We stayed at the Days Inn and snuck in. There was a pretty close call, Lacy and Kaitlin paid for the room but they gave us the wrong keys, so as they were sneaking up the stairs Kubi had gone down to get the attendant. I told the girls he was coming up so they ran down the stairs just as Kubi and the attendant came around the corner. It felt really good to get out of the car and relax for a bit. We all fell asleep fast and woke up in the morning to check out the city. It was warm, about 55 in January and the land surrounding the small city is beautiful, composed of rolling blue hills and young trees.
The city has a similar vibe to New Paltz or Woodstock but on a larger scale. I forget the name of the place we had breakfast at but it was the best food we ate all trip. Bistro breakfast food with a southern flare, all organic stuff, exceptional prices. Our next stop was Nashville, Tennessee to see the replica of the Parthenon. It was pretty bizarre to see this huge piece of greek history in the middle of downtown Nashville, right by the university. I was really taken with it, it is one thing to hear about entasis and so on, seeing it in person is a whole other experience.
Being in a Honda Civic with 3 people you know well, and one person who is familiar was challenging. It definitely helped me develop my patience and flexibility. I'm sure that could be debated by those who came with me, but I am not always the most patient person and I definitely did my best not to cause any overt conflict. By the end of the trip there was a hostile undertone but 2 weeks is quite a long time to be cooped up with people.
I'm not going to go through every single place we stopped, our next interesting stop was the Grand Canyon. I would really love to hike down it and stay in the ranch they have there. Recently, I saw Joe Rogan doing standup and he went into this whole riff on how people think the Grand Canyon is huge, but don't even pay any attention to the stars above us. I wasn't especially struck by the size. It was just gorgeous. We got there around sunset and stayed at a hotel on the South rim. The Northern rim is closed during the winter. Contrary to my expectations there was snow all around, and it only was melting deeper in the canyon where temperatures remain warmer. They really gouge you at the grand canyon price wise but fuck it. I loved looking at the rocks and thinking of climbing out of it. It got me really excited. We did a 3 mile hike down into it, and 3 miles back out. Walking at that angle is pretty tiresome. You aren't allowed to hike down and back up in the same day since people often die or pass out from exhaustion. It was so quiet as we got down lower, really peaceful and wonderful. Each step took me further down and further away from everything else. At first we were nervous and careful about where we walked, and most of the walk down I was watching my feet not the views.
Seeing pictures of the canyon never really did anything for me, I had heard a million times how great it was, but I hadn't even planned on seeing it - We had originally planned on hitting Moab instead but the weather forced us to Arizona and it was a fortunate turn of events. The experience was really soothing and wonderful. From there we drove south to Phoenix to visit Kubi's family. The sunsets in Arizona are gorgeous, mindblowing insanely, super carcrash gorgeous.
His family put us up for the night and stuffed us full of awesome food in the morning. They were really friendly, fun and real people. Kubi and I hiked with his uncle up a small park near them and caught a glimpse of Camelback mountain. Arizona was great because I didn't have any allergies, for the first time in a long time.
Behind us to the right is the camel:
From there we drove through Sedona which has these sick mountains and Jeeps you can rent to offroad in. It looks like a ton of fun, and I'm really grateful that Lacy had us go. Then we hit vegas..
Vegas was not something I was excited about. It wasn't my thing, although there were a couple of interesting things. One of the Casinos had lionesses in a glass booth you could walk under. They looked drugged, or just miserable since they had no where to go and the trainers just sat in there with them. I think it was the MGM grand. The cigarette smoke was killing me. The aquarium at Mandalay Bay was pretty cool and a nice break from VEGAS INSTANT EVERYTHING AHH LAND. The first night vegas made me nuts and I went into some crazy pimp character and bugged kubi, after that we wandered around vegas and I watched Kubi play slots and such. My stomach was fucked up by the time we got there from eating weird food and stress. I took Tums for the first time in my life and it helped. The Treasure Island show was cool, kind of a sexy weak story pirates of the caribbean. The fountains at the bellagio and it's insane blown glass ceiling were impressive but after that it was looking at super expensive stuff and being sold whores by mexicans on the street.
The last really impressive place we went was Big Sur, and Carmel. The drive was awesome, right up the coast winding through cliffs and smelling the sea is a perfect way to travel. As we drove there I noticed green algae growing from the tree branches and it turns out it is a combination of algae and fungus which grows only in places with especially clean air. The algae lives in symbiosis with the trees, and is a pale green color. We stopped before reaching our campsite and watched the sunset on the beach.
Big Sur was very remote, and the whole town is the post office and a couple buildings. We got delicious sandwiches and firewood and set off for our campsite. It was a bit cold at night, and building a fire as a group really brought us together. It felt good. We went to sleep after the fire went out and it was FREEZING in the morning. Kubi woke up and said fuck it, and went to sleep in the car. It was really pretty to wake up in the red woods and then set off from there.
As we drove on we saw a nature preserve at Carmel and stopped. It was gorgeous and a ton of fun to run around on the rocks. We got to see a bunch of sea lions sunning themselves and got very close to them. After that we headed up to San Francisco and ran around and had some sourdough bread, apparently there's a kind of yeast that only survives there, it was good and seeing the bridge was cool. I didn't get to walk on it since we weren't there during the day. That was a downer since after seeing The Bridge it has been something I wanted to do, but I chilled out with Kubi and had awesome ice cream twice in one night.
After that everyone flew back and I came to my aunt's house where I am now living. More later.
No comments:
Post a Comment