Road Trip details

Finally, I have the time and will to detail a bit of my road trip with y'all. So here are the highlights:

We drove through Kentucky and Illinois and Indiana to get to St. Louis, Missouri, which was a lot of fun. We went to this microbrewery that had the best ribs I'd ever eaten. A lot of the food was organic, and almost all came from local farmers or their own garden. Sweet.

We drove through Missouri and half of Kansas, and it was actually kinda pretty. Missouri is a nice state to drive through, rolling green hills and all. Kansas was a hoot, because half the time driving we tuned into AM stations sponsored by Christian Coalition Family groups and such, and listening the radio stations talk about how to raise your kids "in God's light" or how to deal with non-believers was... illuminating, and often times aggravating.

When we got to Colorado, it, for a long time, looked exactly like Kansas. Very flat, very farm-y. Unfortunately it was extremely overcast and rainy, so we didn't get to see the Rocky Mountains upon approach. However, we stayed there during the night and in the morning hiked out to a panorama point to see the mountains. It was gorgeous.

We drove through the Rockies that day, which was really fun and beautiful. I only wish we could have spent more time there. Then we drove into Utah.

One thing about Utah. Forget what you may have heard about it, it is one of the prettiest states I've ever been to. Full of canyons and mountains and valleys and high altitude desert, it is one spectacular place. We spent several days there, driving through, stopping at scenic overlooks and being amazed by the landscape. We stayed at this one amazing park (Dead Horse Point State Park), which had lovely campsites and in the morning, we hiked to watch the sun rise at Dead Horse Point, which gives a 270-degree view of the canyons and arches that go for miles.

We also visited the Grand Canyon's North Rim, which was lovely and a place I'd want to stay, as it had a hotel of sorts right on the rim. In order to get there we drove through a fire-damaged area. A recent forest fire charred hundreds of acres of forest around the road that leads to the rim, and it was cool to see the charred trunks. It was particularly sad, because the minute you see it, you understand that life will grow back, and fast, and that often it's necessary for these kinds of fires to purge the forest of overgrowth and underbrush.

My favorite part of the trip was going to see the sand dunes in Coral Pink Sands State Park. There are these huge salmon-colored sand dunes in the middle of the mountainy area in Utah, and it was unbelieveable. Soooo beautiful and almost unreal.

We drove into Nevada (which feels like another planet) and drove past Las Vegas, which is the weirdest city in the entire world. It sits in amongst these barren mountains and is so gawdy and crazy and feels like it shouldn't be there because of all the desert that surrounds it. Then we drove past Lake Mead, which is another surreal place. It's this huge vibrant blue lake i n the middle of a desert, with no vegetation around it whatsoever. It was created after the Hoover Dam was built, backing up the Colorado River. The Hoover Dam was cool to see, although there were a lot of people there, and there was a lot of construction, as they're making a bridge byway in view of the dam, so people can get a better look and also eliminate some of the security that comes with driving over the dam.

That night we drove across the Mojave Desert to get to California. The next day we drove up the middle of the state (very deserty and bright) to get to the Sierra Nevadas. We camped among the sequoias and sugarpine trees that night. There were more mosquitos than I had ever seen before.

We got to see the sequoias, which are unbelieveable and beautiful. Ryan bought a seed that he's going to plant to get one to grow. Then we drove to Mountain View.

Mountain View feels like Pleasantville in its cleanliness, newness, and brightness. The weather is temperate and always sunny, the streets are wide and tree-lined, and the buildings look new and well cared-for. We moved Ryan into his apartment, which is cute and will serve him well I think. A day later I left. I think he'll be very happy there. There seems to be a large younger population, and it's a very tech-savvy place (Silicon Valley and all).

Well, that's about it. Apparently during Scouts Ryan's leader-person had a game called Thorns and Roses, in which you told your favorite and worst experience on the trip. My rose was Coral Pink Sands State Park, and for good reason. My thorn (other than having to leave Ryan) was that we had such long days on the road we usually were too tired to do anything but sleep after we got to the campsite, and we often didn't leave early enough to get into camp before dusk.

Overall though, the trip was pleasant and fun and well worth the 10 days it took to drive.