Beauty Is Not A Place, It's A Perspective

Our arrival in Amarillo, TX took about six hours from the time we left Arkansas.  We opted out on a camp spot given that the temperature even as the night fell was over 100° and I was not about to risk the heat again. Instead, we holed up in a hotel giving us a break from the airstream for the night and allowing us to adventure into the city for dinner and a movie.  The Lion King just released and I knew Karilyn was really wanting to see it so I surprised her with it.  The movie was a mixed bag for me but I'm really glad that Karilyn enjoyed it.

The next morning, we set out for the KOA in Santa Fe, NM really looking forward to some new scenery.  Texas and Oklahoma proved to be somewhat on the dull end of things but we agreed that it's likely that in order to experience either, one would need to know where to go and get off the highway.  With that thought in mind, we decided to risk leaving the safe comfort of being on the highway and rode the backroad of New Mexico towards our destination.  We are really glad we did.  It was almost a surreal experience watching the landscape change and the surrounding vegetation morph into different types.  The temperature was a disconcerting 105° most of the ride which led to worries about tire and transmission temperatures given that we were very far away from civilization.  However, as we got further, the temperatures began to drop, and the hills rose to meet us.  I was fascinated by the sheer cliffs and red rocks in their very otherworldly appearance.  I just simply could not believe that people lived there but in a way I envied them.  There was not a single bar of phone signal and very little evidence of "normal" living conditions.  Most of the inhabitants looked to be ranchers with livestock roaming as far as the eye could see.  At one point, we began to drive up into a table top on a road that looked very familiar to the scene from the animated movie Cars.  In fact, there was a table waterfall(dry at time) that really looked like it could have been what inspired the producer.

The last sixty miles were much like what we had experienced living in Colorado in the high desert.  It was the town of Santa Fe that really amazed me.  The adobe style buildings were incredible and the town seemed to glow at sunset.  The smell of the amazing foods from any one of the many restaurants pushed us into a little restaurant called El Cajillon where we experienced excellent Mexican dishes including a poblano pepper soup that about rocked me with it's surprise intensity of spice.

Back at the KOA, we found that the people there were welcoming and enjoyable to talk to.  Everyone kept mentioning how "cute" our trailer was and asking if we had named it yet.  Not yet but soon.  As I sit here and write, I can't help but contemplate the word, beauty.  They say, "it's in the eye of the beholder" but, I reckon it's really deeper than that.  The eye only perceives as much as the heart and mind tells it to.  For many, the landscape in New Mexico is simply desert, barren and lacking.  For me, it's beauty, not just the land but it's people too.

Early Lesson From The Road

The smell of trees inundated my nostrils as I woke up in the airstream and I was instantly repulsed by the feeling of a wet blanket which would turn out to be my shirt soaking in sweat.  The night had never really cooled off and it was apparent that Natchez State Park, despite it's bountiful trees, was a very hot humid place in the summer, even in the early morning. I jumped out of bed trying to make sense of the reality that we were now 300 miles from home and the trip west was definitely underway.  I needed coffee, but none was to be found, and this would be the first lesson of the trip.  Always have coffee, especially when you're married to a former barista.

Getting the airstream back in order to get on the road is really a breeze.  At first, I thought maybe there'd be a lot more to the setting up and taking down of the thing but it's really easy.  Of course, it's a lot easier when you find a campground with no utility access because you failed to make reservations that allow the ranger to turn the utilities on.  That night was so hot and sticky without A/C but I simply wrote it off as a throwback to the tent camping days and was happy to have a shower facility nearby.  Lesson learned, or so I thought.

Once back on the road, we set out in search of coffee, good coffee, the kind that makes the spine tingle.  An hour later we followed google maps into a college campus parking lot on accident not realizing the coffee place we were heading to was actually inside the library of the college.  Yet again, we were to learn to be more aware of Google and it's map ability to take you places you thought you wanted to be but don't.  Lesson learned.

After finding a cup of coffee, we set out for the Ozarks in Arkansas.  Upon calling a few campgrounds in state parks, we realized the error in our ways after being told that we would have to use walk in sites because they don't do same day reservations.  Our day was pretty much mundane as the drive through Memphis and most of Arkansas was uneventful(thankfully).  We thought to stop at the pyramid Bass Pro Shop but I quickly squashed that because I knew timing on getting a walk in spot at the state park would be first come first serve.

We arrived at Devils Den Campground(named after a cave) in the Ozarks shortly at 7pm and quickly realized that during the weekdays, no one was at the check in after 5pm(duh).  We decided to simply park and pay the next day but were greeted yet again with a lack of utilities.  It was going to be a really hot sweaty night, yet again.  After trying my hand at fishing, I eventually crawled into bed and was thankful for the fan we had bought at Walmart after learning from our hot mistake night one.  The fan ran most of the night but then the inverter burnt out and I woke up yet a second morning wrapped in sweat soaked clothes.  Thankfully, the showers next to us worked and the refreshing water cooled off my frustrations with our first hand lesson learning.  The lack of electricity meant we might have had to go without coffee a second time in a row but we simply hooked up the new percolator in the bathroom and made sure we had coffee this time.  After enjoying a bit of coffee, we packed up, and set off towards 40West.

