Travel Stories: Spring Break Part 2
Last week, I shared with you stories from days 1-3 of my road trip from my first spring break in college. In case you missed that, click here to catch up.
Today, I am going to tell you about the last half of that trip. In part one we traveled from Fort Collins, Colorado all the way to Death Valley National Park in California. Now in part 2, we are going to make the long drive back- making our way through the deserts of California and Nevada, the mountainous parts of Northern Arizona, a bit of the Arizona desert, southern Utah, and back through the Colorado mountains.
Keep reading on for our almost-horror-movie-worthy-camping-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-story and how our spring break trip landed me in the hospital (classic college freshman on spring break?).
Day 4:
We woke up in Death Valley National park to watch probably the best sunrise of the trip. After we wrapped up our little morning routine we headed back to the main road in Death Valley to explore some more.
After many stops and many miles of driving, we figured we should start looking for gas. I didn’t have service so I couldn’t use Gas Buddy which I normally use to find gas, however, iOverlander is still useable without service, so we followed that to a gas station.
Yeah… we made the decision to drive a bit farther for cheaper gas, thanks to someone’s helpful comment on iOverlander about a cheaper gas station.
The gas there was still way overpriced, but cheaper. The best part was on our way to that gas station, we passed the Mesquite Sand Dunes, which we didn’t know existed.
So we got gas, then ran and rolled down some sand dunes and ate some PB&J’s in the sand.
The plan was to spend 2 nights there since we skipped out on Zion, but as we were laying on the blanket in the sand, baking in the beautifully warm sun, we changed our minds. See, the next place on our list was Horseshoe Bend which was a pretty long drive from where we were, so we decided to make tomorrow’s drive a bit more manageable by heading East that afternoon.
We ended up staying the night in Littlefield, Arizona- that little corner of Arizona between Utah and Nevada that we passed through on the way out.
This part of Arizona was not deserty at all. Everything was green, mountains surrounded us, and little wildflowers and cacti were everywhere.
Our campsite was up on this hill with the road visible below and our car parked down the hill.
We got there just barely in time to watch the sunset and started our perfect night routine.
A long while after the sunset and we were looking at the stars, we heard footsteps on the road below us. We all stopped to listen and heard them get closer. They were so loud it sounded like they were getting closer and walking up the hill towards us. Peyton got up and looked and after a few moments of squinting in the dark, she said, “um… I think it’s a cow.”
We were sitting on BLM land so this added up perfectly. A good majority of BLM has cows on it, but we didn’t realize just how many cows were sleeping there with us until the next morning.
Day 5:
We got up the next morning for another great sunrise and as we were getting ready to head out, a herd of at least 20 cows walked down the road. This road was pretty narrow and they walked down it slowly, with every other cow stopping to stare us down.
After our cow encounter, we started towards Horseshoe Bend. This was such an odd drive because the road zigzagged over the border between Utah and Arizona so many times- I saw more “Welcome To Utah- Life Elevated” and ” Welcome to Arizona- The Grand Canyon State” signs than I could count.
We made it to Horseshoe Bend, and it was beautiful. At this point in the trip, we were pretty exhausted so the three of us laid on our stomachs at the edge of the cliff, staring at the view, and just rested for a second. It sounds so simple talking about, but God, it is an incredible feeling to just fully relax as you’re staring down hundreds of feet to a breathtaking view below you.
After a few more hours of driving down desert highways, and a couple of runs down Forest Gump Hill, we were in southern Utah on BLM near Monument Valley settling in for the night.
I boiled water on the Jet Boil and made everyone instant mac and cheese one last time for this trip and we sat on our blanket in the dirt watching the sunset over the desert.
This is where the almost-horror-movie-worthy-camping-in-the-middle-of-nowhere-story came in.
The three of us were sitting on the blanket laughing, talking, and looking up at the stars. Peyton got up to grab a jacket and as she was walking, she stopped in her tracks and stood there staring at something in the distance. Gigi and I ignored her for a few moments, figuring she was looking for a good view, but after about 45 seconds went by of her staring and not moving, I said, “Pey? What’s up?”
Nothing. She was zoned out and didn’t answer me. Gigi and I looked at each other and slowly stood up to go see what was grabbing all of this girl’s attention.
