A Lone Rock and A Sandstorm

March 19-23:

We left Hopi land Sunday afternoon with full bellies and high spirits, heading towards Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon to camp the next two nights. As the car chugged NW the landscape began to change. There were more canyons, red rock and spectacular views.

I imagine the land would taste like this jalapeno popcorn.

We are so small.

We ran into a crew from Reader’s Digest, which has pledged $7.5 million to revitalizing American towns. They’re traveling in this RV and stopping in 100 cities in 100 days. You can follow them here. Their social media guru gave us all sorts of information and was very curious about our blog!

Well, look who it is!

We arrived at the Lone Rock Campground, part of Lake Powell, in the late afternoon and spent forty minutes in awe of such an extraterrestrial landscape. A mirror-smooth lake with enormous Lone Rock rising from the surface. Our beach, devoid of life but for 3 other sets of campers, spread out a good 15 acres in all directions, undisturbed by wind. We couldn’t have been happier. Carrie was inspired to write some music.

So peaceful. No wind at this point.

Lone Rock.

Elegant landing

Next time we're bringing these.

Loving this magic place.

Broader view of Lake Powell

The following morning was a different story. We woke at 4am to the sounds of wind whipping at the tent flaps. We gave it little thought and tried to get some more sleep. Within two hours the gusts had turned into gale-force winds. Our tent poles were bowing under the stress but it was still early enough that we hunkered down and slept for another hour. By the time we got out of our tents the damage had already been done. We threw everything into the car (sand everywhere) and drove up to the nearest information center where our mattress promptly blew away into the sage brush and thorns. It was time to be on our way.

Sleep deprived and dirty we immediately booked a hotel room in Vegas to shower and reorganize ourselves. The North Rim of the Grand Canyon was still closed for the season so, having both seen the canyon before, we skipped that stop and drove straight through to Vegas. We did have to make a thirty minute stop when we were pulled over by a Utah Sherif. He asked why I (Jake) had veered from my lane, as if the tornado winds and sail-like cargo carrier on our car weren’t explanation enough. It was an odd experience because he asked me to come sit in his truck while he ran our plates, something I have NEVER heard of. After making awkward small-talk for fifteen minutes has asked me if we had “anything he should be worried about” in the vehicle and then asked specifically about alcohol or marijuana. We had neither, so he let us go without any more hassle. His truck was a K-9 unit so I half hoped he would search our car simply so we could say we had been searched by a K-9 unit on the barren plains of Utah. Overall, a very nice young sheriff.

Driving to Vegas -in the snow

Epic sites

The shiny lure of Vegas

Vegas was a blur of lights and people and sleep. We saw a Cirque du Soleil show and gawked at the assemblage of gamblers. The Venetian had neat hand dryers and fake Italians.

The Venetian

After some tasty gelato

Gondolas on wheels? Motors?

Bustling constantly.

New York, New York

We got back in the car the following morning (Wednesday the 23rd of March) and kept driving towards Los Angeles. We were getting a little car crazy. I have no idea what that noise is that I’m making.

Back to camping! in the COLD.

We spent a very cold night in the San Bernardino National Forest just east of L.A. At around 1am Carrie woke up and made us both move into the car to sleep the rest of the night because it was so cold. The morning sun warmly welcomed us to California after a very bizarre night. I just noticed that San Bernardino has been spelled four different ways on this website. =) P.S. Be sure to click on all the orange text in this blog for some fun little videos.

Beautiful San Bernadino National Forest in California.

Ready for a warm bed in LA.

 

Don’t worry, be Hopi

Hopi Reservation: March 19-20, 2011

The Hopi Mission School

The following two days after our Earthship experience took us into Arizona where we met up with Rebecca Yoder, an EMU friend who now teaches on the Hopi reservation in Arizona. She showed us around her four-teacher, K-5 school, and took us on an informative and eye-opening drive around the village of Kykotsmovi and the surrounding villages. Oraibi, just up the road from Rebecca’s house, is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in all of the United States.

Memorables:

-Navigating through a sea of immense tumbleweeds

Rebecca and Jake conquer the tumbleweeds

- Eating an ashen Hopi traditional food called Piki bread – the process that goes into making it is intriguing

- Going to church on Sunday and singing hymns in Hopi, ending the service in a big circle, holding hands and singing “Bind Us Together” – a very simple but moving experience because of the great cultural diversity in the room.

- Being invited back several times by the local folks

- Ogling the incredible silver and turquoise jewelry made by the Hopi, Navajo and Zuni

- Learning about Kachina dolls and how deeply rooted they are in the culture

- The Korean missionary pastor and the elders of the First Mesa Baptist church doing a “Dear America”

The friendly pastor of First Mesa Baptist Church

- The incredible land surrounding us throughout the Hopi and Navajo Reservations- demanding reverence.

