I wandered about old town Flagstaff anticipating the week ahead of me, camping in Havisupai and what would need to be a brisk hitchhike across the country to New York City in time for the 4th of July.

Some friends connected me with some folks who lived in Flagstaff where I could catch a little sleep. I first grabbed a burger and beer at the brewery, and then headed to their place. I found my way in and met a girl there who'd just got back from traveling over seas and we talked for a while. I never ended up meeting the people who actually lived their, they may have come in while I was passed out on their couch grabbing some sleep before getting a call from Larry sometime after 2am. At that point I wandered down the block where I met Larry and two pickup trucks loaded with people aiming for the grand canyon.

We cruised through the night and arrived at the trail head just sometime after sunrise. There was about 30 of us gathered there, couchsurfers organized by Larry for this trip into Havisupai, we started down the trail.

We went down into the canyon and the trail flattened out, all told it was about a 10 mile hike, give or take. We passed through the village at the bottom, passing that the waterfalls from the creek started to appear. The water was a teal kinda clear blue color. Turning a corner on the last downward part of the trail Havisu Falls itself appeared, a beautiful pool of water below it with people swimming and smiling.

I was ahead of the bunch, I went straight to the pool below the falls, shedding my backpack and shirt emerging myself in the cool, clear water. Eventually I met up with the group as they made their way down the trail, we juggled campsites amidst the scattered and short downpours of rain, the only rain we'd see that trip.

We stayed for three nights all together, climbing behind waterfalls and jumping off, digging through caves and finding quartz crystals, stargazing and eating some great cooking. Mooney falls was 200 feet, we watched as they repaired the bottom that had been wiped out the last season.

On the last full day a group of us hiked to the Colorado River, a 15 mile round trip. It was a great hike, flat at some point, ropes required at others to climb up the rocks. We saw a group of big horned sheep who investigated us from across the creek less than 20 feet away. We also saw a rattle snake and big birds as we hopped down the trail. The best moment was coming up on the Colorado where Havisu creek flows into it. The blue water of the creek met the furocious brown river definitively, instead of fading into it, there was a strict line where one ended and the other began. I stood with one foot in the cold brown river and the other in the teal warm creek.

On the way back we stopped at a 60 foot cliff where another guy jumped off, I followed his lead a minute later and flew through the air leaping off the cliff into the deep pool below. It was one of the great hikes I'd been on, swimming and jumping all along the creek.

The last morning I awoke to people packing up their tents and other gear preparing for the hike back to the village and out of the canyon. A guy Matt and I ran up into a side canyon to do some last minute exploring, we went up a good ways and spotted a line in which we could make our way to the top of the canyon wall, an idea for the next time we may find ourselves back in Havisupai.

On the hike back a few of us stopped at some upper falls, waterfalls that had only been created after some landslides a year ago. I jumped in and washed up in preparation for the hitchhiking I had ahead of myself, I would have to pop straight out of the canyon and start making my way towards NYC if I were to make it in time for the 4th of July and Nathan's hotdog eating contest.

Up at the village we waited as we were flown out by helicopter four or five at a time, something Larry had set up. It was my first time flying like this, a great experience to cap a incredible camping trip.

We drove out of the canyon and towards Flagstaff, I was dropped off at a truck stop to begin my eastbound hitch while the rest continued on to Phoenix, it was mid afternoon.

The particular on ramp I stood at had been hitched from before, I saw a couple dozen notes on the lamp post written with sharpie markers, things like "Rainbow bound '09" and "hitching east '98". Despite the apparent popularity of this hitchhiking spot, I had no luck with rides. Another hitchhiker appeared at the bottom of the ramp, stopping to wait and lay in the grass below when he spotted me. Eventually he walked away, probably tired of waiting. Later still another hitchhiker appeared, also walking towards the gas station upon spotting me occupying the spot.

A total of 3 hours passed with no rides, not the best start, I needed to get about 2500 miles in less than five days. I left the apparently frequented hitchhiking spot and walked up the on ramp and on to the shoulder of the freeway, this turned out to be the right move, a pickup truck pulled over for me fairly quickly.

A mexican woman drove eastbound with her teenage son in front and a small child in the back with me. We didn't talk much other than to say where we each intended to go, she got me an hour or so down the road to Holbrook, AZ at the brink of sunset.

A short wait of thumbing yielded a car with a young Navajo couple. They were interested to hear of my travels, Calvin, the driver, was particularly into it as this lifestyle was a dream of his. They offered me bottled water and leftover pasta with chicken I munched on in the backseat smiling and sharing stories. They offered to let me sleep under the canopy outside their home on the reservation, I accepted and we turned off the freeway at their exit and went a ways down the dirt road to their home.

I met Calvin's mom, brother and dog, he also made me aware of the sheep in the distance, as well as horses and warning of early rising roosters. I got my sleep atop a picnic table in the comfort of my sleeping bag and sure enough, I awoke to a chorus of four roosters at the first hint of daylight in the morning. One of them made a point of shuffling his way right next to the table I laid to cry out a "Cockadoodledo!", I laid out for a while still listening to their continued cries until I sat up, packed up, and waited for Calvin and all to awake.

They let me take a shower after some coffee, then I sat at the table with them as Ashley, his girlfriend, peeled potatoes before he shredded them. They made a mighty breakfast of hashbrowns, eggs, bacon and the fluffiest and tastiest pita bread I've ever had. I talked with them and his mom, and soon his aunt joined us too. His uncle and grandpa were also there, but mostly spoke Navajo.

We soon got on the road, a late start for me given the time frame, but I was happy to have a full belly and a goodie bag of apples and other food and water Ashley made up for me. They dropped me at an on ramp to I-40 somewhere between 11 and noon, I'd have to start making some distance if I wanted to make it to New York in time.

I started down the onramp to the freeway immediately thinking their would be little traffic coming on the entrance, but a cop drove by from the jump warning me to stay on the on ramp if I was hitchhiking. Despite the sparse traffic, I was picked up quickly by a guy who took me just up the ways to the Arizona / New Mexico border.

From this spot I thumbed the traffic hoping to get another quick ride. After some time, I turned behind me to see another figure on the side of the road just behind me with his thumb out. I couldn't figure how he'd sneaked back there, thinking he could clearly see me and wondered why he was trying to hitch this same spot with me. I walked in his direction with the idea to walk down the freeway and give up the spot to him, despite the fact I'd gotten their prior. It was a friendly but oblivious Navajo guy, I told him I'd let him take over the spot and get to walking.

