My Adventures Began Yesterday

Bonjour Mes Amis! Picture this: I’m sitting on the floor, playing with my nephews when I receive a text, asking if I have plans over the upcoming weekend. Other than having a margarita to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and tentative plans to attend the Dynamo vs LA Galaxy game, nada (and by tentative, I mean, the game was sold out, and my long reach of soccer connections was not proving fruitful). So, I was available for adventure! D received two VIP tickets to the Jazz Fest for May 5 th and 6 th and wanted a drama free companion (I guess I passed that test over the trek to Havasu! *pats self on the back*). Many shout outs and thanks to K2 for enjoying their Honeymoon so much, they decided to share it with us (and by share, I mean give us the tickets while they leisurely drove towards home, with a detour through Dallas)! Jazz. Fest. New. Orleans.  Could the weekend be set up for any more fun? Fortunately, for us, yes! D was told by J (again, thank you, Havasu...

Who spends hundreds of dollars on light-weight camping equipment that they may never use again, only to carry it all on their back, hike 2,200 feet into a canyon, cut themselves off from civilization (aka no cell service – oh the horror), string up a hammock, and voluntarily choose not to shower for four days? Yeah, that would be us four. Disclaimer: this is our first time backpacking. Please excuse the lack of knowledge, the unknown protocols, and the fear of all things that crawl. February 1st rolled around and for many, it was a typical Thursday morning. For the five of us (we lost a fellow camper two weeks before go time), it was the morning that registration opened for Havasu Falls, a waterfall located on the Havasupai Indian Reservation in the Grand Canyon. We charged our phones and laptops. We poured our tea (or coffee) into mugs. We placed the group on speaker phone. By 9:00 am, we were ready. Then a few glitches in the system later, we booked a March 20-24 stay....

Hello World!! So, we woke up early to mentally prepare for the process that was about to overtake our lives: registering for Havasu Falls passes! Registration opened February 1 at 9:00 am (CST) and this would be our first year attempting to obtain passes. We’d read posts about this being their third year to try and never succeeding. Or they picked 5 dates that they’d be willing to go, and still had to settle with a date not on their list. Or they were checking out and the site crashed or their bank denied the charge. Ahh, the nerves as we prepared to book our May 17-20 dates. On the phone together, I counted us down to 9:00am, then pressed refresh on the browser. Nothing happened. What? Is it working on your end? Nope. Refresh, refresh, refresh, refresh. Darnit! What’s going on? I logged into the Havasu Facebook group that I had joined the day before and saw that others were having trouble too. Sigh. Luckily, while absentmindedly watching the ding ding ding of new posts by...

A quick summary so years from now, I’ll know where I travelled! After leaving Vegas (and dropping mom at the airport), I drove solo throughout California, exploring the state of my birth, then visiting Arizona and Colorado before heading towards home. Every national park offered unique and majestic landscapes, animals, and people. I didn’t write much during this time for multiple reasons: (1) after driving, hiking, exploring, and more driving, at the end of the day, I wanted to enjoy the views around me or lose myself in someone else’s words; (2) I felt like I kept using the same words to describe my views: majestic, gorgeous, stunning, amazing, etc.. These parks are all different and my words wouldn’t do justice to the feelings of peace and awe they inspired; and (3) I was feeling extremely lazy. Travelling solo was surprisingly peaceful. No set time. No plans. I arrived when I arrived. When a view caught my interest, I stopped to sit and stare at the beauty that manifest...