Homeward Bound!!!

Sittin' here on the eve of our eastward trek back to HOME.SWEET.HOME, Mike and I have done some reflecting. Oh how we've missed our families and friends and the sweet, comfortable, easy kind of summer that goes along with living life in our neck of the woods. But we've certainly had ourselves the adventure we set out to have. From Great Sands to the Tetons there's been ups and downs, we'll make no bones about that, but we've lived. Lived a smidge of the dream we dreamt. Amen and Amen!


Fortunately the dream's not over just yet. We're stretching our homeward bound to accommodate 8 glorious days of visiting with precious friends and family! The lineup - Columbia, Missouri to visit and catch up with my cousin Laura, St. Louis to have such a sweet reunion with my dear camp friend Shaw, Kentucky to potentially crash on the lake with my BFF Meg and her boyfriend Dan, Nashville to stay and play in the brand spankin' new home of more dear camp friends, Julie and Jeremy Spencer, then finally up to Washington DC to reunite with my long lost Hokie, Katie freakin' Horner and to pay a solid visit my cousin, Harper, whom me and South Carolina miss so much! I CANNOT WAIT!!! No lie, we've seen some beautiful places, but seeing people is my absolute favorite and I'm so thankful to cap off our trip with such a special lineup. 


But with the entirety of Kansas as our foe tomorrow, I truly need to get to sleep. Seriously, Kansas could burn. Am I right Megan and Mike Martin, Chris Ward, am I right?! But in honor of reflection I'll collect some of my favorite memories of our trip, although I know with such special people to visit there will be many more to collect.

Feeling so small on top of the dunes at Great Sands

Catching it just right for a night on the town in Ouray during a local food festival

Hiking with my two favorite boys

Being joined by Ben and changing up some scenery to the red rocks of Utah

Getting to photograph some of America's most photographed places for myself

Climbing my first 14er and getting to wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day from the top of a mountain

Not that I liked the truck breaking down, but we did learn to roll with the punches

Auto-touring through Rocky Mountain NP

Besides the 5 star meal at Chico Hot Springs (thank you Bonnie!) and our post-14er meal at Outback (thank you Shellee!) the Mountain Buzz was our best meal of the trip

Our lazy day on the South Platte River near Denver

Exploring the winter wonderland that was the Beartooth Highway

Staying busy or not so busy at Chico

Seeing the double rainbow in the West Thumb of Yellowstone

Mike getting to fly fish in the premier Gibbon River

Getting to see all the wildlife, but especially the Mama Grizzly and her cubs (from a safe distance!)

Having Sully Bink with us every step of the way

Hiking with the family in the Tetons

Getting to play around and try out some bouldering at Enclosure in Jackson Hole - very cool! 

Watching the sunset over the Tetons from Shadow Valley Road on the 4th of July per recommendation of a local

Sharing this adventure with the love of my life!

Hiking to Leigh Lake in Teton NP - hands down the place I would take home with me if I could!

"Happy are those who dream dreams and are willing to make them come true."

The new mix!

Things have livened up here on the road trip, as the Anderson clan has finally joined us! We're so excited to have them here with us and are so blessed to call such a special bunch family! We've been catching up and jumping right into vacation mode - so far all along the wintery Beartooth Highway and while relaxing at Chico Hot Springs. And lots and lots and lots of laughing has commenced, in true Anderson form. Michael and I are just so very thankful to kick off the tail end of our trip with them!


Photo dump:

Don't you worry South Carolina, we are coming back to you!

Firsts...

This adventure of epic proportions has propelled Mike and I into quite a lengthy list of firsts. Some are worth a good belly laugh, maybe the beginnings of a slight grin, and some are of a more serious nature. A mixture of expected and unexpected, as well.

• Laboring over such disappointing meals. Charcoal dependent meals, for lack of a better description, suck leaving you to lust after the very same meal just prepared by other tastier, less temperamental means.
• Being continuously rerouted by snow...in the usually blistering, genuinely-cannot-possibly-be-more-summery months of June and July.