I walked about a mile further around a bend and soon was running up to a car pulling over for me. I opened the door to the car to see a simple smiling blonde girl with a discrete nose ring, "Are you headed to the gathering?", she was referring to the rainbow gathering, a sort of subdued Burning man event where people who loosely fit the various definitions of "hippy" get together in a peaceful setting. I told her I was headed to New York and hopped in, she was going as far as Albuquerque, a good distance away.

She was from santa cruz, she lived in the woods near her campus for a stint, had even built a small tree house for herself. "The one thing I never foresaw was the mold, everything from my blankets to books was covered in it after a while", she told me about it, this was the one downside, other than that she had had it pretty good. She dropped me off in Albuquerque, I showed her my bag of quartz crystals I'd gotten from the grand canyon and let her choose a few to take, then went on my way.

I stood at the on ramp, flash backs of my first long distance hitchhike more than a year ago from California to Oklahoma, Albuquerque was the first place I experienced a long wait for a ride, a few hours or more in the sun despite the heavy traffic that passed me by. This time would not be like that, after just a little bit I heard the honk from a pickup truck at the stop light, a girl my age in the passenger seat waving me over, I hopped in just as the light was changing.

They said they'd just passed me and turned around to pick me up and help me if they could, they were willing to drive me across town to a better spot. It was a mother / daughter combination, they had to make a stop at the pawn shop first. When they dropped me off they left me with a phone number asking that I shoot them a message when I made it to New York.

An old Navy guy picked me up next, he was just going home to the next town, "I live outside of the city so I can smoke my pot", he had a scratchy voice and a smile. He let me out near an on ramp, but I soon found out it was under construction and had to get to walking down the frontage road.

I walked a couple miles or more without finding the next entrance, but someone stopped for me, "jump in quick, the car's over heating!", I sat in the passenger seat with my bag on top of me. I had a short conversation with the guy, he lived in town, but was able to get me a few more miles up to an open freeway entrance. "Snake a beer if you want", he said eyeballing his 30 pack by my feet, I slid one out and into my bag, then headed on to the freeway.

A painter who worked in Albuquerque was my next ride, he drove me a short distance and let me out into the nearing sunset and threat of light rain. I walked down the freeway thumbing rides again, knowing I still had a ways to go and needed to cover a lot more miles tonight. A car stopped ahead and I ran to it, the license plate came into view, Pennsylvania. I got in and the guy asked where I was going, New York City the answer, he laughed in amazement, he said he was going to Philadelphia, "I could use the company and conversation, this is perfect". I thought so too, and as I got settled in the car I saw a giant rainbow that had formed in the distance, it remained visible for more than an hour.

His name was George, originally from Brooklyn and now recently living in Vegas for his job, but his accent was heavy New Yorker. We drove into the night until he couldn't drive any more, we stopped at the first cheap motel in Texas where he got a room with a couple beds and we fell asleep with the TV on.

We got on the road in the morning early and started putting miles behind us. We talked about Vegas, he was excited to start seeing what types of girls were running around, a self described player with stories to verify this. He was also a huge nascar fan and a racer himself, he told me his plan to pitch to the company he worked for to sponsor him and officially become a driver as soon as next year.

We made a short stop in Oklahoma City where he got a money order from his folks so he could cover gas expenses for the rest of the trip. We drove and drove until we were just shy of Indianapolis sometime just after midnight, we pulled into a rest area to sleep in the car with the idea to make the final push after a few hours of rest. I was laid out in the passenger seat for about 5 minutes, all of the sudden he reached in the glove box for some cigarettes and started driving again, I stayed half asleep.

About a half hour later we stopped at a gas station, when he was done filling up we started driving and I perked up. "Change of plans", he said, "I'm gonna stop in Columbus to hook up with queefing girl and catch some sleep there, is that cool?", he was referring to one of the girl's he'd hooked up with a while back. It appeared I wouldn't be going all the way to Philly after all, but I was happy to have gotten the 1,400 mile ride with him.

He dropped me off at a gas station just west of Columbus, OH, it was about 3am. I got to walking down the freeway to get past some major turn offs, loosely thumbing traffic under scattered dim street lights. I came to a bridge that looked like a good place to catch some sleep, I drank my "snaked" beer from the other day and slipped into my sleeping bag listening to the traffic pass by below.

I packed up quickly in the morning and made my way to a decent spot near the closest on ramp hoping to get across Columbus and keep shooting east. I got picked up quickly by a musician, he drove me clear across the city and gave me a yogurt when he dropped me off. I got picked up quickly again after this by a dreaded out guy headed to the doctor, he was originally from Detroit.

A ride after that came from an auto parts delivery guy in a minivan. I went with him into a small town to make a drop off at an auto shop, then he dropped me off up the road at a truck stop. I took a piece of cardboard to make a big "NYC" sign and headed for the on ramp. Someone stopped right away, an older guy with a hard italian edge. He told me how his son was traveling all over, but was more or less "jerking off".

He started ranting about the economy and countries and leaders, "Every one's jerking off, all this war bullshit, we should be working together to get into space and beyond like star trek, but no! They're just jerking off! Who are the people who think they're better than everyone else? Come out and show yourself? No? Then stop jerking off and let's make some progress, let's be human beings!", I did what I could to fuel his rant as we cruised down the road, he was headed to see his daughter in State College, PA.

He went a pinch further to drop me off by I-80, I walked down the freeway until a guy stopped for me, a student at Penn State. He took me to the next big truck stop, I got out and started thumbing cars at the on ramp until deciding to walk up on the freeway. An 18 wheeler saw my thumb and made a wild maneuver across lanes and into the shoulder ahead, I ran for it.

It was young trucker from Ohio, currently Brooklyn bound, my final ride that would complete a 2,500 mile hitch in an even 3 days, time to spare for my 4th of July target. We shared stories back and forth, he was interested in my travels and outlook on things, I was interested in hearing about his family and toys, like his plane and boat. He was doing pretty well for himself trucking, he'd learned from his dad and been going forever. He was about ready to get out though, and had started making some real estate moves to make enough money to leave the truck behind for good to spend more time with his kids and toys.

The New York City skyline showed itself with a pink swirling sunset clouds as it's backdrop, soon I was jumping out of his truck at a red light on to the streets of brooklyn, that's where I hopped on the subway, a familiar N train. I tried making a call to Mark, no answer, I headed for Astoria.

