Start With Yes

Here is a condensed version of the last week or so of the trip.

Phoenix:  Well, technically Tempe.  I had a great time here overall, with a minor incident at the end.  I was staying with my friend Lisa from high school, and knew a few other people in the area, so it was nice to catch up a bit.  The first night, we ended up grabbing some dinner at a place called Boulders, I think that’s what it was called at least. We went out afterwards for drinks, which eventually turned into staying up until 4 am drinking, swimming, and drinking some more.  My schedule on this trip is usually pretty packed, so staying up until 4am and waking up with a hangover is pretty much only possible if I stay an extra day.  Luckily, I spent the next day relaxing on the couch reading a book.  We cooked steaks for dinner that night and had a lazy evening watching old episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.  Towards the end of the night there was a bit of a problem with one of the roommates, that almost ended in me getting in a fight.  I’m not really going to go into it on the blog out of respect for the people I was staying with, but essentially I ended up getting a hotel that night around midnight in order to avoid further issues.  This is the first confrontation I have had on this trip, and it was definitely strange.  It came out of nowhere and escalated pretty quickly.  I want to make sure to mention that Lisa was an excellent host and had nothing to do with it at all.  I can’t thank her enough for showing me such a great time.  

Vegas:  I left Phoenix and started driving through the desert to Vegas.  Originally I was going to head to Vegas before Phoenix, but the way the timing worked out I would have had to go to Vegas on a weekend which is way more expensive.  Going to Phoenix first, meant that I could get to Vegas on Monday and save some money, which is becoming more and more important.  The drive to Vegas was pretty cool.  I stopped at some tiny BBQ restaurant in the middle of the desert, and had a great meal, and a nice conversation with the woman who worked there.  I also stopped at the Hoover dam, which was sort of lackluster to be honest.  It was cool, and I understand that it is a feat of engineering or whatever, but I could have done without it.  I spent a few minutes taking pictures, and then got back on the road, arriving in Las Vegas as the sun was setting.  I decided to stay at the MGM grand, because they had a great deal on a hotel room.  When I checked in I chose to upgrade to a suite, which, luckily, I ended up paying for with gambling winnings.  The room was the size of most apartments I’ve seen, with a king bed, a bathtub a marble shower. and a nice sitting area.  The MGM Grand itself is a confusing maze of a resort.  I think I got lost every time I left my room.  I walked around for a while, checking out the lion enclosure, some shops, and some restaurants before heading to the buffet for dinner.  After dinner I walked around on the strip for a few hours taking pictures and just generally exploring the different hotels and casinos.  I watched the Bellagio fountains, which was actually much cooler than I had expected, and also checked out the Venetian, and Caesar’s Palace. I took a cab back to my hotel, and decided it was time to gamble for a bit.  I spent about an hour playing Texas Hold em Bonus, and ended up doing pretty well.  Not to mention I can’t really pass up the free drinks while playing.  I had a few Jamesons and then called it a night.  I never really thought I would enjoy Vegas that much.  I am not a fan of crowds, and tend to get anxious if I am in a touristy area.  I was surprised by how much I liked it, and I am pretty excited to go back someday.  

Colorado City:  I feel like at some point I will write a more in depth blog on this, so this will be brief.  I may have mentioned that I had a chance to interview someone in Salt Lake City, who grew up in a fundamentalist Mormon community, and eventually escaped.  The community he grew up in is called Colorado City.  It is in Arizona, on the border to Utah, and has a population of a couple thousand people.  I decided to stop here and do some filming to later splice in to the interview.  I knew what to expect, but it is still pretty shocking to visit the town.  The extremely condensed explanation is this:  Colorado City is a town that is completely controlled by a man named Warren Jeffs.  Jeffs is currently in prison, but those who work for him, enforce his will on the city to this day.  All the property in the city is owned by the UEP (United Effort Plan), a church that follows Warren Jeffs, and regards him as a profit.  Polygamy is practiced here, and there are constantly reports of child abuse and rape within the community.  Girls as young as 12 are often forced into marriages -arranged by the profit- with 70 year old men.  The police, the mayor, the city council, and essentially everyone else are members of the church, and so no one is prosecuted for their crimes, and Jeffs essentially is free to force his will on the people of the community.  

I knew that it would be strange to go to this community, but I don’t think I was anywhere near prepared.  The first thing you notice when you enter the town is the size of the houses.  Everyone here takes welfare, which they refer to as “bleeding the beast,” and this money is used to build enormous houses for families of up to 50 or more people.  On the rare occasions that you see any of the residents, the women are dressed in pastel, ankle length dresses, and the men wear long sleeves and pants.  Within minutes of entering the community I began to notice an SUV following me from a distance.  In a town like this, you are noticed as an outsider (or gentile) right away.  I was followed for about half an hour, and then I got out of my car to film something, and was confronted by one of the men in the SUV.  I was told that filming was not allowed and was asked to leave the town.  I assured him that I was completely within my rights to film, and told him that I would leave when I was finished.  We continued to discuss this for quite a while, before I decided to just get in my car and continue to explore the town.  The SUV followed me for a while longer, before eventually turning off on a side street.  I spent around 3 hours in the town filming whatever I could, and then decided that I was thoroughly creeped out and ready to leave.

Grand Canyon: What is there to say about the Grand Canyon.  It is big, it is beautiful, and it is about what I expected.  After leaving Colorado City, I spent a while driving through some indian reservations, and empty desert before eventually reaching the Grand Canyon.  I really don’t know what else to say.  It is definitely incredible.  It’s one of those natural wonders that you could stare at for hours and hours and never get bored.  I took my time, and explored as much as I could in a couple hours, and then headed out to Flagstaff for the night.   

Flagstaff:  Flagstaff, was a pretty cool town.  It didn’t enjoy the 31 degree weather, but I suppose I need to get used to winter coming at some point.  There is a definite hippy vibe here, and I got to spend a little bit walking around town before bed.  I went a great burger place called Diablo Burger and spent a while talking to the bartender there.  The food there is all organic and locally produced, and it was one of the better burgers I’ve had.  The burgers are served on english muffins, which actually tastes pretty great, and the fries are seasoned with Rosemary.  I found the place on Yelp, and the reviews were all right on.  For the record Yelp is really useful especially when traveling.  If you don’t already use it, you definitely should.  

After Flagstaff I spent a night in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and then moved on to Austin, Texas.   Las Cruces was pretty basic, and there isn’t much to report from there, and the drive to Austin was scenic, but relatively boring.  I am definitely enjoying Austin so far.  The city feels a lot like Columbus, and I would love to spend more time here someday.  I am staying with one of my mom’s coworkers named Mike, who I met a few years back in San Francisco.  Last night we went to his friend’s cd release show, and I had a pretty great time.  They are an afro-beat band, called Hard Proof, featuring the horn section of Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears.  They were really great, and the night in general was a blast.  In an hour or so there is going to be a poker tournament here at Mike’s house, so maybe I can make some extra cash for the trip.  I will hopefully update more about Austin at some point, but for now I am going to play poker and have a few beers.  

Later,

-Chris

Oh hi.

First of all.  Yes I am aware of my lack of posts, and I apologize.  I have been a bit lost in my thoughts lately, and haven’t been really doing much for the blog. 

I haven’t spent much time explaining how I am feeling on this blog, so I suppose I’ll take this opportunity to do so.  

 Traveling for such a long period of time is really strange.  Over a two month span we all go through many phases and moods, and I have come to find that this is really intensified when you spend most of your time alone and in unfamiliar places. Maybe it isn’t intensified as much as it is more noticeable.  I feel keyed in to every thought and emotion lately. At times it seems as though each emotion is the most extreme feeling I have ever felt.  It is very easy to get lost in my own brain for hours or even days at a time.  

As far as feeling homesick goes, it is sort of strange.  I’ll try to to explain:  Before going on this trip I imagined homesickness would be a very urgent and extreme feeling, and at times it is.  For instance, at one point in Salt Lake City, I remember driving downtown with the girl I was staying with, Natalie, and her boyfriend Tyson.  The day so far had been great, and we decided to go out to dinner with some of their friends that night.  I remember sitting in the back seat of Natalie’s car, and for a moment I looked out the window and thought I was in downtown Columbus.  I can’t pinpoint exactly what it was, the street we were on, the buildings, the lights, but it felt extremely real.  It probably took less than a second for my brain to catch up and recognize that I was in SLC, but that second seemed to last for a lifetime.  It literally felt physically painful for a moment as I came back to reality.  This is not to say that I wasn’t having a good time, on the contrary, I was having a wonderful time.  I was not homesick before that moment, but as soon as reality set in I felt an intense urge to connect with something from home.  There are moments like this usually every few days, a glimpse of something, or a memory that triggers a swelling of emotions in my mind, but the feeling only lasts a short time.  Homesickness for the most part is not always a bad thing, and sometimes can even feel pleasant.  I feel like I am carrying things from home with me to each place I travel.  Home is something that I can’t leave behind, it is something that underscores each experience I have on the road.  There are moments when I feel like I could go on traveling forever, and moments when I want nothing more than to be in Columbus.  I am heading East on my trip at the moment, which technically means I am heading home, but it doesn’t really feel that way.  I feel as though I am just following a map to my next stop, as if home will just sneak up on me one day in a haze of highway signs and traffic.  I would like to think that this is a good thing.  That maybe this means that I have become used to being away from home, and being by myself.  One of the main reasons for taking this trip was to feel comfortable with myself, and with new experiences, and it is hard to know if I have achieved such an abstract goal.  

WARNING, my diehard atheist readers and friends should tune out here.

One of the other goals of this trip was to connect with God in a real way, which is an even harder goal to really grasp.  I really don’t believe it is possible to see such beautiful places, especially when you are experiencing them alone, and not feel some sort of spiritual connection.  I don’t necessarily want to put a christian label on the spiritual experience, it is something that seems to transcend religion altogether.  Each moment is completely unique, and at the same time, they seem to be connected.  It is really simple to find God when you are staring at mountains and streams and cliffs and oceans, and deserts that stretch out endlessly, but it is not so easy at other times. (I use the word “God” as convenient language more than anything.  My definition of God may be different than yours, or you may not feel that there is one singular God, however you interpret this is up to you.)  Each morning I have gotten in the habit of getting in my car, and praying and meditating for the first half hour of my trip for that day.  No music, no books on tape, just silence and driving.  This is by far the best part of my day, even when it feels like work at times.  I am not going to say that I feel a connection to God every time, but no matter what, I come away with it at least feeling ready for the day ahead of me.  Today as I got in my car, I felt completely uninterested in prayer or meditation.  I really just wanted to listen to Howard Stern (get over it, the man is a genius), and then finish out the rest of the trip with my endlessly changing music playlist. I drove for 20 miles in silence, and actively resisted the idea of prayer.  (Like I said before, this is a habit that, without fail, always makes me feel better, or at least more prepared for the day, and yet I still resist it.)  This morning especially, I just felt like I had nothing to say to God, and nothing to think about.  I was tired, and grumpy, and the apple I had just started eating tasted like shit.  I eventually forced myself to think about some things I had been struggling with, and slowly eased my way into praying about these things.  Prayer is still really awkward for me.  I didn’t grow up with prayer, and there is a big part of me that thinks it is a waste of time.  I am, of course, continually proven wrong about that last point.  I seem to pray for the same things, and the same people everyday, and that routine is sometimes comforting, and sometimes a little tedious.  I really have been amazed at the power of prayer and meditation on this trip, but with that feeling, I feel like if I forget to pray about something, I will forever regret that moment that I forgot to pray for no car troubles and ended up stuck on the side of the road for hours in the desert.  These are the moments when God is just a chore.  The routine is comforting, but is not rewarding spiritually.  The real moments that I can feel God with me are sometimes small, but are moments that will stay with me forever.  Do I feel like I have come to a deeper spiritual understanding of myself? Maybe. I didn’t go into this trip expecting some great moment where God comes to me in the middle of the forest and explains everything, and so I shouldn’t be shocked that it didn’t happen.  I guess maybe I just feel Him with me throughout good times, and most of the bad, and that is enough for me. 

Over the last few days, I have experienced a lot.  I spent a night in Vegas, was followed and confronted by Fundamentalist Mormons in Arizona, Saw the Grand Canyon, and spent hours on end driving though the desert and took pictures of everything.  I promise that I will update about it all, but for now I am just taking some time to myself to think.  I am still totally dedicated to the blog, and I can’t wait to tell you about all this stuff as soon as possible, but I don’t want to force it.  I am heading to Austin Texas tomorrow, and I am hoping to update with at least another text post if not some pictures while I’m there.  For now, leave me some comments, or send me some emails, with your thoughts or questions. I’ll be back soon, Promise.