On the way out of Devils Den Campground, I spotted a cliff and some water below it as I drove over the bridge nearby.  We pulled off, jumped out, and made our way with Reef to this part of the creek fishing rod in hand in hopes of catching the first fish of the trip.  Sure enough I caught the first fish, the smallest Sunfish I've ever seen.  Karilyn and I had a laugh about it, admired the luminescent blue waters below us, and watched all the fish I wish I could catch swim by.  It was tempting to just jump off the cliff seeing as the temperatures were already soaring into the 90s mid morning and I wanted to enjoy the water the way Reef loved to.  But instead, my mind quickly shunned the thought after deciding it wasn't worth the risk of a hospital visit many miles away.

On the way through the last bit of Arkansas, we both felt as if we really needed to slow down, and knew that we missed a lot of what we should have explored in the Ozarks.  It's now a must return to trip and we're looking forward to possibly a weekend trip in the fall.  Oklahoma on the other hand is not on that list, at least not for any reason yet.  The only thing I can see about Oklahoma is that it's a gambleholics worst nightmare as every sign from one end to the other is an ad for a casino at the next exit.  Coming into Texas was a relief because we knew we were that much closer to the West and the adventures that awaited.  

A Few Hiccups Almost Derail Us

The familiar sound of song birds outside my window woke me not that I actually slept. I felt as if I slept with my eyes wide open, often tossing and turning as every thought. Rather than turn it off, I had left my hearing aid in my ear the night before in hopes of not missing the alarm. There was so much to do and little time to do it.  After all, we wanted to be on the road on our two month journey across country by Wednesday, and hadn't even registered the truck or the trailer in North Carolina.  Of course, it was like me to push things till last minute but, even this was a little bit much.  It wouldn't matter though, because, our arrival at the tag office was marred by a missing title which in turn prohibited us from going further along in the registration process.  The truck was easy to register, but the airstream needed a title from the dealership. We were three weeks removed from the closing date which meant the title should definitely have been at the tag office.  With a huff, I walked out, prayerfully reminding myself that anger was unnecessary.  With optimism that it would work out,  I asked Karilyn what the timing looked like. She said the timing was unclear but what was clear is that without the documents, the trip was on ice.  With a deep sense of regret I suggested we set off for some lunch so I could process the gravity of what we were dealing with.

At lunch, I contemplated the possibilities, while Karilyn diligently worked on the phone with the girl at the RV sales store to find out where the missing title was.  In this time, I couldn't help but wonder if the whole trip was a dream that simply wasn't going to come true.  Yesterday, I would have sounded like we were setting sail to discover some unknown lands far off in the distance and today, I couldn't help but think it simply was all a pipe dream.  I looked over at Karilyn for good news and her face expressed frustration instead.  After talking to the customer representative she said that the title had indeed made it to the office and should be there.  My heart jumped at the news because I knew that it was likely that the title was simply under a pile of paperwork.

Two hours later, Karilyn came home from the office looking dejected but upon seeing my sigh and shoulders slump, she gave up the joke and held up the new tags.  I let out the surfer version of woohoo(Yee-yee) and the stoke was beginning to swell again.  This trip was happening and I was so excited that I announced we were leaving tonight.  After all, I knew I wouldn't sleep, so I figured a sunset ride to Chattanooga would be proper.  And with that, I found the motivation to make the final push on prep and get ready for the trip of a lifetime.

There was one more major concern that loomed in the distance, Barry.  Barry was a tropical depression making his way inland, and was approximately over Missouri. Lines of storms from Barry stretched out thousands of miles from his now defunct eye making travel anywhere hazardous.  There were no effects from Barry where we lived at that moment but I knew as we got closer to Chattanooga, we'd likely run head first into Barry.  Upon looking at the radar, it was confirmed that our sunset ride might literally stop in Chattanooga with Barry settling in just to the west.  I figured we could wait it out and then in the A.M. carry on with the journey.  After enjoying a beautiful ride through the mountains passing the Ocoee river and winding our way down towards Chattanooga, we could see clearly the storm clouds from Barry.  Barry looked like a tired old man in it's lack of appearance but the dark clouds begged the question, just how bad would it be.  After filling up with gas, feeling the front winds from Barry, and checking the radar, I decided to run the risk of bad storms and headed into the darkness.  Tired old man Barry definitely seemed fitting as it barely rained and the wind was mild at best.  Once through, the skies were clear and we were on our way following the highway through Nashville and westward bound.  As I got tired, it worked out perfectly that one of the largest state parks in Tennessee would be accessible to me in a few miles, and so, we found rest in Natchez State Park.

First Post

In creating this blog, I am hoping to document adventures and stories from the road and even from home.  Often, I find myself wishing I had a pen to write down some of the events from the day so that I can look back on them.  I've experienced a lot in the 35 years I've been blessed to be alive and thankfully I have a lot of stories to tell. I will try to list where I'm posting from and what I'm listening to.  I listen to a lot of chill beats while I write and I'll be glad to share more if someone is enjoying them. Enjoy the blog.