The End

The last week of the trip has all been a blur. I squeezed Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam into my stops, then returned to Slab City for one more night of free camping. I made the rounds once again in San Diego and LA. Today I head back to Pacifica and I think this is a good place to stop the blog.
Final Finger Counter: 0. Thank you America.
Final License Plate Counter: Lost track. But probably about 55 or so.
I wanted to say thanks to everyone who read the blog. This trip was amazing, and writing this blog helped me absorb what was happening. The adventure of daily living continues.

Delays, delays

So by the time I got back to Bandelier on Saturday evening my oil light was on. Every mechanic I've ever been to has told me under no circumstances should I ever let the oil get too low in this van. So I waited out Sat and Sunday night at Bandelier. I don't really like having to repeat stops, but I had no choice. There's no place to get your oil changed on Sunday. All in all, Bandelier is a pretty nice place to be stuck for a couple of days.
I found a Jiffy Lube first thing this morning and got back on track. I did make an effort today to see some hot air balloons in Albuquerque, but it's Monday morning so I guess nobody's flying today. Oh well.

The Great Sand Dunes

I spent the last two nights at the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado. Not only do I love this park, but I also love the whole San Luis Valley. It was one of the most beautiful and interesting places I've been to. A great national park, mountains, farms, monasteries and UFO lookout towers. I could spend a week there.
I hiked to the tallest dune in North America. 750 ft. And hiking up sand is no easy task. I'm still shaking sand out of my shoes. The view from the top was absolutely worth it. When I left this morning I had to drive extra carefully because there were so many deer next to the road.
Today I'm checking out Taos. By tomorrow I expect to be in Arizona again.

Denver

So much to do when you're in a city. It's been great having Kolleen guide me to all the cool places. We saw a couple of breweries, although Coors wasn't giving tours the day we were there.
We also went to a couple of awesome book stores, checked out Boulder, which is a really fun town, and wandered around town for a while. We also had Colorado-style pizza, which I learned is really really good pizza with a super thick crust. When you get down to just the crust you put honey on it and eat it. My favorite meal though, was Tuesday night when Kolleen's aunt made us enchiladas. It was so great to have a home-cooked meal again! It's also been great staying in a house instead of a van for once.
That brings me to the point where I think I'm ready to head back west. Money's getting a bit low, I'm running out of stuff to see along the Mexican boarder and it's too cold to go much farther north. BUT, that doesn't mean I've run out of stuff to do. There's still much more to see on the way back, so I intend to keep writing.

It's COLD!

After learning that Kolleen will be out of town next weekend, I did a mad dash up to Denver to visit mid-week. On the way I got a great view of the Rockies. So amazing! West coasters: if you think the Sierras are big, you have no idea. I camped one night at a little state park that was sunny and not too cold during the day. But when I woke up the next morning snow was starting to fall so I got the heck off the mountain fast! Snow comes pretty fast when it wants to.
It's certainly a colder country up here, but for the next couple of nights I have a warm house to stay in. Many thanks to Mary and Kevin Davis for letting me stay!

Plates

It's been brought to my attention that I've been neglecting my License Plate Counter, so here it goes:
Chihuahua, Mexico
Quebec, Alberta
Kentucky, Oklahoma, Kansas
That's all I can remeber for now

Bandelier

Ever heard of Bandelier National Monument? Me neither. But I found it on a map and camped there for two nights. It's a beautiful park. There are cliff dwellings, archeological sites, they have Pueblo people there doing pottery demonstrations and lots of wilderness. I did a hike past two waterfalls to the Rio Grande that was so beautiful! All the trees there were changing from green to yellow. It was one of my favorite hikes so far.
I'm now getting ready to do some urban hiking. My next three days will bring me to Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Taos. There's a hot air balloon festival going on in Albuquerque this weekend that I'm looking forward to. I talked to this older guy at Bandelier who said there are only two things in life you have to do: ride in a hot air balloon and go to Alaska. He was dead serious too.

