I'm not mad. I'm defeated.

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Day 14
Got up super early and drove into big Bend National Park, one of the largest and most secluded park. Did some hiking there, including the hike to The Window, a gap in the rock through which you can watch the sun set, and the 2 mile hike around the Chisos Basin, a mountain-surrounded valley filled with wildlife and foliage.

Saw some young deer really close to the lodge, also tons of falcons. Also saw these things called Big Bend Hoppers, black, yellow, and orange grasshoppers that can grow up to 8 inches. The ones we saw were still babies, about 3 inches or so, crawling across the road. At first, we thought they were scorpions or tarantulas. They were creepy. Big Bend was pretty desolate, which was both enjoyable and unnerving.
We drove down to the Rio Grande Village and eventually found the river, which was thick with mud. I waded into it nonetheless.

Liz lost a flipflop in the murky water, and I had to reach my hand into it and feel around and pull it up. It was soaked in mud. It was creepy because I couldn't see my hand through the water (that's how dense it was) and I was scared of snakes. Also, I was an illegal immigrant for about 30 seconds!
After we left the Rio Grande, we ate dinner in the lodge (I had a grilled portebello mushroom on a bed of green and red peppers and onions and potatoes, yum!) and we tried to find a hot spring, unsuccessfully. It started to storm somewhat intensley. Apparently, summer is the height of monsoon season in Southern Texas. So we saw the beginning of a monsoon! The temperature went from 107 to 57 in the course of an hour. It was ridic. So we just chilled the rest of the night.

Day 15
Left Big Bend and headed into San Antonio, a 8 hour drive. Finished Lowboy, which was creepy and fantastic. (Finished 4 books on this trip.) Got to SA around 3, and went to see the Alamo, which is incredibly sad. "Remember the Alamo!" and all that jazz. Our hotel had 23 floors and the pool was on the roof. San Antonio is a gorgeous city. We headed down to the Riverwalk, which isbasically below the city. Ate dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, which was fantastic! I had filet mignon k-bobs, with gulf shrimp, green and red peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Liz had crab-stuffed shrimp, wrapped in bacon, and drizzled with a lemon butter sauce. We shared. By far one of the best meals yet, but I think my fav is still the trout on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. My fav hike was there too.
We shopped the River Center mall a bit, which was fun, and then headed home for some sleep.

Today, we drive back to Mobile, but won't get there til 7 or 8, and I have to drive to Auburn to spend some time with my boy tomorrow before coming BACK to Mobile for a week and a half. I will be sad this vacay is over (despite minor conflicts, it was fun) but glad to be home and have my own space. More than anything, I want to go back to Auburn and resume my life there, but I will be sad to leave my Mobilian friends. Such bittersweetness.
Move-in day is the 13th! School starts the 17th! Next year better be awesome.

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Day 12 and 13
Both pretty uneventful days, mostly driving. On day 12, we packed up and headed out of the Grand Canyon. On our way we saw and adorable newborn deer galloping across the road. It was young and still had it's spots. So cute.
We passed through Sedona, Arizona and Oak Creek Canyon. Those were some wiiiindey roads. Had to go about 5 miles an hour and I still felt like we would drive off the edge. Beautiful country. Sedona is a lot like Roswell, New Mexico in that there are a lot of paranormal happenings, like UFO sightings and vortex appearings and psychic energy. Very interesting place.
Drive to our hotel, the Pointe Hilton at Tapatio Cliffs on the outskirts of Phoenix. It was GORGEOUS and swanky and hip. 4 diamonds. Awesome. After some relaxation, we drove out to Spur Cross Stables, where we went on a sunset horseback ride. My horse was actually a mule, a goofy, big-eared white spotted mule named Pepper. Mom's was a mule too, a brown one named Sara. There aren't a whole lot of differences in mules and horses. They are the same size, and our ranger guide actually said mules are smarter because they are more cautious, but also more slow. The only real difference I noticed was ours had bigger ears than the horses and were a teensy bit more stubborn. Liz rode a horse named Julip and Kaitlyn rode a small calm, and old retired rodeo horse named Sedona, reddish brown with white spots. We were not tied together and somewhat independent but horses are pack animals and basically followed the one in front. Mine stopped to take a momentous piss, which was hilarious and lasted AT LEAST a full minute. Pictures will have to wait til I get home because i didn't capture any on my phone. We rode through some gigantic cacti and a bunch of rabbits. Very awesome and rekindled my love for horses. I am currently browsing the Auburn area for lessons.
The funniest part was afterwards, they gave us these little white bags with carrots in them to feed our horses. The horses obviously knew what was up becase when we ran out of carrots, the followed us around trying to get to the bags. Liz, Mom, and Kaitlyn handed their bags to me, and I looked up and had four huge horse heads staring down at me. It was intimidating and I kept having to fend them off. Mom's horse actually clenched onto the bag with her teeth and I had to wrest it away.

