Tuesday, March 24 (Cedar Hills, UT)

Got into Cedar Hills on Monday evening. I met Tom at Mert's bar (an old steelworker bar near the site of what was one of the largest steel plants in the country). I wish I'd seen the plant, as I love industrial scenery. It really represents a way of life and a time in this country that is quickly getting outsourced and outpaced. We also met Steve, a third generation steelworker from Orem and a great guy. Had some beers, talked trucks, and then it was time to hit the homestead. Tom's wife was understandably a little hesitant when he explained that he was bringing home some random guy from the internet, so I was on my best behavior (shaved, used deoderant, and tried not to let my neurosis show too much). It was relatively easy, as Tom and his wife Cathy are some of the most friendly, open and generally nice people I've ever met. They met up in Alaska, and moved back when they had their son to give him a more normal upbringing. Their love of Alaska, nature and each other is really evident as you speak to them, and it was a great source of inspiration for me. Tom also offered a lot of sage and useful advice on Alaska, the outdoors, and bears, which dispelled some of the ideas I had had, and reinforced others.
- Is bear spray effective? You don't want to be close enough to use it. Better to make lots of noise and act big and weird.
- What do you do if you actually get between a sow and her cubs? Pray.

We had some great mexican food, talked about my background, the trip, how they met, their plans and just had an all around great time.

Tom has an amazing truck with a stroked 350 and 35 inch tires, so we took it up through the national park canyon they have as a back yard, and planned the next day's activities. Tom runs fly fishing tours out of Alaska in the summers, but during the winter he runs snowmobile tours. Having never been on a snowmobile, it seemed like a good idea to change that as soon as possible.

I woke up the next morning to the amazing view from their house:


And Tom and I went snowmobiling through the wasatch mountains. It was a very intense experience, much more so than the grand canyon or Arches. I'm not sure why, except that it was much more involved than a trip to either of the other places. I felt much more that I was partaking in the natural beauty, rather than simply observing it.

The snowmobiling was great. We pulled over in some amazing places and had great conversation, shared stories and observations and really relaxed. Turns out Tom and I have very similar backgrounds, similar feelings on those backgrounds and outlooks on people, life, and our own paths.

The wasatch mountains are simply beautiful. I kept on overusing words like "amazing" and "awesome" because I just don't have enough synonyms to come up with new words to express how struck I was with the situation.

Without further commentary:

snowmobiling

Tuesday, March 23 (Moab UT - Cedar Hills, UT)

Been slacking again. Had an amazing time with Tom in Utah, then a great weekend with Jesse in SF. catching up now.

Monday I woke up in Moab to the view of the town from my campgraound. Started the morning off by heading over to Arches National park, a beautiful park of rock formations. Below is the evidence:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2453936&id=834708&l=fc79f11445

I like this blog format and the site is relatively good (free) but the photo uploading is terrible. Hence my use of facebook photo albums.

I left Arches and headed toward Tom's place in Cedar hills. I saw this guy, who probably wins the award for least fuel-efficient method of travel (yes, he is towing a hummer):


I drove down through the plains again, this time with a stiff northerly wind. Kept my wheel at a 45 degree angle to counter it again, with all the fun of going around trucks and hills from before. At least the wind was comin from the other side, so my tires/tie rod ends/steering box are gettin destroyed in a nice symmetrical manner.

I also encountered a more beautiful roads, mountain scenery and even a snowstorm, which was a good portent of things to come in UT:






Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day.

Welcome to Cedar Hills UT (heh heh):

Sunday, March 22 (Durango, CO to Moab, UT)

Sunday morning, we woke up at JT and Eve's, and they took me to the Durango Diner. We met Gary, the owner, who moved from New York in 1975 and bought the place in 1980. We each had the famous Cure, a pile of hash browns topped with cheese, bacon (or chorizo), eggs and green chili. It was fantastic. After the brunch, we took a walk down the blue ribbon fishing river that happens to run through downtown Durango. I like the town more and more with every word someone says about it. I forgot the camera, but great scenery and conversation ensued.

