Jon and Dana's Excellent Adventure: February 2010

Grandpappy taking Jon for a ride in the MG

I am sitting in the parking lot of a Travel Center of America squished in amongst about a dozen semi’s. We’re stuck here for the night because of a blizzard. We had been chasing the sun straight into “New Mexico – The Land of Enchantment” (Where do they come up with these names?), but were overtaken by the cold weather that has swept the nation. Strangely enough, I hear that my two hometowns – Portland and Sitka – are remarkably warm and sunny. It feels very bizarre to go from 80 degrees to snow in one day’s drive. A week ago, we looked at a newspaper weather map that showed Yuma and Southern California as the only warm places in the country and cold weather and snow everywhere else – even Florida!

We had to the leave our warm cozy nook in Yuma for the wintry chill of Northern Arizona because we were on a mission. Three missions in fact – or maybe even four.

He's a classy guy

Cholla Cactus

Seriously? They couldn't possibly get any more confusing than this!

This is how to landscape if you don't have any Rhododendrons

Mission #1: Pick up Danielle and Luigi in Albuquerque, (I dare you to close your eyes and try to spell that word) New Mexico on February 25th. Our buds decided to fly down and hitch a ride with us to Austin, Texas! We even get to celebrate Luigi’s birthday with him! (Sometimes my exclamation marks annoy even me)

Mission#2: Go see the Grand Canyon. Check!

Mission#3: Hike into Supai and Mooney Falls. Yeah Joel, we’re kind wishing that you hadn’t even told us about this one. Now I’ll just be dreaming about it for years to come.

Oh, and Mission #4: Obtain a French Press for Jon (WEIRD, right?!)

Yuma architecture

This is another way to landscape if you're lacking Rhododendrons

These are the bones of a Saguaro Cactus

Prickly Pear cactus

What to do when you're old: buy toys!

Well so far we are two for four, but we’re closing in on three for four. The Grand Canyon really is everything it’s made out to be…and more – a lot more. For sure – put it in your top 100. I’m super jealous of my buddy Kjersti for having RAFTED the Grand Canyon, but you don’t need a mule ride or a rafting trip to be blown-away jaw-dropped speechless when you see this giant hole in the earth. I feel extremely lucky to have been able to see it at all, because I went back to see it the next day, and it was completely obliterated from view by the snowstorm. For some odd reason, we decided to see the Grand Canyon when it was windy AND icy, and yes, you CAN fall off the cliff. The thing that really shocked me about the Grand Canyon was that it looks so fake…really. Look at our pictures. They look like Grand Canyon backdrops in a photography studio, and I swear on my grandpappy’s life pirate sword that they are real. You look at the straight line of the North Rim Mesa, and the haziness due to the 8 miles distance to the other side, and the seemingly endless contours and surface area and it really makes your mind believe that it’s an illusion, that it cannot be real. Then you get used to looking at it and you put away your camera and you mosey on down the path and the BAM! Holy bejesus! There’s another whole amazing gorgeous astounding supreme vista. It’s really difficult to take a bad picture of the Grand Canyon. Even when it was shrouded in snowfall, the cliff drops with blankets of perfect white snow and the most bonsai looking trees ever, well, then you take another bazillion pictures. The number of pictures that I have been putting on the blog lately is getting kind of ridiculous, and yet I can’t manage to pare them down to just a few favorites. Especially the ones of Bailey…what a ham, that guy. He’s so good at posing. You just call out his name and he looks at you with a big cheesy grin and a giant pink tongue. If I don’t quit rambling I’m going to run the risk of boring you to tears.

Pirate Party!

These guys handcrafted this pirate ship with working cannons (potato guns) specially for the party

One of Jon's new tattoos

My Grandpappy and a very scary looking pirate

Dana and Jon - gypsy pirates

Grandpappy the Pirate

We set out to accomplish Mission #3, which was going to be even radder than the Grand Canyon. (Spell check doesn’t agree with radder as a word but it absolutely IS the right word in this context). Yes, so rad in fact, that “paradise” was used to describe it. We were headed for Mooney Falls near the Havasupai Indian Reservation town on Supai. To get to Supai, you can take a horse, a helicopter, or your own two feet. Feet were the only option on a budget. Unfortunately the hike to the falls is 10.5 miles each way on fairly steep and partially sandy terrain. This would have been a breeze as a 3 day trip, hike down, play in the falls (turquoise water, double falls, lush foliage, canyon walls that defy imagination), and then return on the third day. Hindsight really rubbed it in this time, because I had told myself there would be no need for back packing gear on this trip. Jon is not into backpacking, and we have a whole dang 5th wheel as a backpack, why pare down even more? You can bet Jon wasn’t too keen on a 21 mile day hike, even when I read in an Arizona tourist magazine that the hike was only 8 miles each way.

Well, Jon must really love me because he was willing to make it happen and feel the burn. So we headed out a dirt road (take a hint, when the road is marked with two dashed lines – it either means trouble or awesome – it’s hard not to be curious about the awesome). After an hour of driving straight into the featureless desert, we ended up driving down the driveway of a ranch house. I hop out to ask for directions because we must have taken a wrong turn. The dude (and I do mean dude) at the ranch was a genuine cowboy. Spurs, hat, buckle, boots, the whole nine yards, with a real nice spread in the Redlands. He tells us it should be a crime to publish maps like the one we have, to make it look like there is only one road. There are hundreds of roads, he says. He drew us a nice little map, with directions to go left of the Y at the pipeline and right on the road after the weaning pen. We thanked him and drove up the road until we were pretty sure that trailer would get stuck if we didn’t pull over. We spent the night in the desert and packed bunch of snacks for our giant hike. Jon actually packed rain clothes in case he had to spend the night on the ground (The things I put this guy through!) We left the trailer behind and drove more than an hour further into the desert until our gas gauge had nearly reached the point of no return. We still hadn’t found the right turnoff. We had to turn around (sadly on my part, inwardly gleeful on Jon’s part). In the end, we discovered that Joel was right about the 21 miles round trip, rather than 16 miles. We also read the warnings that it was “NOT MEANT TO BE A DAY HIKE” and I had to give up my dream of paradise. Ah…who am I kidding, I’m waking up in paradise every single day. For instance, even here, packed in with the semi’s, I spent a wonderfully relaxing evening of monopoly and homemade fried chicken with Jon in our cozy little cabin on wheels. Plus, I can stay up all night because even though it’s Monday tomorrow, because I’m not going to work in the morning. Ok, that was cruel. I only said that because I wish everyone would try out a little gypsy adventure of their own.

More of Jon's tattoos

The littlest pirate

Mission #4: Ever since our stop in Morro Bay with Jessica and Amanda, Jon has been wishing for a French Press. Strange, since he’s never been one for coffee, but who can blame him? Especially, when Jessica introduced him to Stumptown coffee. Mmmm. We were at a Wal-Mart in Phoenix Arizona, and the cashier asked us if we found everything ok. “No, actually we couldn’t find a dictionary or a French press” I say. “What’s a French press?” she said. I described it for her and she said “boy, I don’t know where you could find one of those”. We needed the dictionary for our Scrabble games (contesting words is difficult without a firm authority). Next door to Wal-Mart was Office Max. They didn’t have a dictionary either. The helpful guy with all the electronic gizmos attached to his ears and belt asked me “is there anything else I can help you find?” “Not unless you have a French press” I said. “What’s that?” “Never mind”, “Cause we can order it!” The French press grail was finally uncovered at a Starbucks (duh!) This morning, we did a crossword while sipping Jon’s delicious French pressed Folgers coffee. (Just kidding)

The King and Queen of Pirates

Like I said, classy dude

Preparing for sandrailing

Jon and my cousin Randy

We’ve been really impressed by Arizona. I didn’t expect there to be so much diversity in the terrain. It was also a nice surprise to discover how genuinely nice the people are here. They seem to have a very laid-back attitude. We spent one night camped in the mountains north of Phoenix. Jon and I stumbled upon a homestead community on an old dirt road in a beautiful woodland haven. We camped out near a creek and decided to walk up it. We have continued our mushroom search, even though they seem to have dropped off after we left the California coast. We were hoping that with all the unprecedented rain in the desert, there might be a giant mushroom bloom. If there was, we missed it. Along the creek banks, we found evidence of a mining claim, a homeless shelter, and a sweat lodge. We also briefly lost Dana, but Bailey found her. He’s pretty good with that sniffer.

Sandrailing is also rad - especially when I get to drive...

Thanks Uncle Ed and Randy!

Petroglyphs. It was difficult to tell the real ones from all of the recent graffiti. I guess that petroglyphs are essentially graffiti.

Some RV neighbors showing their pirate flag

Arizona sunsets are beautiful

Remains of a sweat lodge

Mining claim

On our way to pick up Danielle and Luigi, we’ve been travelling along the historic Route 66. There are about a million places to acquire “curios, souvenirs, antiques, native crafts, and clean bathrooms”. There are also about a dozen geodesic domes and even more giant colorful dinosaurs, along with interspersed giant arrows, giant Flintstones, and giant Indians. I have to admit that I have a weakness for souvenir shops. It’s embarrassing, but I’ve learned to accept it like my weakness for trashy magazines (People, US Weekly – Jon is always having to drag me away from the news stands at the cash register when I get too engrossed in the latest scandal – I can’t believe I’m admitting to this) and my new weakness for the Twilight series (yes, I read the next one). It’s all brain candy. The good thing is that, so far, I have only purchased one item at a souvenir shop, and it was our mushroom field guide book.

Bailey fetching

Coyote

Redlands

Bailey spots Jon in the distance

herd of wild pronghorn antelope

Kjersti check it out! Even Arizona turned out for Ragnar.

On a side note, I had a long conversation with my brother this morning and learned that he and our dad were nearly attacked by a 10 ft long Bronze Whaler shark a month ago. Alex tells me that while spearfishing in New Zealand with our Dad, he saw a 10 foot shark and bolted for the nearest island. He yelled for dad to get out of the water. Dad thought it unlikely that they would see the shark again, and although they were both towing their catch bags full of dead fish, decided they could head for shore. You can bet they dropped the bags in a hurry when the saw the Bronze Whaler again. To my great relief, they made it to shore unharmed. My dad saw another large shark while snorkeling again just recently.