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Published: January 9th 2010
I currently sit on the plane on my way home after two weeks’ visiting bi-coastal cities and road tripping, and while it feels good because “home” is Kauai, it is still just a little saddening because it was such an amazing trip that I don’t want it to end! I can’t believe Michael and I left only two weeks ago, for with the amount of activities, sights and mileage we squeezed in, it feels like many months. Though this wasn’t long enough to keep an ongoing blog, it certainly warrants some sort of write-up, so hence, my one-time travel blog entry!
The trip started back on the east coast, with a whopping 2.5 days through New York City and New Jersey. Extremely fast, yes, but also extremely well spent! It was unexpectedly exciting to visit prospective grad schools (Columbia and NYU), for it felt good to be enthusiastic about academia again. Though we will probably not go till a couple more years, if ever (Read: not ready to leave Kauai yet!), it was fun to walk around campuses and talk to students again.
While in New York this time, I also had the very unique opportunity to visit and
FL Reunion in NYC
with the newly-engaged Andrea and Christopher!tour the International Securities Exchange (ISE), the options exchange that my boss founded. The current CEO was kind enough to take me around and I was able to meet all the characters that I had heard about for the last 3.5 years at my job, in addition to getting access to some very classified networking bases and data systems rooms…I didn’t understand most of what they explained to me about daily operations and how an electronic exchange is run, but I got very good at nodding and smiling!
The rest of the time in New York was spent with good friends from college, high school, and middle school, and eating well! While we love living in Kauai, the only drawback is being away from old friends, so it is always a luxury to get even just a few hours with them again! The main event there—which spurred our entire trip to begin with—was the long-awaited wedding of two of Michael’s friends from Jersey whom I’ve come to know over the years. With the bride and groom being high school sweethearts, the wedding had promised to be a wild, raucous reunion, and indeed it lived up to the hype! To
use the words of the Best Man’s (groom’s brother) eloquent and laudable toast, the ceremony against the backdrop of a perfect sunset and rolling green hills was “simple and romantic.” The party, however, was a little more than just simple—several sure signs of a successful party include 250-person dance circles, singing Journey at the top of our lungs, and parents falling out of their chairs during the hora. Good times indeed.
The night never really ended and kinda blended right into San Francisco, for after the wedding we headed back into the city, and proceeded to traipse around in our tuxedos and gowns to New York dive bars, 24-hour diner/delis, and catching the Penn Station train back to Jersey. You see a whole different side of the city walking across 34th Street in a magenta gown, before all the Macy’s and H&M’s open, and alongside the other, perhaps less-elegantly-dressed homeless using Penn Station as their bathroom and bed, as we were doing during the idle hours of late night/early morning. Shortly after being back in Jersey, we were on a plane to San Francisco!
Time in SF was even shorter, if possible, and after a late dinner with
Here Comes the Bride!
Proud Volper parents walking their daughter down the aisle a friend, visiting Stanford and Berkeley (loved them!), and q quick lunch with another friend for about two seconds, it was the beginning of our road trip in what was soon to be our beloved home, the Ford PleasureWay RV, or the “Pleasure Wagon,” as we quickly dubbed it.
Starting at 6am last Tuesday morning, we hit the road, beating SF traffic and starting to chip away at the mileage we had planned to cover that day—the most ambitious of any day as we wanted to get a large chunk of Nevada over with. Highlights of the first day included Michael’s first sampling of an In & Out Burger (for all you Californians who love it, verdict was a thumbs down!), searching for the Terminator in Sacramento’s State Capitol, dipping our toes into the waters of South Lake Tahoe, wandering the marble halls of Carson City’s State Capitol, and, perhaps most “road-trippy” of all, barreling down Highway 50, or the “Loneliest Road in America,” through rain storms and dark clouds. The straight road stretched for as long as our eyes could see, through high mountain passes and dotted with old abandoned gas stations or run-down casinos every now and
Hawai'i Represents!
Kauaians makes their way back to Jersey for the big event then. It was quite lonely alright! All I can say is, thank goodness for our Sirius satellite radio.