After the walk, JT and Eve had to return to their lives, and I had to keep moving westward. We packed the truck (after JT gave me a power steering box "in case I needed it in Alaska.") I really can't say enough about how friendly, encouraging and generous everyone in Durango was. It was and will be a highlight of the trip, and I will keep up with those guys, both at Cruise Moab (big land cruiser get together in late April (yes, I'm going to try to make it) and later on.

The drive from Durango to Moab was interesting.

Back to the plains


It turns out that tumbleweed is not just a made-up movie effect, for when Clint Eastwood is about to kill someone. It's real and it's everywhere. This guy was racing me for a little while.



The wind was strong enough that I had to keep my steering wheel at crazy angles to keep going straight. This was especially fun when you went through hills (they cut straight through hills for the highway) where there would be no wind (but you can't predict where on the road the wind cuts out), causing you to veer wildly to the left and then recover. Between my legs is a thermarest. I realized about 1500 miles into the trip that while I had taken care of virtually every aspect of the truck, I can actually feel the springs in my driver's seat. Sweet. I'll swap my driver and passenger seats, and if that doesn't help I'll likely buy a seat in SF.


The sky started to look a little ominous as I got closer to Moab.


Turned out to be a pretty wicked dust storm, with winds up to 50 mph and generally a lot of grit in the air, in my hair, eyes, nose, truck, etc.


Putting up the tent was a challenge, but I finally got it up and went to bed with this view of the Moab valley:

Saturday, March 21 (Durango and New Mexico)

We woke up on Saturday and Corbet made a feast of a breakfast, including deer sausage, bacon, and scrambled eggs. Good stuff.

Set us up nicely to go four-wheeling, which we attempted first in the canyons of Durango, only to be turned around by the snow still covering much of the canyons and north facing mountain sides.

We finally ended up in New Mexico, just north of Farmington. Corbet and JT took an inexperienced guy and ran me through the paces, showing me how to pick a line, drive the truck, and generally have a great time. Specific tips included that it's good to be in 4-lo when attempting to scale an 8 foot ledge, not tipping over, and others.

I made an album on Facebook, as there are too many pictures to post to the blog. Suffice it to say that the weather was amazing, about 80 degrees, with clear blue skies and some hazy clouds for character. Porter joined us and we all had a blast.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2451169&l=9615b50f93&id=834708

After the trip, we went back to Corbet's house, where Marianne made Buffalo meat sauce and spaghetti. Between the readily available game and Corbet and Marianne's cooking skills, I plan to surprise them with a visit again soon.

After dinner, I decided to take JT and Eve up on their invitation to spend the night in town. They have a great house right in a college-y neighborhood, and we hung out talking and drinking excellent beer for a few hours, before we decided to call it a night.

Friday March 20 (Trinidad, CO to Durango, CO)

OK, I've been slacking. Too much fun going on, coupled with too much driving. I'm in Cedar Hills, UT, just south of Salt Lake City. Will be here until Thursday, when I leave for SF - either roll in there Thursday night or camp somewhere and get there Friday. I'm at Tom's place in Utah. He has the unlucky job of running a fly fishing business out of Alaska during the summers, and spending his winters here.

Well, back to Durango. I woke up at the Holiday inn in Trinidad, CO on Friday morning. After 700 miles of OK, that was the best night's sleep I've had in a long time. Asked around, and ended up at C&H in downtown Trinidad, where I had the best huevos rancheros I've ever tasted.


I drove from Trinidad to Durango, through some amazing mountain scenery. The interesting thing is that while my truck can do 86.8 gps verified mph, it does not like hills. At all. Seriously, not even a little bit. I was going up Wolf Creek Pass in the rockies and I hit an incredible 27 mph in 2nd gear. The truck really, really does not like hills. I pulled over and cleaned the carb. Nothing. Pulled over again and bought a new air filter. Needed, but nothing. Finally adjusted the timing and my air/fuel mixture, and I was able to get a little more juice going. Not fast, but not 27 in 2nd anymore. Thanks Jose. I think Jose, my friend and mechanic, qualifies as a trip sponsor and likely as a psychologist by now, having dealt with my preparations for, and calls from the trip.