• Basing our next move on the map purely on account of where we can snag ourselves a much needed shower.
• Our incapability to avoid the general -10 star experience that is vaulted toilets lousily managed by the US Forest Service.
• Being so far engulfed in Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong will sooner or later. The Dodge's been quite the lemon!
• Encountering (yeah, we'll call it that) a lone nudist in a hot spring. He inconveniently resides in the wrong state, as Utah prohibits public nudity.
• Being so frequently called out on my Southern drawwwwwwwww. And I ain't got a piece of shame :)
• Sleeping in a rental car curled up with Sully Bink (while the boys tent camped in Rocky Mountain NP). A few more notches on my nomadic belt, if you ask me.
• Feeling so hopeless (not to mention, homeless) while at the same time being so certain of God's steady hand at work.
• Surviving on so many Clif Bars - our go-to road and trail meal.

• Been so in awe of God's creativity and sovereignty, among many other qualities!
• Enjoying (although not as much as Mike) Ben's nightcap of Makers and Ginger Ale.
• Climbing to the summit of a 14er - it'll get your blood pumping. Only 51 more to go...Ha!
• Rearranging all of our belongings on a daily basis.
• Searching so far and wide for free wifi in so many different towns.
• Coping with all of my OCD tendencies while they're impossible to keep. We're talking general neat-freakiness here people, not repetitious rituals - just not possible living out of a truck.
• Being quite resilient through setbacks. G.R.O.W.N.U.P. setbacks, folks!
• Been such a laughable tourist (or terrorist, whatever).
• Blogging with so much material. Life's never really been this interesting :) 

And on deck this coming week, another first for us. Yellowstone NP with the Anderson clan! We're pumped to be joined by family and head North to see some different country. 

We love and miss everyone at home so much, and that's no first at all! :)

The highs and lows

I'm updating from the comfortable amenities of a hotel yet again. The reason. Our truck BARELY limped into Denver after just a few short days of adventure with Ben. And believe me, we squeezed that out of it, well us and our faithful God who brought us safely into another city that can take care of our struggles - however repeating or familiar. But adventure we had and we're not stressing too much! 


We kicked off in Moab, Utah, situated in the center of Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. We camped in town due to a late night roll-in that prevented us from a sweet spot on the Colorado River, but showers were included so we did not grumble for long. We arranged a babysitter for Sully (the clever sign at her house read - Live. Eat. Play. Roll in a dead squirrel) the next day and took off first thing to Arches to hike the primitive 7.2 mile loop around the Devil's Garden. Such a solid red rock trail to 9 or so natural arches in the park, and not crowded at all. And you would never guess who we ran into! None other than my high school friend and soccer teammate from home, Katie Marshall! She happens to be on an eerily similar life-transition-cross-country-outdoorsy-road-trip herself! We swapped hugs and exchanged our surprise at our run-in and arranged to meet up for dinner and drinks later that evening. After all, we already had a babysitter :) After we cleaned up we headed to meet Katie for dinner at Moab's Brewery and had a meal that didn't disappoint. Intentions were to cap off a great first day with a hike into Delicate Arch to watch the sunrise the following morning, but the clouds have been unfortunately looming since Ben's joined us. Those clouds kept us in our warm sleeping bags past the sunrise, but we did make it to Delicate Arch by morning along with a crowd bigger than we would have liked. Nonetheless breathtakingly beautiful. Afterwards we headed East to Colorado with a relieved Sully Bink in tow. Ben was in the primetime seat to snag some good drive-by pictures along I70 coming back into the Rockies. We had a bit more bad luck with hunting a campground, the name of the game for weekend days. We pushed on from Avalanche Creek in Carbondale, CO to Aspen in hopes of a good spot. Aspen, although full to the brim with more hoity-toity general ness than I prefer, was quite charming and had space for us to camp. In true Aspen form, our spot was gorgeous, right along a clear, rushing creek surrounded by an Aspen grove. It was here that we had our first smores of the trip, made even more glorious by Ben's delicious coffee nightcap. A slight blemish to our night was Mike's recognition that the Dodge was having some significant issues under the hood. Before leaving out the following morning we had a prayer sesh that we could continue our adventures and make it to Denver before the truck rendered us stranded. After a short stroll around downtown Aspen we headed towards Guanella Pass to set up camp and get ready for our stab at climbing Mt. Bierstadt early the next morning (one of Colorado's 54 14er's aka mountains that stand to linger among the clouds above 14,000 ft tall in elevation). Our pre-game dinner was a dream for the camp-life we've been living - sun-dried tomato basil pork tenderloin with sweet potatoes and sautéed lemon-pepper broccoli. Yum! Cell phones alarmed at 5:00 AM to get us moving towards to trailhead early enough while the snow is still solid enough to walk through without post-holing the entire way up the mountain. After gaining roughly 3000 ft of elevation we reached the summit, despite the thin air and high altitude conditions we aren't accustomed to. After eating nearly frozen Clif bars for lunch, we proudly posed for pictures. I had made a "Happy Father's Day" sign for my Dad out of cardboard that I "borrowed" from behind a grocery store dumpster (what a resourceful nomad) and we each took pictures to send to our Dads to celebrate their greatness! And many more people joined in, so hopefully many fathers Father's Day was made from the top of the summit :) We made a flashy decent, mostly due to my severe need to pee and nowhere with adequate cover to do so, and ended out our trek at 6.8 miles RT. The three of us prayed (again) over the truck and our tired, sore bodies before willing the truck towards Denver once again. AS SOON AS we reached I70 the truck began its pitiful limping. Mike diagnosed that the water pump had gone out (the AC is still fried, mind you) and we had to stop periodically to let the engine and radiator cool down enough to add nalgene bottles of water to hopefully keep us cool enough to roll into town. In true nomadic form, food was at the top of our list and Outback was our beacon of light. Thanks to gift cards courtesy of my amazing sister, Shellee, we more than filled our bellies with salads, entrees and desserts to all but negate our climb from the morning. Fully satisfied, we offered the truck some more TLC and limped on to a hotel. When I say limped I mean we dragged two broken legs. With Ben watching the miles creep on the GPS and Mike announcing things as they broke and gave out, we parked in the hotel parking lot, situated ourselves for the tow truck we would need in the morning and retired to our room for much needed showers and rest. 


