Flying is Overrated

Captain's Blog, Star Date: 2.20.2014

A few years back my mother took my family to Arizona to find a piece of land that my grandparents bought back in the 50's .  They purchased a few acres of desert property for a minuscule amount of money with the intention of selling it back to a developer to make a profit on it.  Long story short, the land they bought was never used for anything and is, indeed, in the middle of nowhere about 50 miles outside of Sanders County, AZ.

After four hours of driving on sketchy unmarked desert roads and using GPS coordinates to find our land, we finally did.  It was beautiful and untouched.  You could see for miles in any direction and there were mountains to explore in the distance.  The sun was so warm and the air was so hot.  Standing there, in the middle of that vast desert, feeling how warm the sun was, watching massive clouds cast shadows over the mountains as they rolled above them... I had never felt better.

The rust colored sand made what little plant life there was pop out in a beautiful contrast.  I was just starting to fall in love with the desert.  Once we found the property we slept over night in a crappy highway motel and then left for Sedona in the morning.  We drove all day and saw a lot of very bland looking desert until we got closer to our destination.  You could see the color of the sediment in the rocks changing from beige to a very deep, saturated rust red.  Looking up ahead, you could see the Red Rocks.  I found this to be a very stunning change of scenery.   From that moment on, I've felt completely mystified by the allure of this particular area of the desert.

On our last day of the trip, we went to Jerome, AZ.  It was supposed to be a copper mining town, but as it turns out, there wasn't as much copper in the mountains as they thought, and it kind of turned into this mutated artsy ghost town full of stoners and bikers on the top of a mountain...  It's fucking awesome.  Anyway, when we came home, I found myself thinking of Arizona a lot.  So, I decided that if I liked it there so much, maybe I should move there, which is how we now come full circle to the main story...

Stan and I decided to go on an adventure to Arizona to see the sights and scope out a place to live.

We drove from Oswego, Illinois to Tucson, Arizona in 32 hours and drove in shifts, only stopping once every 5 hours or so for food, gas, or pee breaks.  We took the southern route in because we were visiting his Aunt and Uncle in Tucson and then driving up to Sedona the next day.  The southern route was pretty boring to look at, but I still felt such a sense of adventure.  I had never driven that far before (1,705 miles one way).  My mom thought we were nuts, but I really felt a great sense of accomplishment after taking this trip.  Not many people can say that they've driven more than half way across the country.  It was awesome to see how the land changed as we got further and further away from home.

We stayed in Sedona for 3 days, visited Jerome frequently, climbed and swam through Slide Rock, hiked through some mountains, got caught in a massive but beautiful thunderstorm, and ate all the fudge and drank all the beer that we could.  When it was time to go, we took the northern route back home through Utah and Colorado because I wanted to visit my Uncle in Nebraska.  It was way more visually interesting driving North, and we got caught in another huge thunderstorm while driving through the last of the desert and into the mountains of Colorado.  It was indescribably beautiful, as it happened at sunset and everything looked like it had been cast in this orange sherbert glow of light.  We got to Nebraska around noon the next day and spent that night drinking profusely with my Uncle and telling stories.  We stayed with him another day, and when it was time to go, I must admit I really didn't want to.  Nebraska may be boring to some, but my Uncle lives in the middle of nowhere, and I kinda think that's awesome.  Could it be, that I think anywhere is better than the Mid West?

All in all I can't say that we'll be moving to Arizona any time soon.  Where I want to live is way to expensive!  But after taking this trip, I will always prefer to drive rather than fly and I would implore you all to at least give it a shot.  You can stop whenever you want and do whatever you want at any time.  I brought my camera with and took tons of pictures.  We explored anything we wanted to along the way and brought our bikes along just in case we wanted to cover more ground.  I guess I like to wander, and I like the outdoors, so driving really adds to my overall experience.  Also, the cost of gas was around 400 dollars total, which was the price of one round trip plane ticket, I didn't have to pay to park my car at an airport for 10 days, and I also didn't have to pay to rent a vehicle once we got there.  All of the extra cash I saved was put toward us staying at a bitchin' Best Western with a balcony that looked out onto the Red Rocks.

Here are some of my favorite pictures that I took on our adventure :)