Road Trip

So here’s some background- Margaret was set to graduate college and we decided that we should celebrate by doing a trip. That mixed with the Kilimanjaro trip i had planned for August led me to take a leave of absence from work (I ended up formally resigning a few weeks later). Originally we talked about doing a month of the Appalachian trail or something similar but BOY am I glad we chose to this instead.

So, between Margaret college and myself having (1) some free time, and (2) the need to get my car to the east coast, the stars aligned and a cross-country road trip was the result!

San Francisco

Wed. June 3rd

After I picked up Margaret from the airport on Wednesday night, we headed over to Shizzo, Isaac and Matt’s place as I had already moved out of my place. We went for a walk around golden gate park, then hung out until bed.

Thursday, June 4th

We had to take care of some last-minute needs (applying for visas, getting shampoo, etc.) so we did that. We were also able to get up to Grandview park in the Sunset which was great.

That night I had planned a going-away dinner at Southern Pacific brewery with most of the friends I’ve made in SF over the years. It also happened to be the first game of the Warrior’s series for the NBA finals which was cool. Having everyone in one place was a great reminder of the amazing people I’ve got in my life.

Friday, June 5th

Around 5 AM, Margaret, Shizzo and I packed up my car for the last time, hopped on the Bay Bridge and started the drive to the Grand Canyon. Margaret had reserved a campground (yay Mags!), so we settled in around dusk.

Grand Canyon

Saturday, June 6th

Today we headed to the back-country office around 8 AM to see if there was any shred of hope of getting the back-country permit for the Bright Angel campground (bottom of the canyon) we had been previously denied- we got it! So we spent the day at the rim preparing for the next day’s trek. We didn’t have a campground reservation that night we we dispersed camped in the nearby national forest. Dinner that night was one of the best camp meals I’ve ever had (seriously)- Spanish Rice mixed with a can of black beans.

Into the Bowels of the Grand Canyon

Sunday, June 7th

We had a backcountry permit for Sunday night which meant we could camp at the designated spot at the bottom of the canyon. We ALSO had to get Shizzo to Las Vegas by 6 PM the next day (monday) for his flight back to SF. Being optimistic, we caught the 6 AM bus from the visitor’s center to the trailhead and started hking. It took about 4 hours to get down the 7.5 miles to the bottom. It was amazing to see it from an angle that a very small percentage of visitors see.

The Colorado River couldn’t come soon enough. At about 110 degrees, we immediately all sat in a tributary creek to cool off the minute we got to the bottom. After setting up camp, we relaxed the rest of the day and began to realize (1) just how hot it was there, and (2) that we in fact needed to do everything we just did (about 9 miles, 4600′ elevation) in reverse the next day…..THEN drive to Vegas to get Shizzo to his flight. These two conclusions led us to set a midnight alarm to start the hike nice and early.

Monday, June 8th

Today was a…..long day. Here’s the breakdown:

• Wake up at midnight after roughly 3 hours of sleep
• Pack up the tent and bags in the dark, making sure to be quite for those sleeping around us
• Start hiking up the grand canyon
• Reach the Lion’s head campground around 3:30 AM for some Oatmeal
• Watch the sunrise around 5:30 AM about halfway up the canyon- beautiful to see
• Climb the remainder- the last 3 miles were VERY steep and it was getting extremely hot out. This is also when we started to come across the folks who were doing a 2-hour hike from the rim….they didnt seem to understand the reason for the drab expressions on our faces.
• At 9 AM we arrived at the top! It was bizarre to realize that although we had hiked so far it was still ONLY 9 AM and people were at the top drinking coffee saying “good morning”
• Then we ate, and ate some more. Seems like no matter how much we ate we were still hungry
• Then drive to Vegas, Baby!

Vegas Baby!

Monday, June 8th (Cont.)

Margaret and I dropped Shizzo off in vegas and immediately fell asleep. Something about waking up at midnight, hiking out of the grand canyon and driving to Vegas got us tired.

Tuesday, June 9th

Our legs were killing us today, so we took it easy- we had a hotel room picnic with grocery store food and went to a laundromat. Later on we decided to do Vegas-Esque things, so we headed to Fremont street for overpriced drinks, after which we headed to the strip.

Wednesday, June 10th

We left Vegas around 9 AM and headed back to Arizona for the Petrified Forest, stopping at the Hoover Dam along the way.

Painted Desert/Petrified Forest

We dispersed camped in the Painted desert with no rain flap- it was awesome to see the stars. It was more than I had ever seen before.

Thursday, June 11th

After morning oatmeal over the camp stove, we checked out the nearby town of Holbrook and went to a cool Museum/Town Hall/Court House/ Jailhouse building.

After Holbrook, we went back to the Painted Desert

That night looked a bit more shaky with thunderstorms so we changed the plans and headed to Flagstaff, AZ instead. We ended up getting a motel room, and being really surprised with how cool downtown Flagstaff is. It was really nice to get back into a city for a night.

Bryce Canyon, Utah (sort of)

Friday, June 12th

After getting coffee at a local coffee shop in Flagstaff, we headed to Bryce Canyon, UT. We got AWESOME pie at a diner that night. The plan was to do a few days of back-country in the canyon starting the following day but the forecast had us worried. We also caught a great sunset driving back to the hotel.

Zion/Cedar City!

Saturday, June 13th

So today we woke up with intentions of hiking down Bryce but the weather looked terrible SOOO we pulled an audible and headed to Zion National Park which wasn’t too far away.

Zion was great- it’s a very accessible park because of the bus system that drives you around so it was an easy day.