I got to Durango, where JT and his girlfriend Eve had organized a land cruiser get together at the Steamworks Brewery. There were about 8-10 of us, and I don't remember exact numbers or have pictures, because I was still loopy from OK and a tense drive up into the rockies. I sampled the Conductor Imperial Pale then switched over to the Third Eye Pale, had a little Jameson, and found myself in front of 42 lbs of cajun crab boil, which we managed to destroy in about 10 minutes. Damn, that was good. The welcome those guys gave me, coupled with that first, crisp taste of a delicious IPA, was just fantastic.

Through the course of the meal, I was offered a room at both Corbet and Marianne's and JT and Eve's. I stayed the first night at Corbet's place, up in the mountains above Durango. I there met Porter, a 95 lb alaskan Malamute with the sweetest disposition ever. Unless you happened to stop petting/playing with him, at which point he'd start nipping your crotch to get you back focused on the important things, aka him.

Passed out and slept really soundly.

Below is the drive from Trinidad to Durango. It's hard to describe the feeling of seeing the Rockies in the distance, and getting closer, and closer, and finally being in them climbing up through the various levels. The smell in the air changes, the temperature drops, and you start to feel the moisture from the snow and rivers.

Day 4 - Oklahoma

I've been hanging out in Durango, CO with some great people for the last few days. I need to catch up on a few days worth of the trip. I'll start with Oklahoma.

Woke up in Arkansas, and realized that I wanted to be in Durango by Friday. Figured I'd knock off as much of Oklahoma as possible, and leave the more scenic drive (Route 160 from Trinidad through the Rockies into Durango) for Friday. Got in the car and started driving. Kept driving. Drove some more. Then there was some more driving. After that, I had to drive more. Long story short, Oklahoma is really, really big. and flat. The state was not big on activities or shenanigans, but it was truly huge. The sense of space, especially for someone with my background (born and raised in manhattan) was almost indescribable. You can see to the horizon 360 degrees, and the horizon is anywhere from 100 miles and up. Rolling plains, mesas, it really looks like the old west. More so than Texas, at least to my recollection.

I keep on finding myself just in awe of the country. I try to imagine what the first people (I'll shy away from the the native american political discussion) to see these places must have thought. I have some perspective and expectations, from magazines, movies, etc - so what I'm seeing corresponds to my preconceptions and expectations. And even I'm left speechless at the sheer size of the country and its beauty. Someone seeing this for the first time must have just been overwhelmed.

The only thing of note that happened to me in OK was that I hit something doing about 80. I'm pretty sure it was a chupacabra. Could have been a pheasant, but if you think about it, chupacabra is the much more likely scenario. At any rate, I now have a sweet dent in my hood. I rationalize it by thinking that it could have been high and come through the windshield, or it could have been low and gone through the radiator. But then again, it might not have hit me at all. That wouldn't have been an altogether crappy scenario either.

So without crazy experiences to share about OK, i will put some thoughts down from the trip so far.
- I had a wobble in my steering wheel which I attributed to my U-joints, my tires, my steering stabilizer, etc... Chased it down for a long time, got it better but not perfect by rebalancing my wheels a few times. Finally pulled over and figured I should check my tire pressures. I was about a pound and a half off from side to side. Equalized them and the wobble is pretty much gone.

- I gave them a chance, and no - I still really don't like spiders. Got in the truck after Arkansas, and there was a spider crawling on the brim of my hat. As in, 2 inches from my eye, and seemed like it was aobut 4 feet big to my unshowered, half-asleep perception.

- It takes about 2 days to develop a wicked trucker's tan (left arm dark, everything else not so dark)

- if you try to remedy said trucker's tan by using spray sunblock, keep in mind that you're still going 70, your window is open, and most of the sunblock will go into your eyes and make you blind.

