Wow!
That is probably the best, single word to describe the past week. Why wow? Because we have seen a lot, met a lot of people, done a lot of things and have just been busier than ever. Let me recap the past week for you.
Friday, June 27th (Day 47) was our last day visiting Anna and Nate in Eugene. I worked during the day while Shayanne and Anna ran errands. They ended up coming back to the house while singing happy birthday and carrying my very own ice cream cake, which happens to be my favorite. Shayanne also bought me the movie, “Hot Rod.” We first saw the movie while we were staying in Pagosa Springs and we both loved it. It’s so stupid, but it’s a good stupid. :) So we cut up some ice cream cake and watched the DVD, it was a really nice gesture. Thanks to both Anna and Shay for a nice early birthday moment.
In the afternoon, we headed down towards Medford, Oregon to camp for the night. We wanted to cut our drive down to Redwood in half and the KOA at Medford did just that. It was a warm day. It was in the high-90’s, but by time the sun it went down it was quite comfortable. We made hot dogs by the fire and just had a relaxing night around the campfire.
Saturday, June 28th (Day 48) was my 25th birthday. Quarter of a century already, wow. Makes me sound old. We started the day off by driving from Medford down to the Redwood National Park. We drove through it while in awe of the most amazing trees we’ve ever seen. We stayed down Hwy 101 and eventually hit the northern coast of California. It was hazy and a bit cold, but still very cool to see. Neither of us have ever seen the Pacific ocean from the continental U.S. I saw it when I was in Hawaii, but the Pacific Ocean there is MUCH different than the Pacific Ocean you see in Northern California.
We continued down Hwy 101 until we got south of Eureka and then checked out the Avenue of the Giants. It’s a road that stays close to Hwy 101 but runs through a bunch of small towns and LOTS of redwoods. We stopped at a few places to marvel at the beauty of nature and take in some of the attractions in these towns. We saw the Eternal Tree, which is basically just a hollowed out Redwood that they built a little tree fort of it. It was neat to see. After that we continued southward and eventually hit Myers Flat, California. Myers Flat has a redwood you can drive through, so we decided to check that out. It was pretty cool and to be honest I was worried that I’d fit the width clearance because of our bikes. We made it through, but by no more than a few inches. No lie there. We also checked out a lot of the wood carvings they had at Myers Flat. Just a very cool place to see. I’d definately recommend stopping in.
After Myers Flat, we headed down Hwy 101 and then turned off on to Hwy 1 to ride down the California coastline a bit. Very beautiful, despite it being hazy and cold. We stopped in Fort Bragg to grab a birthday dinner. First thing I noticed was the prices in the menu. A regular hamburger was $13.00. Incredible, California is SO expensive! We then headed east on Hwy 20 towards Ukiah. Once we hit Ukiah, we found a hotel to rest our heads and decided to go to Applebees for a free birthday drinks. We had fun and it was good to share my birthday with such a good friend. It was tough though that I couldn’t share my birthday with ALL of my family and friends, but I got plenty of phone calls, emails and text messages that made it easier to bear.
Sunday, June 29th (Day 49), we headed for Truckee. Originally we wanted to see the Napa area and try the wineries, but we decided to skip that and head to Truckee because of all the wildfires that are going on in California. The wildfires also presented a problem with travel. Many major routes were closed because of the fires. We had to call and ask around for the best possible routes to get towards Truckee. We had two problems: wildfires and road closures. We figured Hwy 20 all the way from the coast to Truckee would be our best bet, so we took it. It was a very nice drive actually, it was smoky out (in fact, it still is) but you couldn’t smell it. We hit Truckee late in the afternoon and just hung around until my friend Lucas got home. Lucas Meyer is an old friend from high school and he was kind enough to bring us into his home for the week.
Monday, June 30th (Day 50) I spent the day working. I’ve been working all week and have been SUPER busy doing it. I’m working as much as I can this work so that I have a good chunk of time I can take off next week to travel back home. We spent the evening hours sipping beers with one another and catching up. It’s been great to see old friends on this trip and just catch up. It’s always interesting to see what people have been doing with themselves since high school.
Tuesday, July 1st (Day 51) was another pretty laid back day. I worked all day while Shay did some odds-and-ends things like go for a mini-hike with Lucas’ dog. After work we headed south to Lake Tahoe and checked that out. That was very neat to see. Emerald Bay was breathtaking and we made it as far as South Lake Tahoe and decided to grab a bite there.
