I think I have an idea of how I want to run this blog, that I will use it to post small updates here and there of what were are doing and what we have seen. I know I will have to create a schedule for myself, what days I post about what etc. hopefully I can stick with it...
Anyway we are in Salt Lake city right now. Ever since the cold Colorado our lovely Vandy has been making some ear bleeding noises every time we start her. Kinda makes it challenging to sneak out of a campsite at 6 in the morning. Vandy needs some extra time to warm up, so about 3 minutes after this horrendous sound has been squealing nonstop she starts to purr again. We decided enough was enough this afternoon after we hung out in a little cafe down town. We headed to a little auto shop here in Salt Lake to see if they can help us hush Vandy. Going into it, I assumed it was an issue with the belts, although this made no sense to me seeing how we just got them replaced before we left. A silly error with wrong belt size in Fairfield caused these little issues. With a 1989 Vanagon you kinda have to go into every mechanic shop knowing they will list 7-10 things you should get fixed in the near future. Otherwise you will be stuck on the side of the road, or burst into the flames. When they say these things like that, yea it can be scary but I tend to brush it over the shoulder and be an optimist. Maybe one day that will blow up in my face, fingers crossed am I right!!! Anyway, now we have to chill in Salt Lake for another day and hope they can fix the problems in just one day so we can be off to Seattle by Sunday. That is about 840 miles and about a 3 day travel for us. I was told I need to eat potatoes in Idaho so I am looking forward to that!!! Although our local five guys gets their potatoes from Idaho (ya know when you walk in and their is that sign posted up stating where the potatoes are from that day), so honestly, might not be that amuses while I am their. Who knows though? I don’t! It’s funny because I have talked about wanting to move to Idaho for years now, well I tell my Dad this a lot. He asks why every time and I say “For the potatoes of course” or something along these lines… I honestly don’t remember. Hopefully this image I have of the glorious Idaho matches up to the real deal. Otherwise I think I will be heart broken. Wow I just realized how easy it is for me to get on tangents of random nonsense. I was about to write that I would love to be back in the hot springs we chilled in but I guess I started to talk about my random love for Idaho instead… Soooo about this hot springs!!! We finally went to one! We have looked several up and planned to go but always chicken out. In Colorado we started a hike to one but we soon realized that this would be a very long hike. Spoiler Alert: we turned back around and never saw the hot springs. Anyway we drive out to this one and it is literally in the middle of a field. I figured it would take a hike to get to but boy was I wrong. The little dirt road goes straight up to it. It was a chilly day so the walk there was rough but walking back all wet to the car was even worse. We spent at least an hour in the hot springs and a man started talking to us, he’s from San Diego, not that anyone asked, that’s just the first thing I could remember about him. He was a very funny guy and said to call our dad everyday. That his daughter is also a traveler and he gets so nervous about her. We had a great conversation with him and he gave us a lot of recommendations, he even gave us his card (he builds longboards), saying if anything goes wrong we will always have a friends in California. I know you shouldn’t trust strangers and we haven’t really. But we are smart kids we know what information not to give out to people and how to stay safe. I think you have to see the best in people at times, that if we went this whole trip not talking to anyone, we would learn very little and we wouldn’t grow as much as an individual. Both my sister and I want to see more and meet new people. That every now and then you have to step outside of your comfort zone and just say hey to someone. Like in Trader Joes here in Utah (we were on the hunt for stocking up on dried mango), a guy with his wife and 2 kids (under age 5 a assumes) asked us if we were the ones living in the van. Asking if we were living in it long term/ where we were going. He said they were fellow van livers and go for a few months at a time. I could honestly list dozens of times that people have come up to us talking about a Westfalia they used to have or just living on the road in general. That each person that comes up to us shares the same love and passion for traveling as we do. That it is the new American dream. So maybe this is the new dream, no more white picket fences, and more of homes on wheels, never being stuck in one place forever. Anyway to loop back to the beginning of this post, the van is hopefully getting fixed tomorrow, nothing major just a few belts and hoses that are being replaced. A big thanks to my Dad for picking up the phone every time we call and saying "What's wrong, you break down?" I am sorry father, I will call you soon with no problems, just me wanting to say hey to my old man.
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It has been 22 days since we left for this trip, we kinda just fall into a routine now, way different from your average nightly routine when you live in a house or in a dorm. To me it seems more simple and easy living, but from an outsiders view I can understand that it can seem very complex. That there is no absolute, which I admit I have craved in my life, I have always needed to find an answer. But since we left I have fallen in love with living in the grey area.
I am an indecisive, go with the flow, anything is fine by me type of person. I have lived for doing spontaneous things, or I guess you could say, never having a plan. So a lot of me lives in the grey area in my day to day life, although not all of me. As I travel the states in a van having a plan but also at the same time no plan at all. I am working on becoming okay with living in the grey area with other places in my life. To become more okay with not finding an answer. Sometimes there's just no answer. I guess part of me wants to find the answers but not be limited by them, that college is not the only answer, that there is always an open ended option. We all don't fit into a box or a multiple letter choice answer, there is so much more than what people have the option of. We limit ourselves without really knowing, society has controlled us and made us unaware of all of the potential each and everyone of us holds. Last night as I was going to bed I had a thought to myself, this whole time while on this trip I have been so connected to my friends at school. They can all text me, call me, snapchat me, Instagram, Facebook... so on and so forth. So I sat there wondering what am I doing? I love hearing about what my friends are up to; all their studying they have to get done, or that sick party they were just at. I even love seeing all the selfies my parents took while they were away in Italy. So don't me wrong I want to hear about you guys but it seems to make this trip less exciting. That I never actually left. The point of being away from someone and reconnecting is you start to appreciate the time you have together, you hold it that much closer to your heart. So if I don't answer your calls or texts or I don't respond to that cute snapchat selfie you just sent me I am sorry. I am out here trying to live my best self and see as much as I can around me. It is a hard thing to balance, not wanting to miss out on what your friends are doing. Although the way I see it; if you spend all your time listening to what your friends have experienced, you miss all that is before you, all that you could have been experiencing. I think we all face these challenges in our lives one time or another. That yes you missing a semester of college or taking that job over the summer, may cause you to miss some moments with your friends. But you will be getting the experience, you will be the one with more ahead of you, the one taking an opportunity and not looking back. So I say go for it. Maybe I am naive, that I don't understand college life because I have never been but I think we all put an image on college that makes no sense. College is 4 years of your life... That is such a tiny fraction of all the years you live. I honestly believe the whole idea of college will never make sense to me... All 17/18 year olds are spending hours on hours to prove to a college why they should be picked. But how many hours do colleges spend to prove to kids they are the college for them? Surely not enough I'd say. I think this process is all backwards. That colleges look for the kids who are "fit for their campus." Why does every place have make people fit into a checklist. It’s funny because I suppose college is a grey area for a moment, at least when you are applying and not sure if you will be accepted or not. Or kids who are undecided majors, not sure what they want to do with their lives. We force those unbalanced and unsure thoughts away, forcing kids to believe they must pick a major and stick with it for good. Writing about this stuff I can’t help but laugh, I see a lot of problems and challenges that don't make sense to me. I don’t mean to write about these things as if I know the answers to everything. I don't, and I definitely don't have a key in my back pocket that will turn this world into something perfect. A world with no hunger, poverty, discrimination and so much more I wish I could fix. I only write what I see, what I believe. My intentions are not to stereotype but to express my feelings. I am just one person, one kid from Fairfield Connecticut, so what do I know? Honestly not a lot, and I am okay with that. But I want to learn more and that's all that matters to me. I am willing to put in the time and effort to learn more. One step at a time, some steps are planned out while some are eyes closed and hope for the best. There are no absolutes in life, I am learning that maybe the hard way or maybe just the normal way like everyone else. I apologize for not having posted in a while. I have been in Colorado and now Utah. There is honestly a lot to catch you up on. We have done a lot, traveled a lot of miles, seen a lot of this country. That Utah might be my new favorite place we have seen so far. I must say, I dislike picking favorites. Simply because with every new adventure, it seems like the best. I guess that’s a good problem to have, that I am constantly seeing new places and having to choose from... The city of Chicago, corn fields in Minnesota, Badlands in South Dakota, snow in Colorado and so much more. Our new favorite addition is the Canyonlands in Utah. I know haha I laughed at the name at first as well. And get this, we camped at Hamburger Rock the second night there. Canyonlands sounds a lot like Candyland, but trust me everything’s not made out of candy. Learned that one the hard way...
