Week 14 with Jordan Vance

Through 13 weeks of the trip, it has been a 3 man wrecking crew.  We tore through the east coast, stopped to see both sides of my family in the midwest, and then slowed down considerably west of the Mississippi.  One of my best friends, Jordan Vance, finished work for the season just in time for the last 2 weeks of the trip with Allen, Bub and I.  Jordan had to fly out to meet us somewhere and board the camper for 2 wild weeks.  If we had stayed on the same traveling timeline as the first 13 weeks, we would have been further along in the trip, but that would have cut out a few bad ass scenic sites for Jordan.  Do I tell Jordan to meet us in Texas, take our time through Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee or sling it around and cover a hell of a lot of ground in 2 weeks in order to see the maximum?  Well, when in doubt, sling it out.  Jordan, looks like you're flying to Los Angeles for a mad dash across to United States.  The plan from day 1 was to be home on November 22nd, two days before Thanksgiving, and we stuck to that plan all along.  

Welcome aboard 742

Jordan flew into Los Angeles on November 9th (technically the 10th since it was after midnight) and we scooped him up, introduced him to the camper and Rosa Lee (our GPS), and hit the ground running.  Due to no planning on our behalf, Jordan got in the truck and we had no idea where we were headed.  Southwestern Utah figured to be the first stop on the trip, but that happened to be about 9 hours away.  With the winter approaching, sunlight is hard to come by these days and we are certainly no early risers.  Three options arose about 5 minutes into the trip.  Remember this is 12:30 at night, Jordan had just flown across the country, and we had no idea what the next move might be.  

Option A-  Drive a few hours towards southern Utah, possibly staying near Las Vegas that night.  We would knock out the remaining 7 hours the next morning, find something to that evening, and go into Zion National Park the next day, effectively wasting a valuable day of Jordan's travels.

Option B- Drive to Vegas.  Sell the camper.  Take that money and put it on one hand of blackjack.  Hope for the best.

Option C-  Knock out all 9 hours of the drive and arrive in Zion National Park the next morning.  Once the sun comes up, hope a little of adrenaline and moving around kicks in to offset skipping a night of sleep.  This would be the best usage of time, and would start the last 2 weeks out with a bang.  

I had no interest in option A, option B seemed tempting but reckless, so that left option C.  Allen knocked out the first few hours of the drive until about 3:30 am and I took the reins from there, running on no sleep.  For the first time of the trip, someone decided to ride in the camper while we were driving.  Under no circumstances is this legal, but Allen figured he would get a few hours of sleep and report back to us a few hours later on how safe he felt back there.  Bub slept in the passenger seat, Jordan stretched out in the back and we were off.  Bub slept on and off for awhile, I wasn't sure what Allen was doing in the back, and Jordan got about an hour of sleep before the sun came up.  We slept until about noon that day before, with the possibility of something wild happening that night so I was good to go.  Pacific time is 3 hours behind east coast, so by that measure, Jordan had woken up at 7 am, flown across the country, got one hour of sleep in a 24 hour period, and had to make until the next night.  

If you have ever stayed up all night and skipped a night's sleep, you will know about 5 or 6 am is the toughest part.  Once the sun comes up, your body gets tricked and starts to wake up with a little sunlight. Lucky for me, Jordan woke up about an hour before the sun came up and we talked bs before driving through Las Vegas just as it was getting light outside.  We looked at each other about 5 minutes after passing through and just started laughing thinking about the situation.  I'm not sure he knew what he was getting himself into when he agreed to fly out and meet us for 2 weeks, but if anyone can give a spark to a group, Jordan Vance is the man.  

Fast forward about 4 hours later, and we had arrived in Zion National Park in southwest Utah at 10 am after a 9 plus hour drive.  Allen had made it out of the back of the camper after we had stopped a few hours earlier, claiming he slept very little and felt very unsafe in the camper.  You can't see the road laying down back there, and he said it was an extremely bumpy ride.  I guess they make these things to sleep in while stationary, not while going 65 mph.  

Zion NP is desert-like with red rocks all over with very good off trail hiking.  It is one of the smallest national parks in the United States, but good enough to satisfy us for a few hours.  Unlike a few of the other parks, we only had plans to visit it for an afternoon before hitting the road again.  For the last 2 weeks, it was a day maximum anywhere because of the ground we had to cover to get home by November 22nd.  

We talked to a park ranger, and he gave us a good 3 mile hike to do.  I hadn't slept a wink, and everyone else was running off very little sleep, but we had enough gas in the tank to suck it up and hike.  We made the first two miles on a designated trail before coming up on a big canyon that was hikable as well, but with no trails.  We were closer to the bottom of the canyon, so it was all uphill with big rocks and trees to climb up.  It was easily doable, but there wasn't a clearly outline path to take.  A few times, one of us would see a path up and someone else would claim they saw a better way.  We would all follow who we thought was taking the best path and see what happened.  One person would climb up a set of huge boulders to get up and another would try a hillside that led upwards.  At one point, I almost got stuck and Allen and Jordan had to put their hands out below me so I could step on them just to make it down safely.  

This was definitely one of the best hikes of the trip and we took it back to the truck around 4 that afternoon to find a place to eat. (We had the 2nd best looking waitress of the trip for this meal, with a Vancouver waitress taking the prize for the trip)  Like I said, we are not early risers and in order to maximize sunlight hours, we drove at night and got close to wherever we needed to be the next day, that night. (If that makes sense.)  For example, the next day we wanted to check out Bryce Canyon National Park, so we drove about 30 minutes away that night so we could just wake up and be there the next day.  Even if that meant driving a few more hours after no sleep and a 10 hour drive. 

I continue to tell people that Southern Utah is the most underrated part of the country.  I had never heard anyone talk about Southern Utah but between Canyonlands NP, Arches NP, Zion NP, and Bryce Canyon, it is amazing.  We had done the first two in the middle of September and headed north, and our route had taken us back to southern Utah for 2 more national parks.  

Bryce Canyon is, well, a big canyon at a much higher elevation than Zion.  This being in the middle of November, they already had snow.  This wasn't going to stop us from doing a hike or enjoying the outdoors.  We got into the park about 11 am to a cool 37 degrees and partly sunny but as long as you're moving, it wasn't bad.  We set off on a 2 mile hike through the snow and ice down into a part of the canyon.  Parts of the trail were completely covered in snow.  Before setting off, we took side bets on who would be the first person to bust their ass.  2 bets on Jordan, one on me, and one for Bub.

The trail was about a 3 mile loop that had plenty of switchbacks and many good overlooks.  The hike went down into a canyon with mountains surrounding us.  We made a couple sandwiches and stopped to eat and enjoy the scenery about halfway through, trying to stay warm all at the same time.  Believe it or not, there were actually a decent amount of people out hiking like we were.  Enjoy the pictures and let it be known that no one busted their ass on the hike, although we did decide to cut out about a 1/2 mile of the hike by going straight up the side of a mountain, where Bub almost got stuck.  We ended up throwing the rope down to him in order to avoid any catastrophes.    

For the time of year and where we were in the trip, Jordan couldn't have got luckier to catch a few scenic sites.  First Zion, then Bryce Canyon, next- the Grand Canyon.  Being late in the year and taking into account the weather, we didn't have too many options of things to do.  Let's hit all the lookouts and enjoy some breaktaking views, because hiking was out of the question.  As far as looking at a single scenic sight, this tops my list for the entire trip.  You have an image in your head about what the Grand Canyon will look like and how big it might be, but this blew my image out of the water.  We drove along the north rim for 20 miles or so, stopping every few miles to enjoy each vantage point.  It was in the 30s and really windy, so viewing it was about as much as we got to do.  It sure didn't disappoint my perception of what it would be like.  

Throughout the trip, we went on 3 and 4 day stretches were we would have a stocked refrigerator.  We would cook, throw sandwiches together, whatever we could do to avoid eating out.  Other times, we would go another 4 day stretch eating out for every meal.  Jordan went to culinary school so not only did we add a hell of a member to the crew, but we added a personal chef.  Jordan cooks, Allen drives, Bub made sure we made logical decisions and guided us places, and I decided where we were going and staying each night.  Looks like all areas were covered to me.  If only someone knew how to win money at casinos.    

