for my post, i decided to do a photo entry. although amanda is working diligently to update the photos, i am going to put some of my favorite photos together to tell you all the story of what we have been up to since arriving at the grand canyon.

we made loads of friends hiking down into the grand canyon. it was so awesome!



the top photo is the first group of friends we made. they were a super nice group and we were very glad to have met them.
the photo bellow is of our spring break friends. they let us crash in their campsite for a night and were super fun company. we ended up hiking out of the canyon with them too, which made it a much easier hike, and dare i say... enjoyable? they were a fantastic group. we had many good laughs in their company.





the above poster was on the bus we took back to our car after hiking out. luckily, we don't look like that guy, otherwise we could have been in trouble.

after leaving the grand canyon, we went to las vegas and had a swell time. the pirate show was amazing and we had lots of energy, making the city a very fun place for the two nights we spent there.

once we left vegas, we began our weird route east - which took us through navajo nation and gave us a new traveling buddy for a while.



when amanda and i first heard about the stray puppy that had been left at the navajo jewelery stand, we both thought "oh, no. we can't have a dog traveling with us, let alone a puppy." an hour later, however, we were thinking differently.
kayenta, which was the name she ended up with, wiggled her way over to me. her little body was all matted with desert sand and dread locks- i could not help myself when i got the scissors and comb out of the car and began working on her coat. before long i had a huge baggy full of dog hair and we had a puppy. we promptly found dog food for her and watched her little body squirm with delight as the food hit her belly. while we drove, she slept soundly on the floor board and when we camped, she stayed right at our heals. she was a great companion.



kayenta traveled with us for four days before fate had its way and gave kayenta a real home (months before we were planning on finding one for her). we were camping right outside of santa fe and had some super people camping next to us. we were all cooking marshmallows on the fire and kayenta was sleeping in the tent. i went and grabbed her to keep me warm and to meet our new friends. when one of the guys, john, saw her he said that he would love to take her home and we said if he was serious, we would like for her to have a good home. so, john ended up with a puppy and kayenta ended up with a good owner who would be able to give her a home.
although we only had her for four days, it felt so much longer. saying goodbye to her was very difficult for me. i think that due to the nature of our trip and the lack of time, it seemed like a much longer time. but, goodbyes are usually not an easy thing.
she slept in our tent with us for the last time that night and in the morning i woke up to the little ratters stepping over my face to crawl in my sleeping bag with me. we couldn't have asked for a better friend for the time we had her.
the guy on the left is her new owner.



after departing from kayenta and santa fe, we hit route 66 and traveled with style.





DINOSAURS AND GIANT RABBITS!!!
(see, mom, i told you we rode a rabbit!)



after standing on a corner in winslow, arizona (such a fine sight to see)
WE WENT TO TOMBSTONE!
i got my picture taken with doc holliday and wyatt earp! and morgan and virgil earp too!

standing on allen street in tombstone. we are lookin' sooo good.



amanda with wyatt and doc. such gentlemen. they were actually walking away from us when amanda and i stopped to stare with awe. my smile was so big they stopped and turned around and said 'why, hello' and then we got our picture taken with them. best ever.



then, after we saw the shoot out at the OK Corral, we got our photos taken with morgan and virgil earp. i was so happy, but my eyes were red, puffy, and watery- not from being overwhelmed by their presence... it was allergies. unfortunately the whole shoot out and sometime afterward it looked like i was crying.



tombstone was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip so far. my cheeks hurt really bad from smiling so much and everyone kept looking at me and asking where we were from, as if that would tell them why we were so happy and excited. it was super. super duper, in fact.

over and out,
chelsea

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.