gusty winds may exist - ohhh, the long drives back east

hello from atlanta, georgia! the past week has absolutely flown by, and now here i am back on the east coast again. somehow that happened. for the first time i had to reach for red bull to make it through the drive today! we've been gaining a lot of ground since i last posted - and i'll have to just make an abbreviated version of the trip since i last wrote. i'll be home in a few days, back in new jersey. i can't believe that two months ago i was getting ready for this adventure, and on my way to cleveland, ohio. so much has happened that i haven't been able to get down on here or even in my journal, and i'm still catching up with photos. it's definitely been a whirlwind, and there are places that i plan on returning to and possibly living in across our incredibly vast and diverse country.

since northern arizona we have:

- driven hundreds of miles across/down new mexico, texas, mississippi, and alabama

- had our mile tracker in my car re-set since we passed 10,000 miles for the trip!

- had dinner in albuquerque with my aunt andi (my dad's sister who i haven't seen in years) at a fantastic vegetarian restaurant, seated outside in their patio with perfect weather

- stayed with another co-worker from pirg, whitney, in albuquerque and walked around nob hill

- drove from ABQ to san antonio, tx in one day and walked some of the river walk

- couch-surfed in austin, tx and met a cool little dog named pancho

- made it to new orleans and stayed with my friend nora from tcnj for 2 nights in her sweet southern TFA (teach for america- where her and her roommates all work) home

- watched a live brass band - the treme bass band - play at an awesome dive bar that i think had 12 or 13 people playing at one time, which was amazing - they had 3 saxes, at least 2 trumpets, a banjo, a tuba, trombones..you name it

- met up with my friend from studying abroad, kat, for the day on thursday and we: tried to see a bayou but ended up learning some confusing and misleading info about the battle of new orleans, walked the french quarter, ate delicious beignets and frozen coffees at cafe du monde, experienced some of bourbon street, drank a massive hurricane at pat o'brien's pub, ate delicious authentic creole/cajun soul food at jacques-imo's (i even ate some seafood), toured the city by car, and finished the day with a bottle of new mexican wine out on nora's patio with good conversation

- gotten only a few miles into mississippi when the right front tire of my car blew out, and we had a near collision with a mack truck in the right lane - luckily it was totally fine and kevin replaced the tire with a new one i had in my trunk after we pulled safely to the shoulder, and we didn't have any other issues- it was scary though!

- reunited again with sean but this time in his hometown in atlanta and had an insane amount of asian buffet, and toured some of downtown atlanta - we even passed the coke factory haha :)

whew.

we've pushed ourselves since we left the grand canyon, and i've been constantly on the go. i don't think i've slept in the same place or in the same bed for more than two nights in a row since LA. it's definitely getting to me - and i'm exhausted. we planned on doing more on the last leg of the trip; we wanted to stay another night in new orleans, stay 2 nights in atlanta, and then 2 nights in DC (and stop in chapel hill NC to visit a friend), and then a final night in philly before getting home. however, it's just too much at this point. we're tired and ready to not be on the move. i miss my own bed! so we stayed til this morning in new orleans, and are leaving after breakfast with some of kevin's family in atlanta for DC tomorrow. it's going to be a LONG drive, but i'm pretty used to it at this point. i've been going on willpower (and red bull today) and just pushing through. naps in the car are helpful, and we have some new music and random radio stations that constantly change depending on the state. it's hard to really reflect when i'm moving so fast and remember the places i've been, and i wanted to make sure i at least got in one last post before i was no longer "on the road".

being on the road this long has allowed me to consider many options and opportunities i have right now in my life, and where i can see myself living and having the most impact on issues that i care about, and helping others along the way. i've been inspired by many people and places on this journey, and feel as though traveling has expanded my thinking about our country and society. it's been so interesting to me to just see how people i know (and random people as well) live their lives, and just take it all in. i haven't been judging, but more observing and thinking about what lifestyles i'd like to be able to follow and how i can be happy in my day to day life. living on the road isn't your typical day to day life, and for most of the trip i've felt like an outsider. i've only gotten a glimpse into people's lives and communities, and i'd like to be part of a community for longer than just a year or a summer like my time spent in MA and ohio for organizing jobs.

i plan on graduate school in the next year, but i still have a lot of work ahead of me to make that happen. i also want to spend a season actually WOOFing on a farm in the midwest or out in new mexico, and gain that hands-on experience that this trip didn't allow me to have. we just wanted to do and see too much. two months somehow disappeared so quickly. i'm so glad that i got to go and stay in such fantastic cities, towns, places and national parks/forests, but i know i've just scratched the surface on what i can still learn about agriculture and policy in the US.

this trip is going to stay in memory forever, and it really has shaped the next adventures i will embark on. i'm so thankful for the friends i have and people i've met across the country. without them we wouldn't have been able to go to so many places and been able to afford to stay in some of the coolest (and most expensive) cities. thank you to everyone who hosted us for a night or a few days - you made our trip happen! it's been amazing, and i can't wait for what will happen next. i don't believe my wandering will stop after this; actually - it's just the beginning.

catching up from LA to sedona, AZ

hello from cottonwood, arizona! we're staying with a friend from college, davey, who lives outside of sedona, az in a town called cottonwood. we just went up to have dinner and a few drinks in a mountain town called jerome, which many people have recommended to me to check out. it definitely was worth the trip up the mountain, and i was surprised by what we would see there. it's an old historic mining town, and they have these "ghost tours" which is literally a traveling theater throughout the town, with actors that act out scenes in various places outdoors and indoors, and the audience follows along to each location. pretty funny, and the bar we were hanging out at listening to local live music turned out to be the spot where most of the actors or performers (or maybe just people dressed up early for halloween) came to grab food or a drink. it was great to catch up with davey, and kevin enjoyed getting to know the musicians between breaks in their sets.

we've obviously covered some ground since i last posted, as we are now on our way eastward! we headed from san diego to las vegas, and then onto our last three national parks on the trip. las vegas was absolutely insane and really fun. we splurged in vegas (mostly using gift money) and stayed at the venetian hotel the first night, ate at a fantastic restaurant within the palazzo/venetian complex, and gambled some. the venetian was so luxurious, and i totally was spoiled after staying there for a night. the following evening, we found ourselves coming back to the sin city international student hostel in downtown vegas :) but, that turned out to be just what we needed and definitely within out budget. we definitely didn't "belong" pulling into the hotel with our dirty hippie-mobile and random items falling out as we were trying to valet park and have a bell boy help us with our many bags. quite comical actually.

the hotels in vegas are really amazing - the architecture and design inside and out are worth admiring. we spent some time exploring the day after we arrived, since we wanted to soak up every moment we could while staying at the venetian and living the life of luxury! i'm forgetting at the moment which hotel this is, but it was across from where we stayed and could possibly be the mirage. we went to the mirage the second night where we saw the cirque du soleil show "love" which was to all beatles songs. it was such a mind-blowing show, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. luckily we were able to get discount tickets for a friday night, and they were great seats. the music of course was great, and the performances were awesome. i honestly cannot believe still that people can move their bodies the way that they did, or have the strength to hang from rope attached to the ceiling and fly through the air. it did look like a lot of fun though- but i'm not too sure you'd see me up there anytime soon.

i'm glad that we did vegas (since we toyed with the idea of skipping it entirely) but it was a bit too much excess and commercialization for me. i'm really not into gambling, or shopping excessively, so after seeing the sights, eating out and full enjoying out hotel room, i had enough. the malls and buildings like i said really are impressive, and we took tons of pictures walking around through the venetian, palazzo, the mirage, and caesar's palace. many sections of the ceiling are painted to mirror the daytime sky and it does feel like you're outside in some places, especially where they have the gondola rides. but, after a while it felt too artificial and i just wanted to get back outside! of course. after our night in the hostel, we packed up again and made our way to the hoover dam just to say we saw it and crossed over it into arizona. it was pretty great to check out, and it's where we realized arizona doesn't change time zones right now and is still on pacific time, even though we're technically in the mountain time zone.

in utah we camped in zion and bryce canyon national parks, and then headed south to arizona to stay at the south rim of the grand canyon. we ended up staying the first night in a motel outside of the canyon, since we really needed a good night's sleep in a bed and a shower. camping hadn't been bad at all, except for the cold nights in bryce since we were at an elevation of about 8,000 feet. all of these parks are equally beautiful in their own way, with their own characteristics that really set them apart. they all had amazing FREE shuttle systems though - which i definitely appreciate and really am happy about. in zion we actually could not reach our trailhead by car; we realized that AFTER we drove out the east entrance on the road that we kept wondering, "where is the trailhead?". we had to drive all the way back past our campground near the south entrance to catch a shuttle. we ended up only doing one hike that day, to angel's landing.

this is me at the top; it was absolutely stunning! the last part of the hike you actually had assistance from chains along the trail because it was so steep and dangerous to climb. it might have been freakier than the half dome hike in yosemite, mostly because you could see at every curve how far you would fall or how much farther you had to go. it was definitely challenging and a bit scary, but so worth the climb to the top! we had lunch up there, and shooed away the pesky chipmunks that have grown accustomed to hikers feeding them snacks. we've noticed this problem in so many national parks and tourist spots; people stupidly feed the wildlife and then the animals become used to being fed by humans and eating human food. the squirrels in the grand canyon were SO fat at the busiest tourist look out spots. one of these unafraid, overweight little weasels managed to steal the remainder of my hot pretzel from the snack shop at once of the lodges on the rim right from my lap! he just stood there nibbling on it in front of me as if to mock me, and then ran away with the rest of it.

anyway, the views in zion are incredible. there are amazing vistas of the mountains and incredible cliff faces and canyons. i was blown away from the beauty of this park, and how diverse it was. you could hike up to angel's landing and see a panoramic view of the park and forest, but then also go down and do a river hike through the narrows which would be walking knee-deep in the river surrounded by canyon walls only 20 feet apart. we didn't get to do any extensive hikes after angel's landing, so i'd definitely like to go back and do a narrows hike - it sounds difficult but really awesome.

after camping for 2 nights in zion (one night right outside the park and one night within the park itself) we drove over to bryce canyon, for some more hiking and camping in canyon land. we had a great campsite that had plenty of room for our hammock and tent, but it got SO cold there! we weren't expecting such a huge jump in elevation change, and the cold definitely made nights a bit uncomfortable. we did have some great campfires there though, and we really enjoyed those. during the first day kevin and i did a short hike, and then split up to do solo hikes the second day. this photo is from my hike on the peekaboo loop, which takes you into the canyon and loops back in like 4-5 miles. there are a bunch of cool looking spots like these along the trail, and i liked the view through this archway out to the "hoodoos" which are the rock formations you'll find everywhere in the canyon.

i'll have to write more about the grand canyon and parts of our travels and some reflections i've left out. but for now, i'm absolutely exhausted and am ready to enjoy a night's sleep on a futon and not the ground! we're heading to Albuquerque in the morning to meet my aunt andi who lives in taos, NM for a late lunch, and then stay with another coworker from PIRG. from there we are attempting to drive to austin, TX in one day. should be interesting. stay tuned :) miss you all! xo

pacific coastin' comes to an end

so this is our last night on the pacific coast - in san diego. it's been a while since i last posted - and my apologies! i meant to get back to my last post, but i just didn't find the time! i also am not on my computer, so i won't be able to post pictures right now. however, you can check out photos on my facebook up until the first day or so of LA/Pasadena. it's been a whirlwind of california amazingness these past couple weeks, and i'm genuinely sad to be leaving the state and the pacific coast. however, there still is so much to see on our route back east - including vegas, the grand canyon, flagstaff, santa fe, WOOFing in texas now, and new orleans.

we are planning on returning within 2-3 weeks, since we've been on the road now for quite a while. we're both pretty tired - but our stay in LA and week or so with sean had been a nice break to not only just relax, but also to have someone else to hang out with and break up the driving and conversation in the car. we somehow made room in my car for all three of us, which was pretty hilarious with a huge duffel bag strapped to the roof my car. my little corolla has been holding up pretty well - and we hit 100,000 miles on it during our drive to LA from big sur. there haven't been any major issues with the car at all - which i'm so thankful for! hopefully it keeps up for our journey back east.

anyway - i left off last time talking about our drive down to napa valley, wine country! we had such a great time and it was totally unexpected. napa was not in our original route, i just had wanted to visit wine country and get to do a wine tasting somewhere. it turned out that kevin's friend morgan actually works in the wine industry, and lives half of the year in napa and the other half in new zealand. pretty sweet job, i'd say. she works in the lab in napa and tastes wine and runs tests all day. so, she gave us a full tour of wine making and we tasted maybe a dozen or more of red and whites that were still in the fermentation process and still far from the bottle. it was really interesting to actually see the process of how wine today is made, and i didn't realize how technical it really is. when we visited, they were just making whites - and there were HUGE silver barrels full of fermenting chardonnays and sauvignon blancs, and other kinds that i'm not thinking of right now. most of them were not ready for the drinking, and we'd spit out our sip after swishing in the glass, smelling and tasting. we met the head winemaker who was an Aussie, and morgan's cousin is actually the assistant winemaker. they work long and hard hours, but their wine is absolutely delicious. it's an extensive process to get from grapes to bottle - and i have a more robust appreciation for wine making and wine.

