Feel the Love Tour 2016

A revisiting of some of our favorite Southwestern haunts, including a few of the places that have been significant in our 20-plus years together. Starting out with a star-filled night on the banks of the Virgin River, about 40 minutes south of St. George, Utah, in the northwestern corner of Arizona:

We spent the next day hiking Zion National Park, which never disappoints. These pix are from our hike up to the Emerald Pools.

Our drive out of Zion yielded a special treat as we yielded to these locals:

Next stop: Demotte Campground on the Grand Canyon's North Rim, where we set up camp with our friends, Randy and Patrick. At 8,000 feet, it was cold and stormy, but we shared great dinners, lively conversation and, of course, a campfire to keep warm.

Here's our constant travel companion, who minds the "tuna can" when we're away.

Despite the inclement weather, we got in two days of hiking, sightseeing and fun times with good friends. These pix were taken near Grand Canyon Lodge, right before the clouds rolled in and drenched everyone with raindrops that were fittingly grand. We had no choice but to shelter in the saloon, 'natch.

When a really big storm hit late that night, it battered our tiny teardrop with heavy rain and wind and knocked over the big green tent that we used for shelter. By morning, we all agreed it was time to head south to warmer and sunnier locales (and a hotel in Flagstaff). Here's a javelina we encountered at a rest stop just south of the city:

The sun returned in Sedona, where we spent a glorious morning hiking Brin's Mesa.

In the afternoon, we visited the vortex at Bell's Rock, where the sun set on yet another magnificent road trip.

We're so blessed to have such wonderful adventures in the teardrop, with friends, and mostly, with each other after all these years together. Feel the love, indeed.

Navajo Bridge and Arcosanti

We left the Grand Canyon on Saturday and drove south to Phoenix. Along the way, we crossed the Colorado River on the Navajo Bridge and onto the reservation.

Temps climbed as we lost altitude, so by the time we hit the desert floor, it was back to near 100-degree heat. Nevertheless, we enjoyed a brief visit to the arcology experiment at Arcosanti, where we acquired some new Solari windbells -- an aural reminder of another great week on the road again.

Here's hoping that your summer is as inspiring and filled with love as ours has been.

North Rim: It Really is Grand

The Grand Canyon -- we expected it to be big. We expected it to be impressive. We expected it to be crowded. It was nothing what we expected. It was so much better. First, we made the absolutely right decision by going to the North Rim, which is several hours from both Cedar City, Utah, and Phoenix, Arizona, thus much more remote (and therefore less congested) than the South Rim. In the North, there is only camping, the stately Grand Canyon Lodge, and lots and lots of wildlife.

The North Rim sits on an enormous wooded plateau at about 7,000 ft. where Ponderosa Pines and quaking aspen trees go on for miles, so it's also much cooler and greener than the south side. Temperatures were in the mid-70s to 80s in the day and low 60s at night.

We camped at DeMotte NPS campground just outside the park. Here's our set-up, with the teardrop and the clam tent that kept us bug-free in the evenings. Just beyond the campsite was a pristine rolling meadow, where we spotted grazing deer in the evenings. (Sadly, the park bison were nowhere to be found during our visit.)

After setting up camp by mid-day Thursday, we headed into the park and out on the trails, to Bright Angel Point first and then alongside a west-facing rim on the Transept Trail. This first hike was close the lodge, so it was a bit crowded, but we took in some magnificent views of million-year old rock formations carved by water and wind.

Day two in the Grand Canyon started with a quiet camp breakfast, followed by a 45-minute drive to the trailhead for the Cape Final trail, a four-mile route that took us through a wooded trail of spruce and fir and a rim view looking east. Hiking at that altitude was invigorating, and hydration is a must, but our old legs and hearts proved worthy.

John enjoys being on the edge.

Of course, photos don't do justice to the beauty of the place. Suffice it to say that after having waited more than fifty years to see this national treasure, we come away incredibly grateful that so much beauty has been preserved for the enjoyment of ours and future generations. 

