November 11th, 2016: Now there are two people in the van.

See the corresponding Photography post for more details on the actual hikes we did.

Writing from: Escalante, Utah. Specifically: Circle D Eatery while we crush their Wi-Fi

Mood: Incredibly excited for what’s to come. Incredibly happy with how the rhythm Lexie and I have achieved.

#Vanlife tidbit: When in a van with someone else, do them a favor and never make them have to traverse the van to get something. For instance, if I’m on one end getting washed up, and Lexie’s on the other end, we ask each other to pass something we need instead of getting up and getting it ourselves. It saves a hell of a lot of crawling over someone and just makes life easier. This seems small, random, and pretty obvious, but at first we were jumping all over each other and getting in the way of what the other person was doing which caused frustration. Dont do that.

Currently thinking about: The election. I don’t want to get political in this post (or in any post, actually), but there are a few things that I’ve come across on this van trip that relate to the events on November 8th. The first is that the day of the election was my 32nd day of traveling. That’s just about a month. During said month, I traveled throughout Northern Arizona and Southern Utah and had conversations with locals, travelers, mechanics, bar tenders, back packers, homeless people, and just about everyone in between. I didn’t meet a Hilary supporter until the day of the election — my 32nd day of traveling (college educated white female hiker on top of Observation Point). This is not to say that everyone I met was a Trump supporter (I met a lot of people who agreed that he in in fact the worlds biggest ass hole), but Hilary Clinton really, really rubs people the wrong way. This could have just been me having the wrong conversations with the wrong people and just being unlucky, but I think my sample was pretty random (men and women from all socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities (even Native American), except black bc I literally have not met any)). I am extremely upset, shocked, and distraught from the thought of having to deal with Trump for a minimum of 4 years, but I can’t say I’m as surprised as some of my fellow college educated urban dwellers. The second thing that I’ve realized on this trip is how hopeless non-urban America really is. No fucking wonder these guys bought into Trumps bullshit. There is NOTHING out here. If you don’t live in a city, your options are fast-food and corporate drug/convenience stores mixed in with a little bit of farming. If you’re good with your hands, you can fix cars, but only if enough people live or come through your area. As a yuppy urban dweller I had no idea how bad it was until I really got out here and started having deep personal conversations with people my age and older. The last 30 years have been absolutely brutal for these communities. The story that I heard over and over again went like this: The community revolved around one or two large, blue-collar businesses. Everyone was either directly or indirectly involved with it. Not too long ago, the town business went belly up. The town is now out a couple hundred or thousand jobs. OF COURSE THEY’RE GOING TO ELECT THE GUY TELLING THEM HE’S GOING TO BRING THE JOBS BACK. It’s literally all they care about. He could be on trial for sexual assault and they’ll still vote for him (oh wait…). End rant.

I’ve been slacking with my writing, but don’t want this post to be like a damn Torah scroll so I’ll only touch on a few things. The main backdrop though is that I’m now traveling with Lexie as I picked her up in St. George on November 3rd. She flew into the airport, which is literally the size of a Best Buy, and immediately was bothered by the cold. Mind you, this is the warmest she’s going to be the rest of the trip, but Lexie is always cold. “Is she complaining already?” I thought to myself.

The next day was her birthday, and I wanted to get to Zion so we could walk around before it got dark. Before we headed out, we grabbed groceries at Walmart. Well, I only made her cry twice because 1) I told her she couldn’t bring a second towel into the van and 2) I don’t remember the second reason but it was probably ridiculous. At any rate, it’s safe to say that we had a bumpy start. But I knew this was going to happen, and I knew that she would need an adjustment period just like I did. This is a weird lifestyle and I have to understand that she’s getting used to it just like I am. I have to say though, I’m so proud of the way she’s handled all of this since St. George. Being the girly-girl that she is, she’s been really good at adapting to the dirty, rugged, and sometimes frightening situations that we encounter.

It’s also nice not having to talk to the bugs, plants, and random ass people in small-town Utah anymore. God-damn I was getting lonely. When you’re making friends with the random college-aged kids in the McDonalds parking lot, you know you’re getting desperate.

Our first stop was Zion, and I was so excited to show it to her. We paid for a few nights at South Campground, which was the first time I paid to sleep somewhere on the entire trip. I decided to do so because I wanted Lexies first destination to have some sort of infrastructure like water, trash, and people. My aim was to hike every day, but, just like I always do, I didn’t take into account the fact that Lexie and I aren’t on the same level when it comes to stamina. And it’s not like I’m the most understanding and relaxed person when it comes to people slowing me down. Out of our four hikes together, I had thoughts of pushing Lexie off the trail on two of them. I’m obviously kidding, but on those two I really let my aggravation cloud my thoughts. The hike would have been much more enjoyable if I just would have calmed down and realize that she’s doing the best she can.

The crazy thing is, she’s improving at a really impressive rate. Her fear of heights got in the way while climbing the chains on Angels Landing, and the issues we had on the way to The Subway were more related to planning than skill. But those are two super intense hikes and the fact that she could do them at all is something to be happy about.

I don’t want to turn this post into a play by play of the last week as I feel that I can do a better job of that in the Photography section. I wanted to take this time to note about a few ways that the trip has changed. Aside from what’s been discussed, I’m happier and more relaxed than I was in St. George. Zion and Bryce were a dream as both are stunning places with endless amount of stuff to explore. They’re stop and stare type of beautiful, and I was happy to return. Our next move is to head into the Grand Staircase-Escalante for the next 5–6 days. This I’m really excited for. Although National Parks are great, there’s nothing like exploring dirt roads and BLM land. Lex is going to be taking her first multi-day backpacking trips, as I plan to spend a night out on the longer hikes.

I’ll end this post on the fact that we’ve figured out our winter plans!! It was much harder to find somewhere to stay than originally thought. Colorado is insanely expensive, so we’ll only be spending two weeks there in December, followed by a month in Salt Lake City. From there, who knows. Wahoo!