First I’d like to say sorry for the wait. Its been 7 days since we our last post. That’s just irresponsible.
Today, we left whats been our home for the past 5 days, we weren’t glad to see it go but we we’re glad to be moving on. On a trip like ours the excitement lies in whats next. You gotta keep it moving. Plus, with limited resources, another day is another dollar, so every extra day that we take cost us big time. We have gotten to that point in the trip where we can see and feel the finish line. This has brought on all types of worry and excitement. Excitement to be starting new in an awesome city, with possible better jobs. Excitement for the simple things in life like security, reliable showers, television, bathrooms, kitchens, and, I’d hate to say it but, a routine. We worry about, finding jobs, and apartment, how much money we’ll have left, and making friends. We’ve been job searching here and there when we get a little WiFi and that’s just been adding to the stress. The mood has changed from the relaxed “lets take it slow and enjoy it” approach, now we are finding ourselves wanting to just push through the rest and get it done. There’s still a lot more to see. So recently we’ve been trying to balance these feelings of worry about the future with the feelings of wanting to continue to enjoy ourselves carefree, and its been a struggle. I’m confident that in the end everything will just work out like it always does, so for now we have to keep out eyes on the prize and not let worry get in our way.
Family road trip! The 4 of us got into the van and headed south. Its really nice to have some friends with us for a change. It changes the dynamics of the trip and gives me and Jillian a break from each other. God knows we need it. I thought that now since we have friends with us Jillian would do a lot lot less sleeping while I drive. Turns out that’s not the case. In fact its even worse cuz Kanya sleeps in the back as well now. So the girls basically rotate on the bed while I’m stuck driving. If Liam joins them in this habit I’m promise you I will drive the van into the nearest telephone pole. As we drove south we must’ve ran into some type of warp zone cuz just outside of Sedona the Arizona landscape suddenly and unexpectedly turned into the Great Smokey Mountains. The road wrapped around pine covered dark rock mountains and followed a stream. Then there were fall colored sycamore trees. Then the Colorado Plateau red rocks pushed there way through and were covered in ponderosa pines. All this leads me to believe that this section of AZ is having an identity crisis. Sedona is the poser of AZ. Its trying to be whats it not. You’re in AZ homie. You’re either red rock high desert, or cactus ridden low desert. Get a hold of yourself. All that said, it was absolutely beautiful. Sedona looks a lot like Zion, if you built a cute tourist town in the middle of it. According to Jillian it was Sedorable. We pulled into town hungry and went straight to a Alien themed diner that i found on my roadside attraction app. It was a fun little spot. Then we took a stroll through downtown Sedona, dipping into all the stores. Kanya was looking for a beaded wallet. Jillian bought another pair of feather earrings and a cool hood. Liam spent about a half hour contemplating on whether to buy a real dinosaur egg for $1000 or not. I wanted to buy a fancy cowhide belt but Jillian wouldn’t let me. So instead I settled for a delicious chocolate covered twinkle.
After our shopping spree we wasted no time and headed further some to Arcosanti. Arcosanti is a lot similar to the hippie earthship building we came across in New Mexico. Self sustaining, eco buildings with environment and future civilization in mind. The difference was that Arcosanti was all one architects vision of what future cities could look and function like. So not just houses, but entire cities. We took a tour and watched a video about Paolo Soleri. They showed us a model of what this “city” located on a desert mesa would look and that it would house 5000 people when finished. Only a couple of the buildings are finished, and they have been building it since the 70′s. The project is funded by the sale of really neat brass and ceramic wind chimes that they make on site. There are the facts, now I’ll tell you what we saw. The place is a glorified wind chime factory with workers that live on the premisses. They have deluded themselves into thinking that they will sell enough bells to turn the factory into a full city of 5000. Right now there only a coulee dozens people, probably mostly art and architecture interns, there making bells and building at a snails pace. More then half of the structures on campus are dedicated to making wind chimes. The buildings were interesting in design as was the landscaping, but aside from that it was just a bell factory that housed student labor. I’ll be amazed if the population ever exceeds 150.
From there we headed further south and even closer to sea level. The temps climbed. I’m so glad to be away from fall/winter weather. Its only been a couple of hours and a couple of degrees in temp but it’s just a taste of what our next couple weeks will be like. After an amazing 3 weeks we finally left the Colorado plateau and it’s wonderful red rock formations. We would of had time to mourn and be sad to see it go if it wasn’t for the saguaro cactus. As soon as we got out of high elevation the landscape was covered in cacti. Along the roads and blanketing the low mountains, and if that wasn’t enough the sun was setting as we drove south. Whats a desert cactus without a sunset? The sky had just enough clouds in it to give a nice red reflection. It was beautiful! The cactus marks our transition into a new climate and new adventures. I was ecstatic. I’ve never been so happy to see a plant in all my life.
We got to Liam’s grandmother Harriot’s place in Scottsdale and watch the sunset in her beautiful desert backyard. Let me tell you this woman lives in style. It’s gonna be one of the nicest places we’ve stayed yet.
We ate dinner just up the road at a meat joint called Pinnacle peak patio. Is a fun little western spot. A sign out front warns “wear ties at your own risk.” When you get inside you see why. The ceiling is covered in cut off ties. No joke there’s at least a thousand. Nice way to end a busy day.
30 days left. No more counting up, it’s counting down time. Yikes!
-Ricky
Next Stop: Phoenix, AZ