Excuse Me…Can we Buy Some Wood?

We stayed at the most wonderful little campground, in between Sedona and Flagstaff, called Oak Creek. Nestled amidst the trees and the mountains, this campground was completely hidden even though it was only a few hundred feet from the road turnoff.

Getting to the campground was a little iffy as we had to descend down a sheer cliff... on a road that was only about as wide as our RV.

Yeah.. here we go with the steepness again.

I was white knuckled for most of the way…(exacerbated by Jay saying to Dan…”Um…you cut it a little close to the edge there dude!) Clearly, a reason to freak. Not to mention that the RV was not handling quite as well as they would have hoped.........

Anyway, we make it to the site and it is now a bit late. After some serious strategic maneuvering by Dan and Jay to get the camper into the spot, (due to the world's largest garbage can and some very poorly placed decorative rocks) we were ready to eat and chill out. Alas, we were a little shy on fire wood. So Dan and Jay proceed to go on an “adventure” to get some wood.

In Jay's words…

“So we came across another camper that we thought may be able to help us. Leeeet’s just say he was a VERY EXTRA-LARGE man… squeezed into a schmedium shirt (for those of you not in the biz…a medium/borderline small shirt). And he was just standing there holding what appeared to be a very large log. He was just standing there….. with the end of the thing….. just sticking in his fire, so we thought perhaps he could help us out. 'So, like, do you have any fire wood that we can buy off of you? ' His reply…’weeeeellll, you want this ere stump?’ Dan and I just looked at each other, sighed, and walked back to the RV. So, umm…we don’t have any fire wood.” Hmphff

Apparently he was a very very very strange man.

The next morning was G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S! We woke up to find that our site was along a beautiful creek (Hence the name...duh!). I didn’t even get out of my pajamas. I know I am a slug. I took my coffee with me and the four of us spent some serious time just relaxing by the water, jumping around the rocks like we used to at the beach house. Pure relaxation.





Which, I suppose it is a good thing considering what we were about to encounter that day …..

Beaver Street Brew Pub – the Growler

Can I just say, I heart Beaver Street Brew Pub! First there is the cheesy deliciousness that is the Beaver Street Fondue. It has Red Ale in it and then it is served with beer bread cubes and veggies. OH MY GOD! Then there are the burgers. I (being a burger connoisseur) will say that I think this may have been one of the best burgers that I have ever eaten. Perfectly cooked, topped simply yet just right. I couldn’t stop eating it. Lest we forget the giant beer pretzels with the horseradish mustard, the bacon and cheese stuffed steak and my personal favorite….the Brewers Platter.

I couldn’t believe how yummy this was. I was so fat and happy when we were done that I just wanted to pass out. But that would be a no no. Why? Because… if I passed out…. then I would miss out on the Growler. A good ole’ fashion jug of pure scrumptiousness.
When we got back to the RV, Jay decided to put the Growler in the freezer to get chilled. Perfecto. Alas, it wasn’t until he jumped out of bed in the early morning (I thought he had a nose bleed) that we all realized that Jay had forgotten the Growler in the freezer when we all went to bed. Booo. Luckily, it thawed out enough during breakfast that we were able to drink it that day. Ahhhhhh Heavenly.

Yes, I am aware that this may frighten small children.

The Gum is still there...

Jay turns around and sees Lesli. This is what he sees...

10 minutes later

10 minutes later than before

10 more minutes

This is Me... apparently asleep with my eyes open. Notice the gum never fell and I ddin't move an AT ALL.

On The road Again!

Police: Sir, Your Papers. Jay: Scissors! Ha! I win.

We made our way through Utah with the sunning BEAMING. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive as we passed through Monument Valley, seen below, and through the Navajo Nation into Arizona. I was a little disappointed that we were doing this drive on a Sunday. Mainly because it meant that there were no little old Navajo ladies selling their goods along the roadside. We saw countless little roadside stands, but alas. No little Navajo ladies. I was a little bummed. But to be honest, the view of the gorgeous stone monuments was a very easy distraction!

We, of course, stopped for a few crucial photo ops that could not be missed!

Mexincan Border!

Once in Arizona we forged on as the sun started to go down. There was a light haze in the sky and the air was so comfortable. It was picturesque as we were driving, and then, all of a sudden, we are stopping and parking. I have no idea why, and I am completely confused. I thought that we were heading straight to the campground. We were no longer in the desert and had entered Kaibab National Forest, where we were camping for the night. Dan, Jay and Alyson are all very excited and they are telling me to hurry up and get out of the RV. So I rush (grab the camera of course) thinking I am going to get my first glimpse of wild life. Not quite. Dan had made the executive decision to head straight to a viewing site at the Grand Canyon. Since the sky was so amazing, and the sun was setting, he knew I just HAD to see it then. It couldn’t wait until morning. Man was he spot on!!!!!!!!!!!!! I knew it was Grand….(hahaha) but had no idea what to expect. It surpassed anything I could have imagined. It is ridiculous how little they set your expectations in elementary school.