Day 12, we left Phoenix and travelled 10 hours to Alpine, TX. Ate at this little restaurant across the street from the hotel called Buffalo Rose. I had a chicken advacado sandwich which was AWESOME. Tomorrow we head into Big Bend National Park, one of the biggest and least visited park in the nation. Another day of good hiking and exploring and hopefully some hot springs. Next day is San Antonio and then home on Saturday!

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Day 11
Today was a fairly excellent day. We drove the 4 hours into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, found our cabin (flushing! running! water this time) and hiked down to Bright Angel Point. After lunch, we hiked:
Roosevelt Point, a tiny secluded loop through the forest; Cliffs Springs, a mile hike into the side of a canyon and to a pathetic puddle of water (view was outstanding though);

Cape Royal, a small hike to Angels Window and views of the Colorado River;

and briefly hit up Point Imperial, the point of highest elevation, GORGEOUS! Almost 9,000 feet above sea level.
We recooperated at the cabin with some ice cream, then Mom, Liz, and I took the more strenuous 1.5 mile hike to Coconino Overlook.

Hiked about 4 miles in total. The views were amazing. Ate dinner at the Lodge Dining. I had Utah Ruby Trout with bernaise sauce, asparagus, and rice. Best meal I've had so far, and I've had a lot of good meals. Sat out and watched the sunset, later the stars.
Ran into a very unshy mule deer on our way to Coconino Overlook, which was amazing. My feet were BLACK from all the dirt.
Saw TONS of chipmunks (adorable) and
lizards (small, black, and scaly).
It is goregous here an the weather is pleasant. I was expecting it to be hotter but it was tolerable.
Windy mountain roads make me motion sick, and dizzy with headaches. I would much rather hike than drive.
In 2 years, Mom and I are going to cone bak and hike the 23 mile trek from rim to rim. Something like 14 miles down and 9 miles up. Stay the night in Phantom Ranch at the bottom. Who's with me?

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Day 10
Went to Dead Horse Point, which name makes Kaitlyn weepy. It was named such because, according to legend, horses would walk put to the plateau and see the unattainable Colorado River below and die of thirst. Horrible story, beautiful view.

Lectured my family about what little I remembered about oxbow lakes from Geology 101.
Drove into Bryce Canyon, which is amazing and gorgeous.

The random spikey things are called Hoodoos, because the early pioneers thought they had something to do with witchcraft. Hiked up a stream to a little waterfall, then drove to Fairyland Point and all the way through Bryce. It was quite fantastic. We didn't do mch hiking initially, but everyone was hungry so we drove to the hotel (in Tropic, about 7 miles out) and ate dinner. I had country fried steak (which was delish) and we drove BACK to Bryce for sunset. We stood on Sunset Point and hiked down the (steep) Navajo trail and hiked to Sunrise Point and down the Queens Garden trail. Maybe a mile and a half total. At this time it was getting dusky although gorgeous so we left.
I finished Skinny Dip and it was fantastical and hilarious and Hiaasen is a gifted writer and a character mastermind. Loved it from cover to cover. Started Lowboy and so far it's beyond terrific.

If you look real hard, you can see the moon.