PS Our final night sky lit up for hours during a torrential thunder/lightning/rainstorm that literally shook the ground under us and kept me awake for hours. But after the storm passed, the starry sky was truly spectacular.

Utah Shakes

What a glorious day we had Wednesday at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City! At 2 PM, we saw the matinee of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. Neither of us had ever seen the show live, although we both knew the music (I can hear my mom playing "Some Enchanted Evening" on the piano.). The cast we saw included Michael Scott Harris as Emil de Becque and Allie Babich as Nellie Forbush; both were great, as was Christine Jugueta as Bloody Mary. Francis Parker alum Nicki Elledge appeared as one of the nurses. So much fun!

After dinner in town, we walked back to the Adams Theatre for Taming of the Shrew. This is the last year that Utah Shakes will perform in the Adams, so I was glad to be there one last time. Construction of a huge new theatre complex is well underway though, and promises another outdoor stage for Shakespeare productions. Shrew was very good, with real-life husband and wife team of Brian Vaughn  (channeling Kevin Spacey, I thought) and Melinda Pfundstein as Petruccio and Katherine, respectively, and fight choreography by my friend Chris DuVal. It's a tough play for a feminist to watch, but the wooing Katherine scene was worth the price of admission, and it's always fun to see Shakespeare's comedies -- all of them comedies of errors of identity and (mis)understanding. Plus, we really liked our box seats for both performances.

Teardropping in the American Southwest

After a year in our garage waiting patiently for another adventure, the small but mighty teardrop has emerged into the sunlight once again. He (she?) started out on Monday morning, traveling the long and familiar route from SoCal to the real wild west of Nevada, Arizona and Utah. He went where he was towed to go by his master (aka the pickup), diligently crossing the 100-degree desert, stopping only once in the all-to-familiar hamlet of Primm, where we came to the rescue of some Chinese tourists who were unable to purchase gasoline at the pump. Later, we made a brief visit to the Virgin River gorge, but 104-degree temps cut the visit short.

We all shared sleeping accommodations in the KOA in Hurricane, Utah, where the grown-ups cooled off in the pool. Here's the view from the teardrop the next morning.

The highlight of the trip so far has been Zion National Park, where J & L hiked to the Emerald Pools, stood under waterfalls (albeit kind of puny ones in summer), and cooled their toes in the Virgin River. Zion is in Payute Indian Country, and it is not only majestic, but also feels incredibly spiritually resonant. The pictures really don't do justice to the natural beauty of the red sandstone, carved smooth and proud by eons of rainfall.

After the hike, beer, of course. Next stop: Utah Shakespeare Festival!

Harper's Index to John and Lo's Summer Adventure

Miles driven: 12,831

Average miles per day: 203

Cost of gas: $2642

Oil changes: 2

Tires purchased: 4

Tires repaired: 2

Windshield replaced: 1

Bearing seals replaced: 2

Car washes: 2

Speeding tickets: 0

Most commonly seen roadkill: Deer

States visited: 23

Northernmost stop: Grand Marais, Minnesota

Southernmost stop: Miami

Circus sites visited: 2

Drag strips visited: 1

Jet skis ridden: 2

Family members visited: 18

Bodies of water waded in: 17

Fish caught: 5

Crocodiles spotted: 1

Campsite with the most mosquitos: Yellowstone River, Forsythe, Montana

Old men who wanted to talk about the teardrop: 11

Beers consumed: We have no idea.

Backtracking

Although we had to backtrack (a no-no on a road trip) to return to CA, we did everything we could to enjoy our last few days on the road. Sleeping in the teardrop has been the bomb, and we stopped in a few beautiful places in Colorado and Utah before hitting the hellacious Interstate 15.

Creekside in Vail

Blue Colorado skies

I don't know this fly fisherman. I just included his photo because I wish it were me.

 A final view of summer in the Rockies.

Tire Trouble (Again)

I thought: We're on our way back home, there's nothing to blog about anymore. I now know: A lot can happen when you're on the road, no matter which direction you're headed.