Carlsbad Caverns

I gotta say, this is one of the coolest places I've been to so far. It's gonna be in the top 5. But a warning to everyone who sees the pictures: you can never get a cave picture to come out just right, so to really know what it looks like you just have to go see for yourself.
I was at this park for a couple of days. Actually, there's no camping there so I stayed at Guadalupe Mountains National Park about 45min down the road in Texas. I did the self-guided tour where you can see what they call 'the big room' and took lots of pictures. But the best part was one of the guided tours they offer. You have to pay extra, but it's totally worth it! I did one that went down to the lower cave and it was the scariest trail I've ever done! To get down there you first have to use a rope to get down a slippery bit of slick rock. Then you have to go through a series of three steel ladders which are often tilted to one side and very slippery! Once you get past that the tour gets a lot better, but man is it hard to get past that first part. One person on the tour never made it past the first ladder.
But there are so many cool formations to see in the lower cave. We also did a crawl through a small tunnel. I never thought I'd have the guts to squeeze myself through a tunnel 800 feet underground!
After that I had to go see the bats fly out of the cave. That was a really amazing thing to see. Thousands of bats just come streaming out and you can see them trailing off for miles into the distance.
The next day I noticed Babe had a leaky gas tank, so I had to get that taken care of. Not too bad, and it got done in an hour. I've been considering going to the gulf coast of Texas to camp on the beach there, but it's hurricane season right now and the forecast for that area says thunderstorms for the next ten days. I think I'll save that trip for later.
Instead I'm going to head towards Denver. So if you live in that town, and you used to be my roommate, expect a call.

White Sands

I spent my rainy day in Alamogordo checking out the town. I went to a Space History Museum and got to see all kinds of rockets and engines and cool things. They even had a former astronaut there talking about his experiences in space. He was really fun to listen to.
Apparently this part of the country is great for growing pistachios. There were pistachio farms everywhere! One of them also had wine tasting. Who'd of guessed? But I gotta say, the pistachios are probably better than the wine.
The next day the rain cleared up and I was able to check out White Sands. It's a really beautiful place. I climbed up some sand dunes and took a few pics before my camera battery died. Then I hit the road to Carlsbad.

Rain

I ended up spending only one night at the Gila Cliff Dwellings. I did everything the park had to offer in one afternoon. But far from being boring, the park was a very charming place. It was high up in the mountains around 8,000 feet with all different kinds of trees growing. There was a river running through the park and yellow and purple wildflowers all over the campground. I was pretty darn far away from the desert. On the down side, the temperature drops a lot at night when you're up that high, and the next morning it was soooo hard to get out of bed!
I drove to a state park in outside the town of Alamogordo. My plan was to stay for a couple nights and go check out White Sands National Park today. However, when I woke up this morning it was raining with high winds. I think I'll spend the day in town instead. It's looking like a good laundry day.
One thing I never expected about New Mexico is how green it is here. The parts I've been through are covered with green plant life. Grass thrives here better than most places in California. And if you can deal with wind, it's a beautiful state.
I ran into some more boarder patrol guys yesterday and made myself look like a fool. When you spend a lot of time driving, you sometimes forget where you are and where you're going. So when the BP guy asked me 'Where are you coming from' and 'Where are you going' it took me longer than it should have to respond. I had to look at my map to remember.

