Feeling Fortunate

Jesse and I are back from our road trip only slightly early.  We scratched seeing Sequoia National Park.  I planned this trip a lot like the way I planned my motorcycle trip to Canada, but there were some key differences that I didn't take into account:

1. Jesse and Kisho.  The added person and dog meant more stuff.  More stuff that needed to be unpacked and repacked at each stop.
2. Camping vs. hotels.  Having all that stuff is bad enough, but breaking down and setting up your shelter and bed every stop got tiring.
3. Dirt.  Related to #2, Kisho was a giant, shedding ball of dust from our very first camping stop at the Grand Canyon.  For the rest of the week, brushing him off before he got in the car or in the tent became a tiring, if not futile, routine.  As if to mock our efforts at keeping him clean, he would purposely avoid laying on the blue tarp we bought for the purpose and lay on the dirt instead at every chance.
4. Cooking.  On my Canada trip, my food was always handled at restaurants and fast food chains.  For this trip, we lugged a not inconsequential amount of food and gear to cook it.  This also needed to be set up and put away every night because of animals.  So even if we were staying at a place for more than one night, it still had to be stowed.

The final thing that I think really tired us out was the weather.  We started out with intensely hot weather at Barstow and the Grand Canyon.  But by the time we started going to Bryce and Mount Charleston, the evenings were dipping down into the low 30's.  It's hard to get restful sleep when you wake up every hour or so with some body part that managed to get outside of the sleeping bag frozen solid.  And even though Kisho had his big fluffy coat, I know this was pushing his limits too.  He was in our tent, curled up in the fetal position on his cushion most nights.

I'm considering buying a tent trailer or camping trailer of some sort as this would have addressed all of the above.  But even though we pooped out, we made some incredible memories.  Just take a look at some of this scenery...

The Grand Canyon

Bryce Canyon - Natural Bridge

Bryce Canyon - Farview Overlook

Zion Canyon

If you ever want to feel small and insignificant, come to these places and see what nature has been doing to these rocks for millions of years. Can you imagine the stories these walls would tell if they could?  It made me feel incredibly fortunate to be alive and to have Jesse and Kisho in my life.  Fortunate that I could travel to these places with them.  

Kisho was his own natural attraction.  Just about every single person that saw us this week, came up to pet him and get a lick.  That dog brightened up so many little kids' days, I'll bet some of them are still talking about him.  He can make a screaming kid laugh in seconds.  It's truly magical to watch and I feel very lucky to have him.

Jesse too is a blessing.  Road trips can be fatal to relationships.  Spending large amounts of time confined in small places with someone else is a recipe for disaster.  I know I'm in the right relationship because this doesn't happen to Jesse and me.  We just get along and laugh or sit in silence or share cool things we're learning.  I know how lucky I am to have this but trips like this only serve to increase my awareness of it.

So in the end, this trip accomplished what it set out to do... help me forget about work.  It came with its own challenges and obstacles, but it still allowed me to decompress.  Next stop for me?  My own comfy bed.  The hot shower was part one of the magic, but the bed is part two.

Thanks for reading.