The first night on the road was spent in glorious Ely, Nevada, a western casino town with maybe a few hundred people in population—but it was the biggest town and most activity we had seen since Carson City! After surprisingly delicious homemade pizza in the smoky, dinky 24-hr casino, we were beat. We pulled into an RV park, which we would later classify as the worst one the whole trip, but since it was our first one, we had no idea what to expect. It was basically a gravel parking lot. We hooked up our electricity and were so tired that we couldn’t even take advantage of the free margaritas the RV park offered us. We passed out, nestled in what we discovered is the most comfortable bed—ever!—and thus started falling in love with the idea of being able to drive, pee, cook and sleep all in your own car! It’s amazing!
The next morning, we attempted our first RV dump and water refill. A little tricky at first, we quickly became experts at the fast fill, dump and wash
routine, and had no problems going forward.
The second day was also a lot of driving, but far more picturesque! We continued on the Loneliest Road and crossed into Utah, and almost immediately the terrain changed from rolling hills and desolate landscape to dramatic plateaus and mountains of glorious reds and oranges. Not that Nevada was not pretty, but Utah was downright fascinating! Near the border of NV and UT we passed by Great Basin National Park, and though we did not explore in there, the peaks of Mt. Wheeler stood crisp and tall, providing a stunning backdrop. Later that day we started the National Scenic Byway of Route 12, which would bring us to Bryce Canyon. This road passed by Capitol Reef National Park and provided literally jaw-dropping views every few seconds, winding the road through deep canyons and onto knife-edges between steep cliffs and deep gorges. We shared the road with many other RVs, campers and motorcyclists, and quickly got used to the camaraderie of road-tripping RV culture.
Arriving in Bryce Canyon City in the evening, we checked ourselves into a very fancy RV park with great showers, laundry, gift shops and a slew of other
PleasureWay the Highway
loving our scenic drive into Nevada in our beautiful RV amenities. It’s like a hotel, but in your car and without having to unpack and repack everything! While a bit touristy, it was nice to enjoy a long hot shower, Coronas at our picnic table next to the lake, and a monstrous Cowboy buffet dinner, prepping us for some exploring the next day.
With hardly any driving planned the next day, we woke up early and got to Sunrise Point and the Navajo/Queen’s Loop Trail in Bryce Canyon National Park before most others. What we saw coming up over the hill and peering into the Bryce Canyon “amphitheatre” is simply indescribable!—the hyped-up “hoodoos,” as the fantastical rock formations and columns are called, are absolutely out of this world! With the morning sunlight on them, it truly looked like we were on another planet, partying with aliens. Millions of years of sedimentation, lithification, and erosion have created rows and rows of these absurd, colorful hoodoos that look like giant soldiers, or pawn pieces in Chess, surrounding their Queen. There is even one formation they call “Queen Victoria,” presumably because it resembles the Queen piece in Chess. Our hike took us from above he hoodoos to down in and amongst them,
and then through an area of very thin, tall canyons all around you, appropriately dubbed “Wall Street,” as they resemble those tight tall buildings that we were next to only a few days earlier on the real Wall Street. It was a fascinating exploration, and because we had our RV right there when we were done with the hike, we were able to make lunch and bring it and some Coronas to a nice spot overlooking all the hoodoos, taking in the view over turkey sandwiches and sharing crumbs with the resident wild chipmunks. We spent the rest of the afternoon after the hike checking out all the other lookouts in the national park.
In the evening, we started the short drive to even farther south in Utah to Zion National Park, where we would stay for the next two nights. The quick drive became more scenic by the mile, and by the time we entered Zion, we were truly in awe and humbled by our surroundings. Somehow, Zion’s enormous mountains and cliffs managed to surpass even our earlier wonderment of Bryce Canyon.
Zion is in a class of its own. Driving through the artist’s palette of colorful
South Lake Tahoe
Dipping toes into Lake Tahoe canyons made us realize how truly beautiful this country is and how little of it is explored! We also constantly teased how Zion National Park is a bit of a utopia—you cannot drive your car in to most of it, so everyone takes these very efficient shuttles run on biodiesel, so there is no congestion; fellow hikers are friendly; kids were always laughing and frolicking through the canyons and grass; families would eat ice cream on the lawn of the Lodge, and just everything seemed particularly perfect! That first night, we hopped on the shuttle and figured we would just see a few lookouts and stops so that we would cut back on the number of things to do the next day. But the sun set so late (9pm) that after starting a short trek to a pool, we kept going and ended up completing the entire loop and our second hike in our second national park in the same day!