I got off the subway and made the walk up Astoria Blvd, popping into the deli along the way to grab a six pack. The neighbors buzzed me into the apartment building, Mark and Carl weren't home. I found a hidden key and showed myself in. I relaxed the night away waiting for someone to return to the apartment, Sean and Kelly were in San Diego, but I figured Mark or Sean should roll in at some point. Finally the sparse and scattered hours of sleep from camping and hitchhiking caught up with me and I passed out on the futon.

I awoke to excited shouting at 3am, Mark's shouting, Carl's and mine, they'd discovered the hobo sleeping in their place as they stumbled in from the party they'd been at. We immediately cracked into the six pack I'd picked up and got to catching up over a couple beers a piece. The light of the sun shined through the windows by the time we got to sleeping.

It feels good to be back in the amazing city with lifelong friends, and I'm sure it's got nothing but good times in store, including Nathan's Hotdog eating contest and plenty of beer from all over.

I woke up in Jackson with the road ahead, it would be one of my more memorable hitchhiking trips. I got my things together and snagged some sample toothpaste packets from the fancy spa on the lower floor. My mom drove me to Hoback Junction, about a half hour away, this is where I'd begin my thumbing towards what would end up being Flagstaff, Arizona.

There wasn't a lot of traffic, but a pickup truck eventually stopped and I hopped in the back seat, I'd opted for route 189 rather then going back through the busier road to Idaho Falls. The driver was a friendly guy off to work, his son sat in the passenger seat with headphones on, I never heard his voice or saw his face.

He dropped me off a ways down in Daniel, a junction town with a population of 100 odd people. I got picked up by the first car I saw there, a young guy headed to Big Piney just a little ways down the road. He dropped me off at the far edge of the small town and I got to walking for the sake of moving forward. Two cars in a row mirrored my thumb with their middle finger, young guys in flashy pickup trucks.

A state trooper passed my extended thumb, he turned around twice to pull over behind me, got out and asked me the basic questions, taking my drivers license back to his cruiser. He came back with a written warning, the second of I've ever gotten. He told me I couldn't hitchhike in Wyoming, but walking was OK, and if someone happened to stop and offer me a ride I could go for it.

I kept on walking, my thumbing powers disabled, or at least mildly paranoid out of commission. Eventually someone stopped at the site of backpacker trekking through the middle of nowhere, someone always stops. "I've got my guard dog here! Hop on in", I threw my backpack in the bed of the pickup truck and jumped in the passenger seat and met his "guard dog", a tiny pug named Lucy, really his road dog. The guy himself had a slightly scratchy voice and a big presence to him, he was off to his job in Beaver, UT. He offered to take me all the way, I had ideas of stopping in Salt Lake City for the night, but there was plenty of miles to decide what to do.

We cruised down the road talking about things until we stopped at a gas station where he said I could look at a map to decide whether I wanted to get dropped off at the turn off that would lead to Salt Lake, or continue on to Beaver with him. I knew the roads pretty well, but looked at the map anyhow while I thought about it.

I decided to stick it through with him, he said I'd be able to crash in the hotel room he was staying at, paid for by his company, plus it was extra couple hundred miles down the road. While at the gas station he picked up some up some CDs, books on tape, specifically westerns featuring "Smoke Jensen", who he said was "the biggest bad ass the west had ever seen, this guy kicks every one's ass, no bullshit!", he popped it in.

For the rest of the ride we were transported to the old west, Smoke was being forced to defend his land while old rivals came to town along with miners and people chasing the gold rush. He told me he'd listen to a good 15-20 other stories from the same series.

We stopped at a Wendys where he bought me a burger and we kept on going. In the meantime, I got a message from a girl in Cedar City who said I could stay on her couch the night, Cedar City was just less than 60 miles south of Beaver.

When we got close to Beaver we made a quick detour to his work spot so he could drop off the generator he was towing, he was working at a geo thermal site. He explained it to me, they were drilling into an underground volcano where essentially they'd pour down water, this would heat up and create steam, the steam would power turbines that would provide great amount of power, "It's goes along with that, what is that they're always saying... 'green' shit people are always talking out nowadays.", it sounded cool to me. His voice sounded a bit like Smoke Jensen's.

We rolled into Beaver with about an hour or so of daylight left, we were only on CD 4 of 6 in the old western shoot 'em up. A part came up where Smoke put his guns down and fought his rival fist to fist, kicking his ass thoroughly. "I told you!", the driver said, slapping me on the shoulder, "Smoke is no bull shit!". He dropped me off at the gas station on the south end of town, "I'll tell you how it ends, Smoke kicks every one's ass.", I was glad to hear it.

I walked down the on ramp to the shoulder of the freeway looking for my ride to Cedar City, it came quickly. A slick car picked me up, the guy driving had an earring in one ear, a bluetooth headset on the other and sunglasses across his eyes. He was probably about 30, hyped up, he may as well have been coked up, maybe he was. He'd been driving all day, coming from Wisconsin on his way to Vegas where he'd stay for the night before continuing to LA.

He was interested to hear how'd been moving about the past two years and told me about his travels over the years. He dropped me off at a gas station in Cedar City, one that I'd hitched from going north twice before, including just a week or so ago.

Jessi came and met me there, a girl I'd found on couchsurfing who offered me a place to stay for the night. She was a nice girl with an itch to travel, an itch yet to be scratched. She made some grilled cheese for us both and we talked a bit before she went to sleep, she had to be up early in the morning for school and work. I stayed up for a bit, enjoying one of my last two beers from a six pack I'd got in Wyoming.

I was up around 6am in the morning when she got up, she pointed me to the shower. When I got out she had scrambled eggs waiting, we chowed down and hopped in her car. She dropped me off at the mouth of the valley headed east and went her own way towards school.

I stood at a pull out on the road next to a sign that was supposed to say "Falling Rock" but someone had scribbled on to now say "Falling in love rocks". The sun was starting to shine on the valley, but I was still in the shadow of the cliffs next to me. I got to walking down a ways down the road to see what was ahead, but a pickup truck packed with three guys stopped before I got too far, they had me hop in the bed of the truck saying they were headed to Duck Creek.

The drive ahead was unexpected and one of the most amazing rides I'd had, it also showed me how Cedar City got it's name. It was thirty miles of riding through cedar trees in a national forest, wind blowing through my hair, the smell of cedar, whipping through turns along the river and towering cliffs of different shades and shapes. A smile never left my face, at one point we were so high I could look out and see what I thought had to be Zion in the distance.