While southern Minnesota proved to be relatively uneventful, Nebraska did not. It started out fine. In fact, this sounds strange, but we stayed overnight at a really great rest stop just east of Adair, Nebraska. Not only was it large and immaculately clean, it doubled as a monument to local wind farming, with a wind blade more than 100-feet high welcoming visitors, and picnic areas covered with metal canopies sporting windmill-like arms much like you'd see on an old Danish windmill.

Scattered throughout the picnic area were large rectangle light boxes that glowed in ever-changing colors, from white to green to purple to red and so on. It made me happy that someone had taken such pride in designing and building a roadside rest area that would entertain and inspire, rather than exist solely as a place to take a shit or a nap.

We left in the morning on Interstate 80, and traveled for about 300 miles when we ran over this:

It's the hook end of a bungee cord that impaled our tire, which led to this:

Fortunately, we found a nearby tire dealership in Gothenburg, Nebraska, where we got the tire patched.  While I was waiting, I took in the local scenery.

Check out the size of the tractor tire leaning against the wall.

Grain silos are everywhere.

The tire store is in an abandoned gas station.

It turns out that Gothenburg not only sports a tire repair place, it also has one of only four of Nebraska's original Pony Express stations, where a rider would change to a fresh horse in order to keep up his speed. The Pony Express carried mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, from 1860 to 1861. It was essentially put out of business by the advent of the telegraph, but it is remembered for giving a start to Buffalo Bill and it lives on in our collective imagination of the great American frontier.

We followed the Pony Express trail as far as Julesburg, Colorado, before turning south, having a great dinner in Sterling, Colorado, and spending a beautiful night under the full moon at the North Sterling State Park. A good ending to an eventful day. And a lot to write about after all.

Family Reunion

One of the most rewarding parts of this grand summer adventure has been the opportunity to see friends and relatives. Our final stop before heading home was a family reunion of sorts, with baby Grayson Arthur Emmanuel Becknell taking center stage with the extended Becknell clan. Everyone had a chance to hold him, and he loved every minute of it.

Justin takes a turn as the proud Papa looks on.

Charlotte is a baby expert now.

Grayson had a lot to say when he hung out with Hannah

Chris shows off one of Justin's paintings, part of Grayson's baby gift.

Josh and Justin together again

Josh gave us an insider's culinary tour of Surdyk's delicious cheeses and cakes, and we had several picnics while we were here.

By the Mississippi

And in the Walker sculpture garden

Sadly, it's time to point the truck and trailer westward for the long drive back to California. We've had a fantastic summer, and really appreciate everyone's hospitality, literally from coast to coast. We are grateful for all our friends and family whom we saw along the way, and for such sweet memories.

Installations

The final weeks of this summer's adventure center around friends and family. After visiting the Brookshaws in northern Wisconsin, our next stop was Chicago, where we met up with Charlotte.

Our visit included dinner with Jess and Jerry.

After helping Charlotte get her new apartment in order, all three of us piled in the truck to drive back to Wisconsin to meet Hannah. Along the way, we stopped for a photo in Delavan, Wisconsin, which is the home of the original P.T. Barnum Circus as well as several other circuses that toured the country in the 19th century. More than 100 circus performers of that era are buried in local cemeteries. Charlotte posed at the foot of a commemorative statue of Romeo, the elephant who toured with the Mabie Brothers U.S. Olympic Circus in the 1850s.

Hannah flew from Vermont to Madison, where we met her at the airport with an official cheesehead gift, a welcome to her post-graduation home. Then we ran around for two days contributing to the local economy and helping her set up her apartment.

Vivian, Hannah and Charlotte in the new 'hood.

Becca, Hannah and Vivian celebrate their jobs with Epic.

Capitol Dome in evening.

Vivian and Hannah pose on the porch of their new place.

This trip may be costly, but the rewards of seeing our "kids" happy and healthy and launching full force into their adult lives truly is priceless. We're couldn't be more happy and proud.