Honestly the best part of Utah has been the sun. It’s been great to finally have a short sleeve on. I am used to being bundled up in 5 layers and not being able to see my skin for 3 days straight because of that. One thing about living in a van you have to get used to is either not being able to change or just changing wherever you are. After awhile you feel kinda gross wearing the same outfit for 3 days. I hope you hearing about me not changing and showering everyday changes your views on me¿ Well I guess I wouldn’t care that much if it did anyway. That yes living in a van is hard and gross and a struggle and a half when you are a clean freak and your fellow traveler isn’t. But it’s a learning experience. It’s an adventure. My sister and I test each other’s limits. We are sister, we “are bound to fight” and I can’t lie we aren't perfect saints or that we never get on each other’s nerves. I push her buttons, and she pushes mine. But at the end of the day when you live in a van you just have to figure it out. Maybe with life in general... You just have to figure it out. Here is a quick update on what we have been up today. Colorado was cold and not what we hoped for. It’s kinda frustrating to be honest. We traveled halfway across the country to see someone but our plans just fell through. That we expected so much to come out of this visit, maybe too much I guess. We got over it pretty quickly but we’re still frustrated the whole time there. Part of it was due to the snow. It was way too cold so we headed out of there as fast at possible. We did enjoy a lot of Colorado though, we made fires almost every night we were there. I brought out the axe and cut down a couple trees. I'd like to think my father and grandfather would be very proud of me. Fun fact for you folks: I got an axe for Christmas one year from my grandfather... Best Christmas gift I'd say!! Anyway enough about axes and that nonsense, onto where we are now. Like I said before we found ourselves at the beautiful Canyonlands National Park Thursday afternoon. We have been pretty naive when it comes to camping, we have 0 plans of where we are spending the night... Just roll up and hope the campsites not full. 9/10 times the campsite is full, it's always f#cking full... A little trick up our sleeves is that handicap spots are reserved until 8. So after 8 anyone can have them. We just post up in them, assuming no handicap persons will show up. Our first day we decided to go on a very long hike, we got lost 2 miles in but thankfully 2 women enjoying their hike saved us without even knowing. So back on the path we spent the rest of the day laughing and enjoying ourselves. All this fun came to an end the second my army hat fell off my backpack. I realized this tragic event happened hours later back at camp. To be honest, I was not a happy camper. I checked with lost and found the next morning. And get this!!! No they didn’t have it... sorry to get your hopes up, it’s even worse. They wouldn’t file a missing/lost report on it because it’s under the price of 75 dollars. I was livid. Honestly I think my blood was boiling at this point. This sweet looking old lady had an attitude I was not expecting. I honestly took offense, her assuming my hat wasn’t worth 75 bucks. I mean yeah I got it for $3 at a Salvation Army in Maine but she didn’t know that. Anyway sorry for my rant, I could honestly go on for a lot longer. I miss my hat, I wore it everyday since I can remember. Feel free to send some support my way, I plan to buy several more hats. Although they will never be the same. Maybe just maybe they can help fill the gaping hole in my broken heart Another thing I plan to do is buy a patch from every state. I was on the hunt for the perfect jacket and I’m Colorado I found it!! It was a 6 dollar hidden gem. She’s a tan Carhartt and I have been in love since the second I laid my eyes on her. If you guys don’t care about my hat or new jacket, I apologize but I guess I am very passionate about certain clothes items in my life¿ Tonight marks our 3 week anniversary of starting this trip. We made some soup, had some cheese and crackers and enjoyed it by a river bend in Utah. We of course found ourselves in the same predicament as before. Full campsites. We are parked in front of a sign stating “Day access only. No camping.” Hopefully no one bothers us, if they do I’m sure my moms talents with these kinds of situations will kick in. So thanks mom:) Anyway I’m going to go now and enjoy this beautiful moment with my sister. Hope all is well. I miss my dogs, cats and I guess the humans that are in my family as well. Note to my editor... I hope I didn't make too many mistakes in this one buddy. I got tired half way through of rereading it, plus we are trying to get on the road to Seattle. Love ya bud thank you for your minimal editing. I know, isn't that title just so funny!!! I thought so as well. I am sitting in this cafe called Mutiny Information Cafe, Kem and I thought that would be a great cult name. It's Day 3 in ColoRADo so I think I will back trek and tell you about what we have been up to!
As you guys know the first night here we slept in a Walmart parking lot, my bud of course sent me this lovely video that I will never forget. Lets just say I never want to sleep in a Walmart parking lot again. I will leave out the details of the video I was so told to watch. Trust me, you don't want to hear about it. So as we got to Colorado we were faced with the big city just like in Chicago, at this point I am used to cows and corn fields for miles not much else. So all of a sudden driving on a 5 lane highway with cars all around us, it was a bit of a shocker. We found our way to a cute part of the city and hopped out to take a walk. We found ourselves a nice Mexican restaurant to enjoy a real meal for once. We of course had to stop at Trader Joes, it might be our last one for awhile so we had to make it last. Kember said to me as we left... "When I grow up I want to work at Trader Joes." Which may sound weird but the one we went to seemed like so much fun! They were playing great music (hence we were there at like 9:20 pm and they close at 10 pm) so I think around 9 they turn on the club music and it turns into a secret party hang out. Something I love that we have been doing since we started this trip that every person we see on the side of the road, holding a homeless or hungry sign as we are driving by. I jump out of the car, praying to god that light doesn't turn green so I can give them an apple or a banana. I really hope we continue to do that. Something about seeing the smile on their face and their appreciation is amazing. We were on the way to the botanical gardens when we saw a man on the side of the road. I ran out and handed him an apple and he was just so thankful. I feel like I got more joy out