New Mexico

After the Canyonlands I went to a park called Canyon De Chelley National Park in northeastern Arizona. Pictures made it look pretty cool but when I got there I found there wasn't much I could do. The park is dead center in the Navajo Nation Reservation. Many Navajo people still live in the Canyon the way they did a hundred years ago. For this reason, access to the canyon is very restricted. To go down into it, you must make arrangements with a Navajo guide, which costs money. Also, to take pictures of buildings, people or anything belonging to the Navajo, it costs money. Camping, however, was totally free. So I pretty much just hung out and relaxed at my campsite. I needed it after all that hiking.
The next day I went to Albuquerque. I ment to leave earlier, but an older couple traveling in a Chevy Van talked my ear off for a good hour. They were very sweet people, but man they had a lot to say!
Driving into a metropolitan area was like a culture shock. I wasn't able to find any place to camp in the surrounding area. I've found in this state that they'll have signs from the freeway that say 'camping, next exit' but when you get there what they mean is RV's only. They wouldn't let me stay because my van has no electric hook-up.
So, I weant down all the way to Truth or Consequences, NM and found a nice little state park to stay at. The next day I explored the town, which is a nice tourist spot with lots of hot springs. I went to one of the hot springs spot and it was an unusual experience. It was at a little hotel in the middle of town. The person in the office was a tiny little old lady who couldn't hear a word I was saying. Eventually, I managed to convey that I wanted to take a soak, and she lead me to what looked like a shed in the parking area. It was not like any hot springs I've been to, but it was kinda cool. You close the shed door and get the whole thing to yourself. It's a little grotto with enough room for just about one or two people. I soaked for 30 min for the cost of $3. Not bad.
Truth or Consequences gives a strange vibe. I get the feeling it's the kind of place when Y2K came around, everyone ran out and bought lots of water, duct tape and amo.
When I was done I drove west to another state park called 'city of rocks.' It's a very cool place but the afternoon winds were intense! Also, there was a guy in the next campsite actively looking for rattlesnakes. When he found one he'd get a big pole out of his truck and try to pick it up. I sat in my campsite with my phone ready in case I needed to call 911. Thank god he didn't get bit.
Today, I'm heading for the Gila Cliff Dwellings to spend a couple nights.

Canyonlands

I spent one night at the Canyonlands, NP. It's a very wilderness-focused park. There is only one car camping site with only twelve campsites in it. But, there are dozens of primitive campsites that you need 4 wheel drive to get to. It would be a backpacker's playground. Here I did some of the quietest and least crowded trails since Joshua Tree.
While making dinner I watched a small drama play out in the next campsite. It seems a couple of German tourists had showed up really early, filled out the self-registration form with yesterday's date, left nothing at the site and went to go hiking. A few hours later an older couple in an RV showed up, thought the site was empty and set up camp. Around dinner the Germans came back. Since both parties had paid for the site and both felt entitled to it, I thought there was going to be a squabble and there was no camp host to settle the dispute. In the end they all decided to share the site. I watched the four of them go from being really mad at each other to reaching an agreement to sharing wine and stories around the campfire. I thought it was nice how in the absence of any authority figure people will choose to get along.

The Arches

When you live in a van, it's easy to forget what day it is. So when I got to the Arches and found every campsite full and the park crawling with people I was a little shocked. Until I remembered it was Friday at 5:00. I'd collided with the weekend traffic.
So I went a couple miles down the road to Moab and found a place that had some spots open. It's the must luxurious place I've stayed at so far. It's got a pool, laundry, showers and internet. It's also the most expensive place I've stayed. That's Ok. For once, it's nice to stay in a cushy place.
The Arches were beautiful. I was trying to take it easy on my knee, so I only went to see a few of them. Some of the coolest things I've seen so far.
Getting to the Arches was also amazing. From Bryce to Moab I think the landscape changed about 9 times. I started in a forest of Ponderosa Pines, then drove through some multi-colored cliffs and rock formations, then into a forest of Aspens that were just starting to change color. I think that was my favorite part.
I also stopped at Capitol Reef to pick some fruit. This time of year it was apples, although through the summer you can pick apricots, cherries, peaches and pears too. I didn't take any out with me because that costs money and I was out of cash at the time. But, I did get to sit in the orchard and eat a couple of apples which were really delicious!
Today I'm going to see if I can find a spot to camp in the Canyonlands.

Zion and Bryce

I got to Zion around 5pm to find no camping spots whatsoever available. But, I was able to get a place a mile outside of the park. It wasn't too pretty, but it was a place to stay. I spent the whole day Wednesday exploring Zion. I did the Angel's Landing trail, which was scary beyond all reason but totally worth it. At the end you have to hold on to chains and climb up steep rocks to get to the top. So far, Zion is my favorite place. It was so beautiful everywhere I went. I easily could have spent a week there.
The next day I got to Bryce Canyon. It was a really short drive. Bryce is another of the many awesome places Southern Utah has to offer. I wasn't able to do too much hiking because my legs and knees were so sore from tramping all over Zion the day before.
I'm very much enjoying this trip, but certain things are starting to get to me. For example, the way European tourists have to stop and take pictures of every single mangy squirrel they see. They're like rats people. They bite and they have rabies.
Also, I'd like to pose a question: what is the deal with hiking poles? Do they actually help you hike, or are they just another scheme from REI to get more money out of people. If you have an answer to this question, please email me and let me know. Right now, it seems like all they do is enable one person to take up the whole trail while looking like a geek at the same time.
Well, I'm going to try to get to the Arches National Park today. But to get there I need to pass through Capitol Reef National Park. I've read that they have orchards there where you can pick your own fruit, and that sounds just too good to pass up.

