Winter 2019 Travel

Too many people say "I Love to Travel" but so few actually go and do it. Prior to this road trip, travel was an ephemeral thing to me that I would say that I wanted to do but had never made the efforts of actually doing. This trip served two purposes: it was a means to see what it would be like to travel on my own and it was also reconnaissance to see if I could imagine myself living in another state. The idea of living in another country has not yet been thoroughly explored because I would need to figure out in which countries I could take my current job skill and find a job.

I discovered that while I like to travel, being constantly on the road made me home-sick by about the 7th day. I also found that national parks need to be visited in spurts so that the act of hiking doesn't become a chore and can remain fun. It was cool to discover that my gym has locations in almost every small town that I visited. Had I had access to a vehicle with more space in it, I would have loved to have gone the minimalist route and slept in my vehicle, using the gyms for showering and working it, but my car is just way too small to accommodate me. I stayed at mostly motels, using Google maps to find the lowest pries and to read the reviews. The majority of the places that I stayed at were nice and clean, with only my last stop (America's Inn) being a bad experience. The largest expense that you run in too with travel is the cost of where you spend the night, which should be minimized as much as possible because you are traveling to see things, not spend all of your time in a hotel.

My goal was to get the lay of the land of America's Midwest, with all of its mountains and deserts. I stopped in Phoenix, Tuscon, Las Vegas, St. George, Moab, and then passed through Denver on the way back home. I loved the feel of Phoenix. It struck me as being clean, with numerous parks and places to hike. Phoenix has all of the modern conveniences that you could want from a city, while being proximal to a great landscape for exploring. Tuscon was also quite nice, being large enough to have its own Walmart while small enough to convey a small town vibe. It was quite a bit colder than Phoenix.

I was disappointed by Las Vegas. I've traveled there several times with my family where we stayed on the strand at the major casino hotels. This time, I stayed at a Super 8 on the outskirts of the city and explored and looked for what it would be like to live there. Compared to Phoenix, I found it to be quire ugly, with seemingly minimal efforts to have parks throughout the city. There was a Marshland preserve that I liked in the southeast quadrant of the city, as well as some mountains to the east that would make for good hiking. I just couldn't get over how ugly the city was. There are some redeeming factors of Vegas, such as how close it is to the grand canyon and Utah. I'm just not sure if it would be worth living somewhere ugly for that opportunity.

St. George was nice because it is so close to Zion National Park, which is absolutely breathtaking. The park is massive, with probably at least a dozen different trails to explore. I spent two day in St. George because I could not have done Zion justice with only a single day.

By the time I reached Moab, Utah, travel fatigue was setting in. I wanted to explore Canyon-lands national park and arches national park. I lost some of my winter gear and given how cold it was I decided to start heading home.

In a future trip I plan on going north through Colorado and west to Canyonlands. Had I done the trip again, I would have emptied more junk from my car prior to leaving home. I wish that I lived closer to the mid-west so the drive to get out there wouldn't take 20 hours. I still wouldn't take a plane because I would have to rent a car and dramatically decrease my mobility of travel. Perhaps in the future I will move and make a newer part of the country more accessible.

View of Phoenix from a hill near the Desert Botanical Gardens

Man made lake in Phoenix

Abandoned hut near the Vermilion Cliffs

In the interior of the Vermilion Cliffs

Zion National Park

Zion National Parks 

New York New York Hotel in Las Vegas