of the act than he did to be honest. The light of course turned green as I ran back to the car so that was an adventure, trying to jump in a moving car and slide the back door shut. I figured it out don't worry. In the botanical gardens Kember and I had several laughs. Kember said that I just keep getting funnier and funnier so I definitely keep her amused. I know you guys were worried about that, what if I run out of jokes!?! Trust me it will never happen! For example in this lovely garden they had a walk way called "Birds & Bees walk" I of course commented on this. Like who runs this place... why couldn't they just call it Bees & and Birds walk" for god sake... I don't know I could retell all of the jokes but it seems more special to keep them between my sister and I. That her and I will be he only ones in the world who shared those laughs together. I am currently in a state that my brother would love and I so wish he was here with us right now. Dane if you are reading this... Honestly have no idea if you do, if not I am very offended. Anyway, we are thinking about you no doubt about that. We will definitely have to be back here one day and do some good ol' sibling bonding together;) love ya kid. Please continue to send videos of the dogs bugging you all the time!! There is so much I could write about right now, like my night last night, we met up with the family we met in Yellowstone. It was fun to see the again, they even treated us to dinner. The rest of the night I think it is better of if I keep that between my sister and I... Lets just say I was a little bugged out. I could talk about how I just wrote a bunch of post cards to my friends and I finally bought envelopes. So hopefully when I asked for my friends college addresses they didn't suspect a thing!!! Anyway I am off to go explore Colorado before it starts to snow! So far on this trip I have had to be the car mechanic which has been a lot of fun. I fixed the battery situation yesterday which was an easy fix, all it took was this hidden fuse that was almost impossible to see! Not challenging at all:/ Only went a week without power... I get to add oil and coolant to the car all the time, I even get to wash her at every gas station. I know if Kember sees this she will be upset that I make it sound like she doesn't do anything. Which is not the case at all, I enjoy doing all this stuff. She always offers to help no doubt in that but I enjoy the challenge and I am more than happy to do the hard work or the "mans job" as some horrible people could put it. I constantly see "Men at work" signs which I just hate... honestly it gets my blood boiling. I'll write another blog about all the wonderful signs I have seen since I started this trip. So for now I am off to explore this beautiful state:) Hope all is well in your world. Have a wonderful day! It feels like so long since I have written, these days I live now seem to be so long. We pack so much into a 24 hour day. It's funny because so many people come up with excuses of why they didn't or can't so something, that they were "busy." For some reason I always saw through this. That 24 hours is a very long time. That no one person could possibly be busy all day. Trust me, I am no saint, I used this excuse all the time in high school to get out of doing homework. If we all spent half the time we did on our phones or scrolling through pointless Instagram videos, on putting ourselves to good use. We would all be very productive people, sadly that isn't the case, and most likely never will be. We will all continue to use the excuse, "I am busy," not only lying to the people around you but lying to yourself.
I am not sure why I felt the need to share that, but it has always been in the back of my head. So yea, I have seen a lot since the last blog I posted, I spent 2 days in Yellowstone, which were absolutely incredible. Kember and I have been having so much fun. It has been great to share all these laughs and beautiful places with her. I want to write all about what I did while I was in Yellowstone but it seems like so long ago to be honest. We have already moved on, hiking through the Grand Tetons, camping on a lake by ourselves in the middle of nowhere Wyoming and now Denver. Although I will spend this time to jog my memory and try my best to share with you guys the most juicy details. The family that took us in our first night in the park invited us to breakfast the next morning. It was nice to have some real food in our stomachs (we usually skip breakfast while on the road). We got to know them all very well, they are a family of 5 just like mine, they definitely reminded me of my family so it was nice to have that moment. Even though we were still pretty much all strangers. Anyway a full stomach later and a family Christmas card photo we got to be apart of... I am pretty sure they tell everyone that, just so they can feel special. But it worked! I felt very honored! We went our separate ways. It was rainy and cold our second day in the park so we spent the day just hanging out and sneaking from fancy lodge to fancy lodge. We even snuck into a hotel to take showers. Honestly, greatest moment so far. After that we saw a little bit more the park had to offer us and headed to camp. We made chili for dinner and were crying our eyes out for the next hour due to the onion I cut. Such a great time, no pain caused at all... Then next morning we were faced with a few inches of snow and cold feet. I experience that a lot on this trip, but I had no idea what I was in for the following night. As we headed out of Yellowstone we said our final goodbyes to all the beauty it shared with us and we were off to the Grand Tetons. I have been scared a total of 2 times in my life... 1. When my dad went missing in Norway this summer, and 2. When we went for a hike in the Tetons. I have been quite an optimist so far on this trip, that we are totally fine, nothing bad will happen. But golly have I never been so scared to be attacked by a bear. Surely enough, were faced with a bear half climbing a tree to get berries... yes it was adorable but I was not ready to be attacked by a bear so we hurried out of there. Maybe next time I will be less of an optimist and get some bear spray, like it was oh so highly recommended. We found ourselves a nice campsite off a very long dirt and bumpy road in Wyoming as we headed towards Denver. I brought out the axe to chop some wood for a campfire. I knew it was going to be a cold night but I had no idea how cold it was about to get. The second I finished chopping wood I was sweating so I began to think, I would have the best nights sleep of my life because I was so tired. Boy was I wrong, 10 minutes later with the sun totally set behind the mountains we huddled around the fire for warmth. We managed to make our way back the the