Bad Burger at Creekbend Bistro in Rifle Colorado. The title says it all, I ordered the Bronco Burger medium rare and at first bite I could tell it was way past well done. The house made BBQ sauce was Bullseye brand and the Chipotle potato salad came out of a gallon jug from a big box store. Dry patty, wilted lettuce, mushy potato salad, and off the shelf sweet bbq sauce. If you find yourself on I-70 near Rifle Colorado, skip the highly rated Creekbend Bistro.
Let me take a moment to talk about our current schedule, which is quite flexible. This Friday, June 29 we fly from Denver, Colorado to New York City. We leave NYC in the evening on July 1. From NYC we land in Verona, Italy the morning of July 2. We spend the day in Verona, but that evening we fly to Madrid, Spain where we will stay with my amazing friend, Alberto. We get to spend three whole days in Madrid before taking a train to Pamplona on Friday, July 6 in the morning, in order to catch the opening ceremonies of the Festival of San Fermin (also known as the running of the bulls). We have a couple of days, probably just two, in Pamplona, before we head to Barcelona. The plan is to spend the day of July 8 in Barcelona, and fly out from Barcelona on the morning of July 9 on our way to Venice, Italy. That is when our schedule becomes less scheduled. We have from July 9 through August 16 to make our way from Venice, through Croatia, then Greece, then Turkey. The 'plan' is to spend about two to three weeks in each before catching a flight from Istanbul to Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) on August 16. Our time in Tanzania lasts through September 1 and includes about a week of Safari and a week on the island of Zanzibar. From Tanzania we fly to Delhi, India on September 2. We make our way from Delhi to Varanasi, where we cross over to Kathmandu, Nepal to meet our guide on September 25 to begin our 12 day trek through the Himalayans. We then fly from Kathmandu to Osaka on October 9. We have until October 28 to visit Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe. On October 29 we leave Japan for Bangkok, Thailand. We have through November 20 to see as much of thailand as we can. We head to Singapore on Nov 20. Then we have until December 29 to explore Singapore, Bali, and anything and everything in between. We make it back to Denver in the evening on December 29.
I hope that was at least a little easy to follow. I wanted to give you guys a clearer picture, now that we have some definite plans. Visitors? We'd love to see any friends along the way! We'll be with my sister in Spain, Italy, Croatia, Greece, and Turkey, and then Seth's parents will be joining us in Japan, but other than that you have our attention!
In the next few days I will be posting the exact contents of our backpacks. And, no, there will not be curling irons or eyelash curlers. C'mon people, what's with the curling?
I can only hope that the rest of our trip is as relaxing as our time in Colorado. Well, I kinda take that back. Because I was bitten so much yesterday, I woke up in the middle of the night with phantom bug attacks. Between my itching, my allergies, and I guess altitude sickness, I couldn't sleep. So I sneakily got up and hung out in the other room where I couldn't bother the rest of the sleeping house. It was about 3am here so it was the perfect time to call my sister in Spain. Sloane and I talked until the sunrise, when she had to leave to meet a friend for lunch. We talked about everything and nothing. But we were also productive. We did a bunch of trip talk. I'm so excited to see her!
Finally the rest of the house awakened. Coffee was a must, so that happened. We ran a few errands in Meeker before heading to Rifle to see the movie that I've been anticipating for the past six months, Brave! We weren't sure if we were going to get a chance to see it before we left, so I was stoked. Really good movie, it was a great story and seemed quite original. And the Pixar short beforehand was wonderful.
We headed back to Meeker and made dinner. Well, Seth made dinner and I helped a bit. He made a bunch of delicious dishes for dinner, but the greatest part/idea was the watermelon gazpacho. Perfect for the weather. I can't wait to have some of that for lunch! It's always better the second (or third) time around.
So, we had a nice relaxing day, despite my restless night. If I get enough sleep tonight I have the option to ride horses tomorrow morning.
Holy guacamole!! Well, there was no guacamole involved, but it was like we were guacamole, and the bugs were college kids after a night of partying. We were being eaten alive by bugs! Mostly mosquitoes and houseflies. Nonetheless, we had a pretty great day 2 in Meeker, Colorado.
In the morning we went up to the ranch with the dogs for a walk by the river. Boy, was it hot! I was impressed at how hot it was at only 9am. We walked along the river as the dogs explored the trail and it's surroundings. We had to pause at one point because we heard a momma elk sneaking away with her calf. Pretty cool. The heat brought us to turn around a little sooner than I would have liked, but the pups were hot. We tossed Mochi into the pond to cool her off.
Seth made some delicious sandwiches for lunch, before we went back out to the ranch to shoot and fish. We spent a bit of time trying to help the 'problem in the pasture' before setting up targets. We shot a bunch with the 22 and the AR15, before the guns were too hot to hold. It was 94 degrees up at the ranch, which Steve said must be a record. Either way, Seth and I took off our shoes and hopped into the river to cool off and to try to get away from the mosquitoes. The water was perfect. Not as cold as it usually is, but it probably has to do with the low water levels and extreme heat. Hopefully it rains soon in Colorado. There are some out of control fires that need it!
Steve showed up just as we were drying off to go fishing. So we loaded up the 4 wheeler and headed to a spot we were checking out earlier on our jaunt along the river. Once again, we waded in the river, but this time we had rods for the fishies. Seth caught a big ol rainbow trout pretty quickly. Then Steve got a good sized fish as well. Seth caught another one, but while he was trying to get the hook out of its mouth, I accidentally let the fish out of the net. I was tangled in the fly line and was trying to get out! Oops, sorry Seth. But, somehow in that madness, Seth managed to hook himself. Steve showed me a nifty way to get hooks out of people by using the fly line itself. Fun times.
