Across America to Find our New Home
on the road again . . .
o
sometimes love is found in....
hot hot deserts
Jalapeños
swimming in cold water
free continental breakfast
cold showers under a Texan sun
a book that changes your perspective
a desperate phone call
being yourself
ice cold topo chico
a cathedral church
after 2 am
hot honey on pizza
watching the moon rise against a purple sky
in a cultured mans art studio
on a rooftop pool in the mountains mango beer during Oktoberfest
gas station attendant
In Interactive art museums
And everywhere you seek it to be
this trip was monumental for many reasons ~ firstly, taylor and I had just graduated college with our bachelors degree. this trip marked our celebration for making it through the feat that is college. we had been talking about moving this whole year; mainly because we had lived in this bottle cap region that is the rogue valley, oregon. its the type of place that you get stuck in knowing that the beauty and community that southern oregon offers is without comparison. moving on from home was something we had thought about since we were kids. we always joked that we would go unmarried and live on a big piece of property with horses and goats and dogs. we would grow an untamed garden that produced vegetables of every color. now it was our time to seek out a new home that had the potential to foster this way of living we had grown up curating. this is how we ended up in nine different states in just 18 days. Oregon > Nevada > Utah > Wyoming > Colorado > New Mexico > Texas > Arizona > California
to save you from the long days that were five to ten hours of driving and the death hole that was eastern nevada to desolate wyoming; I will share that we definitely had our mind set to New Mexico and Colorado for our new lives. here are some photos from places in between.
one of our favorite moments from the trip was camping in albion basin, utah. not only was the campground gorgeous and 10,000 feet at elevation, but the activities we stumbled on among the lodges below had us feeling really lucky. a winding road through the fall mountains passed us through a village of fancy resorts and mountain dwelling cabins. after noticing the rooftop pool that sparkled amongst the evergreen, we made plan to come scout out the pool after we set up camp. our camp was located a mile away from Cecret Lake and after we took to the elevation, it proved to be harder on our lungs than imagined but so worth the view of the meadows opening up and the clear waters of this magical place. Our camp host mentioned to us that Oktoberfest was full on at the resort with the pool we had marked earlier. a whole buzzing of people among oktoberfest welcomed us right in to mango beer in glass steins and salt pretzels with mustard. sipping beers and observing people took up most of our afternoon. the next day we learned that the pool among the mountains was accessible along with a eucalyptus steam room, a yoga den, and showers. we paid the $25 to use the spa and lounged among the pool for hours. the air crisp but the cloudless sky warmed our skin.
our next stop was to see my long distance friends in Colorado. i have not felt complete with out these two since we parted in Australia a year and a half ago. these two people has constantly been my support from far away and I have cherished our connection despite the distance. our meeting spot was littleton, CO a suburb outside of denver. those three days were spent feeling so loved by bryn, kyle, kali, and taylor. i feel so grateful to know these people and to have connected with them all over again. we gallivanted around all of the mountain towns, boulder bars, and vegan restaurants. after our time here, taylor and i knew this is where we were supposed to be. probably because the mountains reminded us where we were from and all of the fun and night life pledged us into a never ending source of excitement and experiences. you can tell how much fun I had these three days by the lack of photos taken.
next up on the itinerary was taos, new mexico. i found so much beauty in this small town, from the first night the sky was a watercolor painting to tasting hot honey on pizza to riding horses for the first time in four years at ten thousand feet elevation. the whole idea of stringed chili peppers hanging from every house gave me a sort of happy that could only feed my desert loving self. on top of all the goodness, we met an artist in Arroyo Seco. we felt a pull into his art studio from the purple colored walls, hand made signs, and mother mary tiles - all seen from the exterior of the studio. after obsessing over his mexican shadow box art and pendants, we bought most things we wanted (which was a LOT). we told him about our travels to south america at the end of the month and we relished on our connection to southwest. he gifted us a worldly pendant after he told us he lived in south america for thirteen years, it was a synchronicity that was almost too good to be true.
for an hour and a half we listened to santa fe by billionaire, a song we had been listening to months prior in anticipation for reaching our dream destination. santa fe opened me with listening arms. i cried hard here, became a vulnerable within this place i had never been before, and decided to take responsibility for my mental health. santa fe will always have a part of me for this reason. wandering around the streets during the chili festival made me hot and heavy and whole foods nursed me back to being lighter. catholic churches gave me something to be grateful for and lettuce and tomato sandwiches made me whole.