We at last got to a gas station where they dropped me off and asked where I was from, they were all smiling, I think they'd probably looked back and saw my perm-grin of awe during the whole ride. They told me that what I saw in fact was Zion.

I got to walking down the road, it was still in the national forest, they said I was 10-15 miles from the turn to route 89 which lead to Flagstaff. As I walked I saw old school cars passing me I'd later discover were all Ford Model T's. I guy stopped for me and gave me a ride the 10 miles out to the main road, he'd been a guide at the grand canyon for a while and told me how much he wished it was him going to Havisupai, the falls where I was eventually headed to.

At the gas station there were a dozen of the cars parked, I asked an older couple next to one what the story was, apparently it a national Model-T day of sorts where they all got to caravaning around. I walked down the road a hundred yards, thumbing the southbound traffic and waiving to the northbound Model-T cars, they were driving much slower than the other traffic on the road, I must have seen two hundred during the day.

An older couple picked me up after a long wait, a wait I didn't mind at all with the parade of cars passing me, some honking with their swamp style horns, awooogah, awooogah!

The couple took me to Mt. Carmel Junction where they turned off towards Zion. I stopped in a diner to relax for a minute grabbing a cup of coffee and a half order of biscuits and sausage gravy, then headed to the edge of town to start hitching to the next spot. I stood for a while beginning to feel the effects of the sun burning on me. An older couple in Model T passed me, I recognized them from before as they did me, awoogah! They honked at me as they passed for the second time smiling.

I was on the edge of a golf course where I was standing, a guy working on the course approached me, asking where I was headed. He told me his girlfriend worked at the Thunderbird, a nearby diner, and that if I went there he'd be sure she hooked me up with a free meal, I couldn't turn that down. To add to it, he shoved a $10 bill my way saying hitchhikers gotta help hitchhikers.

I walked to diner and was greeted by the girl, he was in the doorway already having just talked to her. She took me to a table with a menu and a smile. Before long I was sitting in front of a bowl of chili and a chocolate cream pie chowing down. I ate every last bite until I was entirely full, she left me with a to-go cup of water and said I was all set, back to the edge of town I went.

My next ride arrived shortly after, a middle aged guy headed to Kanab, yet another junction town. He worked at a place along the way and said he'd show me around if was interested, of course I was. It was called "Best Friends", a haven for recovering animals. He noted it's relative fame in that it had spurred a show about it's Dog Town on National Geographic and also currently housed Michael Vick's fighting dogs.

We passed dog town, cat town and the bird place where he worked, then went on to a "hidden lake", that's where we got out of the car to check it out. It lived up to the name, it was a small lake mostly under a boulder through a cave entrance. I took note of the location as a cool place to go back to some day and camp.

We drove me through the rest pointing out horses and other things while telling me about everything, apparently many old westerns had been filmed there as well, I wondered how many bullets Smoke Jensen may have fired in these parts.

Kanab split in two directions, both of which lead to Flagstaff, he dropped me off in the direction that would go through Page saying it was a more popular route, seeing what happened next, I'm glad he did.

I stood by the road with an extended thumb, cooking under the sun a bit more. As always, someone stopped in the shoulder ahead, a young couple in a mini van packed with camping and outdoor gear. They made room in the back saying that they'd hitchhiked earlier that day after hiking through Zion to get back to there car. The young guy drove and the red headed dreaded girl sat in the passenger seat with a friendly smile as we swapped hitchhiking and camping stories.

They were going as far as Page, and then splitting off. They intended to go for a swim when they got there, as some more miles went by I became a part of this plan too. We stopped while they picked up some lunch for themselves, I was still filled up from Mt Carmel, and then headed for Lake Powell at Antelope Point. We found the beach area and made our way to the water.

Kristen, the red headed girl, leapt into the water straight out, losing her sun glasses to the bottom of the lake all at once. She tried looking for them, but they were lost. We swam around for a couple hours, they had inflatable fish rafts they floated around on. We decided to hit the road eventually, they had to find a camping site and I had to get down the road, there was still a couple hours of daylight left. They went to a Walmart at the edge of town to get some things, like new sun glasses, I headed up to the road to catch my next ride.

A pickup truck stopped for me full of Navajos, I said Flagstaff and they said they were headed that way, I hopped into the pickup truck bed in the back like I had to start the day, off we went. I watched Lake Powell fade away while the warm air whipped around me. We wound down a road tight on the cliff, I had an incredible view the valley in the impending sunset. They finally pulled into a turn off where there was a group of others packing up there jewelry stand, that was as far as they were going.

Ten minutes later another Navajo guy stopped for me and I was shooting down the road again. This guy had been living in Denver for 15 years working as an inspector for large scale pipes, up until a month ago, he was now living back on the reservation with his family and had gotten a new job with a towing company.

He was headed for Tuba City, he dropped me off a couple hundred yards past his turn to a roadside pull out where there were about a dozen wooden booths used for Navajo jewelery sales, they were all abandoned at this moment. He drove away, the sunlight was dwindling. An empty motorcycle stood in the lot, a couple was sleeping in the booth, each on their own table, the guy looked up at me and I waived.

I thumbed out for rides for a while, eventually the biker couple got on their way wishing me luck. Daylight disappeared quickly without any cars stopping, there wasn't much traffic anyhow. I made myself at home in one of the booths deciding this is where I'd sleep for the night. I pulled out the last beer from my Wyoming six pack and cracked it open. It was easily the warmest beer I'd ever drank, hot really, the unique Lagunitas hoppy taste sizzled on the way down.

I started to sleep the night away, popping my head up every time a car or truck pulled in, people either stopping to take a leak or catch a few hours of sleep themselves in their vehicles, I don't think anyone noticed me there.

I woke up for the final time in the blazing morning sun, blue skies and scatter white clouds. I wiped the sleep from my eyes and lugged my bag to the side of the road and started thumbing the scattered patches of cars passing.

A pickup passed by and I my eyes locked with the woman's at the last moment, I turned my head with the truck as she pulled in to stop for me. "I hope this isn't a mistake", she said, clearing things off the passenger seat, "I'm joking of course, I'm a good judge of character", she laughed, I hopped on in.