We followed her gaze, trying to see what she was seeing. She slowly lifted her arm to point and said, “what is that.” Then I saw it too. We still haven’t figured out exactly what it was, but it was a line of fire as if someone had a clothesline hung up and set the entire thing on fire.
We stood there for a little while, trying to figure out what the heck it was until we gave up and sat down, still very creeped out. See, when you’re three girls out in the middle of freaking nowhere with no cell service, everything is creepy. But this was something we had never seen before and we still have not figured out who had this line of fire and why.
Day 6:
This morning was the calm before the storm- both literally and metaphorically. We were in the middle of the desert with red sand caked on our feet had a 7-hour drive ahead of us, including many dirt roads, and the sky was grey and the wind was swirling.
Then the metaphorical part:
In case you’re new here, I have an autoimmune disease. You can click click here to read more about my story, but I got sick when I was 14. I’m 19 now, and over the years I have gotten pretty experienced at the whole chronically ill thing. I can spot a flare-up coming from even the smallest shift in my body and know what kind of flare-up it’s going to be based on those initial, subtle symptoms.
So the night before, I noticed a couple of swollen lymph nodes in my neck and my right ear lobe was rock hard, swollen huge, and painful- one of those subtle signs of a flare-up coming- a bad one.
I started off the drive for us and drove the first 2 hours from our campsite to Moab.
We stopped at a gas station to fill up the tank, use the restroom, and get some coffee- which tasted like a latte in Paris compared to the dollar store instant coffee we had been drinking.
I went into the bathroom first and let out an audible gasp when I saw myself in the mirror for the first time after 5 nights of sleeping in the dirt with no shower. I also noticed that “a couple of swollen lymph nodes” had become 5 or 6 giant lymph nodes busting through my neck. I was looking a little rough, to say the least.
I went to go get my coffee and as I was walking, I felt a little “off” in a slightly dizzy, brain feeling fuzzy, confused about what is happening way, but I told myself it was just because of the horrible eye sore of a paint job on the walls and being under fluorescent lights after being outdoors for so long.
I was filling up my coffee cup and Peyton walked up, told me she was giving me the keys, then walked off. By the time I got the lid on my cup, my flare-up brain had already forgotten about this conversation and I made my way to the cash register with my coffee in one hand and debit card in the other.
I was fumbling around trying to get my shaky hands to get my card in the reader and my flare-up brain to comprehend the simple process of paying for $0.75 coffee, and the whole time the guy behind the counter is looking at me like, “my God, it’s 10 in the morning…”
I successfully completed the transaction just in time for my brain to turn on finally and remember the conversation about the keys. I ran back to the coffee station, but they weren’t there.
I ran to the car and jumped in the front seat and started rambling on to Gigi about the lost keys. She had a confused look on her face so naturally, I turned down the music so she could hear me better. I turned back around to talk frantically about the keys some more which was when it occurred to me that the keys were sitting right there in the ignition with the car running. Turns out, Peyton and Gigi crossed paths as I was putting the darn lid on my coffee and Gigi snagged the keys from her.
We got on the road again, this time with Peyton driving since I was so out of it.
It snowed in the mountains and traffic was atrocious, and after almost 8 long hours, we made it to Fort Collins, Colorado.
But here’s the best part- it was only Wednesday of spring break which meant the dorms were closed so we couldn’t stay there. So after dropping off Peyton and Gigi, I had to drive an extra hour down south again to my parent’s house near Boulder. The sun had gone down already, it was raining, I couldn’t turn my neck because it was so stiff from the swelling, and I was fighting back tears the whole time because my body was in so much pain (crying was not allowed- it was hard enough to see in the rain).
I finally made it home safe. I had dinner, showered, and went to bed which is where I stayed for a very, very long time.
You probably pieced this together by now, but the flare-up is what landed me in the hospital. So maybe it wasn’t some wild story that got me there, but I’m proud I at least sort of held to the stereotype of your freshman year college spring break trip ending in a hospital visit.
I’ll spare you the details of the flare-up, or maybe give that a post of its own, but this flare-up lasted for weeks. I ended up missing about a week of classes once they resumed after break, and was in pain for a long time.
But the thing about being chronically ill is that it has made me fall so deeply in love with life that I can honestly say the trip was worth it.
Those 6 days on the road equaled many weeks of brutal pain for me, but they were also 6 days of memories and stories I will carry with me for the rest of my life.
That wraps up my spring break trip. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, maybe I’ll share more stories from it in the future.
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