State Lines

We came into Arizona and went to the Four Corners. And we had no idea we had to pay to go to the Four Corners!!!! I was pretty upset about that. And it was pretty janky, not the actual spot where the corner met but everything else. I wasn't impressed.

So that started my disliking for Arizona right away. But there was one pretty cool part of Arizona, The Petrified National Forest. They had huge petrified trees all OVER the place! The tress had gypsum, quartz, amathus, and others. Some were great big logs and some you could see coming through the ground. Give them a couple more good rains and a new log will appear from the sand.

And theres the Grand Canyon... we it is very pretty but after being there for an hour or more I was pretty done. It was WAY to touristy for us. And they don't allow dogs on the trail which is one of the big reasons we wanted to got to Grand Canyon.  We wanted to experience it not just see it. So that was a disappointment. All in all i would say Arizona was really trying to get as much money from people as possible.

Going to the Hoover Dam was kinda on the same field as Grand Canyon. It took beautiful pictures but i really thought it was gonna be bigger. And we had to park SUPER far away which wasnt bad if we didnt have Carbon in the car on the first hot day in like a month and his poor winter coat hand come off yet( and i just dont like leaving my baby in the car). So we were in and out of there pretty quick. We also drove through Las Vegas. And when i say drove through i really mean drove through. We went down Las Vegas Blvd and saw all the funny people and all the cool buildings. Me and Jon couldnt find parking and didnt really wanna walk Carbon through all those crazy people. So well be going back some other day to really check it out.

Now to Utah... No, we havent met any Mormons. Yes, it is very beautiful country. We are actually having a lot of fun driving and hanging out here. We went to Lake Powell and it was so much fun just getting to chill and Carbon loved it. I dont know if there are to many National Parks or Monuments here but i think it'll be just as fun hanging out in the forest.

Food for Thought: Is it best to do what you want to do or do what you feel you must?

Burnt faces, burnt ground, BEAUTIFUL mountains

 

 

There has been so many things that have happened this first week back on the road. We went to Carlsbad Caverns and saw and amazing cave that was at least 4 miles long! And it was pretty freakin sweet. Also the starter and battery went out the same day ( I'm pretty sure at the same time too) as we stopped(turned off the car) to take our picture at the Carlsbad Caverns sign which probably took a whooping 2 mins and got back to the car it was done working. Jonathan and I started taring into it and about 4 hours later a very nice man( who knew a thing or 2 about cars also) and his family pulled over to help us and made sure we made it to the O'reillys.

 

The next day we made our way to Roswell and found ourselves at the best UFO museum. When you read all the stories you feel like you were there or some how apart of the thing.

After that we stumbled upon Lincoln, NM which holds so much history on Billy the Kid. You'd be amazed! You get to walk through old building that were regular places for him and his crew to go through. It was a really good find. And while we were driving through Lincoln there was a family of deer ( about 10 deer) that just trotted across the road. How can you not love that ?!?! :)

The day after that as we were traveling to our next spot we found some sign saying 'that there were ruins ahead'. So of course we stop by! It was dog friendly and that was a plus. Lots of beautiful ancient history which really gets me and Jonathan happy. As we started to leave we found that there were 2 more Ruins in the areas, we went to check them out and had a wonderful time. The last one we went to had the best Forrest Ranger and you could tell she loved her job. She and all our questions and after that we all had a great conversation about what we do for a living, mountains, land, goals, ect ... most thing you dont talk about with someone you just met but we were having sucha great time it didnt matter.

Til next time.

Thought of the day: Mountains are big, New Mexico is windy.

Bringing me back to Texas

There's two things that keeps us coming back to Texas, our Grandparents. They mean so much to us and the moved to this crappy little state about 5 years ago and things just havent been the same. We wanted to see them one more time before we got started traveling again so we came down for the week.  We've been having a bunch of playing marbles just about every night and they ALWAYS wanna feed us. Which we cant complan.

But now its time for us to leave and start heading towards New Mexico :D. Words cannot explain how excited and happy we are to be traveling again I think there's something in our blood that makes us want to travel or maybe it's all the beauty this country has to offer either way I'm ok with it.


" There are far better things ahead then any we leave behind."   - C.S. Lewis

almost time.......yippy

      Oky doky. So we got the date picked. I'm not going to tell you cause it will change if i do. so it will be around the second weekend of march. We got the truck as good as i feel it needs to be and or gear down to a minimum. we were going to bring climbing gear and snowboards and that sort of stuff but we have decided theres just not enough room in the truck. so less cloths, less tools(that's a tough one for me), more water.

 

 

 

 

      I  did a few things to the truck when we got back. but that was all maintenance. with that out of the way i moved on to building a bumper and a swinging bike rack. The bumper is not the coolest thing in the world but is way stronger than the original. The bike rack on the other hand i quite like. This will allow us to use the tail gate without taking the bikes down. this was extremely annoying the first go round. Plus it has a spot for extra gas and a large ammo can that will carry the dog food instead of it getting thrown around all the time. So we killed 3 birds with one stone. I made it from a tire rack i picked up in york Pennsylvania for $20 and the old bike rack we were using.

 









      On a different note i made a green house. we planted radishes, carrots and garlic (its from a clove i got at walmart and its actually growing hehe). stupid of us(me) to do because we will be gone long before anything is ready but it was fun anyway.  and i made a simple rain catch, another bow, a knife,  learned to skin a possum and make raw hide, started making arrows, i think thats all i made.                                              

 

 for everyone that thinks I'm the weird one. look what Jamie did. Not an accident







      that's all for now folks.

       ok so thought for today.
            If you were in the north pole and wanted to which way you were going how could you do it?  A compass wouldn't really work because if you were headed west you may actually be headed south depending on where you were since magnetic north isn't at the north pole. I guess you could use the stars as long as you have a clock. That's whats on my mind.....

Got Me A Good One

I have to start by saying I'm so proud of Jonathan. He's been bustin' his chops to get us ready to get back on the road. He's been workin' lots of hours at work and then he comes home and either works on fixin up his mom's house or workin on and making parts for the truck.

He really goes above and beyond. I know this is all mooshy- gooshy but he really makes me smile and it makes me happy to see that even when we get set-back's he always finds away to get through it (and he's not to bad lookin too). I feel he really is the only reason I'm getting to live my dream. I love him quite a bit and i cant wait for us to head out.... again. ;)

Oh and we'll be putting up Jonathan's changes to the truck soon.



'Never give up on a dream just because the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass away.'

             - Earl Nightingale

time flies when you,re havin fun.....

       We are working making money and trying to get out of here. I dont like work but that seems to be a normal feeling. I get though the day by reminding myself of why I am at work at all. In this case its to go on travel. but because im constatly thinking about the places i want to go and not where i am. This causes alot of day dreaming and when i day dream time vertualy stops. I like my dreams and have alot of fun in my head. The problem is the closer we get to leaving the more i think about it and the longer the days feel. Anyway time goes by and i get a paycheck and we get closer to our goal.

      I want to let everyone know what the truck is up to. we have been working on it alot sence we got back. So we changed the radiator, water pump, timing belt, oil pan gasket, fuel injectors, cv boots, break booster, and other little stuff i cant think of. just a few days ago the muffler decided it was done and the exaust feel off from the muffler back. We plan to put a tire rack on the back so that the bikes can swing and we can open the tail gate easily. We may be putting a cargo box on the roof or rebuilding our bed to get us more room.

     By starting this simple lifestyle i have been learning more and more about how to be simple. this has made think about primitive lifestyles. so being the creative when board and broke kind of guy i am i decided to make a bow. i have now made 6. 3 worked so thats not to bad in my opinion. over this weekend i made a knife for the first time i like it alot. it doesnt have to do anything except be sharp so its hard to mess that up.

    we got a book about living self sufficiantly. thats our goal live without having to rely on any body but ourselves. its full of usefull information from how to make a water filter to choppin up a cow. it gets us thinking about what we want out of life. we have both been having a problem because when we want something we go for it. With us doing this trip we cant build a green house or have chickens or gaots. we both secretly want to skip the trip and just find a peice of land and go for it. but we know that we would regret it for the rest of our lives. i know that when we get on the road that we will want to be on the road. but sence were sitting here doing nothing its a temping option.

    the plan is to head to new mexico and arizona then head north though the rockies then east a little then back south down the rockies. we should be good for around 6 months but who knows. 

    in other news oklahomas weather is awsome....... it was in the 30's the the 60's then 40's then 60's and now 40's again. i find it funny that im allways suprised because this is how it allways is here. i hope we get a good snow before we take off agian... i love snow.  i think from now on i will end with a thought or a quote. so heres the first

"if you dont like were you are move, you're not a tree."