My Adventures Began Yesterday

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...

Back in early August, I turned in my notice at work and started planning an epic national park tour (a decision long in the making as you can see here and here ). A few weeks after my life-altering decision, my mom invited herself along for the family portion of the trip (Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota). Well, she’d always wanted to see Yellowstone, and that would be my next stop after family, so of course she had to extend her time by another week. And Yellowstone is so close to Glacier NP and she’d heard of Glacier's beauty, and well, then, we’d be close to Washington and she could visit her Aunt. So, eventually, the jokes started that she’d just join me for the full two months. Haha Poor dad, stuck at home, working, while his two favorite girls road trip across the USA! I had no problem with an additional person joining the trip (especially since (1) it was my mother and (2) she came with her spacious truck!). I looked forward to splitting t...