai

A full and very pale moon

Yesterday was a beautiful day. But I’m not sure I can say the same for yesterday evening. :P

First, here’s a quick recap of the day’s events.
My mom and I started our day by taking a trip to the Grand Canyon. We didn’t stay very long, but it felt like it would be wrong not to see it while traveling the state of Arizona. It was gorgeous. Breathtaking. And looked just like the countless pictures I’ve seen of it. So, although it was breathtaking, it still unfortunately felt like I’d seen it a million times over.

So, with the Grand Canyon behind us, we drove down some really scenic roads south on our way towards Sedona. Well… at least I heard they were scenic. The narrow roads with countless switchbacks, oncoming traffic that didn’t prefer to stay in their side of the yellow line, and a scrawny guardrail attempting to keep you from plummeting to your death kept me somewhat preoccupied and unable to soak up the “scenic”ness. However, the few glances I got were absolutely magical. The constant variance of colors in Arizona’s landscape are inspiring. God is an artist with some serious skill.

Alrighty! So, here we are for the evening. We found a semi-primitive campground to call home for a night. It is quite a ways from civilization and only two other campers accompany us in this mystical campground. I say mystical because I feel like I stepped into a movie with a magical kingdom  filled with rivers, waterfalls, little cliffs, awe-inspiring trees, and a faint breeze brushing across my face. (See photos below. *Breeze not pictured*) This magical kingdom is one where I am reverted to a child again… and by “again”, I mean since the last time I acted like a child… which was yesterday… when I saw a stray dog on one of our stops and begged my mom to keep him. (We didn’t).

Okay okay. Back to this evening’s events!
The steps of setting up our campsite goes something like this: Set up sleeping area. Feed dog. Collect wood. Eat an apple the size of my head for dinner. No seriously, it was huge. Build fire. And once it is finally dark, get dressed into warm/tech sleeping clothes.

Now I wasn’t too worried about the changing part. As I said, there are a total of two other people in this entire campground. So, my mom is already changing and occupying the changing room we have set up on the outside of our van (see picture below). Therefore, I decide to go ahead and get dressed on the other side of the van. The side nearer the road. I look around for any sign of humanity near me and come to the conclusion that the coast is clear.
Boots: off.
Socks: off.
Pants: off.
Stranger’s flashlight: on.
And shining right at my body’s recently bared bottom half.

Um. Awkward.

The worst part about this whole situation is my initial deer-in-headlights reaction to freeze completely and not do anything proactive to solve the situation in a timely manner.
Well, that stranger got to see both a solar eclipse and a full moon in the same evening. Lucky fella…
Now, I think I’m going to go laugh of embarrassment. Again.

The Dai's adventures: 

Aloha ke akua.

- Dai

That was alarming.

Well here we are, in Flagstaff, Arizona on Day 2 of our trip. When we left on Sunday afternoon we told ourselves that we were going to take the drive south nice and slow. But despite the fact that we are people with super chill personalities, we still just want to get to wherever we are going so we can immerse ourselves in the area.

So, let me take you back to yesterday evening 10:30pm:
After driving for hours through dark mountain roads, we finally (and quite exhaustedly) crashed in a Walmart parking lot somewhere near the four corners. Surrounded by other adventure enthusiasts and RVers, we set up our sleep area… which is the same as our couch area, dog area, clothes area, and food area. Anyway, after about 20 minutes of folding and rearranging in see-your-breath temperatures: BOOM we had a pretty friggen awesome sleeping setup. And we were stoked to get in it.
Finally get all in and settled and then after some movement, some nudging, and some button pushing, the alarm of our van starts going off, so subtly accompanied by flashing front lights. It was just great.
So I jump outta the van, barefooted and pajama-ed up when our vehicle is suddenly under the impression that someone is trying to break in. It then stays locked up for the next 5 minutes with my extremely claustrophobic mother inside along with my incredibly scared pup… keeping in mind the lights are still flashing and the horn still honking. And then there’s me… locked down in the freezing cold, laughing hysterically as I try and tell my mom to take deep breaths during her panic attack. Don’t worry, we finally got the car to calm the heck down, I didn’t lose any toes to frostbite, and my mom eventually started breathing again.

So here we are, crashing again for the evening and hoping we don't have an event quite like last night's. But who knows what the night... and day... and week will bring!
What we are screaming about now turn into the best stories later. Although, that event was a pretty good story, even at the time... for me, anyway.


Here are a few pictures from the day!

Aloha ke akua.

-Dai

Off to the great unknown... literally.

My free-spirited mother and I just embarked on a journey. A journey involving the two of us and my dog Trevor all loaded up in an old Toyota Previa with a Rubbermaid full of Clif Bars, a Yakima box on top and a futon mattress in the back.

We have no idea what we’re doing or where we’re going.

…so yeah, on a sidenote, that’s basically my entire life summed up into one sentence.

And despite my general distaste for country music, this is where I say, “Jesus take the wheel!”

All we know is that we are headed south, in the general Arizona direction. Granted the south is not usually our direction of choice, but in November our favorite Pacific Northwest is a little cold and rainy for living out of a van with a furry friend. So, the dry, warm south is sounding pretty nice in comparison.

I’m pretty stoked, actually. Since I was 5 I’ve had a thing for cowboy movies… you know, the classic… Tom Selleck rockin’ a mustache and saving Aborigines in the Outback, Clint Eastwood taking out a band of bandits with intimidating-ly squinty eyes, and John Wayne making suspenders and a bandana around the neck look utterly badass. 

Now, I can’t rock a mustache, squinty eyes make me look like I’m sick, and I would not even try to make suspenders work with my wardrobe… they’d be insulted. But all that aside, I am so stoked to get a taste of what it feels like to be a cowboy, exploring the desert in my minivan of a horse.

Let the adventure begin, and here’s to secretly hoping I’ll find a Tom Selleck of my own who I can watch as he rides off into the sunset on his trusty steed… Oh Tom, how I hate to see you go, but I sure love to watch you leave. 

Aloha ke akua

-Dai