ice box of a van and attempt to sleep. As the sun came up we were faced with every liquid in our van was frozen including the blood in my feet. I had lost feeling somewhere around 3 am yet I figured I would be fine. Mind you I had 2 pair of heavy socks on... But no, I even thought about pouring hot water onto them hoping to get a little feeling back. Kember was nice enough to help a sister out. Eventually I could walk again and we were off heading towards Colorado. Where I lay parked in a Walmart parking lot for the second time on this trip. It's quite funny that it has been exactly 2 weeks wince we started this trip. Night 1 and night 14 have both been in Walmart parking lots... I really hope we don't keep that up. So far in Denver I have seen 5 Teslas. That lovely information is for my Father... In Norway one year we counted how many Teslas we saw and have been ever since. Another thing my sister and I have seemed to be doing even back in fairfield, whenever my sister saw a pickup truck she would say "Dad?" as it drove by. I soon got her to only say it to trucks that actually look like my dads because before she would say it to everyone that went by. That got harder as time went on, when every car we saw was a truck. So dad we are always thinking about you when a maroon truck drives on by, can't wait for the day when it actually is you in that truck... Yesterday (not yesterday anymore... 10.4) we spent the whole day in Yellowstone National Park, it has been the first park we got to where it was still daylight so we had to pay for this one. A solid 35 bucks later we are off to explore. About 5 miles into the North entrance we are faced with a very Disney World feel. Hundreds of cars and people walking around. It was a beautiful day so more welcoming then the next few days to come. Those will be full of rain and snow. So back to Disney World, it was something we were not expecting, huge lodges and dinning halls all over the place, definitely did not feel like these people were roughing it the good old camping way. Seemed more like a family vacation to a 5 star resort. As we drive through the mountains we kept expecting someone to jump out of the trees and start sining, then it really would be Disney...
With a few photos of the wild elk and honks to fellow Westfalia owners we parked and headed up to see the Mammoth hot springs. It was a pretty crazy sight to see, all the different microorganisms that live in the water that cause it to change colors. I have never been one to take photos, I don’t really understand why people do. Since I have left Fairfield all I have seen at every park or pretty view, hundreds of people with their digital cameras taking dozens of photos. Each person that comes here takes the same exact photos, then when they go home, they sit on their camera or if they really have enough motivation they will import them to their computer. That way they can sit there and continue to look like all the other photos everyone else took. So while Kember took photos of the hot springs, plants, rocks and several trees, I just stood leaning against the railing with my back to the hot springs. I know, while everyone faced one direction, I simply turned my back to it. I wanted to look around and take everything in. All the beauty that goes unnoticed. I usually take 1-2 photos of the things around me just to do it, I know I most likely will never post them or really show them to anyone, but in this day in age, it seems like the right thing to do. I respect Kembers photos 100%, that she uses film so no one person will ever have the same photo as her. It is all up to her to change the aperture or change how she develops the film. Kember and I decided to go for I hike because me being the smartest sister, scheduled the wrong date for our campsite. Luckily while on this hike we met a family that came up to us because they saw us get out of Vandy. They had a fellow Wesfalia named Walter. We got lots of trips and tricks from them. We went our separate ways at the end of the hike, so Kember and I decided to keep hiking. Don’t worry, details about this family that basically took us in as their own will be coming soon. I feel like some of you out there would like to hear about this hike we took to see a breathtaking waterfall in a canyon. The funny think is that the hike was all down hill first, we had to get down into the canyon and the level of this waterfall. It was an easy way down but a b*tch on the way back. The climb back up seemed way less rewarding, that at the end of this big climb we get to jump in our smelly van. It was a pretty amazing hike down in this canyon, all the colorful stone, trees growing in crazy directions, several adorable chipmunks and squirrels (I hate chipmunks but Kember thinks they are cute so I put this in) and lastly the sun was setting which made it even more beautiful. My phone was dead so I couldn’t take any photos but I did not really care. Like I said before I don't really like to, just feel obligated, so I would have only taken one anyway. All that matters to me is that I know I got to see this beautiful place in nature. That I don’t need confirmation from anyone else out there in the world. The main goal of this trip is for myself, that I don’t need anyone else out there to support me. I support my own decisions, that going to college was not where I wanted to be. That it is not the best place for me to learn and grow, at least not yet. Of course having my parents support in everything I do and even friends and teachers seeing what I am doing and want to live through my writing, makes this dream of mine easier. That I don’t have to prove myself to anyone, but realistically I already knew that. I am not doing this to prove to the world college does not have to be the answer, if that becomes a side effect at the end of this than I would be proud. I am just a kid in a big world that just wants to find their path. So here is to me trying... Last night we parked on the side of a riverbank in Missoula Montana, a friend of Kembers we met up with at this very cool brewery, recommended the spot. I’ll go back a few hours to our first few experiences of Montana. We sat on the back patio of this bar and we were face to face with the train tracks that basically split the city in half. It was a pretty crazy sight to see, being in a big city with a mountain landscape in the background. I soon found out after sitting there that the whole city of Missoula was under water millions of years ago. (I don’t like that I used city 3 times in the last 3 sentences but I am too tired to change that, maybe I will send this to my editor or just publish it and she can comment on my mistakes later). Anyway it has been great to meet up friends along the way to learn about the history of where we are as well as the top places to check out.