She was a slender Scottish woman heading for Sedona to work a new job at a gallery in town. She was interesting to talk to, very into crystals and this type of thing. So much so in fact, that she had invented a system with crystals that increased her gas mileage by 20% and had just started to sell it, the truck we were riding in was fitted with the system too. I asked a lot about it and she told me even more, quartz was the crystal she was using, she told me all about the powerful qualities of it and other uses for it, how to program it and so on.

She went on telling me about her thought on the universe in general and how it works, essentially saying that whatever you wished for is what was returned to you, think one thing and it's mirrored back. She went as far as to talk about bending time and connecting with people across the planet.

She dropped me off in Flagstaff, she gave me a card so I could check out her crystal invention some more, the website is aqt4all.com, AQT stands for Advance Quartz Technology, pretty cool stuff with implications greater than just better mileage.

I walked down the road in the direction of down town and made my way to the Flagstaff Brewery, which is also a coffee house. I grabbed a cup and caught up on some things online, also getting in touch with Larry about getting picked up later for the Grand Canyon trip. I easily got talked into a pint of beer, and then another cup of coffee.

I wandered around a bit after that in search of a place to catch some sleep, I found nothing but park and city benches to rest for a bit. I finally settled in a different coffee shop to put off the need to sleep. Later on Larry should be passing through town, around 1 am, and then it's on to Havisupai and the falls in the Grand Canyon. It promises to be good times, then I'm bound for NYC.

Jackson Hole, Wyoming was my destination this blue skied morning, beautiful scenery and family in the area was my motivation. I got a phone call from Anthony saying he'd found me a ride part of the way from a guy headed to Yellowstone. Unsure if the ride would come through or not, I headed for the freeway on foot to appease the beautiful day. I said my goodbyes to Kate and Candice, she had an increasingly familiar reluctant smile on her face, as if I'd forgot to say or do something.

I started thumbing by the freeway, another hitchhiker came by who was headed in the opposite direction saying he was having a hell of a time getting out of town. I told him about a spot a couple miles east where I'd gotten out once before headed the way he was going.

My phone buzzed in my pocket before any cars stopped, it was Andrew, the guy Anthony had told me was headed north. He was ready to go, I abandoned my hitchhiking spot and met him at the gas station up the road. We picked up Anthony on the way.

Anthony got dropped off about an hour up the road, he was headed to Logan. Andrew drove me all the way up to Idaho Falls where we parted ways and I got to hitchhiking, much closer to Jackson now. A guy picked me up with slick black hair, his wife in the passenger seat and two babies strapped into car seats in the back with me. He drove me across town to a much better spot.

A little walking and thumbing, then a Mexican guy picked me up with two girls in the back, perhaps his wife and daughter, they didn't talk much other than to translate the occasional word he couldn't say in english. We talked the whole to the junction, two roads that both lead to Jackson.

I stood just before the split, it was a great looking day. A guy in the parking lot nearby came walking over to ask where I was going and offered me a ride that would get me closer. I rode in the back next to another car seated baby, a girl was driving and he rode shotgun and we headed for the Alpine. They were a cool couple of folks, telling me about camping they did in the area. He was also going to jail, I didn't ask what for, but it was some sort of program where he only went on weekends and was then released during the week.

They dropped me off in a nice spot near a gas station as far as they were going, soon enough a car full of people stopped in the road and waived me over, "You don't mind sitting in the trunk, do you?", they laughed and I crammed into the trunk of the station wagon type car. There were five of them, sort of camp counselors all about my age. They'd been in town a couple weeks having a good time and the kids were finally getting into town the next day for the summer.

We laughed the ride away to Hoback Junction, they were planning one more good night before camp started. They dropped me off and my next ride wasn't far behind, a pickup truck with a raft in tow, two guys originally from Montana driving. They were headed into Jackson and said they could give me a lift to the village road. We made one stop at the grocery store where they loaded up on supplies for a barbecue they were going to.

One of the guys had started working at a nuclear power plant and told me as much as he could about it in the time we were driving. He liked it, saying it was the direction the country should go in terms of power. A couple times he cited that someone riding on a plane is exposed to more radiation then he'll ever be working at the plant.

A sunny sky rain shower picked up when he dropped me off, I only had 7 miles to go. I was picked up quickly before the rain even had time to get me too wet, a nice couple who lived just down the road. To my right I saw the biggest rainbow I've ever seen, so big in fact that it had a mirror reflection above it, what they told me was called a "double rainbow", the name made sense.

The man dropped his wife off and then took me the extra few miles to Teton Village where my mom and sister were staying. I made my way up to the room and got a hug from my very happy mother, I went to the balcony to show them the rainbow, but it had disappeared.

We immediately walked down the hill for some food at the Mangy Moose, a Lagunitas IPA and some buffalo meatloaf hit the spot perfect as I caught up with the family. I picked up a six pack of Little Sumpin' Ale, having a couple before calling it a night, sleeping on a bed in a room by myself for a change of pace.

We went into town the next day, I got a new pair of jeans to replace my increasingly torn up pair, holes around the knees and thighs, the bottom part of the right leg mostly missing from getting shredded riding bikes, the bulk of which had occurred during "Tour de Laramie" a month or so back.

We enjoyed cheeseburgers at Billy's in the town square after that, we heard stories of bank robbery in town, a guy had apparently escaped in a silver camero. We headed back to the Village to relax for a bit, took a short hike up the mountain, then relaxed some more at the place before heading out to dinner.

We met up with my aunt and uncle at an italian place just down the road. It was great to catch up with them a bit, they both have a lot of energy and spirit about them no doubt derived from living in Jackson Hole. The mountains are beautiful in every direction, the snake river flows through offering opportunity for good times and the winter brings some of the best skiing conditions you could ask for.

With my stomach filled to capacity, we headed back to the village. I talked with my mom for a while and my sister wandered the village. Soon enough I was the only one awake, enjoying a couple more beers from my six pack before calling it a night. The next day would bring the beginning of a trek southbound towards the grand canyon. The trip to Jackson was a short one, but as always, a good one.

I woke up in Salt Lake City with tripping on my mind, and that would define the day. The new roommate and a couchsurfer were headed up to Yellowstone and offering me a ride, I declined it after a bit of consideration, I had ideas for some days in Utah still.

Candice went to work at the crystal shop and I tweaked the Trip Hopping site a bit, hours passed and I decided to hop on the bike and bug her at work. I got there and mentioned the magic chocolate I'd been given saying today was the day, she agreed. I left her at work and went to the coffee shop waiting for her shift to end.