from the basement of the winery we went upstairs to look out at the vineyards and then to the bar! we were able to taste many, many glasses of delicious red and white wines - and have some great conversation with other people who were doing a wine tasting. i met a woman who is vegan, and she was giving me tips on eating vegan and websites to check out, as it's something i've been considering. it's been incredibly easy to eat vegetarian on the west coast, especially once we got into california and ate in pacific coast cities and towns. vegan and raw food places have been pretty prevalent as well, especially in LA, and i'm thinking it might be something i will try out once the trip is over. since we're moving so much and not able to buy groceries consistently, it's just too hard to start now. after seeing so many factory farms across the country and thinking about how excessive our consumption patterns are here, i believe that our diets can make a bigger statement and create more change than we realize. the local food movements that are occurring in big and small cities across our nation are inspiring, and testament to the fact that people are supporting their local farmers and building stronger communities in the process.

although WOOFing has not worked out so far in the trip, i still feel as though i'm learning more about our food production and seeing for myself what many of us do not. in northern california we saw huge farms during their harvest, and dozens of pickers out in the fields. many of the workers looked hispanic, and i assume that they are migrant farm workers. this is an issue that is pretty controversial, on many different levels. i interviewed with an organization before i got my job with repower that protected children's labor rights on farms, as migrant families tend to have their children help make money by working on the farm as well. around the same time, i had been reading articles about 'silent raids' on factory farms across the country where immigration officials were deporting farm workers because they were illegally living there. yet, without the illegal immigrants that work on our farms there is no one else picking our food that stock the grocery shelves. these are issues that i really want to explore more and dig into deeper. but back to our travels...

after the wine tasting in napa we took a longer than intended nap before our drive to san francisco! it took us a couple hours to get there, and we arrived after sunset to kevin's friend guy's apartment right in the city. we ended up going on a late night drive to see the city, which was like speed dating but speed touring the city, so funny. we didn't get to spend enough time in san fran, but to sum up: we spent some time frustrated at the confusing and SLOW light rail, saw the end of the now and zen free concert in golden gate park (sarah bareilles), watched the sun go down at the golden gate bridge and took some great photos, ate really good food including a fantastic brunch, and hung out at guy's apartment. it was a fantastic city - and i plan on going back! it wasn't enough time, but we were on somewhat of a schedule to get to LA by the friday so we had a full weekend there, and so that we got to stay in both santa cruz and big sur along the pacific coast after we went to yosemite national park for a couple days.

ALL of those places i just mentioned were fantastic - yosemite was absolutely INCREDIBLE! i actually forgot to post about it when i first wrote this, i can't believe i did! we hiked the half dome which was 12 hours of hiking, we left our campground a little after 6am to drive to the trailhead and start out on the trail by 7am. it was over 16 miles in total, and we climbed 4,800+ feet! the last part of the hike to the top of the half dome was intense, it was 900 feet of rock steps and then 400 feet of straight rock climbing through the use of metal cables. you can't ascend without using the cables! it was insane. i'll post pictures and write more about the hike soon.

we stayed with a mutual friend from PIRG, chase, in santa cruz. he lives in basically a hippie commune and it was wonderful. santa cruz was beautiful although we didn't spend much time there. we got in pretty late and met chase for a couple beers, and then hung out at his place that night. the next day we had a delicious brunch (mine was vegan) downtown, and then headed to monterey for a quick stop and to camp in big sur that night. while in monterey i stopped to visit the institute for international studies, which i found out has only 800 students! there is an international environmental policy program with the peace corps that i had been looking into during my senior year of college, and i thought it would be cool to actually check out a few grad schools on the trip. i think i may apply there - monterey was absolutely beautiful and really quaint. i kept saying 'i think i could live here' to kevin and sean (although i've said that in seattle, portland, san francisco..) but still. it's right on the water and i'd be meeting tons of international students. we'll see!

camping in big sur was really fun - we celebrated sean's 24th birthday there by jumping in the pacific ocean (okay, well - i took video of the guys jumping in, it was like 40 degrees out) and eating a great meal at a restaurant near our campground. the staggering rocks and views of the ocean are amazing out there - and the driving was insane around tight curves and over cliffs. definitely glad we made a stop there overnight, although the drive the next day to LA took almost 10 hours! we didn't wake up early enough to miss traffic (although there's always traffic in LA) and we got stuck in the car for way too long. we finally arrived in santa monica to drop sean off at a friend's place, and then made our way to pasadena to stay with my cousin caitlin and her boyfriend brent. they have a cute apartment right near downtown pasadena, and it was so great to visit and stay with cait. i've missed her and won't see her again til christmas. so it was awesome to spend time with her and brent, and we had a crazy fun weekend. i'll write about it soon - but now it's time for bed and giving up the laptop!