Grand Canyon

Another long hot drive through the desert. I spent one windy night outside of Phoenix before heading up to the Grand Canyon. All I know is that it was 85 degrees at 10am in that town and then all of a sudden I was at 7000 feet and the weather was perfect! I did a little hike into the canyon that went down only part of the way. If I had backpacking equipment I would have gone to the bottom. I guess that's a trip for another day.
So many tourists! But not as bad as Yosemite. And it was kind of nice to be around a lot of people for a change. I met a guy from Pennsylvania who was doing a similar kind of trip but not enjoying it as much. I guess he got laid off recently and decided to go see the Grand Canyon. I thought it was a great idea but he was so stressed about having to do so much driving by himself. He was continually paranoid about running out of gas or not having a safe spot to sleep. I hope he calms down or he'll never make it home.
Today I'm heading to Zion, which I've wanted to see for a long time. There are so many places to see in southern Utah, I hope I get to see at least most of them.

Organ Pipe Cactus

I did a whole lot of driving through the desert yesterday. Finally made it to Organ Pipe Cactus. It's right on the boarder, so I got to talk to plenty of border patrol guys on my way down and back. I get the feeling that they get really bored just standing on the side of the highway in the desert all day, because their line of questioning doesn't always make a lot of sense. In California, they'd ask where I was born, look in the back of the van and tell me to move on. In Arizona, they want to chat about life, and that's fine.
I'm at a Tucson community college now. I had a really frustrating time trying to find a place with free internet. The public library here did, but it was slower than weekend traffic.
I'm going to slowly make my way up to the Grand Canyon from here. I've been pushing Babe really hard lately and I feel like she deserves a break. I'll try to find a couch in Phoenix if I can.
Oh, and the cool thing about Organ Pipe Cactus is how small and unused it is. I think there were about three or four other people besides me in the whole park. When you go to a place like Yosemite, you get flooded with people and the wildlife will come right up to you and ask for a handout. In a smaller place, you get the real peace and quiet, and the animals do what they're supposed to be doing: being wild.

Slab City and Joshua Tree

Man, it's hot out here. It's only 10:30 and I'm sweating buckets. I'm writing this from inside Babe in Blythe, CA in the parking lot of some popular hotel chain. My computer battery is running low, so I'll have to type quick.
Slab City was awesome. For those who don't know, Slab City used to be some kind of a military building that was knocked down years and years ago. The foundations of the building remain and anyone with an RV, van or two legs is free to camp out on it. There are a handful of permanent residents who live there year round. Some just come to stay through the winter before moving on. I was there for one night, and it was quiet and peaceful. When I woke up in the morning, I visited Salvation Mountain. It's a huge work of art done by one of the Slab's permanent residents. Every day he gets up and paints this hillside. You can see it from miles away. He's also very friendly and willing to give tours. Most people on the Slab are there to be away from the rest of society. The overall feeling seems to be 'live and let live'. They're kind enough people, but they value their solitude.
After checking out what the Slab had to offer, I went north to Joshua Tree. Such a beautiful place. I stay two nights and spent a lot of time climbing around on rocks. If you're reading this and you're a climber, Joshua Tree should be on your list of places to go. The sunset was my favorite time of day there. It was so beautiful to see the colors on the rocks. After that the stars come out and you can see so many....There were a group of teenagers playing the didgeridoo one night. It was great except they were'nt so good at that circular breathing and they didn't seem to have a sense of rhythm. Eh, good for trying.
My plan now is to head to the very southern part of Arizona and stay a night or two at Organ Pipe Cactus National Park. After that I might head to the northern end of the state.
Finger Count: still 0. What can I say, people are nice.
License Plate Count: Hawaii, Alaska, Massachusetts, Tennessee, North Carolina, Kansas, Pensylvania, Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, British Columbia and Baja California. Wow.