She swung by later just to say she had a few things to do, and sure enough she was back about an hour after that ready for a trip. We decided beer was the thing to kick it off, we walked down the block each eating half of the ice cubed sized mushroom chocolate I'd been given while hitchhiking days before.

We had a beer at a bar she'd once worked at, we talked with the waiter she'd once worked with. The chocolate kicked in quicker than expected, we finished the last of our beers and headed for the door, down the street and to our bikes, smiling wide.

We rode back to her place, me slightly ahead of her, glowing and smiling while riding along. We landed in her backyard, her garden, and plopped on the grass staring at the sky. It had been a gray day with fits of rain, but now the skies were blue with giant white fluffy clouds passing by. Kate came into the backyard at one point realizing what was going on and let us be.

We laid in awe at the magnified beauty of it all, laughter and uncontrollable leakage of tears from our eyes. We'd decided that we'd personally sucked up the moisture of the stormy day, this being the reasoning for the sunny skies and our overall moisture coming from seemingly everywhere, eyes, nose, pores, wetness.

We wandered around the yard once we were able to tear ourselves away from the clouds, investigating a wooden box, her garden and the sights and sounds from beyond her yard. The one thing that remained consistent was the smiles on our faces and overwhelming feeling of awe. We found ourselves on the grass a few more times, peering at the vortexes and kaleidoscope effects of the clouds.

We found ourselves near her car, unable to get inside since it was locked, the car had been broken down for months anyhow. All at once I felt a tightness in my stomach and throat, a shortness of breath and a feeling I'd only felt once or twice in my life, as if the end was upon me, death as it were. I walked into the yard to contemplate this before alarming Candice or anyone else, I peeked into the sky again. At that moment death didn't matter as much as it did a second ago, it didn't even mean the same thing. I laid out in the grass again as the feeling continued, a smile was on my face that pushed the limits of my cheek muscles.

As I laid there the feeling of death evaporated leaving me purely with ecstasy. Candice looked over at me from her thoughts to say I looked peaceful and happy. Her blonde hair fell from her knit hat to the side of her face, clean and pure adorned with a simple natural smile, I'd never seen her more beautiful. My eyes were glued to her for a moment, then my head turned back to the sky and my fleeting but extensive thoughts.

Candice mustered up the motion to go to the bathroom and went inside, I wouldn't see her for hours. I laid out for a while with my thoughts until standing up, I wandered inside. I filled up two glasses of water and wandered downstairs, I found Kate watching a movie, smiled and walked into Candice's room. It was dark and smelled like of purposeful scents, candles or incense or some such, no sign of Candice though. I wandered back upstairs and forgot about her, thoughts were racing through my head so quickly that focusing on any one thing became ridiculous and boring.

During the next hours I went through fits of genius and insanity, banging the side of a banjo in between. At times I felt twisted and demented beyond recognition, I imagined I may never come down from my current state and couldn't be happier. My mind scrolled through all the stages of my life in great detail at a rapid pace. I considered many of the people I'd met in my life and projected times yet to be had. A few times I wandered downstairs to find a movie being unwatched, something about a wedding, I contemplated going into Candice's room, her door was now shut. I decided not to disturb her knowing that any number of things could be going through her mind as they were with me.

Later in the night she emerged upstairs, at that moment I was pacing the room still entranced with various thoughts, coming down from the height of it all though. She turned on the lights wanting to use my phone, I dug it up, I'd been ignoring it all day despite the occasional vibrating growl it produced from it's spot buried in my bag.

We shared insights and stories from our various experiences, which were identical in nature and varied only in specifics. Then night calmed down from there, we rested in her room with a movie and eventually found a way to put some food in our stomachs, ending the night with more talk about our thoughts and slowly waning to sleep.

I woke up the next day feeling refreshed. The day went by without much incident, a bike visit to Candice's work, her head hurt. Later we had dinner and beers as some people dropped by to enjoy.

The following day we found ourselves at Peter, Denny and Parker's place. Candice got to cleaning, a big party was in the works. As the night came in, so did people. We all got to drinking and whatnot, eventually Bobby showed up with kegs, he's the brew master at the Bohemian in town. The party raged on, a beer pong table emerged, the cutest girl at the party got paid $40 to punch her boyfriend in the face, things were looking good.

The night finally began to fade as the beer ran out, eventually Peter, Denny, Candice and I were laid out in one of the bedroom's laughing the night away as the sky became bright and the birds got to chirping.

After perhaps an hour of actual sleep, I was up and out the door with Peter and Candice, off to REI where Candice was in search of a cheap sleeping bag. We left her there and made a visit to Cam's place, then came back when she was just checking out. We got some baked goods at the grocery store only to decide that we wanted to go to the Blue Plate Diner. We enjoyed a nice breakfast there, I slammed down a coffee in the wake of drinks, trips and little sleep.

After a brief stop at Candice's we were back at Peter's relaxing, and then finally back at Candice's where I crawled into my sleeping bag for a few hours. I woke up and grabbed a couple slices of toast, then chased Candice down to a brewery a good 20 or 30 minute bike ride away. There was a monthly couchsurfing meet up there, I drank a stout and had some conversation with various folks until it was decided that there was a party worth going to.

I biked the good distance back where I hopped into a car and headed to the party, hosted by a guy Phil who I'd met a time before. I drank beers and cups of jungle juice while sharing some hitchhiking stories with interested people who were traveling though. The night started winding down and Candice and I caught a ride back home where we faded.

I woke up in the morning with the road on my mind, I intended to go up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming to visit my mom and sister. It had been a good trip in Utah, but a packed bag and blue skies always begs for motion.

I spent my lasting morning in Arizona wrapping things up, anticipating the road ahead after a long stint of staying put. We grabbed some lunch, Larry, his dad, Trish and I, then they drove me up to the outskirts of the Phoenix area to a spot in Surprise I'd hitched out of before. Larry made me a cardboard sign that said Vegas, I was off to thumbing.

Soon I was in the backseat of a minivan, an attractive blonde driving with her teenage daughter in the front and her young son in the back playing with a godzilla figurine. The kid smiled and laughed while throwing godzilla around and telling me all about how he could breathe fire and these types of things. It became a quiet relaxed ride once he fell asleep, I too went in and out of sleep as headed north.

The family was headed up to Provo, UT, they dropped me off on Las Vegas Blvd just north of Freemont street, right where I needed to be. I gave Shana a call and then met her at her apartment. I caught up a bit and then opted to go get a beer.