Yesterday (Day 52) was more of an active day. Again, Shay would go out for a walk with the dog while I worked, but we went out for the evening. We first headed to Donner Lake and hiked a bit. We eventually hit a boulder where most of our party went to climb it while the rest of us drank beers and watched. I decided to scale the easy side of the rock. Really, that was nothing special. I’ve climbed harder things on this trip. :) After our bouldering session, we jumped into Donner Lake to cool off. That was super cold and I didn’t last long. Once we were done with the lake, we headed into town to BBQ and check out Truckee’s Wednesday Night Music in the Park. It was pretty cool and just nice to be outside and get fresh air with everyone.
Today (Day 53), it’s been the same-old, same-old story. I worked all day. Shayanne went for a hike along the river and floated down the river with one of Lucas’ roommates, Bob. They’re still gone, but I’m not sure what we’re going to do when they get back. The thought of going to Reno has come up, but I’m not sure. I really would like to be able to afford the trip back home. 
I have pictures posted of Eugene, Medford, Redwood National Park and Ukiah up on the site. We will post pictures of Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake and Truckee shortly! Again, sorry for the long overdue update. We have just been SO busy!!! Hard to believe, we’re only a week away from being back home. Where has the time gone?
On Saturday (Day 20) we departed from Grand Junction and started our great American southwest tour. We headed to Moab, Utah and stopped south of it at the Arches National Park. This park is known for it’s rock formations that look like great, big arches. I know, fitting name for the park. It’s very cool seeing these things and learning about how they form. The geology explaining it takes far too long to explain on here, so if you are interested in reading about, see the Wikipedia entry for 
Once we finished up seeing Mesa Verde National Park, we headed down to the Four Corners. It’s one of those things you have to see if you’re in that area just to do it. By no means was it the best stop we made while we’ve been traveling along. However, it is still kind of cool to be able to stand in 4 states at once. Even though 3 out of the 4 are not among our favorites so far on this trip. By that I mean we just loved Colorado. Colorado was amazing. However, Arizona, New Mexico and Utah are just too dry for our tastes. We have joked on this trip about how you never really notice how many lakes Minnesota actually has UNTIL you leave the state. There is nothing in those states in terms of lakes (unless it’s man made). Saturday ended up being the longest day we had on this trip. Total commute time was over 13 hours and about 600 miles to go from Grand Junction, Colorado to Page, Arizona.
Sunday (Day 21) we headed to the north rim of the Grand Canyon. My god, that was awesome and probably one of the most awe-inspiring parts of this trip. I remembered when we got there and started on a hike, the first time we stopped to look over the canyon, neither of us said a word. We just looked out for what seemed to be forever and sat there silently. What word exists that can truly describe what the Grand Canyon is like? I don’t believe one exists. If I was to make up a word, it would be scrumptulescent. The Grand Canyon is scrumptulescent.
Another thing about Lake Powell that day: it was frickin’ hot! On our thermometer it topped 100 degrees. I’m sick and tired of hearing, “well, it’s a dry heat.” Dry heat my ass. It’s still hot, that part doesn’t change! Anyhow, we camped there for the night and met some nice ladies in a campsite across from us. We wanted to tap into one of the bottles of wine we bought in Palisade but had no wine opener. We were able to successfully trade some of our homemade fudge for the use of the ladies’ corkscrew. It worked out well and we were able to meet some nice people in the process.
Today (Day 25) I got to work in the AM a little bit and then the 4 of us went hiking to Timpanogos Cave which is north of where we’re staying. It’s a mile and a half hike up to the cave, but it’s all uphill and you end up climbing over a 1,000 feet in the process. Once you reach the top, they take you on a 45 minute tour of the cave. I enjoy seeing caves. I haven’t seen one in a very long time, but I remember when I was 12 and saw the caves in the Black Hills, I was so awestruck. The Timpanogos Cave wasn’t as impressive as the memories of the caves I saw in the Black Hills, but it was still cool. Needless to say the hike back down wasn’t that hard. It’s much easier when gravity is working with you when you hike.
Once 1:00 rolled around, we put down the computer and books and picked up our bikes. We went for a ride in the park and it was very difficult on the both of us. The last mile and a half up to the visitors center near Devils Tower is nothing but a steady incline. You add that to the high altitude and thin air, we were sucking back pretty hard in a very quick time.
Once we finished rollerblading, we stocked up on firewood, marshmallows and graham crackers and settled in our campsite. I started a fire right at sunset and we sat around it for a couple of hours. I boiled some water and made my dehydrated chicken and mashed potatoes. I know it sounds disgusting and admittedly the chicken looked and felt like rice cakes, but it turned out to be pretty good. It was pretty good despite the fact we weren’t even roughing it. If we WERE roughing it, that meal would have been gourmet. No lie. Shay made fun of me and took video of the experience but the joke is on here because I had a good meal and she was stuck eating cold peas out of a can.