Later,

-Chris

Paid for my 700 square ft suite in gambling winnings and didn’t spend a dime on drinks. I’m gonna call Vegas a success. time for bed

I am in Tempe right now, staying with a friend from high school.  The weather is awesome, and I am definitely enjoying myself.  I’ll be heading to Vegas soon, and then continuing to travel through the desert.  hopefully today I can get caught up with the blog, so this may be more of a highlights entry in order to save time.  We’ll see how it goes.  

I ended up spending a while in Santa Monica with my friends Nate and Jade.  There is definitely a lot to do and see in the area, and I really wanted to get a good interview in while I was there.  Through another friend, I managed to line up an interview with the co founder of Juxstapose Magazine, which was pretty incredible.  I also spent a lot of time exploring the city with Jade, and I finally got to go to church, which was really nice.  

towards the end of my stay, Nate, Jade, and I decided to hike Runyon Canyon, which was really beautiful. We started at the top, overlooking the Hollywood Hills and made our way down and then back up again.  I have to admit that the hike was pretty tough for me.  Not to mention the fact that I was wearing my Toms shoes with no socks the whole time.  This is not because I don’t have hiking gear, I have plenty, including great boots and socks, but apparently in my head, I didn’t need it.  I was definitely sore for a few days after the hike, but it was totally worth it.  I needed the exercise, and it really was incredibly beautiful.  

A lot of the time in Santa Monica and LA was spent eating out at restaurants, which definitely was not good on the budget.  I need to make sure to watch my spending over the next couple weeks and try to save a bit of money.  It’s really easy to spend pretty much nothing on food when I’m travelling, but when I end up staying in the same place for more than a day or so it adds up quickly.  Most days in the car my meals consist of a cliff bar and an apple, some trail mix and maybe a light dinner.  I feel like I kind of get lost in my own head while driving and forget to eat a lot of the time, but when I am idle, I spend more time thinking about food, and wanting to try new and interesting restaurants. Anyways, this is turning into a drawn out tangent.

This is the first time I think I really enjoyed L.A.  I have been there a few times, and really did not feel the need to go back.  Maybe I just hadn’t really given it a chance in the past, but I had a great time, and now I look forward to going back someday.  I imagine staying in Santa Monica had something to do with it as well.  I really like that area a lot more than other places I’ve been in L.A.  It is also helpful to have people like Nate and Jade showing you around.

I left Santa Monica on Wednesday and made the quick drive down to San Diego to visit my friend David who I hadn’t seen in a few years.  David used to live in Columbus, and left when he joined the Navy.  He spent a few years deployed on submarines, and is now out of the Navy, and living in San Diego.  It was so awesome to see him.  We picked up right where we left off, and there was no awkwardness at all.  

We spent most of the time hanging out at his place during the day, and then going out to Ocean Beach at night.  The city itself is pretty cool, and I would love to spend more time there at some point.  It seems like a more relaxed, less pretentious version of L.A. and I definitely like that.

At one point, we decided to head down to Tijuana for a bit, which was definitely an interesting experience.  For anyone who haven’t been, Tijuana is essentially based around Americans coming there to spend their money.  It is filled with pharmacies, restaurants, and storefronts selling little trinkets, and fake purses.  To be honest the whole experience was pretty depressing.  I can imagine it being different had it not been the middle of the day, and maybe sometime I’ll go back when I’m in the mood to stay out all night and party, but for now, a couple hours was more than enough time.  We did have a few drinks and some food at a local restaurant, which was pretty terrible, aside from the entertainment provided by our host, Super Mario, and it was for sure interesting to walk around the city, but I don’t feel the need to go back anytime soon.  I think it is important to experience poverty first hand, but it can really be tough.  There are only so many ways to say no thank you to pushy salesmen and beggars before you get frustrated and just want to be left alone.  I was definitely relieved after we finally made it through the huge line to walk back across the border and into the U.S.

After San Diego I began to head East towards Arizona, where I am right now.  It is a really strange feeling to be headed East.  It has been well over a month of heading West and then South.  I feel like I am on my way home, although it is still a long way off.  I am really excited to spend some time in the desert.  I haven’t had a chance to spend any sort of significant time in the Southwest, so I want to make sure I check as much out as I can.  If anyone has any suggestions for places to go, things to see and do etc, please leave me a comment, or email me by clicking the contact me link at the top of the page.  I am definitely clueless when it comes to this area, so any help would be appreciated.  also if anyone could help with places to stay, that would be fantastic. 

Later,

-Chris