Alright my friends, our trip around the world has finally begun! But first, I am going to catch you up a bit. This past month has been a bit hectic. One of the first questions people ask when I tell them I’m going to leave the country for six months to travel the world is, “What are you going to do with your apartment?” To me, this seems like a silly question, but it must be valid, due to the surprising amount of people who voiced this concern. Here’s what happened for us. Luckily, our lease ended on May 22 (happy birthday Sloane!), but there was no way we were paying the month to month rate. It just about raised the price a third of what we were already paying. We thought of finding an extended stay hotel, or subletting a place for the month we would need, but we found a more economical solution, which also allowed for some quality family time. Both of my parents live in Los Angeles, so we house hopped between my Dad’s and Mom’s places for the month. This way, they both got some quality Seth and Berkley time (and Mochi too) before we left. For those of you who have never moved back in with your parents, it’s never easy, but it worked out well in the end.
Then there’s the questions about jobs and the like. One of the delightful coincidences of the world (concerning our adventure) occurred in timing. Seth’s job offers sabbatical after working there for an allotted amount of time. His sabbatical just so happened to coincide with my graduation from grad school, and an appropriate time to terminate with my clients. So, Seth finished up as much of his projects at work as he could, and I worked my butt off to finish my masters in a timely two years. I put in a request for a leave of absence from my work, and was granted, thank goodness. Tying up those loose ends this past month has been so difficult. There were so many ‘endings’ in order to begin our adventure. BUT we’ll be back peoples! Don’t you worry! Well, maybe worry a little bit. We may really enjoy some island along the way where we could sell pouka shells on the beach and give intuition readings.
And then the day finally came!! We left Los Angeles, California at about 3pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012. We decided to leave Thursday afternoon to beat the pm traffic as well as the all day Friday gridlock of Los Angeles. It worked! We barely hit any traffic. We made it to Flagstaff, Arizona pretty late, and passed out pretty quickly. But that didn’t last long. The bed was pretty bouncy, so just breathing made the other jiggle.
We woke up to a beautiful Arizona morning. Dry, sunny, clear and warm. Upon recommendation from our friend Roland who used to live in Flagstaff, we went to Brandy’s Restaurant. One glance at the menu and we knew we were out of LA. When you can get a full breakfast for well under $10, you are not in LA (unless you’re at a drive through).
Aside from the fact that the day was special because we were on our first full day of our adventure, it also happened to be Seth’s 31st birthday! YAY!! Luckily, we had an adventurous day ahead of us. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. I was super excited. I’d never been to the Grand Canyon before. It was absolutely spectacular. It really was, well, grand! (sorry, had to do it.) We took some pictures precariously close to the edge, drank water straight from a spring, and did our fair share of people watching. Let’s just say that it’s always interesting, and telling, watching the people at a major tourist destination.
We ended up having a long day of desert. We drove through some very small towns and were looking forward to some mom n pop restaurants to feed us on our way, but it turned out that the franchises have taken over. Pretty sad that the only choices in most towns were Mc Donalds, Wendy’s, and other kaka food like that. I wonder why America has such a problem with obesity and diabetes? (rhetorical btw) We ended up opting for Subway on two occasions, almost three.
We were making good time, so we decided to book it all the way to Meeker, Colorado. But, not without stopping into Cabela’s in Grand Junction, Colorado. I’d never been, and Seth wanted to pick up some supplies for our time in Meeker.
We made it to Meeker at around 9pm last night. The first thing we did was introduce the pups. For those of you who don’t know, Seth’s parents, Joan and Steve, live in Meeker, Colorado and they will be Mochi sitting while we are away. Many might think this is sad at first, and we will be sad, but Mochi will be so happy. Colorado is doggie heaven. Birds, bugs, and open space are just some of the perks of Colorado for dogs. Anyhow, we had to introduce her to Nellie and Cricket, Joan and Steve’s 9 month old puppies. It was a success! I think Mochi was just happy to be back in Colorado, and didn’t care who was in ‘her’ house. They’ve been getting along just fine since.
Last night we passed out in the cool basement bedroom, only to be awakened by all three dogs barking up a storm some time in the wee hours of the morning. Not sure what they saw, but there have been bears on the property lately, so that’s a possibility. Today we went shooting! So much fun to shoot outdoors. Way more peaceful than a range. Steve already knows what a good shot Seth is, but it was nice to show him that I’m not that bad myself. I actually did really well today, despite my exhaustion.
Lunch! We visited one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, and it happens to be right here in Meeker. It’s called Los Koras and they have really good tacos and ceviche. I’m sure there are other good food items on the menu, but I can’t seem to stray from their tacos mayor and shrimp ceviche.
After Lunch we were pretty tired, so we sat on the porch and watched the dogs run around. It was really hot, about 91 degrees Farenheit, so we pulled out the baby pool and filled it for the pups. Mochi was the only brave one to get in. Then we started spraying water at her and she’d chase it. It was awesome.
The next few days are probably going to be similar, relaxing, shooting, playing with Mochi… A few days of rest before jumping time zones for real! We’re pretty excited. Stay in touch everyone!