I went to the Main Street casino and sat at the bar, popping $10 in the video poker machine with the thought that my beers would be comped by doing so, the beer there was pretty good too. After a draining the beers and my money down the bill came, the waitress told me should couldn't comp the drinks because I wasn't doing the max bet. I emptied out my pockets to pay the bill, leaving with nothing but some loose coins to my name.

I'd already booked a few free nights at the Luxor, part of the comp package included $75 in promo chips, so I wasn't all to concerned with my empty pockets. I wandered back to Shana's place where I'd be crashing the first night in town. Her and her boyfriend were looking to go out and do a little drinking, I decided to go along with them just to get out again, flask in tow.

A joint burned down on the ride to the M, the newest casino on the strip. We went through the night going to a few different spots, I was noticeably out of it, few words escaping my lips. We wound up back at their apartment for a moment and I passed out while they went back into the night.

In the morning I Shana cooked up one of the better omelette's I've had, a good way to kick off the day. I grabbed my backpack and got to walking to the Luxor on my own, a good 5 miles or more away. When I arrived and tried to check in I was told I would need a credit card for the deposit, I had the numbers to one, but they needed a physical card.

I walked to the side to figure things out, a mess of phone calls to people I knew in Vegas and people I knew who may know someone in town who could help, but no dice. The Lakers game was about to start, so I just went to the sports book to watch the game and decided I figure things out after.

The Lakers beat up the Magic and won their 15th championship, something I'd been looking forward to for a while. During this, I was going back in forth sending messages to Kelly, who I'd met in Zion through Molly from Flagstaff, she was considering coming to Vegas, but instead decided she may come the next day.

I got the idea to go to CVS and try to get a Visa gift card or some such to try and check in with, it didn't work out. At last I decided I'd try to check in one more time and see if I could catch some luck, or at least collect the promo chips. The girl I talked to at the desk had some words with her manager and worked things out, she told me they'd let me stay the night, but if I didn't have my friends come with a deposit by the next day I'd have to leave, fine by me.

I went up to the room and plopped down my stuff, happy to have a bed for the night. I immediately went down to the casino to collect the promo chips, and then on to the craps table, a 10 dollar minimum table. I figured I'd just make field bets $10 at a time to see what would happen, a field bet is betting that one of the listed numbers will be rolled on the dice. I hit once, then twice, then missed a few times. At that point I had $20 in real chips, that I could turn into cash, and $15 left in promo chips. I put the rest on the field and the dice rolled, a 12 came up, this is the most unlikely number to come up and pays triple, $45 in one roll giving me $65 all together. I left the table and cashed in my fortune, then promptly got some food in my belly.

I woke up peacefully in the room in the morning unsure what the next move was. I finally got word from Kelly, she was feeling sick and wouldn't be coming, which meant I had to be going too. I checked out before they had a chance to ask me to leave for not having a deposit, I got to walking back up the strip towards the I-15 on ramp near Sahara.

I thumbed out for a little while until a young guy from Brooklyn stopped and I hopped in the backseat. He was only going up to Freemont, but he gave me some junk food before letting me out. I decided I'd catch the bus up close to the speedway like last time, and headed to the bus stop.

A couple street dwellers sat on the bench, one wanted water and I gave him some, he talked to the other guy and then got to walking towards a shelter. The other guy talked to me for a while, he'd been on the streets since his whole life, he wanted to be in Oregon. It seemed like he was stuck in Vegas, I told him how I'd escaped a number of times. The bus came, I got on and he stayed behind.

I got off down the line and got to walking towards the Speedway, loosely thumbing rides as I went. A mini van passed me, then stopped in the shoulder far ahead and backed up towards me. A friendly looking guy popped out with his wife, he had me put my bag in the trunk and I took the front seat while the wife slipped in back. There was no air conditioning he said, so the window would be staying open, I couldn't be happier. The wind rushed across my face and through my fingertips hanging out the window the whole ride.

They took me as far as Saint George, a good ways up the road, the woman gave me a walmart gift card she had as I was getting out, the told me how much they loved helping people, I was grateful for it.

I got picked up pretty quickly from the next spot, a couple guys and a girl about my age just going up the road. He dropped me off in Toquerville, the sun was on it's way down and headlights were turning on. Just before it vanished, I got picked up again. The guy driving this time was a zip line specialist, he'd just been talking to someone about a job giving nature tours along a river, shooting from zip line to zip line while explaining the surrounding nature.

He took me 15 miles past where he was headed to get me into Cedar City, dropping me off at a Chevron gas station and pushing a $20 bill in my direction saying I deserved a good meal. I walked into the gas station all smiles, I grabbed a burrito and a 24oz Pabst thinking I'd likely be camping out. The girl working the counter was cute, she smiled and asked me about my backpack, my answer interested her. I used the microwave to warm up the burrito and took a seat at the counter and she got to asking me more questions - where I sleep, if I get scared, where I've been, where I'm going. She was on the cusp of offering me a place to stay, I was asking her about any wooded areas that may be nearby.

I decided to give the on ramp a quick try, and that's all it was, there was a blind corner and little place for cars to pull over, it was late and dark anyhow. I wandered back to the gas station to use the bathroom and see the girl again. She suggested a few more places I may have luck camping out, she looked at me apologetically as if she wanted to offer her place, but couldn't bring herself to do it.

I got to walking down the road in search for the next on ramp and a place to camp nearby. It was quite a walk, hitting some dead ends along the way. I came across a KOA and talked to a guy outside asking if it cost anything to camp without a trailer, he said $20, too much for me and I kept walking. I soon came close to the next on ramp and saw a really nice patch of trees and a big field, I wandered in and set up my sleeping bag and popped open my beer.

I slept great, a bird chirped above me early in the morning as a wake up call. I got packed up and headed for the on ramp, I made a quick stop for a snack at the gas station first. I thumbed at the on ramp, I'd been in the same spot once before months ago when some traveling sales folks picked me up. In no time a car had pulled in across the street, I didn't realize he was stopping for me at first, but then ran over when he started waving his hand frantically at me.

His car was loaded up with gear and instruments, we made a quick stop at what I think was his folks place and then got on the road. He was an interesting guy, telling me about rainbow gatherings and things like this. Talk of acid and mushrooms came up, he told me about his experiences with this.

