Saturday Feb, 22
In the
morning I cleaned out the car and got everything back in order. Next I showered
again and filled up all my water. My hotel was pretty crappy so there was no
breakfast option. I solved that by driving next door to another hotel, and
destroyed some food. I ate so much the guy next to me actually asked me about
it. It was pretty much the usual food,
but they also had strawberry waffle batter. I even made a few to go. Now it was
time to do the pile of laundry. I also wanted to find some new pants; the pair
I brought in the Maze were stained and tore up. I only brought 2 pairs on the
whole trip and number 2 were starting to fall apart a well. Too bad this town
is too small for a clothing store. Now I wanted to type a few things up and
enjoy a nice cold beer. So I went to a restaurant, sat down and ordered one.
Utah has some strange laws about drinking and I ran into one again. If you
order a beer you have to order something from the menu. I asked if ice cream
counted. She said yes. So ice cream and beer it is. After awhile I headed out
and drove back to basically where the maze is. I stopped and grabbed some info
about Goblin Canyon. Then continued driving south to Capitol Reef National
Park. Along the way there was a burger shack. I was craving some greasy food so
stopped in. When I got the Capital Reef it was well passed dark. So I found a
spot and watched some movies before bed.
Sunday Feb, 23
I went
into the visitor center and talked to them for awhile. They told me about the
best hike in the park. The woman working really knew her shit about the park! I’ll
do my best to explain. Along time ago all the water on the continent drained
into the Gulf of Mexico. Then the Colorado plateau shifted up, creating the
Rocky Mountains. Now the water to the west of the Rockies didn’t have anywhere
to go. So it all pooled up, the Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City is still left
over from this. Then the Earth shook again and the Baja Peninsula broke away
from Mexico. Now all the pooled up water had a place to go. It all rushed out
in a relatively short time. This is believed to be why the Grand Canyon has
that double drop to it. Big flood cleared a wide canyon then the river that
followed carved down a skinnier path. One
of side effects of the Colorado plateau lifting was Capitol Reef, a monocline.
Which, to my understanding, means a wrinkle in the earth’s crust. The west side
of the park shifted up wards 2 miles, creating a slide basically. Slowly the
edge of the slide was worn down to expose different rock beneath. Knowing all
this made the hike really cool. I hiked the 8 miles up to the top of the
overlook where you could really see everything she was talking about. After the
hike back to the car I made the drive to Goblin Valley. This park is set up a
little differently. It’s a large valley that you just wonder around in. no
trails or anything. It’s a hard place to explain, huge rocks on top of sandy
rock pillars. Part of Star Wars was filmed here. I was glad I had the chance to
hike around here for a while. Right outside Goblin Valley is a place called
Wild Little Horse Canyon. It has some of the best slot canyons in the world.
The movie 127 hours was filmed here. I had a bit of time before dark so I hiked
through some of them. I didn’t have to the time to finish the loop but still
had fun weaving around and through the skinny crevasse. Along the hike there
was a family with a few kids. On the hike back I wasn’t really sure if they
were going to make it out before dark. When I made it to the car I cooked up
some food and filled my pack with some warm cloths and flash lights. When It
was dark I just started the hike to find them, but heard them coming out. We
talked for a minute then I drove down to the little town with the burger shack.
I was able to get cell reception here and talked with my brother Elliot for
awhile. I told him all about the trip to the Maze. From there I drove over the
Natural Bridges National Monument.
Monday Feb, 24
Talked
to the visitor center again and asked what’s the difference between a bridge
and an arch? They explained it to me that an arch it formed from wind and rain erosion,
a bridge is formed from a winding river that finally cuts through a wall. This
was also the first park that asked me to pay? So I bought a season pass to all
the National Parks. There were 4 main bridges in the park, all of which could
be seen from the road. But I figured I would just hike the 8 mile loop that
took you right to them. So I drove around the park and stopped to look at each
bridge. I got 2.5 miles into the hike and realized this is stupid; I’m hiking
to the same bridges I just saw from the road. I turned around and realized I’m
hiked out for awhile. I just looked back at it, in the last 33 days; I spent 7
not hiking or snowboarding. I grabbed some food at the nearest town. Then made
the long drive down to Flagstaff, AZ.
Tuesday Feb, 25
A nice
Best Western provided my breakfast this morning. This one was pretty fancy too,
they were just letting you take all the tea and oatmeal packets you want… I did
a little shopping for the morning; I still really need new cloths. After that
it was the drive down to Tempe AZ. I was going to be there before my friend
Mike was off work. So I stopped at the store for the essentials, Corona and
limes. I cleaned out the car and grabbed a few things I needed. Mike still wasn’t
home and his house has an alarm system so I couldn’t go in. I sat next to the
pool in his back yard sipping away. When he arrived he made several very
hurtful dirty hippy jokes. He should have seen me a few days ago. We caught up
for a while and some other friends were planning on coming over. So I took a
shower before they got there. It was Ian and Kyle. Ian is from my home town and
I knew him a little bit in high school. Kyle is a friend of theirs that I’ve
meet a few times before. We all went out to a Mexican place and had several
more beers and tacos. It was great to see everyone and just bull shit for a
night.