Los Angeles and San Diego

So many people so little time. I spent a couple of nights at Steph's place. She rents a room in an enormous house in the Glendale area that has an amazing view of downtown. I slept in a loft and could see the lights from where my bed was.
I visited David and Carol, who couldn't let me go without giving me a whole box of grapefruits from their tree. I won't be getting scurvy on this trip.
Amber now lives with her sister in San Diego. They have a dog and two kittens which were really entertaining. Unfortunately, I had my first big casualty of the road. I backed Babe straight into a lamp post and lost part of the rear bumper. Oh, well. It was very cool to see all these people again. I've been sleeping on the couch at Amber's for the past two nights. Now I'm taking off into the real desert. My first stop is going to be Slab City, somewhere in Imperial County. It's not shown on any maps, but I'm confident I can find it.
As of now, I'm not sure when I'll next have access to the internet since I intend to head to Joshua Tree from Slab City and then into Arizona somewhere.

Venice

I got to Annie's house quicker than I expected last night. We went for $1 taco night at a Mexican place near her house. I packed away 5 chicken tacos.
Since Annie has to work at both jobs today and won't get home until much later, I decided to stay for just one night and then head over to Steph's place. While Annie and Chad worked, I took the opportunity to hang out at Venice Beach.
Such a weird place. Of course, it's not as cool as it used to be. But nothing is as cool as it used to be these days. That seems to be the consensus everywhere I go. I did some reading on the beach and walked all the way to Santa Monica Pier which recently celebrated its' 100th birthday.
I guess being in Venice got me in the mood to do something 'alternative' so I got my nose pierced by a pregnant lady on the main drag. It only took about 30 seconds and it doesn't even hurt any more.
Around 3:00, the guys who try to hand out their own CD's started coming out, and they can be really obnoxious, so I went back to Annie and Chad's to hang out. They were generous enough to leave me a set of keys for the day. Pretty soon Steph will call and give me some directions. It may be the hardest part of my road trip to drive across L.A. at 6:00 at night, but I'm prepared to try.

Breakfast on the Beach

Today I leave SB for LA. Danni made me pasta for dinner last night. I never turn down food these days. This morning's breakfast was hummus and pita bread from Trader Joe's. Still using up those food stamps. I ate it on the beach while making coffee on my camping stove. I missed the beaches in Santa Barbara so much. I know there are plenty of other beaches out there, but for some reason these ones are the most special to me. I watched the pelicans diving for fish.
As I packed up to go I met a crusty one-legged hippie on a bicycle and we got to talking. He gave me an avocado from his friend's tree and told me he would send me good vibes. I think that will be all I need to get to LA. Maybe some gas...
Thanks to Danni, a roommate for life, for letting me stay on her couch. She's doing a cleanse right now and studying for the GRE's. I should have told that hippie guy to send some vibes her way.
When I get to Annie's house in LA, I'm gonna head straight to the shower. I'm overdue.

Another state for the License Plate Counter: New York

Counts

So far I've come up with two things I would like to keep track of. The first is the number of times I get the finger while on the road.
Finger Count: 0
So far everyone's been really nice. Or maybe my driving has just been really awesome, I don't know.

I also want to see if I see a license plate from each state. So far I have
California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Washington, Florida, Wisconsin, Montana, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, Minnesota and Louisiana.
And all I did was go from Pacifica to Santa Barbara!

Here it Goes

I left Pacifica yesterday morning. I passed my time there by playing with Sean, reading The Satanic Verses and eating foods with a high caloric intake. The more butter the better, I thought.

So it figures that no more than a half hour out of Pacifica I ran over something in the road and busted my right reer tire completely flat. Never found out what it was, but my good friends at AAA were friendly and helpful as usual. They always sound so sympathetic when I call them. "Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that ma'am."
My spare, which was a full-size thank god, got me all the way to Santa Barbara where Costco kindly supplied me with a new tire.

Today I spent at the beach.
Tommorrow, I leave for L.A.