We woke up early and we off to find a ghost town, basically just an abandoned town. It was definitely a sight to see, yet very creepy in its own way. Everything has upheld nicely yet there were definitely some weird vibes. I guess I don’t have much to say about it, just that it was pretty cool. It wasn’t really what we expected, we have been on the hunt for ghost towns that are truly abandoned but this one seemed like they just turned it into a way to make money. It kinda felt like that field trip you take when you are in elementary school to Sturbridge village. Minus the people dressed up. The real interesting part was our 10 mile trek up a dirt road, Montana sure does love their dirt roads. We were very low on gas at this point which is never fun. Driving around in the middle of nowhere with no service (mom feel free to not worry). Another thing Montana seems to love is shooting street signs… I have honestly lost count of the number of bullet holes I have seen since I entered this state. So far I have seen, no passing zones, road narrows, no trespassing and stop signs all shot up. They seem to have no specific sign they enjoy shooting but I would love to find out which ones are their favorites. What sign is the most satisfying to bullet holes in? I never fail to sing “bullet holes, bullet holes” every time I see them though, my sister doesn’t seem amused with my singing skills. Or that I just made a song with 2 words, truly a song that never needed to be created. It should be on iTunes shortly… the Christmas album is also coming out this year, it’s a great stocking stuffer. I apologize for going on this long tangent of words that just never had to be written. As much as I love sharing about what we have been up to or my weird songs I create, as I drove through Montana heading to Yellowstone national park I thought about what I wanted to write in my next post. So many people have been commenting on my blog saying they love to read it or that they love my writing. Which I do love to hear, it is nice to know my friends and family are supporting me throughout my journey. It’s funny because growing up I hated to read and write but somewhere along the way I fell in love with it. I mean I know the exact year, it was 7th grade. I am talking about this because my grandparents never fail to mention that I “didn’t know how to read growing up” or that they “worried about me” but look how far I've come. I graduated high school and have read hundreds of books. Stuff like that makes me laugh, because of course I knew how to read… I just didn’t want to. I mean for god sakes what kid likes to read? Over the years I can imagine it has gotten 10x worse, now that every kid has an iPhone by the age 5. Anyway I am very glad I know how to read let's put it that way. I hope my future kids know how to as well. Otherwise how could I show them this amazing blog I created when I was traveling the states? So here I am writing another blog not really sure what else to put in it. I miss a lot of my friends no doubt about that but this trip has been so exciting. Another side note, if anyone knows a good dentist anywhere around Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Wyoming… okay honestly anywhere. I need my wisdom teeth out pretty badly. Which I never wanted to happen, I don’t want to lose all my wisdom and be average like everyone else. Yesterday I got to listen to country music for a solid hour or so, Kember sat in the back with her headphones in listening to her audiobook. At the beginning of this trip I told her driver gets to pick music. I have been driving most of the time these past few days so I am happy I said that a week ago.
It’s funny how music can make you think of certain moments in your life or even make you think of a specific person… As I sat driving through Montana in my own head and singing to this country music, I thought of a lot of people. I of course thought of my best bud Justin, my only friend who enjoys country as much as I do. That every warm day we would have windows down and the country music blasting. Or my friend that I got her to listen to one country song, now that’s the only one she knows, that and Chicken Fried. I know what you guys are thinking right now… Chicken Fried, what a great name for a song, I don’t blame you if you go and search it up and spend the rest of the day playing it on repeat. Even the rest of your lives, no judge here. I also thought of my senior year gender perspective class where we spent several days listening to music and how many stereotypes there are in songs these days. Country music came up a lot I must confess. Mrs. Seltenreich, you didn’t ruin country music for me don’t worry I don't think anyone could. Not even my siblings who mock it every time I turn in on, that it’s only about trucks, girls, beer and throw in a bit of god every now and then. Which I must say a lot of that is true but something about sitting through South Dakota, Wyoming and now Montana my urge to blast the country music was steadily increasing. Like I said before I have a lot of songs that bring me back to a specific moment in my life. There is this one song that reminds me of my friend every time I hear it because she dragged me to a college party. Side note: I kinda hate going to parties. And this song that came on was one of the 3 songs she got me to "dance" to. Another side note: I don’t like dancing. But yeah it’s such a small moment in my life that my mind could have easily let go the second it happened but for some reason it stuck. I could sit here and list a bunch of these songs and moments I have but I doubt you really care if they aren't related to you… This is what I was thinking about while I drove through the mountains of Montana. When I think about what to write, I usually talk out loud to myself. I know picture this: a 17 year old girl in a van following the road, not really having a plan of where to stop, just checking the gas gage every now and then. Sounds pretty cool right, but throw in that she talks to herself, Game Changer!!! I don’t know why I am about to write this but while my sister and I were driving through Wyoming the other day I asked her… “I wonder what my life would have been like if I cared what people thought of me.” We both laughed at this because it’s kinda true in a sense but also not at all. I care what I look like in a sense of wearing, colorful socks, jeans, a t-shirt, vans, a vest and most likely my army hat. That’s my style, riveting isn’t it. My sister simply said that you do care but not about fitting in initially, that you never cared about wearing skirts and lipstick. This made me laugh of course, and brought me back to a moment I had with my friend down in Maryland. I asked her if she would join a sorority, I continued by saying, "I think you can fit into that lifestyle way more than I could." Well at least something along those lines, so don’t quote me on that, even though I literally just quoted myself. We continued on joking with the idea of me being in a sorority and that if i went to a party where you had to “dress up” I would (Insert “my style” from above) and I would fully walk into that party thinking I was 100% dressed up while everyone wore fancy dresses and other clothing items I don’t understand. For instants I go to Goodwill or Savers all the time to find clothes, I would say 70% of my closet is items from a second hand store, and about 100% of the items I wear from that closet are from those said stores. I don’t know when or how that started, I guess from my siblings. We don’t shop at these stores because we have to but simply because it is fun and you can find all those jackets, t-shirts, shoes or random miscellaneous items you didn’t know you needed, all for a great price!!! Yea I don’t really have that much for you guys today I think I will write another one about what we have been up to in Montana and where we are headed next but for some reason I felt the need to talk about music and my shopping habits. We left the beautiful badlands early yesterday morning and headed to Wyoming! The roads were flat and there was nothing for miles. Thanks to the dirt roads in South Dakota's badlands, Vandy needed a good washing. I give her a good scrub at every gas station just to keep her satisfied. We decided to see this national monument called Devils Tower, which is this mountain that goes straight vertically into the air and is flat on top. A very questionable structure on how the land around it is quite flat. On the way to this monument we stopped at a gas station so Kember could buy some tea and get me some erectile dysfunction (only two of my friends will get that joke). But I must admit as I told my sister I was going to put this in the blog, I giggled to myself for 10 minutes while driving though the miles of nothingness of Wyoming. I'd say a highlight to the day...
Anyway back to the story, so while I was parked out front of this gas station another Volkswagen Westfalia pulls up next to us. I reach over to roll down the window and talk to the man who got out. I learned he is traveling with his wife and their good boy golden retriever Blue. They live in California but are heading east to see family, the exact opposite route we are taking. I got out of the car when they came back out of the gas station and we talked all about our trip so far: how long we are going for, where we have been or where we are going, we even opened up the van doors and shared with each other what the insides looked like. She (I didn't get their names so you guys are stuck with he or she, but of course got the dogs name because that's the most important...) so she liked our spice rack, which is just these metal tins that have magnets on the back and we can stick them all over the van. Anyway I doubt you guys really care about our conversations with fellow van lifers. So after that we were off to discover more of Wyoming. At about 309 miles into driving my right knee started to hurt so I do what anyone would do in this situation... I drove a solid 48 miles with my left foot. I do this quite often I must admit, it's my first time doing it so far on this trip but all my long treks to Maryland I always find myself driving with my left foot here and there, but for never this long. I kinda got into a challenge with myself, how long I could do it without my sister noticing. I even put my right foot up on the center console but no comment. When we stopped for gas I confessed what I had done and my sister just laughed it off. Anyway as we continued through Wyoming there was just grass and cows the whole way long, if we got luck we could see sheep, horses or even a person every 30 miles. Truly an exciting time!! Although out of nowhere I found myself going 20 miles an hour up a huge mountain. Vandy doesn't like hills too much so she keeps a steady pace of 20-30 miles up one. But this was no ordinary hill... we were climbing a mountain. At the top of it we found ourselves driving through clouds and snow all over the ground. At that moment, I knew we were in for a cold cold night. At the peak of the mountain we saw a sign showing those trucks that are going downhill and directly under it we saw 13 miles. So we knew the next 13 miles were full of praying Vandy's breaks would hold up... Every few sharp turns and steep downhills we saw these truck runways that where there incase an 18-wheeler or car was going too fast down the hill and wouldn't make the turn. Not a fun sight to see when it's 7:30 at night and the sun has already set. We finally made it to our campsite 460 miles later and we were the only ones there! I thought we would be lucky enough to actually have some human interaction but I was wrong. Oh so very wrong… So we found ourselves making a grilled cheese and avocado dinner, reading and writing then heading off to bed. I apologize for not posting yesterday, I know how 100% of all of you readers were just so heart broken that you couldn’t get your daily dose of a 17 year old driving around the states and her mediocre writing skills. I hope this lovely post can make it up to all you lovely folks out there:) Have a wonderful day!! I know I will! So far on this trip we have been pretty frugal with where we camp, I guess always looking for a good bargain runs in the family. We got into the Badlands national park pretty late so there was no one at the little station. We continued on driving keeping the change in our pockets for another night. When we rolled into the campsite we were faced with the same issue, no one was there. Truly a shame isn’t, when you have to pay to get in somewhere but it always seems people are conveniently absent when you go. It’s such a struggle not having to pay...
