Breaking Developments

I had a plan - there was really nothing that could break it. I've kept these plans secret because well, I guess maybe I knew they'd change. Maybe deep down I knew something crazy would happen that would not let these plans take place...but anyways...this is what I was GOING to do: I was traveling around the United States until Thanksgiving. I would spend Thanksgiving with my brother and mom in San Diego, California. I would sell my car to some poor sap for a couple hundred or get a couple of hundred from a junk yard. I would leave some of my gear at my brothers and send home some of the more expensive things I don't want to leave in San Diego back to my mom's in Connecticut. Then once in Mexico, I'd be car free and joyously tramp south eventually into South America. From Argentina I'd hop on a freighter (yes a freighter) and take about 10 days to get to South Africa cheaply over the Atlantic Ocean. I would hang in South Africa and then fly to Egypt or Morocco. From Egypt (or Morocco) I'd take a boat through the Mediterranean Sea to Italy where I'd meet my Mom and my brother next July. Then I'd stay in Europe - hope to teach English in Spain - I don't know. This plan, as crazy as it might sound, was exactly what I thought I was going to do. What could break this plan??? Well. I cannot tell you what broke the plan yet. But the plan is broken. I will now be driving home from San Diego back to Connecticut - completing the loop and quite possibly complete one of the greatest road trips ever accomplished. Yah that's right. But this plan could change too - so I should just keep my damn mouth shut about what I'm GOING to do. That's the new plan and it could still change; To spend the holidays with friends and family back in Connecticut and then fly to Mexico after New Years where I'll have four months to tour around. The main reason I'm going to drive back is because I don't want to get rid of my car just yet - I'm planning on needing it again, for yes, another road trip in May!! If this is confusing you, don't worry - I'm still a bit confused myself.

So on to my current road trip. Roswell, New Mexico, although a hole, made me believe in aliens. That was sweet. Scott and I drove on to check out Carlsbad Caverns. That place is unbelievable. Sometimes I just cannot believe some of the places Earth has designed over the past few billion years. Just a beautiful beautiful cavern. Go there some time - do yourself a favor. Just south of Carlsbad is Guadalupe National Park where the highest point in Texas sits at around 8,700 feet. We climbed it. We drove on into El Paso where we were the only white people and the only people within 50 miles who didn't speak spanish. From that point on we've been kind of winging it from day to day. We've done and seen some odd things these last few days - but nothing terribly crazy or exciting. In Grant, New Mexico last Sunday we spent 10 hours in a Holiday Inn express to score breakfast and then watch the first round of NFL games. We hiked a couple miles to this "cave" where the temperature stays a constant 31 degrees Fahrenheit and the ice is about 12 feet thick. In Gallup, New Mexico after several camping and car nights we decided to get a motel. The sign saying "$23.95 for two" caught our attention. Sold. We should have known the town was just a little sketchy by this price, but we were confirmed of its sketchyness when the motel owner had to "buzz" us into the locked lobby at 1 in the afternoon. Later that afternoon an extremely drunk big boned woman smashed a bottle in the parking lot of the motel and proceeded to scream and rip of her shirt and bra. It was quite a show. Sadly it all ended when she slugged a cop and was forced into the drunk tank of a police van right outside our motel window. Show over - back to the TV. Scott and I drove into Navajo Nation - the huge portion of land in the north east corner of Arizona owned by the Navajos. We immediately noticed dogs all over the place. It was almost like another country. Animal control anyone? We slept in our cars last night and when we pulled into the Hampton Inn for breakfast this freezing dog came up to our car with the most desperate looking eyes. He jumped in the car and didn't want to leave. We almost took him - I mean - it's friggin freezing up here - he's probably going to die if someone doesn't bring him inside at night. I brought him some sausage and we had to say good bye. Sucks... We drove through Monument Valley and another dog greeted us upon opening the door. This one was just a puppy. Shivering with his tale between his legs. There were houses near by and a store owner said they come down here to beg from tourists from the houses up the hill, but I mean, what the hell - do these dogs really have owners? It was sad. I didn't like leaving these dogs behind, but I felt like I couldn't do anything about it...ahh..it kills me though. It's freezing cold here in Flagstaff now so we're staying in a Walmart parking lot tonight - car is much warmer. Off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow and back into the wild for a couple nights. Cheers all.

LAST OF THE WALDEN QUOTES - Henry D. Thoreau

"Nay, Be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought."

"I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one."

"It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves."

"The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths that the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity?"

"I learned this, at least by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with success unexpected in common hours..."

"While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?"

"Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer."