East by South West (say what?!)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. We haven't updated in forever. What can I say? We're busy people. There's a lot of road out there and only two of us, so take it easy!

OK, now that that's all straightened out, there's a lot of updating that needs doing. Now that Chelsea has picked her topics, I'm left to try to make our posts somehow cohesive. But, since I can't really see how, I'm just leaving this pretty much as it is. I believe I last left you at the rim of the Grand Canyon, with us about to fall in. Well, in we went, indeed, and back out again. But it was gorgeous, and warm in there, and I loved being with my river so much that we stayed at extra night in the lovely canyon, despite possible run-ins with the Law.

Next, as you might tell from our new blog playlist, we high-tailed it to Vegas. Yeah, I know, we're not the "party in Vegas!" sort, but my friend, Susie, from Washington was there with a hotel room a block off the strip, so we spent two nights living' it up, sleeping in a fancy-pants, 35th floor hotel room, with complimentary valet parking and a pool on the roof. Now where I come from, that's fancy. We got to climb in Red Rocks with one of Susie's friends, Alan, one day, and spent an evening walking the strip and saw the pirate show outside the Treasure Island Casino! OK, for a pirate show, there was definitely a lot of sexual innuendo, but there was also fire and a ship sinking, so all in all, I think everyone left happy.

After our wild times in the city, we meandered our way back east and through the Navajo Nation to Mesa Verde, and then down to Santa Fe. And from there, we hooked up with Route 66, and eased on over to Winslow, Arizona, where, yes, we mandatorily stood on a corner, and in fact, THE corner, as they do have one designated for such use. I was really digging the sites and getting my kicks along America's Main Street as we saw neat-O old motels (including the tepees!), rode an oversized jack-rabbit, and shopped some fun stores. Just imagine, if you can, Chelsea and I weaving I40 with the rugged remnants of 66, while having a full volume sing-along to Leaving on a Jet Plane as done by Peter, Paul, and Mary. Now, it's just like you're there with us.

Finally, we rolled south, south, and more south, until we came well nigh to the border and stopped in Tombstone, Arizona. I don't know if y'all have seen the movie Tombstone, but it's awesome, and so is the town, and you should see both. Now. We had so much fun in that town, on account that one street is marked off as a historical landmark, and everybody's dressed like Wyatt Earp and we even had our pictures taken with some fellows claiming to be Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. They looked the part, and killed some conniving cowboys in a shootout near the OK Corral, so I'm pretty well convinced. And I love that town. And I got me a Tombstone Marshal badge, and some 6-guns, and I love that town. I was all, "Wyatt, I am rolling!" Only I didn't say that, because we were busy grinning ear-to-ear in the glow of our heroes. Glorious.

After we got the heart to finally leave Tombstone, we spent a few days climbing in the nearby climbing area called Cochise Stronghold. It's a beautiful area, consisting of an outcropping of gray granite mounds, highlighted with lime-green lichen, jutting 500 feet out of a healthy and pristine high desert plain. When we walked the hour between our camp spot and the rock, we walked through knee high tan grasses, that whispered constantly in the wind and blew in gentle waves around us. As I walked, I'd open my hands to feel the soft bristly blowing motion of the grasses. When several healthy gorgeous horses appeared, I realized we were in a cheesy painting on a 12-year-old girl's wall. But here's the thing about cheesy paintings--when you're in them, they're actually quite beautiful, and for a moment, you can see why someone would enjoy that image. Still, no excuse for hanging them on your wall, but it sure was nice.

Finally, for real this time, we're now in Tucson. But wait--how'd that happen? Oh, right. We met some really friendly climbers at Cochise. Some of them gave us route information for the climbing (as we had no information, and were completely dependent on running into someone who did), and some of them, Joolie and Dalton, offered us a place to stay after talking to us for 5 minutes. So that's where we are now, enjoying the in of doors for the first time since Vegas, and looking forward to showers, which will be the first since, uh, Moab. Hmmm. That was a while ago... It's probably a good thing Chelsea and I both have allergy-debilitated noses.

Overall, the trip has been going swimmingly. In our lack of plans, so many beautiful things have unfolded, things that we would not and could not have made happen. In the same way that conceptualizing God shrinks Him down to a size that fits in our heads, it is seeming that over-planning and controlling our situations brings life down to a dwarfed version of itself, something only as big as our own limited imaginations. I'm excited and pleased to watch as undirected wandering unfolds in benevolent and wonderful ways, leading us to see beautiful new places we'd never heard of, and and to have meaningful interactions with amazing and lovely strangers. I can see life growing, expanding like inhalation, into something staggeringly more vast than I'd imagined. And that makes sense, because my imagination isn't really that vast at all, and I'd always assumed that life existed beyond, well, me. But I guess sometimes it takes a little something different to see that.

So, that's my version of a quick update. In my defense, it is under 12 pages (which hardly seems a good thing, and I can't believe y'all are going to let Chelsea get away with all those pictures. Chelsea, that will NOT fly in a college course!)

I really hope that life is surprising and new and unexpected for you as much as it's been for me of late, and I'd like to invite you into my cheesy painting by encouraging you to let go of something. I know, that's vague, and even cheesier than a painting of ponies in a field, but I'm really starting to think that the more that we control, the less we get in return. And that little feeling of safety, aside from probably being false, comes at a really high cost. And so, instead of my usual fare of snuggling in small safe places, I want to run into the walls of my comfort zone like a padded room, bowing the walls and expanding it with each collision. And, despite a few bruises, I am really grateful for the chance.