painted deserts? not so pretty

So I'm enjoying this road trip with friends who share my liking of indie music and Garden State. We stayed at a cabin last night, like I mentioned which was at 8000ft. elevation. No wonder I was winded! I just thought I was out of shape. The cabin had no running water or electricity. It was awesome though because I got to try out my sleeping bag for the first time for real. It was really warm which was good because the temperature got down to at least thirty. And... I didn't know that the sun rose at like five oclock in the morning, so I got up to watch the sunrise at about four thirty. Its been awhile since I was up that early. Later we drove into the Grand Canyon which was awesome by the way... no words can describe it. I felt like I needed to be quiet, but I really wanted to yell and hear my voice echo in the canyon. It was so so big and so so deep. We hiked a little way down but we needed to get to Southern California by tonight so we didn't go far. I'd like to go back though... and get a hot air balloon ride in Sedona...

I didn't know how thirsty I was for Christian community and companionship. I have felt so energized and encouraged by this group and its really great.

We've gone through so many elevation changes and temperature changes and scenery changes this trip... but we have gone halfway across the country so that's to be expected, i guess. New Mexico was definately prettier than arizona. We got a little stir crazy today in the car because all we saw was dirt and small shrubs and wind and jagged hills for about 300 miles. It was a little rough. But hey we made it ok and we're all sane still... I think. We've averaged about eight hours a day.. but I don't feel that tired because we've switched drivers a lot. Although we did go through the Mojave desert. I can check that off my list because I probably will never go back there. Hot and windy and sandy.

We stopped at In and Out burger for lunch, and its weird to me because I'm craving spinach and tomatoes and stuff that I don't even like! That just means I'm serious deprived for veggies and real food. But Kelly said we could stop at a fruit stand tomorrow on the way into the valley so maybe I'll get my fix.

We stopped for dinner and starbucks(yay! ) around six and then continued on into the desert. The sun was setting over the desert( this was the first day we've driven at night) so we decided to stop on this random dirt road in the middle of the desert, drive up this sandy hill and get blown away by wind while we waved to the truckers on this ridge. Oh yeah, our main intent was to watch the sunset, which we did do... just got distracted by trying to attract the attention of the truckers below the ridge. Once we accomplished that, we stood on the side and yelled into the "infinite abyss" (garden state anyone?) ok it was a ridge with an interstate about 100 feet below but it was still cool.

So we've been talking of nicknames for all the tribe members and I've been dubbed squints(?) thanks shawn, or socal... I'm not sure... its hard for them to think of names for me... but we've named all the other members. Examples being woodsie, k.rae, Paulo, mom and specka bekah... this is neat.

Well I'm getting really tired and hot, we've crammed the six of us into a hotel room to save money so here we are, this should be interesting...

I'd like to make a shout out to all my friends and family... I miss and love you all. (nana it was good to hear your voice today)
Love....