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Day 9
Before leaving Salt Lake, we attemtped to retrieve my iPod from Enterprise to no avail. So we left without it, one of the things that keeps me SANEST around my family; headed into Moab, UT, and got in around lunchtime. Went to Arches National Park, which is quite similar to saying "went to Mars," thats how red and odd paranormal it is. The highlights:
Walked around the base of Balanced Rock, which strikes me as hilariously phallic.

Went to the Upper and Lower viewpoints of Delicate Arch, arguably the most famous arch in the park. Unfortunately, the hike to the base is 3 miles in the sun of the desert and my family wasn't up for it. (If you squint real good, you can see it in the distance.)

Later we hiked the entire 1.6 miles to Landscape Arch, the thinnest spanned arch, longer than a football field. It was awesome.

Hiked the short distance to Pine Tree Arch and the longer distance to Double Arch (past the Three Gossips and the Parade of Elephants) but I neglected to get those pics on my phone.
I hiked a total of about 3 miles at the end of the day.
At some point, a huge cream-colored lizard with orange stripes scampered across my path. He stopped to pose for some photos (I got some good ones on my real camera), macho-challenged Kaitlyn, and ran off. We also looked for some big-horned sheep that are native to the area, but saw a disappointing ZERO.
Left Arches and headed back into Moab. We took a dip in the pool and then went for dinner at a fantastic little Italian joint. I had a triple dish dinner of baked rigatoni, manicotti, and eggplant parmigiana (which has escalated itself to my favorite Italian food). Went shopping downtown, which is another little town similar to Auburn, and ate huckleberry ice cream.
Tomorrow we head to Bryce Canyon.

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My day 8 and day 9 entries have randomly been deleted so here it goes again.

Day 8
Woke up early and drove out to Park City, a huge ski resort with a bunch of summer attractions. We rode the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster, and Zipline twice each. Dad busted on the Alpine Slide and skinned up his elbow and knee pretty bad. Ate a lunch of sandwiches at The Eating Establishment, ran through the Human Maze, climbed a rock wall, and bungee/trampoline jumped. It was a good day.
Unfortunatley, the evening wasn't so great. Mom decided the new van wasn't safe, so they went back to Enterprise and got one with bald tires...and went back once again. We've had no less than FOUR vans in about 2 days. I did some more laundry and babysat during this ordeal. Ate dinner at a mall's food court. Had Orange Julius's for dessert. Eventually we started packing up the new sparkly van that promised to be our bff, when I realized I left my iPod and earphones in the 2nd van. Yikes. Went to bed and slept restlessly, partially due to my brand spanking new sunburn.

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Day 7
I've been gone a week. Not so bad considering all I've seen and done. Today was a lighter day. We got up and dealt with the car...finally got another mini-van, this one not as new or fancy but at least no warning lights were on. We drove around downtown and tried to find Gravity Hill, an allegedly paranormal spot of road where you appear to be pulled backward uphill. We tried THREE TIMES, quite unsuccessfully. It was supposed to be on an unmarked canyon road. We were on the right road we just didn't know which part was the gravity part. The third time I went online in an attempt to find exact coordinates for the place, and it brought us to the biggest freaking hill in all of Salt Lake, but it was nowhere near Gravity Hill, which we found hysterical. Apparently, they made the road that Gravity Hill is on a one-way street going in the wrong direction. So it was a no-go. Very hilarious trying to find it though. The entire car was cracking up.
We also drove out to the Great Salt Lake, which is honestly not so great.

It stunk an incredible amount, like a great heaping shithole. Nothing lives in it but nasty brine shrimp and awful spiders and gnats. The place was filthy disgusting. I stuck my feet in but that was about as much as I could stand. Later, my foot was crusted with a layer of powdery salt. Yuck. It was pretty, though. We also met a very friendly Native American (random).
Afterwards we went out to my parents' favorite ski resort, Alta, which was gorgeous and way up on the side of the mountain.
We met with another old colleague of Mom and Dad's for dinner at a huge Chinese buffet (delicious) and talked for a few hours about miscelaneous things. It was pleasant.
Did some laundry and replanned and repacked the suitcases. Yay?
Excited about Park City (amusement park) tomorrow. Dad gave the entire room a heart attack by claiming that they were closed tomorrow for the huge "This is the Place" holiday that commencorates founding of the city. Quite the opposite: they are open extra hours! Hopefully everyone else will be celebrating and watching the parade and festivities downtown so lines won't be too long. For a few minutes I was incredibly disappointed.