Finally out of the park late, we landed ourselves a sweet site along the river in an RV park surrounded by canyons and plateaus, set up our RV’s porch awning, and had a great local dinner of Rocky
Getting Loooooonely...
Driving through storms on the Loneliest Road in America in Nevada Mountain Rainbow Trout and lamb.
The next day was possibly one of the most memorable of the trip, as we geared up and set off to explore the renowned “Narrows” inside Zion. The Narrows is a slot-canyon hike that you can do over many days or just one day if you do not go too far. As our time was limited, we opted for just the one-day trek, but the 7 miles in-river adventure still left us plenty satisfied! We rented neoprene water socks, water shoes, walking sticks, and I even donned a very fashionable Urkel-like dry pantsuit that went up to my chest, as the water was measuring at 49ºF that morning!
The Narrows is “the grandfather of slot canyons,” and you basically explore it by hiking in the Virgin River, which carved the canyon. About half of the hike is along the river’s shoreline, but the other half is literally just walking upriver, in very cold water, over lots of uneven river stones and through some rapids. At one point, the water went up to my chest!, but that was about the highest it went. The coolest area was yet another “Wall Street” (our third of
RV Life
Our first dump and fill the trip!), where the canyon walls get extremely, well, narrow, and tower above you, and there is wall-to-wall water, so you basically just scale along the walls, avoiding deep pockets of water—and of course, take in the immense and unique beauty around you. After the Narrows’ Wall Street, we hiked up another really fun tributary called the Orderville Junction, which was less dramatic but a lot of fun, lifting ourselves up over giant boulders and squeezing in between 1’ openings in between canyon walls.
If we had only done the Narrows we would’ve been happy with Zion, but that, plus several more lookouts and mini trails along the shuttle route and a perfect campsite made for an amazing experience. As we hardly scratched the surface of the vast land that is Zion, I know we will be back!
After Zion, we continued on our national park circuit the next day and dipped into Arizona. Though most would continue on to complete the Grand Staircase Escalante area and hit up the Grand Canyon, we thought that that deserved a separate trip of its own and that we did not have time if we wanted to see our other sights
and still make it to Denver on time. So, we bypassed that and headed over toward Navajo Nation, stopping by at Lake Powell and Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in northern Arizona for a short visit.
Inside Navajo Nation (we did go abroad on this trip after all, ha!), which is apparently the largest Native American tribe left in the country, we drove through Monument Valley, a place that recalled the otherworldliness of Bryce Canyon. In the middle of nothing but desert, bizarre rock structures in funny shapes pop up all around you! These giant formations and buttes are shaped like elephants, hand mittens, nuns, and whatever else one might find in the shapes of clouds. Made famous by old John Wayne movies, Monument Valley is the iconic symbol of the Wild West, and our afternoon there happened to coincide with a ridiculously windy sandstorm, further confirming the image of the dusty ol’ West. The windstorm spewed sand everywhere and created a dreamlike, blurry aura all around us, making nearby monuments look like faraway desert mirages. It was pretty cool and our short stint through Arizona was aptly completed with the roll-by of a literal tumbleweed blowing across the
Long and Winding Road...
desolate and beautiful Utah road in front of us!! It could not have been better planned and was straight out of a movie— we could hear the whistle of the western movies ringing behind us, the cowboys ready to draw their guns in the nearby saloon, this single tumbleweed blowing by to signal the start of the showdown.
After Monument Valley, we stopped by the Four Corners, where we were under-impressed by the confluence of the political lines of the four states of UT, CO, AZ and NM. There is a rock slab with lines in it designating the separation of the four states, and the four flags. Most ironic of all, it is located within the borders of the Navajo Nation, who charges you $3/person to see said slab for about two seconds.