In Bryce Canyon, around lunch time, we realized that there weren't many options to eat.  "Hey Jordan, why don't you go through the cabinets and fridge and see what you can throw together for us."  20 minutes later, Jordan had made pasta with some leftover ham and some spices we had in the cabinet with mac and cheese and few other random items.  The next night, we bought a pork tenderloin and he made an amazing sauce with some blueberry jam I had bought some time ago.  Anyone can throw something in the oven and cook meat on the stove but the thing that sets good cooks apart from random people heating up meat, like myself, is that they know how to make sauces that will go well with the food on hand.  Did I mention that Jordan was a good addition to the crew?

Prior to the Grand Canyon, we came to the realization that one of must see events was a possibility….. a Nascar Race.  Way back in May before I starting traveling, I went to the Coca-Cola 600 in Charlotte, Nascar's premiere event.  I swore I was going next year (and every year after) and Bub, Allen, and I all said from the start of the road trip that if we were near one, we had to go.  Lucky for us, that Sunday, the Kobalt Tools 500 was set to take place in Phoenix.  We left the Grand Canyon and headed near Phoenix the night before to catch the afternoon race the next day.  If you have never been to a race, well, it is very unusual.  The concept is to drink and tailgate and then watch cars go really fast for a few hours.  If this doesn't like fun to you, then you know what, you aren't fun.  Maybe the southerner in me is coming out in saying that, but you have to go to a race.  We brought the camper to the race, put the awning out, set up the table and chairs, and were ready to go.    

The race started at 1 pm, and we were there by 11 am to grill and drink some brews before the race started.  You have to get a few beers in before the race in order to get the full experience.  Have about 3 or 4 before it starts to loosen up a little and really get into the action.  The Phoenix crowd seemed much more high class than the die-hard Charlotte crowd but we still saw some characters here.  It was funny to look around and see an older guy with his 2 small kids at the race.  "Looks like its my weekend with the kids, better take 'em to the race, whewww!" 

We were still not shaving and looking rough now almost 14 weeks into the trip.  I wore jorts, Bub wore his denim outfit, and Jordan wore his newly purchased hat.  We represented North Carolina very well in Phoenix.  Arizona must not have the beer thing figured out, because you weren't allowed to bring alcohol inside.  You may think this is crazy, but in Charlotte, you can take a cooler with as much beer as you want into the speedway as long as it fits underneath your seat.  If you are a heavy drinker and the cooler underneath your seat won't do- you can even pay for 2 seats- one for you, and one for your cooler.  

We scalped 4 tickets to the race right outside the entrance and made it to our seats about 10 or 15 laps into the race.  It was about 70 degrees, partly sunny, in the 2nd week of November…. not too shabby.  This was one of the last races in the season, and by this point in "The Chase", Nascar's version of a postseason, the championship had come down to Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards.  Kasey Kayne ended up taking the race, with Edwards and Stewart finished 2nd and 3rd in somewhat of an anti-climatic ending.

After a 2 or 3 hour recovery period, ears still ringing, we hit the ground running again, this time heading towards Carlsbad Caverns in the middle of New Mexico.  The caverns were about 12 hours away so drove a few hours, stopped for the night, and continued on the next day, making sure we arrived before the 4 pm closing the next day.  

Carlsbad Caverns are the tallest caverns in the United States.  You go 75 feet below ground and then arrive in this huge open room at least 200 feet tall.  The government does a really good job of keeping areas like this and National Parks accessible to the public without ruining any land or elements of the wild in the process.  For Carlsbad, there were paved trails leading through the caverns with guard rails to keep idiots like us from falling off the side of the walkways into the darkness.  The caverns had massive formations of salt and limestone desposits that had formed over millions of years and formed the openings underground.  

This had to have been the most driving the crew had put in since the very first week of the trip.  Jordan flew in to Los Angeles- we drove 10 hours on no sleep, stopped for a few hours in Zion NP and then drove 2 more to Bryce Canyon NP.  Throw in about 5 to the Grand Canyon, another 7 to Phoenix, plus 10 to Carlsbad Caverns plus another 8 to our next destination, Big Bend National Park in Texas.  The driving seems like a lot, but I sure couldn't figure out another way to see the country like this.  Looking back, option B- driving to Vegas, selling the camper and putting the money on one hand of blackjack- doesn't seem like that bad of idea anymore.  Thanks for reading, stay tuned for the 15th and final week of the trip in Texas.  RIP JHW3