- Brake fluid is good for a number of things, not least being that it makes your hands seem cleaner than they are. Then it's good for taking the painted symbols off of the buttons on your stereo.

- Carb cleaner is good for cleaning carbs. Also for going into your eyes and making you blind.

- My truck treats power steering fluid the way a college freshman treats light beer. Lots goes in, lots comes out.

I will leave you with pictures of Oklahoma. It really is a beautiful place, although 700 miles of it in a day gets taxing.












The damage done by a chupacabra - particularly annoying, because it wasn't done on a trail or in any sort of cool fashion.



Chupacabra feathers:

Day 3 - Wednesday

This morning I woke up in the "Rest Inn" somewhere around Goodwin, AR. To be perfecly honest, my first impressions of Arkansas coincided with my preconceptions. When I crossed the bridge from Memphis into AR, the first thing I noticed was the incredibly strong smell of French Fries. "OK," I thought, Arkansas smells like French Fries. Shortly after that, the strong smell of burning rubber hit me. Now I'm a car guy, and I can tell you there's good burning rubber (burnouts, racetracks, etc.) and bad burning rubber (tire fires, toxic dumps, chemical fires, etc.). This was definitely in the second category.

I bunked in the Rest Inn on 40 figuring I'd blow off Arkansas on the interstate and get it done as fast as possible. However, when I woke up the next day and actually got on I-40, I noticed that I was really tense. Lots of trucks, lots of strip malls and chain restaurants, and none of it the experience that I was looking for. I pulled over in Wheatley and had breakfast at the Dairy Dip, with some farmers discussing the greater mysteries of life (why dogs love eating horse patties, whether rattlesnake was good eating, etc.) I listened to some and as I was walking out, one of them (Ed) walked with me. "So tell me, what's a young man from new york doing at the Dairy Dip this morning?" he asked. I explained the background, the trip, and as I told him what I was doing his eyes started lighting up. We had a great conversation, which I won't get into here, but his most memorable and shareable quote was "Well son, now's a great time in your life to get a big ol' lick of the sucker." I agreed with that. Some other words he shared were "There's some trouble brewing, and the cavalry ain't coming. You're the cavalry." True words as well, and some that I wish more people subscribed to. (I'll try to refrain from getting too political as I write).

After that conversation, I rethought my view on Arkansas. I consulted the atlas, and saw that the state park I wanted to hit was north of 40, and that 40 itself took a southern route through Little Rock. Ok, I can take the high road and cut through some back roads and meet up with it. If it truly sucks, I can always cut back south to 40 and be on my way.

I went north from Exit 216, and as I drove the scenery just got better and better. The swampy, stagnant fields of Southern AR gave way to pine forests and mountains as I got into the Ozarks. Every time I pulled over for gas or a break, the people I met were friendly, inquisitive and encouraging. I started to get further away from the highway, and decided to try the county and fire roads (dirt roads). That was the best possible decision. While the highways stick mostly to ridges and cut through the countryside, the older original roads dip down to the valleys and work with the landscape, bringing you down to meadows, travelling alongside streams and rivers, and providing an opportunity to see parts of the country that time truly forgot (or never took the time to notice at all). There were valleys occupied by a single farm or home, tucked away in some of the most beautiful, pristine land I've ever seen. No more than a handful of people per month or even year would pass them, yet the pride that was taken in their appearance was incredible. I felt that I was intruding enough on such pristine beauty enough without stopping to take pictures, so you'll have to either trust me or make the journey yourself. I took some illustrative pictures, but the homes and farms that I saw are better left to themselves.





Drove through Oark, AR, a small town that looked like Norman Rockwell had created it:


I made camp at Shores Lake:


, where I finally built a real fire:


Shortly after the triumphant fire pic was taken, it went out. This is the second, more humble and more successful fire:


I dined on the breakfast, lunch and dinner of champions:


This guy was sneaking around in the leaves, trying to get the best of me. Jared 1, this guy 0:



And had an amazing night's sleep to the sound of cicadas and other lake/swamp creatures.

And hey, it is Arkansas after all: