Summer 2019…The Journey Begins

With weeks of preparation it was finally the night before I was to drive off into the sunrise.  However, with all the excitement I couldn’t sleep.  I ended up getting out of bed at 4:30 in the morning after barely sleeping and decided to finish packing the van and head out.

I pulled out around 6:30 in the morning towards Flagstaff, got gas, a Starbucks for the road and headed towards the Navajo Indian Reservation towards Page, Arizona.

I took the exit to Kanab, Utah and knew I just had to stop and take a rest.  I was exhausted, hardly able to keep my eyes open.  However the morning temperatures were already in the nineties, moving rapidly towards the triple digits.  How was I going to rest in these temperatures?

There was a small Motel with a few shade trees in the parking lot, so I pulled in and crawled into the back of my van.  It was like a sauna, but I needed to rest and so I fell into a very deep meditation.  I would like to say I slept but it was more like I entered a sweat lodge.  I fell so deep into a trance that an hour passed very quickly.  Suddenly I was wide awake and ready to get back on the road.

As I traveled up the mountain pass towards the North end of the Grand Canyon, I noticed the temperatures dropping down the eighties.  I thought I could take another nap, but was feeling strangely energetic, so decided to keep driving.  I drove through to Kanab, Utah, gassed up the van again, grabbed a bag of trail mix from the store, and headed out on the second leg of my journey.

I’ve driven this stretch so many times.  The familiar drive between the Southwest and the Northwest and the endless hours behind the wheel, had become an annual event.  I enjoyed the red rocks of this area as I passed by the entrance to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park.  I visited both in the past, but wasn’t going to brave the temperatures this time of year.

Approaching late afternoon my GPS was acting up and not sure how to get me to where I had planned to stop for the night.  After getting the run around several times, guided down dirt roads and told to turn “right here” when there was no “right,” I decided to reset my GPS to a more familiar destination.  The place I stayed nearly every year when I passed through the area.  It was a campsite off the hwy outside of Nephi, Utah.  The GPS had no problem getting me there within thirty minutes of breakdown.  After ten hours on the road, I had never been so happy to see the old familiar campsite, crawl into the back of my van and close my eyes.

I got an early start the next day, arriving to Provo, Utah within thirty minutes of gassing up the van in Nephi.  My GPS helped me to find a Natural Food Store so I could stock my mini fridge with healthy treats for the journey.  I came out with coconut wraps, hummus, a favorite raw food sweet treat, a gluten free vegan muffin and coconut water.  Grabbed another Starbucks and off to my next destination…Sun Valley, Idaho.