Road trip to Wickenburg

Today is the day! I move onto the ranch. I am ready to move in and start working. Right now, I'm in Sedona, AZ sitting in my hotel/cottage. (Thanks Mom and Dad!) I've spent the last few days driving across the country to get to here. Since Thursday night, I've spent over 24 hours traveling by myself with a very full car. 

Before I left, my friend, Lisa sent me a Flat Stanley. Flat Stanley is children's book about a boy that get's flattened by a bulletin board and visit's friends by mailing himself to them. Every student in Lisa's 1st grade class made their own Flat Stanley and they were sent all over the country to the student's or Lisa's friends or family. The person that recieves the Flat Stanley takes Stanley with them on their travels and sends pictures of his adventures back to the students. This project is going on all year. Stanley has done all sorts of awesome stuff this trip. 

Day one-Thursday: Belleville, IL to Columbia, MO 

Day one started at about 5:00pm. I had to start late in the day, because I had a doctor's appointment Thursday afternoon. I wanted to at least drive a couple hours on Thursday. My brother was kind enough to let me stay with him in Columbia, MO for the night. When I got to Colin's house I was greeted by him roommates and dinner! Colin was in crazy study mode, as usual, so we hung out at the house and watched Jersey Shore and went to bed early. (Don't judge! It's a something my sister, brother and myself do every week. Even though my siblings and I don't live near each other, we watch Jersey Shore together and text back and forth. It's our way of spending time together every week.) 

Day two-Friday: Columbia, MO to Denver, CO

 

Friday morning Colin made me an omelet and I was on my way. Thanks for letting me stay, Connin! The drive started out rainy, but after about an hour the sun came out and it stayed sunny the rest of the day. Most of the day was spent driving through Kansas. Boring, flat Kansas. Fortunately, I am pretty good at keeping myself entertained. Before I started this trip, I made a few CDs with about 24 hours of music on them. The CDs were non-stop sing-a-long music covering just about all musical genres. Bruce Springsteen, The Gourds, Garth Brooks, Cat Stevens, and a large assortment of 80s pop to name a few. After a few hours of driving, I realized that it's probably best that no one was able to make the trip out here with me. I can't think of anyone that would have put up with my non-stop singing, talking to myself, making up new songs and stopping as much as I do for almost 1700 miles.

Despite being incredibly flat and grassy Kansas actually had a whole bunch of fun places to stop. I didn't get to stop at all of the or else it would have taken me a couple days just to cross Kansas and nobody wants that. As I was passing WaKeeny, KS and saw an F-14 Tomcat in one of their parks, so naturally I stopped. A down side to driving across the country alone? There isn't anyone to take my picture with all the awesome stuff I'm seeing. An up side to driving across the country alone? I get to use the timer function on my camera. I'm getting pretty good at setting the camera (on the ground, a rock, my car, etc.), pushing the button, and running to get in the picture. Most of the places I've stopped don't have many people around to take my picture, so I've used that function a lot this trip. (Mom and Dad, ignore that last sentence.) 

Cool thing number two about Kansas? The world's largest easel. It's 80 feet tall and Van Gogh's "Sunflower" painting sits on the easel's ledge. Check that off my list of places to see before I die. After a few hours of driving, I finally made it to Denver. In Denver, I stayed with my friend, Zach. It was definitely an interesting evening to say the least, highlighted by seeing a U2 tribute band. The lead singer looked more like a sweaty Stephen Baldwin than Bono. Thanks for letting me stay, Zach!

Day 3-Saturday: Denver, CO to Blanding, UT

 Saturday's drive started early. About 3 minutes outside of Denver I spotted one of those brown signs. The brown signs that point out a public rec area, a national park, a state park, or something worth stopping for. Brown highway signs are my weakness. I don't know what it is, but anytime I see one of those signs I have to stop. It's a sickness. A sign for Buffalo Bill's grave site 10 minutes into my day of driving? Sure I'll stop. I was the only person at the grave site. I guess that's not a surprise considering it was 8:30a on a Saturday.

Until Saturday, I had never driven through the mountains. That was an experience. It was so pretty. In the midst of all the green evergreen trees there were spots of yellow where the deciduous trees were changing color. Every time I turned a corner there was a new mountain towering in front of me. This trip has made me realize just how big our country really is. Obviously, I knew that the country is big, but driving through mountains and plains and plateaus and canyons and looking out at miles and miles of land made me realize that the United States is much bigger than I ever imagined. 

After years of wanting to visit Arches National Park, I finally made it to the park Saturday. It turns out Saturday was National Public Lands day, so entry to all national parks was free. I win! I only stayed in Arches for a few hours, because after Arches I still had an hour or so drive to my hotel. Hiking in Arches was another time I felt like the country was much bigger than I ever imagined. The rocks in the park were so big. While driving and hiking through the park, the rock were like clouds. It was fun looking at the rocks the same way we look at clouds and try to figure out what animal or object the rocks looked like. An elephant. Abraham Lincoln. A mushroom cloud. While hiking in Arches, I realized that purchasing my Camelbak backpack was probably one of my greatest purchases. Anyone that knows me knows that I drink a ridiculous amount of water and being able to have 2 liters of water in my backpack is perfect. 

Day 3 ended early. After a day of driving up and down mountains and flat lands and hiking, I was ready for a shower and sleep. As soon as I got to my hotel I ate, showered, and laid down.

Day 4-Sunday:Blanding, UT to Sedona, AZ

Somewhere between Blanding, UT and Mexican Hat, UT I thought I was on Mars. The rocks were so red and there was barely any vegetation. It really looked like Mars. The road from Blanding to the Arizona border was desolate. There was a time where I drove for nearly 15 minutes without see another car, house, or person and the only radio station that came in clearly was the Navajo Nation radio station. It was eerie.