And then onto Colorado! After some local booze and grub from one of Colorado’s many distinct characteristic microbreweries, that night was our first and only night spent in a Wal Mart parking lot in Cortez, CO, instead of in an RV park. For future road-trippers, it might be helpful to know that Wal Mart is one of the only places that allow RVs and huge trucks to park
Red Rocks
dramatic red landscapes in Utah overnight in their parking lots and sleep. It was also my first time in a Wal Mart Super Center—it was quite large to say the least!
We stopped in Cortez because it is just outside of Mesa Verde National Park, where we spent the next day. Mesa Verde features crazy sandstone cliff dwellings built by the Pueblo Native Americans about 800 years ago. They are built right into the hollows and nooks of the eroded sandstone mesas, and nobody really knows why they were abandoned, though the experts suspect that population growth and the subsequent exploitation of area resources forced them to move on. Their homes, however, remain quite intact and are still quite artfully and architecturally sound. You have to go on ranger-led tours to access most of the cliff dwellings, and you get to climb up and down fun ladders (how they got around from dwelling to dwelling) along the sides of cliffs, crawl through sandstone tunnels, and learn about their spiritual kivas. We did two led cliff tours, explored one self-led one on our own, and hiked a really fun, rock-hopping 3-mi Petroglyph Trail that led to some really clear, ancient Puebloan petroglyphs.
After Mesa
Huffing and Puffing
pretending to rock climb Verde, we landed in Durango, CO, for the night, an old western mining town that is still extremely charming today. It is famous for its coal, narrow-gauge train that still runs from Durango to Silverton, now as a tourist activity for visitors. We did not get to take the train, as it is a whole-day event that we didn’t have time for, but we did get to ride the free trolley through town, which was perhaps more fun than the train! (Our RV campsite was outside right alongside the a park by the train tracks, so we saw and heard the train hoot by as it rumbled through in the morning.) Interestingly, we had some of the best Nepalese food of our lives, in Durango, CO, of all places! If you ever find yourself in Durango, eat at Himilaya Kitchen on Main Street, and make friends with the adorable Nepalese busboy originally from Tibet who loves to talk!
Now in Colorado and with only a couple more days left of our trip, we were done with national parks despite there being so many more along our route. There simply wasn’t enough time. We drove up the narrow, mountain-edge roads
Hoodoo that you do so well
Colorful Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon of the Million Dollar Highway, and once again the terrain suddenly turned into the dramatic snow-capped peaks of the mighty Rockies, with temperatures quickly dropping and panoramas of evergreen trees and raging rivers from the melting snow surrounding us. After many beautiful views, we arrived in Aspen, where we got to experience a ski town in the summer for the first time—still beautiful, not as crowded, but still busy! Upon arriving in Aspen, we immediately went to the Maroon Bells Recreation area, a very picturesque place of snow-capped “maroon” mountains, lakes, rivers and a lot of trails and camp sites. I think I even saw my first marmot! It was nice to be in a real modern town again and go shopping, buy fudge from the Rocky Mt Chocolate Factory, and eat our last fancy meat dinner in a long time! As Aspen is much too ostentatious to even think about the idea of having an RV park, we parked at the Highlands Ritz-Carlton parking lot (which was eerily empty), got free Ritz-Carlton water from the very kind valet, and just went to sleep right there! (The water did not taste more expensive than our previous 24 bottles of Wal
Mart-bought Nestle water that we had just run out of.)
Our last real day was just about getting ready to go back. Leaving Aspen in the morning, our last “scenic stop” was driving through the beautiful—and sometimes scary!—mountain roads to Independence Pass, at 12,093 ft elevation! There was plenty of snow despite it being June, and it was very cold, and it was somehow very cool to be at the point of the continental divide!
From Independence Pass, we pretty much straight shot it into Denver, where we met up with a friend from college for lunch, and then brought the RV to its final destination (for now), spending the next few hours packing ourselves up and cleaning her down inside and out. It was sad to say goodbye, as after almost 2,050 miles in less than 8 days, it really becomes home! Going to the airport this morning at the butt crack of dawn marked the official end of our trip, but as we have plenty of visitors waiting for us when we get back to Kauai, the fun is not over yet!
Signing off now to fill out the Dept of Ag Hawaii entry forms…
Roooooar
Holding Thor's Hammer Till next time…
Love and aloha,
Karen
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