Wednesday Feb, 26
I took
care of the laundry right away and ran to the store. I bought some oil for
Mike’s chain saw and went to the grocery store. I’ve been thinking about a big
meal for awhile and was glad to be able to cook some good. So I picked up
everything and went back to the house. There is a huge mesquite tree in Mike’s
front yard. He talked about trimming it up the night before and I said I would
take care of it. So I cut down the branches he talked about, and then cut them
down to about 10 inches long. It works out well because we use the wood for the
smoker. When that was cleaned up I started up the smoker and trimmed up chicken
thighs. My idea for the big meal was this, smoke chicken thighs for several
hours. Take them off and wrap them in thick cut bacon, smoke that for awhile
longer. When that’s done, carve out some whole peppers and put the meat inside.
Then I put different sauces in the peppers, spicy, bbq, and asian. Put some
aluminum foil on the top and back on the smoker. All this took a shocking amount
of time. So it wasn’t done until about 8:30. Mike was home and his girlfriend,
Nicole came over. Mike started up a fire in the fire pit and we all sat around
talking, with several cold beverages. After dinner mikes roommate came home
too. His name is Jim, he about 50 and works with mike. He’s a really cool guy
with a lot of stories.
Thursday Feb, 27
In the
morning I had a few things to take care of. I cleared everything out of the
back of my car. Then bought some planters and grabbed mikes shovel. My car is
already at 10,000 miles so I took it in to the deal for the check up. This took
more time than I thought but at least it doesn’t cost anything. They did an oil
change and rotated the tires. Then I drove about 30 miles off into to dessert.
My plan here is to dig up several cacti and bring them back to Milwaukee to put
in my house. Not sure which side of the legal tight rope I was walking on but
it all worked out. I dug up 6 in total, a few of each kind I could find. Then I
drove back to mikes. Now I had to get them to fit in my small car until I make
it home. I took out 3 to plant around mikes house. Then rearranged everything
in my car to get things to fit. Mike came home shortly after and we headed to
his favorite bar, Monkey Pants. We had a few drinks and he introduced me to a
few people around the bar. It was comedy night and one of the cooks was going
to try it for the first time. So we stayed to watch and grabbed their special
for the night; bacon wrapped, deep fried, hot dog with chili and nacho cheese
on top. The perfect meal before bed.
Friday Feb, 28
I
planted the cacti around mikes house and moved another plant we was talking
about. Then did some laundry. Other then that I really didn’t do too much.
After work Mike and I picked up some pizzas and had a few drinks. Mike is
pretty much famous for saying he’s going to go out, then falling asleep…. like
a little bitch. So he was asleep on the couch at about 10 pm. My friend Leah
lives near mike and she stopped by on her way home. We both made fun of him for
a little while, but it was pretty clear we weren’t going out tonight. Mike will
justify this action by then saying, I figured if you really wanted to go out
you would wake me up. Doesn’t that sound like a fun time?
Saturday March, 1
We have
started a tradition that at mikes house we should always spend one weekend day
smoking a slab a meat and drinking beer. So right after waking up we fired up
the grill and ran to the store and the butcher shop. When we got back, Mike
seasoned the 6 lb brisket while I mixed up some bloody marys. We put the meat
on and sat back. Ian said he had a ride but now he needed us to pick him up.
Mike also wanted to stop at the hard ware store, so we went there first. As we
were leaving the store it started to rain. We rushed home and got the grill
under the overhang with less than a minute to spare. We picked up Ian and some
more beer before getting back to the house. Another friend I haven’t seen in a
long time pulled in just as we were, Logan. I meet him once when he lived down
here but he has moved away. He was in town for a wedding and had a few hours to
kill beforehand. The rain was really on and off all day but it would be sunny
between. We had a few beers and played some ping pong. Logan left for the
wedding and Jim showed up. He was at a NASCAR race, but it was rained out. With
the meat we also cook up some potatoes, carrots, peppers and onions. So I cut
everything up and put them in aluminum foil packets. Kyle also came by with, of
course, more beer. The meat wasn’t done until just after 8. Right when we
pulled it off the smoker I went to take a shower, trying to get some of the
smoke smell off me. We all ate and Kyle drove to a bar in Scottsdale, where we
were meeting up with Ian’s fiancé and her friends. When we got to the bar the
first thing the bar tender said was “did you guys come from a BBQ place?” when
everyone was there we had a drink and left for the next bar. Several more
drinks here lead to mike calling me homeless Joe in front of any girl I tried
to talk to. A few more and the night gets a little fuzzy. Kyle didn’t really
drink but he left at some point so mike and I grabbed a cab back.
Sunday March, 2
I woke
up feeling like crap, that was at 11:30. I went back to bed and woke up at 4pm.
I actually felt pretty good after that. I ate a bunch of food and decided to
hold down the couch for most the evening. We were going to order some pizza,
but I just ran to the store and grabbed a few. That’s it for that day.
Monday March, 3
I
talked with the boss back home about a time line for coming back to work. With
how cold it’s been back home he couldn’t really predict anything. Then I spend
the entire day typing, I was seriously behind and needed to catch up. I was
over a month behind and pretty much stopped typing just when my trip was
getting exciting. So I was glad to get some days on paper. I also took the brisket
and slow cooked it in some au jus sauce. The meat got a little dried out on the
smoker, but this worked great. Nichol came over and we all watched TV. Mike
made Lava Cake but it just became a cup cake.
Tuesday March, 4
The
internet wasn’t working on my computer so I plugged in into the router. This
seemed to work so I posted a blog and, sadly, spent the whole day typing again.
For excitement I got a call from an insurance guy. Tuesday night is wing night
at Monkey Pants so we did that for dinner, and hung out at the bar for awhile.
Goblin Valley
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