(Alta Ski Area)

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Day 6
Went to see my parents' old friend, Laurie Merriweather. Listened to some interesting stories and ate at the Arctic Circle. Later we visited my great-uncle Robin, my maternal grandma's brother. It was nice to meet these people I had heard about, to finally put a face with the names. Afterward we went down to the Mormon headquarters, Temple Square, and (unsuccessfully) tried to navigate downtown Salt Lake. We delt with car issues for the next few HOURS (the "check engine" light is on and it is driving funny, and the car rental agency is being a lil bit of a BITCH), and at some point stopped in a fairly pleasant city park. I took a nap while Dad and the girls swam and then we went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square.

(This is the big Trolley Square water tower.)
Went shopping and I got flirted with by an adrable cashier at some organic shop. Finally headed back to the hotel and I read for a little while.
Finished Artemis Fowl and The White Tiger recently and I'm currently reading a hilarious Carl Hiassen book, Skinny Dip.
More adventures await tomorrow. Hopefully checking out the Great Salt Lake itself.

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Day 4
Spent the night at the place my dad spent his summers as a kid...Rock Creek Lodge in Ashley National Forest. No cell signal. No Internet. No air conditioning/heating. No TV. It was peaceful, yes, but creepy. Things warmed up considerably when one of dad's old friends, Don Ray, showed up unexpectedly. He had been estranged from the world (apparently) for a few years, apparently working on a project out in
Nowhere, Utah (population: 1) building his own hut and fixing up some old cars. It was nice to see him but he has become an odd and jaded individual.
At any rate, we did the typical camping stuff: hiked up some trails and ran into a moose, which was bad ass and very close and totally unafraid and refused to get out of the way; went creek-hopping; foraged through the woods; looked at the stars. Despite the total depravity, it was a relaxing and peaceful night. I actually got some sleep.

Day 5
Headed into Salt Lake around 2 and went down to the campus. Tried to find my parents' old dorm, but apparently it was torn down. Went to the bookstore and bought some stuff, wandered campus and checked in at the hotel. After a much needed shower, we went to dinner at the place Dad proposed to Mom, Litza's Pizza. Delicious. Did Dad's 52nd birthday stuff. Toured a little more of the town, saw old apartments and old jobs and listened to college stories. Salt Lake is about twice the size of Mobile and growing like a hormonal teenaged boy, but I still really want to live here. Go to grad school. The college is beautiful and in an awesome part of town. Went to see the big "U" on the hill and came home. It's about to be bedtime.

Salt Lake City is that hazy thing with the sky scrapers in the valley. Quite literraly surrounded by mountains. 360.

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Day 3
Left Denver and headed into the mountains. Looked something like this:

Headed up the really narrow, windy Berthoid Pass into the Continental Divide. Wow. It was cold. Made a few pit stops at some wild mountain streams and other photo ops, but we hit Steamboat Springs around 11.30. Basically, it's this town about twice the size of Auburn, and with a similar downtown built into the side of a mountain (kinda in a valley). Mikes of sky, broken up by these jagged mountaintops. Very cutesy, hip. Went shopping and headed out to Fish Creek Falls. Hiked both overlook trails (maybe a little under a mile total) and did some creek-jumping in the stream. Lots of fun. Water was FREEZING!
Checked into the hotel and went up the gondola to the top of one of the ski mountains. Sat at the top for a while. Went to dinner at this fancy steakhouse, which...it was mediocre. You picked out your cut of meat and had to grill it yourself. We had...complications. Shrimp was good though. Bought a t-shirt and now I'm chilling in the hotel. Tired. Tomorrow is Rock Creek...basically a deserted log cabin in the middle of nowhere. If I have signal I'll update.
Colorado is breathtakingly beautiful and every day there are new things to see. It is hot but not too bad and NOT HUMID and it gets refreshingly cool at night. Loving it here. Hopefully Utah will be even better.