We really enjoyed our time in Hopi land and wouldn’t mind returning again some day to visit again! Next time we hope to get one of these shirts to commemorate our experience: )

PHOTO TAKEN FROM NPR.ORG

Tamales and Earthships

New Mexico (March 16-19)

After spending our very first night in the car at an overly-lit rest stop in West Texas, we finally crossed into New Mexico. We went from UFO-obsessed Roswell north up to the delicious Santa Fe. The streets smelled amazing (seriously, like a balanced blend of incense and tamales). There are over 265 art galleries in this little city of 65,000 people (245.3 people per gallery) complete with a Georgia O’Keefe Museum.

Our first experience sleeping in the car.

Roswell - the alien capital of the states.

Camping outside of Santa Fe on Route 66.

One of 265 amazing art galleries in Santa Fe.

Beautiful buildings all over the place.

More vibrant art.

Tasty tamales.

Old stairs originally built without any supports on the sides and no railing (added since)

We wished we had more time here but we had booked an incredible night in Tres Piedras, 90 minutes north of Santa Fe. This was one of our budgeted luxuries: a night in an earthship. You can follow us on the grand tour in this little video we made. Also be sure to check out www.earthship.org. We learned about these a few years back and have been aching to experience one ever since. It was WELL worth it.

We had to cross the Rio Grande to find our earthship,

Excited to get there...

Our place for the night!

Living room.

Bathroom

The greenhouse hallway

Entrance to the ship.

60 earthships make up the community in Tres Piedres.

One with many levels. Neato.

We got to cook! We miss this.

What happens with the water in the homes.

One of our friendly hosts, Hilary, with her "Dear America"

Messing with Texas

Texas snuck up on us in the dead of night.

We went against the grain and decided to mess with Texas, joining Carrie’s friend Jess Ramos (from the LA days) and her husband Adrian in Dallas for a night. They have a great apartment in an even more impressive apartment building (outdoor pool/hot tub, bar, poker room, dog-friendly). We spent a good half hour on the roof of the building taking in the lights and the breeze and then took to the courtyard where the apartment complex keeps a propane fire burning through the night. Along with three other new acquaintances we talked into the night before returning to the apartment for the women to catch the finale of “The Bachelor.” The Ramos’ were impeccable hosts. They cooked us a great meal, kept pouring us wine and even let us do our laundry. THANK YOU!

Jess!

Dallas by rooftop.

New friends and old.

We were planning to continue across northern Texas the following morning, but Jess and Adrian encouraged us to travel south to see the South by Southwest Music Conference in Austin. A three-hour drive brought us into the heart of downtown Austin, a warmly urban setting where cyclists flourish and live music roars from every corner restaurant.

This was a fun find in Austin.

We enjoyed some bold, bright, bar art downtown.

Tasty pulled pork and pineapple tacos with a frozen margarita.

We walked the streets for a few hours, when all of the sudden Facebook told Carrie that Mister Heavenly would be doing a free show just blocks from our location. Mister Heavenly (unbeknownst to me until that moment) is a Supergroup made up of artists from Modest Mouse, Man Man, and The Unicorns. Most interestingly though, their bassist is Michael Cera, the charmingly awkward star of Superbad and Juno. We had a great time watching him awkwardly play the bass, awkwardly talk to other people, and finally he awkwardly made eye contact with me. It was awkward. Their music was nice too.

There he is: Mr. Cera tearing down from the show

The sun, in its usual manner, was preparing to set so we walked to the Congress Ave. bridge, home of the world’s largest urban bat colony. Every day (night?) at dusk, millions of bats stream out from their day-time home underneath the bridge and drift eastward like a column of smoke.

On top of the "bat bridge"

Read all about it.

The rest of Texas was a blur of sagebrush, sand and sweaty brows as we drove the last 600 miles to New Mexico. We’ve been listening to Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” (what inspired that?) on audiobook, so, inspired by his writing, we attempted to describe the plains of West Texas. Here are our attempts:

” Driving the stretch was like riding a lifeline across the skin of an old woman who didn’t know how to stay out of the sun, a woman boldly  wearing the long cracks of this earth like old battle scars and gently reminding us to brace ourselves for the years to come.” – Carrie

” It was like driving on the hide of some giant animal that had been shaved so close to the skin, and occasionally the razor had scraped too close and exposed swathes of raw earth. ” – Jake

P.S. Best gas station coffee so far has been in Texas – we’ve either been given the coffee for free or for $.25. Have not beat those prices yet on this journey.