The Desert Moon Begins to Wane

Our trip is coming to an end as the mountain (& then desert) moon that led us along begins to wane.

We were able to spend some time in San Francisco

but with a lack of free parking

we had to skip town before seeing an old friend of mine.

A detour was taken, solely for my sake.

I had wanted to see a ghost town while we were in the Southwest.

No fee was made apparent online.

So we went a good distance out of our way (a full extra day on the road).

After arriving we realized that we were to be charged $21.

($7 per person)

I thought that it would be a good plan to have Benjamin hide in the backseat.

Thus saving us $7.

Bodie, California.

Quite the sight.

Perfectly preserved.

The town folk abandoned their houses, furniture, all of their belongings.

 

We continued to head South and decided to skip over the larger cities (San Diego, L.A.).

This being due to our lack of ability to locate free parking.

I am a cheapskate.

We did see Santa Monica, however, which was great fun!

We swam in the ocean with scuba gear we dumpstered while still in Michigan.

The waves were unreal, nothing like what we see at the great lakes.

The water was also saltier than I would have imagined.

I headed inland after a large wave caused my goggles to vanish. 

After swimming, we laid in the sun.

Then Benjamin decided that he wanted to walk the shore.

This was fine. But he had to be back in half of an hour.

He was not.

After running up and down the shore, along the sidewalks, making desperate phone calls,

I decided to wait where we had been when he left.

Somewhere between overjoyed and angry was how I was feeling when I spotted him walking towards me.

We continued on our way, making it to the Grand Canyon by the next morning.

What an incredible sight it was!

Ben and I did some free-hand climbing off the beaten path.

The best part was hiking down into the canyon for a few miles.

We could see storms making their way across the desert.

Absolutely beautiful.

In the end I was glad the we had stumbled upon the Canyon in monsoon season.

We spent around 8 hours total in the park

witnessing the stark difference that light quality made throughout the day.

Night fall was upon us soon enough and we were just leaving the park.

We made the heart-breaking decision to pass the Pueblo Ruins

A lot of road had to be covered in the next few days.

We hoped to make it to Colorado that night.

Which we did, with me behind the wheel.

I was usually the late night driver.

The plan was to see our Grandfather Jim by tonight.

We should be to Greely by this afternoon.

It is very difficult for me to believe that we've been on the road for close to a month.

I guess that this is what traveling and living in a car can do to an individual.