Later that night we were headed to Cedar City Utah where our hotel was for the night and after googling things to do in the area, we learned that it was the Annual PRCA Cedar City Rodeo! Neither of us had ever been to a rodeo before so we figured why not.

The rodeo was actually really awesome to see. We sat next to a really nice lady who explained all the events and who the favorites were. My favorite was the halftime show, called “Cash Cow”. So here’s what happened-

The rodeo clown at one point asked all the 6-11 year old kids to come into the ring (the manure-filled ring). They start off with some stretching, after which the clown tells them to lay down and do push-ups. At this point the parents aren’t terrible happy that their kids are covered in the dirt/poo mix. After push-ups was sit-ups, and an army crawl, further covering the kids who were nothing but excited.

After telling the kids to fill their pockets with the dirt, they all lined up with their face against the wall, eyes closed. At this point I made a joke to Margaret “what if they released a bull into the ring right now”. I then see a little calf brought to the middle of the ring with a bunch of money taped to it’s sides. The calf is just kind of hanging out looking around when all of a sudden the clown yelled “GO” and 100 children start stampeding towards this thing. The look of “Oh Crap….” in it’s eyes as it kicked into high gear running away was palpable. Anyways, the kids chase the calf around the ring grabbing money. It had everyone in stands cracking up laughing and was a great time.

A unique Saturday night for sure.

Bryce Canyon (For real this time)

Sunday, June 14th

We had a great breakfast in Cedar City at a little diner and hit the road. I had what looked like a great 3-day backpacking trip planned, and the ranger agreed. He said “That’s a great trail there….. there’s no water along the whole path and its around 95 degrees but luckily you’re surrounded by trees so you’ll have shade. Yeah, you can’t see the canyon but thats okay. And oh- just be careful with bears in that area”. He was serious. We were not.

Soooooo we changed plans and did a the Fairyland loop (~4 hours). It was amazing!

After hiking, we jumped in the car and started driving towards Arches National Park. We were going to camp there but the sky turned real dark so we stopped in some town (overgrown truck stop?) in Utah and stayed at the Red Roof in. I’m easy going but man- what a disgusting motel! Good Sunset though…..

Arches National Park

Monday, June 15th

We got to Arches and did a quick, yet worthwhile tour of Arches National Park.

We pulled into Denver and I realized that I had a ton of Marriott hotel points, so I booked 3 nights at a local Marriott- it was really nice to be able to unpack.

Denver/Boulder, CO

Tuesday, June 16th

Today was a Denver Day, which consisted of:

• Checking out Red Rocks Music Hall (While we were there we saw a playbill for a band Margaret likes called Belle and Sebastian with the Colorado Orchestra so we got tickets for the following night!)
• Going to the flagship REI store
• Denver Museum of Nature & Sciences
• Hanging in a park
• Larminer Square
• A funny converstaion that night:
  • Curt- “Margaret, are you cold? Im freezing”
  • Margaret- “No, why?”
  • Curt- “Im just cold…..why are you wearing two jackets in bed?”
  • Margaret- “Because I was cold!”

Wednesday, June 17th

Today we went to Boulder, CO. Margaret recognized a street performer from Burlington, Vermont which was funny. We also saw Mom’s first apartment when she lived there. That night we went to the concert I mentioned at Red Rocks. It’s an awesome venue.

Thursday, June 18th

Today ended up being another driving day. Initially, our plan was to go to a Rockies game then drive to Custer. The game (we thought) would be over around 7 PM, then we would drive through the night to Custer state park. I wasn’t feeling great AND we learned that the game actually started at 1 PM (which by then we had missed), so we grabbed some quick food and hit the road. We stayed at a random place in Custer and had pizza for dinner. After dinner we wanted ice cream so we went t Dairy Queen. The line was unusually long and after a while the woman came out nearly in tears saying “The cook just quit so no more food but i can get ice cream”. Other customers got mad which was ridiculous. We felt bad, left and got ice cream somewhere else.

South Dakota

Friday, June 19th

We spent the morning at Mt. Rushmore which was awesome to see, then did Custer state park.

After Custers we just HAD to stop at the world-famous South Dakota corn palace! It was pretty corny is you ask me….

As they say….When In Rome. Well, having that famous South Dakotan (word?) Mexican food was a must.

Almost Home- New York/East Coast

Saturday, June 20

Today we drove 800 miles. The end

Sunday, June 21st

Margaret was moving to western New York for a job and we wanted to check out where she would be working/living. On the way we stopped in Rochester, NY to check out Niagara Falls. You can see Canadians from here!

Monday, June 22nd

Today we saw Canandiagua, NY and IMMEDIATELY fell in love with it. We were looking for towns for Margaret to live in and upon seeing it, we decided this was it. Funny thing- I’m actually visiting her at her Canandiagua apartment as I write this (a few months late, but whatever).

Tuesday, June 23rd

Burlington, VT! We stayed with Margaret’s friends for two nights. This is where I learned two things:

• I no longer enjoy $1 beers, and
• I can no longer stay out past midnight

I am okay with both of these. It was great though, I got to meet Lupe and Lupita who are to migrant farm workers Margaret had been working with near Burlington. Although they only speak Spanish, we were able to communicate and had a wonderful lunch with them.

Wednesday, June 24th

This is the day I met my Niece, Aubrey Linnea Liljedahl for the first time! Margaret and I left Burlington and headed right to Hartford Hospital.

It was an amazing adventure and one that (with the help of this writing) I will never forget.