A Journey East

In the course of my travels I have made an oddly shaped circle around the country going from Florida to Maine to Tennessee to Washington to Nevada and now back to Florida. I have seen so much and each of my trips has held completely different experiences for me. Every area and people had their own distinct idiosyncrasies, landscapes, and culture, and I loved being a part of it all for short periods of time. This trip back home along the southern part of our country was no different. I went from Nevada to Arizona the first day and was planning on stopping by the Grand Canyon again; (I have been there before.) However, it was about an hour out of my way, and when I found it was snowing in AZ south of where I wanted to go I began to reevaluate my plans. (You know how I feel about snow) :). So in true "Ivy" fashion I changed my plans last minute and decided to keep driving to the Petrified Forest National Park. This is why I don't make hotel reservations. I like to fly by the seat of my pants. I think it's so funny that I have a really hard time writing my blog posts when I am on the road because every evening when I stop for the night I have to figure out what I am going to do the next day which does not leave much time for blogging. I usually have a general idea of what is in the area, but I don't actually decide till the day before. For some people that may be really stressful, but I love it!
As I continued east on I-40 I saw signs for the "Meteor Crater." Of course, I changed plans again and decided to go see this too. :) Apparently, many years ago a meteor hit in the middle of the Arizona desert so there is a vast area of completely flat desert land and then a huge crater in the middle of it all. There has been a lot of research on the crater and they have actually found pieces of the meteor that hit. It was really neat, and super huge!

 

 The next day I continued on to the Petrified Forest National Park. I have never seen anything like this. At one time there was a forest in this area of Arizona and the forest was covered quickly by flood waters which knocked all the trees down and buried them in mud which was full of sediments. As the sediments settled in and seeped into the wood it "petrified" the wood. Which, in my limited understanding, seemed to be like crystallizing the wood. All of the tree trunks were cracked, and some, like glass, had shattered into small pieces and the inside was all different colors depending on the mineral.

 

On Saturday, I went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in New Mexico. This was my one and only planned stop; considering I needed tickets. When I first arrived at the air field at 5am it was so cold I thought I was going to die of hypothermia. (I wasn't really prepared for that temperature.) I ended up having to buy a hat and long socks. But it was all worth it when I got to see hundreds of hot air balloons being inflated and then taking off as the sun was rising. There were tons of different colors and designs and some were even shaped like funny cartoon characters. It was really fun to stand there and see 600 different balloons all inflating around you and watching them as they took off randomly around the air field. I thought there would be some kind of order or someone telling them when to go, but that was not the case. They would just go whenever they were ready. One interesting thing I learned there was that this festival is a pretty big deal. It is broadcast in 50 different countries and it is one of the most photographed events in the world. Now I can see why. I took over 150 pictures in the 3 hours that the balloons were taking off! When I decided to leave and I got back on the roads around town I saw some balloons still floating around and a ton of chase crews that were following their respective balloons around waiting for them to land. There are some great time lapse videos at http://www.balloonfiesta.com/event-info/balloon-fiesta-cam. (I was there Oct 8th if you want to watch those videos.)

 

 

The following day I drove into Oklahoma (listening to the "Oklahoma" movie soundtrack along the way.) There was a huge storm passing over so I was driving in the rain the whole day, but I broke up the monotony by stopping at the National Cowboy Museum (it seems it was the only attraction in the whole state.) I enjoyed it, though, especially after spending all this time out west. Some of you know that if I had to go back and live in another time in history it would be the pioneer days in the mid 1800's, and this museum had a lot of art work and reconstructions of life from that period so I was thrilled.

In Arkansas, on Monday, I went spelunking! I took a tour of Blanchard Springs Caverns which is in the Ozark National Forest. When I first took the elevator down into the cave and got out with the group and the tour guide it took me a second or two to will myself to step further in and follow them. Before your eyes could fully adjust to the dim lights it is really dark and there are all sorts of oddly shaped things around you. It looked like something out of The Hobbit when Bilbo is wandering around in the dragons cave. After my eyes adjusted and the tour guide started talking about the history of the cave and all its cool features I got control of my overactive imagination and was able to really enjoy the tour. It was amazing to me how quickly the features of the cave can grow. There was a man made tunnel in the cave dug out about 40 years ago to allow for handicapped access to a second room in the cave where you could see the layers of earth. When the water seeps into the limestone layer it causes the lime to seep out and as that lime solidifies again it forms the stalagmites and stalactites. Well, in this 40 year old tunnel there were thin lime formations about 3 feet long. The power of water is pretty impressive even underground.

 

 

After Arkansas I visited friends in Atlanta. (Actually, the same friend that I visited on my way to Maine. A fitting way to complete my circle.) Then, I continued into Gainesville for a couple days where I saw my old roommate and a classmate who just had a baby. After that, I visited my Aunt Karen and cousin Kathy near Tampa for a couple days and finished off my family visits in Orlando with Jimmy and Jess. I don't think I stopped talking the whole time. Ever since I left Maine, and excluding the visits from family and friends, I really didn't have anyone to talk to about anything deeper then the weather, so I guess I had a lot to say. :) Coralie, my roommate, and I calculated it one day and we had talked for a total of 15 hours. Ridiculous, right? But I loved every minute of it. I, also, loved the one on one time I had with my Aunt. You can learn so much from, and about, a person by just spending time with them. I have long known that my Love Language is Quality Time and the last 5 or so days of my trip home were definitely satisfying.

National Park Dash

As I said in my last post, my friend, Dawn came out to Vegas to do some traveling with me. We began by seeing the Beatles Cirque du Soleil show, "Love," on Thursday night. I have said plenty of times how much I love cirque shows and this one was no different.

We struck out on Friday after I got off of work for Utah. On Saturday, we went on a quick tour of Zion and Bryce.

That evening we stopped at a campground that was in the middle of nowhere. On our way we passed by some beautiful farm land and some very curious cows.

Every time that I have been to Utah it has been very hot, but apparently I missed the one week of fall and it went from summer to winter without me noticing because this time around it was freezing...literally. We spent a cold night in the tent and were happy to carry on the next day to Moab where we had a hotel waiting for us.

 Sunday, when we finished driving to Moab we looked around town and did some relaxing and window shopping. Moab is a small town built up around Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. There are lots of nice restaurants and shops.
Monday and Tuesday were spent discovering all there is to see at Arches and Canyonlands, respectively.
Arches is, of course, known for all the rock arches that have formed there.

It contains the greatest density of natural arches in the world! The arches are beautiful and when you see them you think they are strong and fixed since they are made of stone, but in fact they are ever-changing and eroding. The Landscape Arch had a huge piece fall off in 1991. It is strange to think that in a few years the Landscape Arch may not be there any more. At its thinnest point it is only 6 feet wide.

 My favorite arch was the Delicate Arch. It is the symbol of Utah (if you ever see a Utah license plate take a look at the picture on it.) We had to go on a 3 mile hike up hill the whole way to get there, but it was totally worth it. The view of the arch from there was spectacular. What you can't really see from the pictures is the drop off on both sides of the arch. It is defiantly nerve racking.

click to enlarge!

Canyonlands had one arch as well, the Mesa Arch. This was another one with a huge drop off on one side.

 Its kinda fun to see just how close you can will yourself to go. (I know my mom is cringing at this right now.) :) Canyonlands has three districts separated by the Colorado and Green rivers: Island in the Sky, the Maze district and the Needles district. There are no paved roads in to the Maze, but Dawn and I did manage to make it to the other two districts.

The sky was cloudy for most of the day which was unfortunate for most of our pictures, but made for the perfect sunset with a rainbow in the back ground. 
Surprisingly, my favorite moment of the day was not all the sightseeing, but the spontaneous stop on a no-name dirt road to watch the sunset in a field of long grass with a rainbow in the background. Those are the moments that make life wonderful!

Definitely a trip to remember!

Death Valley and Lion King

Well, I have taken my dear sweet time with this post :) This will be a short one. I promise.
Two weekends ago I went to Death Valley National Park. It was somewhat similar to Mojave, but it did have an abundance of one thing that Mojave did not have...tourists. I was really shocked at how many people were there even though this is still the hot part of the season.

 I did get to see the lowest point in the US, Badwater Basin. It is, basically, a dry salt flat that leaves you feeling as if you swallowed a gallon of salt water after you've walked on them for a while and breathed in the air. Other then that... not too much to comment on.

 Last weekend I did nothing except begin packing in anticipation of my friend, Dawn, coming out here for a few days to travel to some of the parks in Utah with me. In fact, I am waiting for her plane to get in as I write this. I am sure I will have some posts about the places we go!! Yeah! 
Work has been incredibly stressful the last couple of weeks. One of the facilities that I work at is really desperate and when I leave there will be no PT and so far they have no one to fill in. I worked 10 hours today which is crazy and I will just be glad when tomorrow is over.
I cant wait to be home and see everyone! Super excited!!

Desert: A tract, which may be capable of sustaining a population, but has been left unoccupied and uncultivated; a wilderness; a solitary place.

My whole life I dreamed about living up north with the evergreens and snow and mountain ranges. Those are the places I have always considered awe inspiring and beautiful. Never did I think of the desert that way... until I went to Mojave. When Holly and I drove through there on our way to Vegas I really liked it and knew I wanted to go back. I had the opportunity to do that this weekend. I am so glad I did.
I began my trek on Saturday morning when I drove just about an hour south of Vegas and into no mans land. The road to the campground was, of course, another dirt road and we had some rain the night before. The dirt roads in Maine never really scared me because they were usually more gravely. These dirt roads, however, are just that. Dirt. Which means they have the potential to become "mud roads." With the rain the night before, and the signs warning that the road was flooded, things were not looking good. But, I was determined, and it was a sunny day so I ignored the signs and pushed on. Thankfully, it was pretty dry, but that doesn't mean it was a peaceful ride. The road was all wash-boarded and my car was bumping around like a jackhammer. I felt like the wheels were just gonna go bouncing off the car any minute. Not a minute too soon, I made it to the campground. Anymore of that bouncing and I probably would have had "shaken Ivy syndrome."
I got the best camp site in the whole place... it was pretty easy considering I was the only person there. :)
This was the first time I have been camping without families with 25 kids running around and huge RVs everywhere. When ever people ask me if I am scared to go camping alone I always tell them that I am never really alone at a campground, and that's always been true.. before.

Well, I was not deterred by the solitude, in fact, it was wonderful. I set up my tent and went off to explore. My first hike of the trip was the Rings Climb. It was a short fairly easy hike until you got to the rings which you had to climb up in order to get up and over the rock faces. This was the first hike I did that required "scrambling" which means you have to use your hands for climbing, not just for balance. So, technically, I am now a grade 3 hiker. So proud. (Course, we just won't tell anyone about how my hands were all red and raw after the hike. They are definitely not used that kind of work.) :)

 I spent the rest of the day exploring and then headed to bed hoping to get an early start the next day so I could see the sand dunes (which were about an hour away) at sunrise. Little did I know how hard it would be to go to sleep that night. Not because I was alone; actually, two other people showed up to the campground while I was out, but because of the storms rolling through all night.
I first noticed the lightning way off in the distance when I got up to go to the bathroom.

Side story: The bathrooms there were just a little room with no lights and a vault toilet (a hole with a toilet seat over it). I didn't mind this so much during the day. I have gotten pretty accustomed to using vault toilets on my adventures, but at night... *shiver*. That's when all the creepy crawlies come out. So, I go to the bathroom with my head lamp on and I scan the room for things I don't want crawling on me, and sure enough, a Black Widow has decided to make her web from side of the toilet seat to the wall. I was in shock. I have never seen a Black Widow before! It was on the bottom side of the web hanging upside down so I could see the abdomen clearly. The trademark red hourglass shape was staring me back in the face. I must have stood there staring at it for at least 5 minutes. Not only was I enjoying the fact that I was seeing something totally new and unusual, but I was also trying to get up the courage to go to the bathroom next to it. Believe it or not, I finally did and then I booked it out of there.

Okay, back to the lightning. I had noticed it far off to the east so I turned and faced west in my tent to try and forget about it and get some sleep. (Had to turn away from it cause I could see it flashing even with my eyes closed.) Of course, the sleep never came and suddenly I was "seeing" flashes again. I got up and looked out of my tent and... oh boy. The lightning was now surrounding me and it was flashing every few seconds. I decided to pack up my stuff and sleep in the car. It was perfect timing because, literally, right when I closed the door to my car it started to rain. The rain did not last long, but the lightning did. It was a spectacular show! At that point, I gave up the sleep idea and just watched the lightning. That's not something you see everyday.

The next morning I got up fairly early and headed over to the dunes. No dirt roads this time. Good thing, too, because there had been some flooding on that side of the park.

The dunes were just amazing. On the hike to the dunes there was a nice breeze and since it was so early in the morning it was still really cool out. Once I got up to the top of the dune the nice breeze had turned into tropical storm force winds, and the term "sandblasting" had taken on a whole new meaning for me. ;) I stayed up there for quite a while. I spent some time sitting on the edge of the dune and just enjoying the view, but one of the biggest draws for me was to hear the "booming". When the conditions are right these dunes are one of the few in the world that can actually create a booming sound when there is a "sand avalanche." The conditions when I went up were not perfect, but I did hear it once. At first I thought it was thunder off in the distance, but then when I came over one of the crests I could see on the other side where the sand had slid and I realized what I had heard. They say that you can make the sound yourself by running along the dune and causing the sand to fall. I tried this many times (probably looking totally foolish), to no avail. I think the sand was a little too wet from the rain. It would just slide down in clumps. Oh well, it was fun anyway.

I followed the main road through the park to the visitors center and had a milk shake at the little diner inside. Holly and I stopped there on our way through and the same four guys were there. Two rangers and the two guys running the diner. They are all really nice and talkative. They probably love it when they have someone else to talk to besides each other. A couple other visitors came through while I was there, but it all pretty much reminds me of a ghost town.
My last hike of the day was the Teutonia Peak Trail. It was beautiful! Looking out over a sea of Joshua trees when I got to the top of the mountain was really cool. I was all alone on this trail too, but at least at the top I had some cell signal so I was able to tell my mom where I was. It's the small things. ;)

 

 I could go on and on about the Mojave, but I think you get the point. This weekend I hope to go to Death Valley if its not too hot. That should be interesting.
One last thing... I would like to make a special shout out to Tim and Vanessa who are getting married this weekend. Congrats!!

A week full of surprise and "Mystere"

Last weekend I surprised most of my friends and family by coming home for the weekend. I was so excited to see everyone! I didn't realize how much I needed this trip, but with the stress of this particular assignment I definitely appreciated the recharge. It was a huge blessing that Hurricane Irene scooted right by Florida and didn't cause my flights to be canceled. Believe it or not, I didn't take a single picture while I was home. I just enjoyed the relaxation.
I got back to Vegas really late on Monday night, went to work on Tuesday and then that evening I had tickets to see "Mystere", a Cirque du Soleil show at Treasure Island. It was really cool! I love Cirque shows and if you have never seen one I would highly recommend you do so! There is so much going on every second of the show you get serious visual overload! I love it.

the end

Tomorrow I am going on a hike with a hiking group that I met in the area. Should be interesting...