Final tally amounts to a broken water pump, a serpentine belt laying on the ground, loss of power-steering and power-brakes, and a busted compressor and evaporator. Priority today is getting the truck towed to a dealership - strategically and cheaply as possible, renting a SUV that can fit all that we'll need to do a little tent camping tonight around Rocky Mountain National Park, and update our fine followers with some pictures of some of our literal highs and lows of this past week. 

Fifth Water Hot Springs

Dead Horse Point State Park

Double O Arch in the Devil's Garden

They mark the trail with piles of rocks in Arches NP

Delicate Arch

The boys on the way up to summit Mt. Bierstadt

I love you so much, Daddy! We're playing REAL purty :)

We love you big time too, Papa Roid! 

The skinny...

I think it best that I begin with the conclusion this time, which is: God leads. Even through the storms. A verse keeps playing in my head...All of my life in every season, You are still God, I have a reason to sing, I have a reason to worship. 


Now with that behind us, time for the cover-to-cover, all of the pages in between that will eerily resemble unappreciative, immature grumblings of two whiners broken down in a big city far away from home...


If you asked either Mike or myself if this epic adventure has lived up to its expectations, you would likely receive a resounding "No" and in unison, no doubt. I've already described the snow situation that has kept us from our plans, the vast majority of our plans. The resulting discouragement of such boiled over Saturday morning. We woke up in a campground not far from Black Gunnison National Park already embraced by the sour moods we took to bed the night before. Like so many other places we've visited, snow was keeping us from completing any hikes all the way through and we had learned one of the hikes, into a waterfall in the Porphyry Basin, that I had researched and had most looked forward to was enclosed by snow as well. With the disappointments stacking up, we left the campground with the intention of heading west, giving somewhat of temporary dismissal to Colorado and a hasty welcome to the red rocks of Utah. 


So with a Saturday of travel ahead of us we stopped at the nearby RV campground at Blue Mesa Lake to try and grab showers before hitting the road. Turns out that the facility charged $3 per shower and we could only scavenge up $2.50 worth of quarters in the truck. Enough for a Slush Puppy but not quite meeting the ante for a desperately needed shower. So we tossed that in the back with all of the other disappointments and unfortunately let this further rot our current moods. 


