MOAB!

Day 1

We are off! Out on our world-wind adventure of heading to Moab, Utah and back! It was absolutely exciting to go to Richmond for some Timmy’s breakfast and get lost on our way out of Richmond.

Then we stuck in the riveting border line-up. It took us an hour to get through that line.

Jenn decided to be a man and not have a map. She just wanted to write down the directions from her I-phone (I have no idea how that thing works) and hopefully get there. Not having a map, made me feel nervous. I like knowing where I am and what direction I am headed it. I am not too much of a fan of getting lost, because it is a waste of gas.

We have only gotten lost once when Jenn told me to turn off and we were four miles too early. That’s when I got my road map! Very exciting for me! Now we are nearly 500km into Washington State and still over an hour away from the Oregon state-line.
Driving through the landscape has been changing every half an hour or so. It is getting flatter, and flatter! I miss my mountains and ocean already! The winery country is very beautiful though!



Day 2

I forgot to mention, that yesterday I saw wind turbines for the very first time! Because I have never seen them before they look very alien to me, kinda like the were made by aliens or that they don’t belong on this planet.

Our first night was spent in Boise, Idaho! It was surprisingly a really cool city. There was all of these pubs, and mom-and-pop kinda shops. We stopped by a cute little coffee shop this morning. It was a much bigger city than Jenn or I thought it would be.

We found the Cabana Hotel. The first room we went into scared the crap out of us. The room was facing a back street, door was very flimsy and it was dark because there were not outside lights on that side and the lights didn’t work inside the room. Jenn was the one that had to go talk to the hotel guy. He was trying to offer Jenn a room with two beds and questioned why Jenn wanted a room with only one bed. It made us laugh because we don’t know if it’s ok to be gay there. While at the hotel we were looking through yellow pages to find one of the places that had been featured in “Diners, Drive-ins and Dives” show to have something to eat. We discovered that our hotel had free wireless, while skimming through these booklets. So we just found all of them online. It was awesome! Jenn was also able to do some of her career stuff as well.

We went to a place that was on the show, but when we got there we were told that the kitchen had closed an hour early! I was really disappointed. Jenn made me feel better though by buying me a hot dog and saying that we will definitely visit one in Salt Lake City.




This morning while looking for a coffee place, we saw tons of old classic cars. There was a giant line of them to get into this little area of the city centre. When we went to get coffee at the little coffee palce, they said that it was for father’s day. Happy Father’s Day! It was also funny, at the coffee shop one of the girls recognized that I was wearing my Tegan and Sara sweatshirt, and so we thought that if she recognized them then they must be ok with gay people there.

We have finally arrived in Moab! I am enjoying the late night cool air while Jenn has another plays on her stupid Iphone again!

We stop in Salt Lake City for lunch and the Capitol building there was magnificent! It was huge and on top of a giant hill! The rest of the buildings there were very beautiful as well. It was only weird how wide the roads were. We enjoyed some food-age at the Macaroni Grill. It was delicious and the bread and dip they serve you right when you walk in is delicious (it’s a olive oil and vinegar dip).

Driving into Moab we saw a few of the places where we want to go biking and hiking. When we checked into our campsite, one of the managers here was giving us a ton of tips on where to go and what to see! He was really friendly and they seem to run a really nice campsite here.

I like the campsite a lot! It reminds of a campsite my family and I went to when I was really young. It was in a place called Christina Lake. I don’t know where that place is, but I had an amazing time there.



The red rock here is beautiful! The colours and textures are spectacular! It’s great! I am quite excited to not be driving tomorrow and really enjoying our trip!
Driving with Jenn has been really fun. We get along so well when we aren’t lost. When we are lost though, I think it’s a pain for both of us. It’s funny and it makes me laugh. I love her so much!

Quote from the day: “K-O-A campsite: Knock out cool! We should tell all the tourists that! We should totally patent that!” – Hick-ish gas station attendants in Moab.



Day 7

Yes I know, I forgot to write for almost the whole time we were in Moab.
First night in Moab we went to.... wait after talking with Jenn we didn’t go anywhere because she had to make an important phone call at a specific time, due to the time zone change. I made some lovely hot dogs in the fry pan and we went to bed. We discovered that not having the fly on the tent made the tent nice and cool. Later we discovered the disadvantages to having no fly on the tent!
The next morning we tried to sleep in and then headed to Arches National Park. It is the most beautiful park I have ever seen. If you have seen any commercial or movie with a red rock background in it, it is probably filmed there. So gorgeous! We discovered quickly how hot it gets and saw as much as we could before we headed back to the campsite for lunch. We walked to the Delicate Arch Viewpoint, and saw the Balanced rock and we drove around the park to get our bearings. Since it was so hot we decided to walk around town and try to fix the bbq I brought. It was missing a piece. We couldn’t fix it. So we got some briquettes for the provided campsite bbq.



Day 8

Sorry, I got distracted because I had to drive and navigate the rest of yesterday.
So...continuing...

We also walked around the “downtown” area of Moab. It is one street. We also checked out the rental place where we were renting bikes for the next two days.
In the late afternoon we headed back to Arches. We saw the windows and the Double Arch. The windows are really cool because you can walk right into them. Then from far away, you can see them both beside each other. Then we hiked over to the Double Arch. The Double Arch was the coolest Arch of all the Arches we saw. It was made from water pouring onto rock, and then it gets degraded down or breaks down and then the sides remain. Then under the sides the rock degrades/breaks and only the arches remain. See the pictures, they are amazing!




For dinner I made some skewers and potatoes! Nom Nom Nom!

The next morning we went to get the bikes from Poisoned Spider Bikes. The bikes were “Daisy” and “Dr. Octagon” (those were the names of the bikes, teehee)! I had “Daisy” and she was a beauty! I think Jenn was a little jealous of how cool mine looked. We headed to the Bar M loop. It was recommended as a good first-time-to-Moab-ride. It was about 6 miles out of town, so we headed there.