i think one of my most favorite days of the trip was the day next. meow wolf had our hearts in the interactive museum. i had never been so inspired to create upon entering this other worldly trip. i think i will let the photos do the talking for this gem.
meow wolf
border control, tarantulas, and white sand highways really made us feel like we were in an alternate reality. welcome to las cruces, the town that lies between mexico and the united states. the organ mountains opened us up to a starry night and although our stay was short, we were quite surprised by the head board of these mountains that kept us.
so we were almost the farthest we had ever been in a car at this point, so why not keep going? on the way to texas we had to make a pit stop into white sands national park. we were running out of gas at this point so we only ventured a few miles in, however we were not one bit disappointed.
so on we went to texas, taking much longer than we anticipated because we got stuck in stop and go traffic in el paso. the freeway turned into mid west farm fields and hawks seemed to gawk at us. our destination was marfa, texas where we showered outside under the hot hot sun and i discovered my soul mate in the form of mineral water, topo chico. we stayed in a safari tent at el cosmico, a place i had imagined myself staying for at least four years. it was everything i expected and marfa was the manifestation of post apocalyptic art taking over the town.
the next few days after texas were quite a blur of vetoing our plans for the night due to over one hundred degree camping spots in sketchy ghost towns. after an emergency stay at taylor’s grandmas in arizona, we ended up in Sedona. i’ve held this place dear to me for the last four years. the first time i went i was completely exposed to the monuments that stood out like tall grave stones. we had made our way up into the coconino national forest which vastly contrasted from the red valley that lie in front of it. it was as if someone had sneezed a red powder and covered everything in front of them, leaving the forest untouched. we slept in pine flat campground, which creviced its way in between bushing pine trees and stone walls. we visited slide rock, which was a natural slide whose water refreshed us with a fresh new coat of skin. our scaly desert bodies turned new.
we made a pit stop on the classic and iconic route 66. we had planned to make it to Oatman, Az but the snaking road quickly changed our minds. we spotted wild burros and made our way out and onto nevada. our destination was valley of fire. what i pictured as one stretching highway through red caverns surprised us into a secret valley. not only was it one hundred degrees when we arrived at 4pm but there was also a broke water line, so the shower facility and even the toilet facilities were not available— i will leave the rest up to your imagination. that night we washed our hair under a water spick it and left the mesh part of our tent exposed to the harshness of the desert. it however gave us the view of a million night stars and woke us up for a red glowing sunset. our sleeping spot was tucked right up under these monuments so all I had to do was grab my camera and tell taylor to go be a part of the environment.
the next few days were unplanned nights but our goal was to be in napa in 3 days for a slenderbodies concert. we some how ended up in an illegal air b n b in ojai, an expensive hotel that made us pay $14 for parking in san jose, a mountain oasis in santa cruz, and then in a sketchy hotel in vallejo. ojai was spent wandering around the quaint town and picking up knick knacks for souvenirs and quenching our thirst with craft beer. santa cruz was a shared house in the mountains where the mist surrounded us in a hug until the sun broke through and warmed our skin. a flea market with hundreds of vendors was home to my vintage dreams —multi colored milk glass, every texture of fabric manifested into beautiful garments from the sixties, and hand tooled leather purses. we then met up with my friend kiera who led us to an oceanside strawberry stand and then to a beach where we shared a never ending stream of conversation about love, life, and death. three hours passed and we never stopped to breathe. these are the days that i live for.
so we finally made it to napa, california. it was our last day of our ‘tour,’ taylor and I joked. we lived this last day so in the moment, i barely got any photos. we got lost in open air markets, sat in bars decorated with moose heads, and strategically ran away from a couple who tried to invite us to ‘enjoy the evening with them.’ slenderbodies did not disappoint and i got a few band members to notice me by dancing front row and stating how we were only at this concert for them, despite them being the openers. my favorite moments from this trip is what we did the hour drive back to vallejo— listening to music that we listened to some four years ago. there’s a feeling no matter where you are on the road that evokes a feeling of living life freely— and its on desert roads, back roads in night time, sunrise driving in utah, and every where in between. as cliche as it might sound, there is nothing that gives me such a strong sense of identity that these drives offer. thats why i love road trips so much, there is this endless possibility of experiencing euphoric and meditative moments. its always the inbetweens and those times unplanned that have me finding meaning for life — finding contentment with just being.