After I soaked in as much as I could, we hopped back in the RV to get to the campsite before the sun set. Alyson was having a somewhat strange craving for hot dogs and smores so we went to the Grand Canyon General Store….loaded up on camping must haves…and set up for the night. The Knob Creek came out in full forces and we enjoyed a lovely dinner of Thai Curry Chicken over Basmati Rice, hot dogs, and smores. (For anyone wondering, Jay took is dinner duty on the trip very seriously.. We ate like Kings!)




When we woke up the next morning, Jay and I were fascinated by these funny little lizards. They had these bright blue bellies. Anyway, they would scurry around and then stop cold dead….do 10 little pushups, and then take off running again. I am sure it had to do with some spring mating call or territory thing…but to me, it just looked like morning calisthenics. I won’t lie. They made me feel like a bit of a slug. Damn exercising lizards!
The rest of the morning was spent gazing at the Grand Canyon as we hiked around and took more pictures. Then…onward to Flagstaff and Sedona!

Here is the Story of Mexican Hat

(Sang with a ridiculous fake Mexican Accent)

I come from a place called Mexican Hat
This place is where it's at
We got burritos and burros and stuff
To live here you got to be tough

We also learned that Jay loves to speak in a Mexican Accent (all the time) and that he has a need to makes songs about EVERYTHING.

For those of you who care to know...Mexican Hat is, in fact, a town. It gets its name from the rock formation below!

All Roads Lead to Moab

The first leg of our trip was Moab,Utah. For some reason, we all suffered from a ridiculous propensity to repeat the word Moab over and over and over again. For all of you who are curious, it is Moab- pronounced Mo-ab. Not Mobe, or Mob. MO-AB. Apparently, most tourists have a little trouble with the pronunciation. We, of course, were flawless.

Although Moab was gorgeous, with beautiful plateaus and insane rock formations, the roads leading into Moab, not so much. While sitting in the back of the RV at around 12 pm…after traveling for a straight 24 hours. I looked like a bobble heading sitting on the dashboard of a car. Talk about Bumpy. At one point we hit a bump so hard that Alyson and I actually flew straight up off the bed and I hit my head on a cabinet (flying Lesli..also a theme on the trip). Needless to say I moved to the front of the RV after that and tried to sleep sideways on the bench/table. I was never so happy as I was pulling into the RV park in Moab. It took two more hours for my body to adjust to not moving! And of course, it wouldn’t be a sister trip if we did not becoming instantly famous with the locals. Alyson and I went for a quick walk to the camp store to get elastics for my hair. We walk in and are a little “overexcited” about the fact that they had a coffee machine. We both shout..in unison with the identical tone and inflection…COFFEEE. The man behind the counter thought this was hilarious. For the next few hours, every time he saw one of us he would shout “COFFEE” back at us. Strange, but oddly cute.

Once well rested, we started out on the road. First stop, The Moab Gemological Rock Shop. Why You ask? Well, we discovered that Jay is a nerd. A big nerd in fact. I like to say “Objections in Mirror are smarter then they appear.” He is officially the only person I know that can spend that much money on rocks. (Guess who had to carry those on the plane too…so unfair) After having identified every type of rock in the store and determining which ones would be best to display at home.... in order to convey the appropriate meaning to our trip...we were able to actually go and see some sites.

The following are a few pictures from Arches National Park. If you have ever seen a picture or an advertisement for Utah, most likely you are looking at a scene from Arches. I have to admit that I had no idea how gorgeous Utah was. Many of the pictures you will see throughout are within Utah. There was so much to see we came back. It was amazing and fascinating. This was only the beginning of my awe over just how crazy nature can be…and also the beginning of my need to take 5 million photos. It really was unhealthy.





And for any of you that watch the discovery channel and have a... hmm... I don't know...secret love affair with Mike Rowe, you would be interested to know that we visted the "Dirt Shirt" shop in Moab...I mean, did you really think that the T-shirt guy could pass up this store? Really? I feel badly for the poor girl behind the counter. I think Jay made her nervous with all of his questions about technique. Not your average tourists I guess.

And We're back!

Our Home

Yes folks. We have returned home safely to wonderful Lil' Rhody. I started to write my blog posts down so that I could speed up the process upon my return home from the wild wild west. So, although it will be in backwards order...I will gradually post all of the excitement from my trip through NINE states! I didn't even crack the surface with Road Trip Part 1. I know you are all on the edge of your seats waiting to read about our trip (come on..I know you are). I will do my best to get things up as fast as possible.

Side Note: I'll only be posting a handful of pictures up here. I discovered on this trip that Jay suffers from the same obsessive picture taking that I do and we were a leeeetle excited with using the new camera. We went for capturing every ounce of what we saw..in order to remember everything. We focused less on composition...a strange thing for both of us but it's all good. Anyway..the side note is...there are over 2000 pictures. So I will gladly post links to the picasa albums if anyone would like to see the 109 pictures of Wind Cave or the 417 pictures of Yellowstone....I know I know...craziness. What will be posted up here..are pictures of the two of us together...shocking I know..but they now exist. I think we took enough pictures to safely make up for the many years of non picture taking. Who knew.