What's that? Another brown sign? Valley of the Gods? Sure, I'll stop. The entrance to Valley of the Gods is a barely marked dirt road that crosses over a dried up creek. I was the only on in this part of the park. I didn't stay for very long, because although it was beautiful and I wanted to look around much more, I was the only one in the park and it was very isolated. 

A few hours of my drive yesterday was through the Coconino National Forest. The drive went from nothing but red barren rock to mountains of grasses and tall, tall pine trees and windy roads with hairpin turn. Naturally, when I saw a brown sign indicating a point of interest, I pulled off the highway to explore. This time I discovered Sunset Crater Volcano. Really it was just an excuse for me to get out of the car and run around in the rain on top of a mountain. All that time in the car alone has given me something comparable to cabin fever. If I didn't stop as much as I do on road trips, I would have gone insane.

When I finally made it to Sedona to check in to the hotel, check in time wasn't for another 2 hours. I was exhausted and just wanted to lay down. I totally played the "I forgot about the time change. I've driven 1500 miles in the last couple days. I'm so tired." sympathy card. It worked they let me check in early.

Two more hours of driving today and I'll be in Wickenburg! Finally!

A Little Road Trip Before the Big Road Trip

I leave for Wickenburg in less than 3 days. It's crazy how quickly moving day is sneaking up on me. I feel like I have so much to do to get ready to drive out there. I had planned to start loading my car tonight, but that didn't happen. More on that fiasco later.

This past weekend I traveled to Cincinnati for Zoofari at the Cincinnati Zoo. Zoofari is the Cincinnati Zoo's major fundraiser of the year. This year there were 2300 people in attendance and over 50 restaurants and a couple hundred silent auction items. So much fun! Fancy dresses. Endless food and drinks. Animals. Good music. Dancing. All with good friends! How could I not have a great time? Alexis, Colleen and I were volunteers at the event. Last year, Colleen and I worked at the wine table for the first shift of the night. We still had a blast, but by the time we were finished working the party was starting to wind down.

We learned that this year that we needed to work the late shift. At about 9:00p our shift started and we got to "work." I use the word work loosely. Basically Colleen, Alexis and I stood around the silent auction table for a couple hours eating, drinking and dancing. When people came over to claim the items they won, we handed it to them. Towards the end of the night, we decided to work smarter and definitely not harder. I don't know whose idea it was, but it was a genius idea. We took shift and 2 of us went to the dance floor while the other stood guard. After 2 songs we switched. Great choices!

Exhausted and on our way home from our night of fun, we notice that my car started to make a weird sound and shaking. Yep, the first flat tire of my life and it had to happen at 1:30am when I am super tired and all dressed in the a not very nice part of town. We pulled into a gas station parking lot and tried to add air to the tire so we could make it the few miles back to Colleen's house and deal with the flat tire in the morning, but absolutely no air went into the tire. We ran over a screw and pretty much shredded the tire. After attempting to change the tire ourselves and the tire being really stuck, I called roadside assistance. The mechanic had to pound on the wheel with a rubber mallet and then kick the tire for a while before it came loose. We finally made it back to Colleen's around 2:30am ready to sleep, knowing I had to buy a new tire in the morning.

Saturday was a fun day of Findlay Market and enjoying the fantastic weather at Devou Park in Covington, KY with great friends. How have I never been to Devou Park before? This was the most confusing park to drive around even with the GPS I was so lost. After I finally found the pavilion, it was so beautiful and relaxing.

  

After my Cincinnati adventures, I got back in the car to drive to Indianapolis for my Auntie Denise's 50th surprise birthday party. Because of traffic, I barely made it to the party before Auntie Denise arrived. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Bridgie, Moe and Jimmy all came it to town to celebrate with Auntie Denise. 

On the way home from Indy, I stopped at my friend, Ron's. It was like a mini reunion of friend's. Dan was in town from San Diego, Mike was in town from where ever he's living in Asia, and Kerrie, Gabe, Jon, the other Dan were all there, too. It was really good to get together before everyone goes there separate ways again. Who knows when the next reunion will happen? On the way home I got another flat tire. That;s right another flat tire. Hopefully, all my bad luck with my car was used up this weekend and next weekend the trip will go smoothly.

Another chapter begins

Another chapter of my scattered, gypsy life is about to begin. I finally found a full time job! In less than 3 weeks I am moving to Wickenburg, Arizona to work as the children’s program director at a dude ranch. That’s right a dude ranch!

This new job should be full of new and memorable experiences.  I will be able to do the things I enjoy, working with children and spending time outdoors.  I haven’t spent much (OK, I’ve spent next no) time in the Western United States, but I have always liked the idea of going west. To me the western United States is freedom and openness. I miss that. I feel crowded. In fact, everything around here seems like it is getting more and more crowded. More cars. More traffic. More buildings. More people. More ignorance. Less open space. Less breathing room.  

I am very eager to get to Arizona and go hiking and camping and exploring. To start, the Grand Canyon, San Diego and Las Vegas are all within six hours of the ranch. On my days off, I plan to explore and travel around the southwest as much as I can.  I am also pretty excited to reconnect with my dad’s family in the Phoenix area. There are some relatives that I haven’t seen in years and others that I’ve never met.

When I graduated college two years ago, I was certain that I was going to get a full time teaching job right away and start teaching in my own class room the very next fall. When that fall rolled around and I still didn’t have a job, I was crushed. After subbing for a little bit I realized that I needed to explore other ways to use my teaching degree. In the end, I am so very thankful that I didn’t get a job right out of school because, I would have missed out on all the great experiences I have had in the last two years and the many new experiences I am sure I will have during this coming year.