As we settled into our home for a night at the cedar pass campsite we cooked up some dinner of lentils, rice and some garbanzo beans. Such an appetizing meal at first glance, not sure why we had any leftovers to be honest with you. We planned to wake up early to catch the sunrise as we heard it was beautiful here. Sadly we woke to a cloudy day and no sun to be seen. We packed up our stuff, did the dishes from the night before that we were too lazy to do, filled our water jugs and hit the road to travel through the beautiful badlands. Kember drove first but we made it less than a mile out of the campsite before we had to stop for her to get all of her film cameras ready for action. I took this time to check the coolant and add oil to Vandy. I even had several minutes to spare thanks to Kember's mass of camera equipment, so I walked around a bit, I even “climbed” a small hill. The badlands are pretty remarkable it's all this clay like material, the rain causes the mountains and hills to erode. Something about that stuck in my head all throughout the day, that the badlands I am seeing right now are different from the ones people saw last year or even a week ago. Even if it’s the smallest difference I feel like it adds a personal meaning. We stopped several more times to take in all the beauty, each direction you looked seemed pretty and more breathtaking then the last. We finally made it a whopping 6 miles to a small lot that had hiking trails off of it, and this weird wooden platform you could walk on that just took you around in a circle. We met some people who commented on Vandy and said they saw us the day before driving and hoped to see us again in the badlands. I like to think we made their dreams come true. As they got to their car the man pulled out a jar of pickles… This then made us immediately think we also needed pickles to add to our collection of miss match food that stocks our fridge. Right now it's full of, pickles of course, cookie dough, kombucha, grape jelly, peach salsa, Kember pudding jar and our lovely leftovers. We hiked around a bit and as we headed back to the van we call our home I saw these 3 little old ladies that seemed to be in quite a debacle. They left their car on the side of the road to go for a hike but as it turned out the path they took didn’t loop back to where they started. They were warned about this issue but decided to take the risk. One lady came up to me explaining this issue, even though I guess I was eavesdropping unknowingly. So she hopped in the van and we were off to find her car. A few minutes pass and we are all caught up on each others back stories of why we are here and where we are headed, there was still one problem, no sign of the car. So we swung back around and dropped her back off with her friends Lynda and Kate. I only know their names because she yelled them as I opened the door for her to hop out. For the rest of the day every parked car I saw I wondered if it was the lovely trio of ladies we met up with earlier. I hope they found their car by now, it’s late and cold, but most importantly they had a dinner reservation at 5!! Another exciting moment today, while we were at the grocery store Kember saw a sign saying “German Shepherd Puppies For Sale.” She was hooked and I mean we called the owner and were about to drive an hour to her house. I knew this would be a horrible idea, a cute and very fun one, but horrible. We called our lovely parents to tell them the fantastic news!! They were going to have a new grandpup, they immediately shot down the idea. Kember spent the rest of the day sulking at this idea. We even thought of some adorable names for this new little guy that could have joined our adventures, I of course suggested Dakota because we are in South Dakota, I don’t think I have to mention the other names we tossed around because that ones the best. Feel free to let me know in the comments if you think we should add a dog to this trip. I don’t think my sister will let this one go for awhile, she asked me why I hated dogs or she never failed to mention that we could have been at the pet store right now picking out cute toys and collars for this new addition. The one that got me the most was that I could be cuddling this little fluff ball. She almost had me I have to admit but I stuck my ground at being the more mature sister. The rest of the day was full of more amazing views as we headed to a new campsite in the badlands. There are hundreds of cows, bison or buffalo (not sure if there's a difference) and prairie dogs which I have to admit have the cutest little butts. Kember even jumped out of the car and to what I believe got way too close to a buffalo/ bison (still don’t know) to take a picture. I have had a lot of fun on this trip so far, I am not only seeing places I have never even seen before but I am getting to meet a lot of great people along the way. So many people see our little old Vandy driving by and toot their horns waving, some even come over to ask us about it. Most importantly to me I am getting to spend this time with my sister. We are getting to experience all this beauty the world has to show us together, I honestly wouldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime. |
AuthorGreta Ann Vanderblue. Archives
January 2023
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