On the Bar M loop, we felt it was really easy. But there were some loops off of the main loop that were a little more difficult. We did one loop backwards by accident because we were getting confused by the signage. Then there was the most difficult loop, the “Circle O loop”. It was the first time that day that we road on slick rock. There is lots of the red rock to ride on there (that’s what Moab is famous for) and that was our first taste of it. It is very technical riding. Jenn was having blast riding on it, I could tell. I, on the other hand, was having a more difficult time and was getting very frustrated. Jenn was really good about helping me and giving me some tips so that I don’t destroy myself. We were starting to get really hot and there was a serious lack of shade because it was high noon. Thank goodness there was a cut through trail that led us back to the car. It was a tough ride back to the car in the heat.

We got back to the campsite and enjoyed some much needed pool time and a shaved ice treat (we got one every day we were in Moab).



That evening we headed to the Moab Brewery for some drinks and foodies. We got the sampler which consisted of ten, two once beers for five dollars. It was fun to try all the different beers of the region. Jenn got a little buzzed from it all. She ordered a burrito, and she said it was quite tasty and I got the bbq’ed Tip steak with onion rings. The meat was cooked perfectly, nice and tender and the bbq sause was so good. We were both surprised to have such good food.

The next day we decided to head to another trailer, I think it was called Lower Marrimac and M...something trail (also called Lower M & M). We got out there and started biking along and came to the head of the trail and there was a sign that said there was high potential for major rock falls in the area. So we decided to head to the famous Slickrock practice trail.



It was an amazing trail. It was on the red rock like Circle O but not really as technical as the Circle O portion from the Bar M trail. We had a blast! The view was amazing and we were glad to try the most famous trail in Moab. It was 2.3 miles around the loop and we completed it in about an hour and half. Jenn was beaming, she was so happy we did it. I called her the best girlfriend ever, because she is 
Then we dropped off the bikes and headed to the pool.

The guys recommended a trail called Porcupine Trail, which is a downhill trail and you have to take a shutter to the top and have your car at the bottom. We said if we ever come back we will do that trail.

That evening we headed into Arches Park again to see some rock art that was carved into the rock by natives years ago, it was called Wolfe Ranch. However, the trail that leads to it was closed for whatever reason. We were mad because that was the second thing that day that we were not able to do. So we headed south along the Colorado River to find some more. We found some and they were really cool. We took a bunch photos, climbed on a rock and I got a bad bug bite on my finger. I swelled up so bad that Jenn said I should get some antihistamine.

I had a restless sleep that night because of that stupid antihistamine!



The next morning we got up as early as we could and headed out to Arches for the last time to do the 3 mile hike into the Devil’s Garden to check out the Double O Arch and the Dark Angel (it was Jessica Alba in disguise). The hike was super awesome! We hike on the top of ridge and it was like we were walking on top of everything, nothing was higher than us and we got to look down to see everything. Devil’s Garden was awesome because it had the most amazing red rock, canyons and valleys. There was two ways to hike the trail and we hiked the main trail on the way into Devil’s Garden and hiked the “primitive” trail on the way back. Oh, I almost forgot, we saw the famous Landscape Arch which had a landslide in 1991, that went right under the arch and destroyed the visitors’ walkway that lead to right under the archway. That was the last of Arches National Park for us!

That afternoon we drove north on the scenic highway along the Colorado River. It was gorgeous up there. We stopped at a place that was supposed to have rapids, but I think the water level was too high to have a lot of rapids. There was just the really fast current. On our way back to Moab we stopped at a hotel/winery. It had a free movie museum, which featured all of the movies that have been filmed in the area. Moab has had the longest running film commission in the world.

That night we made some amazing steaks and potatoes. We packed up the car so we would be able to get up and leave the next morning.



End of Trip (Yes, I’m home)

The next morning was the start of the three day road trip home. We headed north towards Salt Lake City. They have crazy traffic around that city so we decided to eat at a place called “In & Out Burger” that was just outside of town. In & Out is supposed to be this American famous fast burger place. The burgers weren’t half bad, but the fries were not good at all. I don’t think that that batch was fried long enough.



Then we headed out to the Bonneville Salt Flats. They were soooooooo flat! Scary flat! It was cool to see and touch it because I will probably never be around that area again in my life.

Then we headed back to Boise. We love it there. It is such a cool city! We went to the Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives place that I wanted to go to last time. It was delicious! We had these lamb sandwiches and the lamb is grown locally and it was so good! Best lamb sandwich I have ever had!

Random quote from road trip portion:
“Ménage trois-ck” (there was a truck that was pulling two other trucks but they hitched together as if they all doing each other from behind)



The next morning we headed out to Portland, Oregon. I LOVE Portland! It is the coolest, trendiest and hippest place I have ever been too! Oh, while trying to find a hotel, Jenn and I saw Tim Robbins checking into a hotel. Yeah, he has a couple Oscars and is the main character of the best movie of all time: Shawshank Redemption. Yeah, no big deal! We ate at a fresh oyster bar and they had the best oysters I have ever had! So good! Portland looks like it has its own culture of food, music and fashion. Also they have events every week! They have a Saturday market every Saturday and lots of concerts. Their scene looks pretty sick! We went shopping for a bit and went to the best book store on the planet: Powells. So awesome! They sell new and used books! They had floor to ceiling selves full of books and the store was huge with a coffee shop in it!

The next day was to head home! We went to the outlets first of course and bought some stuff and then went straight to the border for home!

It was an amazing trip and I wouldn’t have it without Jenn, as she is the one who had the idea to go there and booked the whole trip. I love you baby girl!