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Day 2
Drove for another 8 hours, mostly through Kansas. I thought I was going to be glad to say goodbye to Oklahoma...Kansas was flatter than holy hell. Nothing. No trees. No buildings. Just as far as the eye can see (which is about 20 miles, btw), rolling empty plains. Oh, and these:

Yeah. Windmills. As ugly as they are, I
thought they were fascinating. And huge. And there were hundreds of them.
Also, this:

The world's largest prarie dog. Something like 8,000 pounds of concrete. Goofy as shit. It was like the most po-dunk petting zoo you can imagine, with minature donkeys and giant rabbits and raccoons and wolves and foxes and buffalo and longhorns and 5- and 6- legged (live) cattle. Very, very, well...creepy. Although petting the goats and sheep and longhorns (they were kinda cool) and prarie dogs (yes I got to touch one!) was interesting.
We are spending the night in Denver, which is one of those cities I've always wanted to live in. The weather is wonderful and downtown is virtually littered with awesome, huge parks with great views of the Rocky Mountains looming not too far off. To think we will be climbing those tomorow...

Tomorrow we are headed into Steamboat Springs, a little mountain town in Colorado. It's only a 3 hour drive from here so it should be quite nice. Pics of the mountains and the waterfall (!) tomorrow.

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Day 1:
Drove from Mobile to the Oklahoma/Kansas border. 14 hours. Saw some of the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas (although "mountains" is a bit strong). Really wanted to stop in Little Rock to see the actual little rock, but the plaza it is located on is under construction.
Oklahoma is beautiful, but vastly, terrifyingly empty. Liz said "it makes your heart feel funny" and she's oddly right. Very accurate. All that open sky and open plain and miles of nothing.
Not much to do here in Blackwell. Denver, the "Mile High City," tomorrow, which I'm expecting to be awesome.

Oh yeah, and I hate hate hate hotel rooms. It wouldn't be so bad if it was one other person, but 5 is too many. Way. Too. Loud. No sleep tonight. Or for the next 16 days.

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I should so badly be studying right nai yai yai.

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It must feel good, putting people down all the time. You back them up in a corner, take all their weapons away with complete bullshit statistics because they don't waste their time memorizing that crap, and then wonder why no one wants to talk to you about that shit. Do you not believe in passion, in miracles? You are the scientist, denying the existance of God because it cannot be neatly mapped on paper, and then citing your equations, your graphs as an excuse to mock other's blind faith.

"I can well imagine an athiests last words: 'White, white! L-L-Love! My God!'--and then the deathbed leap of faith. Whereas the agnostic, if he stays true to his reasonable self, might try to explain the warm light bathing him by saying, 'Possibly a f-f-failing ozygenation of the b-b-brain,' and, to the very end, lack imagination and miss the better story."

And when you wonder why no one is there to hold your hand in the end, it is because you have alienated us all by telling us we are wrong.

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I just quit old navyyyyyy. Not sure if that was a bad idea or a good one, only time will tell I suppose. I liked the job ok and hopefully Hastings won't turn out to be a bitch. If they do...guess I'll be job hunting YET AGAIN. Gonna miss those discounts.

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Today will be the second day I am free of all medication and I'm seriously enjoying it. The elavil had ceased to be effective anyway and I'll be back on birth control in a week. Ughh.
On the brighter side, I'm mo longer exhausted all day and maybe I'll lose that weight now. I had 1 meal yesterday. That's how busy I was.

My laptop crashed and I really need that mac I've been talking about. And money.

The two job thing has been confusing because I know I need to quit one but can't decide which one. I love/hate both. Although I think I'm going to stick with Hastings it's just a matter of actually DOING it.

Auburn lost the Iron Bowl. Badly. Boooo. Goooo Gators!

So I'm a lot less busy now post-insanity and that's been really nice. Papers are mostly over and finals are around the bend and I don't mind. The only bad part is I work every day this week and I'm not too pleased about that.

Well, later world.

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New iphone. pretty badass. More later.

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