It was a wonderful Colorado day!
It's the first full day of our adventure! We left Los Angeles Thursday afternoon and set off for Colorado. After driving well into the night and getting to Flagstaff Arizona we woke up early and headed over to see the Grand Canyon. But because of a restless nights sleep we were both wiped out so to prevent either of us falling asleep at the wheel we each drank one of these. Suffice to say we made it all the way to Meeker safe and sound.
Alright my friends, our trip around the world has finally begun! But first, I am going to catch you up a bit. This past month has been a bit hectic. One of the first questions people ask when I tell them I'm going to leave the country for six months to travel the world is, "What are you going to do with your apartment?" To me, this seems like a silly question, but it must be valid, due to the surprising amount of people who voiced this concern. Here's what happened for us. Luckily, our lease ended on May 22 (happy birthday Sloane!), but there was no way we were paying the month to month rate. It just about raised the price a third of what we were already paying. We thought of finding an extended stay hotel, or subletting a place for the month we would need, but we found a more economical solution, which also allowed for some quality family time. Both of my parents live in Los Angeles, so we house hopped between my Dad's and Mom's places for the month. This way, they both got some quality Seth and Berkley time (and Mochi too) before we left. For those of you who have never moved back in with your parents, it's never easy, but it worked out well in the end.
Then there's the questions about jobs and the like. One of the delightful coincidences of the world (concerning our adventure) occurred in timing. Seth's job offers sabbatical after working there for an allotted amount of time. His sabbatical just so happened to coincide with my graduation from grad school, and an appropriate time to terminate with my clients. So, Seth finished up as much of his projects at work as he could, and I worked my butt off to finish my masters in a timely two years. I put in a request for a leave of absence from my work, and was granted, thank goodness. Tying up those loose ends this past month has been so difficult. There were so many 'endings' in order to begin our adventure. BUT we'll be back peoples! Don't you worry! Well, maybe worry a little bit. We may really enjoy some island along the way where we could sell pouka shells on the beach and give intuition readings.
And then the day finally came!! We left Los Angeles, California at about 3pm on Thursday, June 21, 2012. We decided to leave Thursday afternoon to beat the pm traffic as well as the all day Friday gridlock of Los Angeles. It worked! We barely hit any traffic. We made it to Flagstaff, Arizona pretty late, and passed out pretty quickly. But that didn't last long. The bed was pretty bouncy, so just breathing made the other jiggle.
We woke up to a beautiful Arizona morning. Dry, sunny, clear and warm. Upon recommendation from our friend Roland who used to live in Flagstaff, we went to Brandy's Restaurant. One glance at the menu and we knew we were out of LA. When you can get a full breakfast for well under $10, you are not in LA (unless you're at a drive through).
Aside from the fact that the day was special because we were on our first full day of our adventure, it also happened to be Seth's 31st birthday! YAY!! Luckily, we had an adventurous day ahead of us. Our first stop was the Grand Canyon. I was super excited. I'd never been to the Grand Canyon before. It was absolutely spectacular. It really was, well, grand! (sorry, had to do it.) We took some pictures precariously close to the edge, drank water straight from a spring, and did our fair share of people watching. Let's just say that it's always interesting, and telling, watching the people at a major tourist destination.
We ended up having a long day of desert. We drove through some very small towns and were looking forward to some mom n pop restaurants to feed us on our way, but it turned out that the franchises have taken over. Pretty sad that the only choices in most towns were Mc Donalds, Wendy's, and other kaka food like that. I wonder why America has such a problem with obesity and diabetes? (rhetorical btw) We ended up opting for Subway on two occasions, almost three.
We were making good time, so we decided to book it all the way to Meeker, Colorado. But, not without stopping into Cabela's in Grand Junction, Colorado. I'd never been, and Seth wanted to pick up some supplies for our time in Meeker.
We made it to Meeker at around 9pm last night. The first thing we did was introduce the pups. For those of you who don't know, Seth's parents, Joan and Steve, live in Meeker, Colorado and they will be Mochi sitting while we are away. Many might think this is sad at first, and we will be sad, but Mochi will be so happy. Colorado is doggie heaven. Birds, bugs, and open space are just some of the perks of Colorado for dogs. Anyhow, we had to introduce her to Nellie and Cricket, Joan and Steve's 9 month old puppies. It was a success! I think Mochi was just happy to be back in Colorado, and didn't care who was in 'her' house. They've been getting along just fine since.
Last night we passed out in the cool basement bedroom, only to be awakened by all three dogs barking up a storm some time in the wee hours of the morning. Not sure what they saw, but there have been bears on the property lately, so that's a possibility. Today we went shooting! So much fun to shoot outdoors. Way more peaceful than a range. Steve already knows what a good shot Seth is, but it was nice to show him that I'm not that bad myself. I actually did really well today, despite my exhaustion.
Lunch! We visited one of my favorite Mexican restaurants, and it happens to be right here in Meeker. It's called Los Koras and they have really good tacos and ceviche. I'm sure there are other good food items on the menu, but I can't seem to stray from their tacos mayor and shrimp ceviche.
After Lunch we were pretty tired, so we sat on the porch and watched the dogs run around. It was really hot, about 91 degrees Farenheit, so we pulled out the baby pool and filled it for the pups. Mochi was the only brave one to get in. Then we started spraying water at her and she'd chase it. It was awesome.
The next few days are probably going to be similar, relaxing, shooting, playing with Mochi... A few days of rest before jumping time zones for real! We're pretty excited. Stay in touch everyone!