With morale sinking lower we pushed west. Past a KOA off the interstate in Green River, Utah that looked as though it itself was sad to exist in its unfortunate longitudinal and latitudinal coordinates. We didn't even stop for that shower we were after. Before we knew it we were coming into the suburbs of Salt Lake City. We pulled off to search in our Southwestern Camping Book (thanks to sweet Matt and Katie Freeman!) for the local KOA (they're good for hot showers and coin laundry) when we realized it was on the northern edge of town near the airport. Not wanting to drive all the way we lingered trying to make a decision. And Mike, bless him and his probable tapeworm, went back to the AT trailer to grab a snack. And those sour, rotten moods we had been holding onto were further decomposed when Mike realized a bearing had gone out on the trailer and the tire and hub were dangerously worn and leaning. 


We slinked away to a nearby hotel, unsure of how many miles back the trouble started. We slumped into our room, beaten by the day that we'd just had. After a bit of silence we came around to good, solid heart-to-heart. God had really been at work all day long. His tool - our low morale, bad moods, sour attitudes. We let ourselves get fed up with all the snow in Colorado (which is full of beautiful places we could've reveled in more!), discouraged by having to change plans, down from unmet expectations and tired from the overall process of living out of a truck traveling across the country. All of this, on top of allergies that are kicking me all around the playground! The culmination pushed us into a stubborn push west on Saturday that put us into Salt Lake City, the prime location for an off-road vehicle fix instead of backcountry Colorado. 


God is so good. Even when He's hard at work and we're being too stubborn to realize and appreciate it. Mike and I have an amazing opportunity taking this trip, and while we've been so thankful to get out and enjoy some of His creation from the front row, we found ourselves locked up on the details. But He blesses nonetheless. Although a couple of days down (woe is me with a toilet that isn't vaulted and a sink with running water some 5 ft from my warm, comfy bed) wasn't exactly ideal, we were well taken care of by a local fab shop, who fixed our trailer in just 7 hours! 


So we're back in business! Thankful to God who provides and teaches and grows, even if it takes an intermission! We're excited to get back into the wild tomorrow, to pick up Ben on Wednesday from the airport, to kick off our red rock adventures in Moab and Arches National Park and to continue to learn the lessons God has for us on this adventure! 

Re-Re-Rearranging!

Us Southerners, we don't know a lick about snow. Real snow. The kind that falls more than a handful of inches per year. But with all of our recent globetrotting, Mike and I are learning. And what have we learned you ask?! Basically, let the stuff melt or buy a bunch of gear that would be capital USELESS to us back home. 


Exnay on that junk! So since we've last chimed in, we've talked to a bunch of locals and received a lot of advice about rearranging our initial plans and still having some fun out in the "hills" they call home. A solid tip led us to the La Plata Mountains and a hike up towards Lime Mesa before bidding farewell to Durango. (Sidenote - our AC repair in Durango lasted all of 24 hours before dying, so we are without AC once again!) Since the Alpine Loop Scenic Byway out of Silverton is still not entirely open (with 7-10 ft of snow on both sides of the road, mind you) we skipped on from Durango to Ouray, CO. We did spend one night in Silverton between the two before the final decision to forego the Loop, but it was way too frigid cold to hike. 


Ouray, God bless it, has been a gem to behold. A site for sore eyes! Surrounded by mountains and waterfalls on all sides with an abundance of trails open to hikers licking their chops from a cold winter, we're coming up on our second night here. Nestled in an adorable coffee/chocolate sweetery shop I am enjoying free wifi and slightly stiff legs from a beautiful hike today. Mike's happy he got a real deal coffee, a nice recess from the Via junk he insists on having every morning. And bonus - we hopped into town just in time last night for an amazing, and free, oh don't forget free, food festival downtown! Seriously, Ouray, we are thankful! You have lifted our spirits from forced flexibility, you and all the encouragement and mothership research from our dear friend Ben who, by the way, is meeting us in Salt Lake City in 6 short days :)

Mike looking out over the Hermosa Mountains from Lime Mesa

Sweet Ouray, CO - the Switzerland of the US, or so it is called

On our hike along Bear Creek

You can barely see, but me and Sully are on the edge of the second bend

An Aspen grove near the Old Grizzly Mine

Just after we turned around to backtrack along the trail because of snow

Cloudy sunset and view of Mt. Sneffels from our campsite

The Lord is ever so steady. Life, even adventure, isn't always ideal, but search for Him and fulfillment is always, always found! PTL and ah-Amen!