Getting closer to Salt Lake City we stopped for a bite, he got me a couple burgers. Before we got on the road he dug through his trunk and handed me an ice cube sized block of chocolate with some special ingredients. He drove me just shy of Salt Lake City telling me to enjoy, dropping me off next to the freeway.

I got picked up right away again by an air force guy in full uniform. He was headed to Ogden, but happy to get me to where I was going. He went out of his way to take me directly to Candice's place in Sugar House, it seems every time I hitch to her place people drop me off at her doorstep.

I went to the door and met Lars who was making pancakes, a couchsurfer who was also staying there. Kate came from around the corner, laughing as she saw my face with a hug, I tend to drop in on the house unannounced and it all works out. Candice was at work at the crystal shop at the time, she didn't know I was coming either. I went downstairs to throw my bag down and discovered Anthony was there, one of the guys I'd drunkenly biked around with in Laramie, Wyoming a month or so ago.

I caught up with everybody and had a pancake. I plugged in my phone to find a voicemail waiting from Candice, she'd called only minutes ago apologizing for never showing in Vegas and saying that I should come visit her in Salt Lake sometime. I laughed at the timing and headed for the bike, riding towards the crystal shop. I rolled up and set my bike against the tree, she'd seen from the window and came at me with a huge smile of surprise and a hug. Her boss stood by with a smile too, Candice had cut her off mid sentence to come running. The woman wandered away and took off, I caught up with Candice for a while in the shop, I told her about the magic chocolate I'd been given on the road.

After a while I headed to the coffee shop to catch up on things and wait for her to get off work. I got in touch with Cameron after a while, he came and picked me up when he got off work. We dropped my bike off at Candice's and went and saw Peter, he'd just gotten back from a camping excursion in California.

Cameron had moved into a new place with his brother and dog who'd moved from the east coast, I went and checked out the new place and we got to playing some beer pong. We soon hit the road and met up with the whole crew at half off sushi night. After I hopped in a car with Candice, Peter and some other folks and we went to a garage party, enjoying just one beer and some relaxing before heading back to Candice's place and calling it a night.

Good times behind and ahead, talk of a big party on Friday and ideas of hitching to Jackson in the future. It should be an interesting week or three ahead.

My time in Arizona was all about Trip Hopping, peck peck peck at the keyboard getting things rolling. Trip Hopping is the rideshare and travel site I started with my friend Larry a year or so ago, and an idea that has really been in the works since I first started HoboLifestyle.com a couple years ago when I started traveling.

We had a "Brew" here at Larry's place in Arizona, a solid couple weeks or so of us tweaking the site with some help from volunteers. We ended up getting a lot done, one guy, Mark, flew in from Rochester, NY just to help out. He turned out to be a pretty smart guy and contributed a lot. Check out the site if you're interested in traveling, it's a good way to find rides, hitchhiking tips and keep up to date with your friends' travels, it's a hobo's dream.

In between and in the midst of the 15+ hours sessions of coding away, I enjoyed quite a few brews, good ole' beers to enhance the setting, a Dundee Pale Ale is by my side at the moment. I also got to enjoy a whole lot of basketball playoffs, namely the Lakers rocking through teams and at this moment, one win away from a championship.

We spent one day on the salt river tubing, it was quite a trip. There was 13 of us, volunteers, couchsurfers and Larry's kids. It was a party on the river flooded with people drinking, beautiful girls who likely couldn't show ID offering beer bongs and a never ending marshmallow fight all the way down.

In the mix my phone got wet, not sure why I brought it anyhow, but none the less it got damaged beyond repair. With that, all my stored phone numbers were gone. It was hard to care too much being that there wasn't much to do about it, and luckily Larry had an old phone that I was able to activate. I'll no longer be able to connect my laptop to the phone to get internet anywhere, but perhaps I'll come across a new phone capable of this again down the line.

Vegas, yes Vegas, again, is on the future's list. Candice said she'd meet me there for a day or three of Vegas type things, and then head up to Salt Lake City. Either way, I'll be headed through and likely on to Jackson Hole, WY for a day or two with some family before racing back down to the Grand Canyon to do some camping in Havasupai at the end of the month. Good times, always.

After a wild Vegas birthday night, I awoke to a quiet morning with a the road to Utah ahead of me. Peter from Salt Lake City had a little camping trip in store. I washed up and got my things together, my ass was bruised purple from the birthday paddle that had got passed around the night before. Shana took a picture of it before I left amongst the shock and laughter of the scattered friends and couchsurfers in the room.

I headed towards the bus stop, I planned to take it as close as it would get me to my favorite hitchhiking spot in Vegas when heading north, the speedway. It turned out to be a decent walk from where it left me off to get to the freeway, around an hour of walking. Water sounded like a good idea during this stroll through the desert, I didn't have much.

I thumbed out for a ride until someone stopped, a guy who worked at the Sahara Casino headed to his home in Loganville, and that's where he dropped me. I got out a little more thirsty than before, I imagined the water bottle I'd find in the next car. A young guy pulled over, barely out of the freeway, I hopped in quick and we got going. Sure enough, he had a water bottle waiting for me and I chugged it down.

He was a poker player who lived in Springdale, which is just about Zion, where I was headed. He stopped once so I could fill up the water bottle again and we kept going. He was an interesting guy, he told me about machines he built to collect pollen and seeds that he was able to sell really easily to make plenty of money.

The idea was to meet Peter in Saint George, Paul, my driver, was happy to take me exactly to where I was supposed to meet them. We stopped first at the grocery store so I could buy a loaf of bread, I had a single $5 bill and some loose change at this point, bread can go a long way.

I got dropped off and found a seat on a nice shady bench to enjoy some slices of bread, fancy cinnamon bread at that. I got in touch with Molly, my host I met in Flagstaff a week earlier, her and her friend were coming to meet us too for a night of camping. They were already in the park and had been hiking more or less all day.

Peter finally arrived, it turned out to be just him and Parker, everyone else had flaked out in one way or another. They got some food at a little cafe, the place was giving out free cupcakes so I ate one of those. We stopped for various supplies and beer and got going towards Springdale to meet up with the girls.

We met them at a gas station, they'd had a trip of a day and told us the story, I drove their car and followed Peter towards some campgrounds to crash for the night. We got there and winded through the bumpy road until we found a sandy spot, there were people almost everywhere being that it was memorial day weekend.

Some beers, some joints and alas, a fire. We all had reasons for feeling spent, but the fire kept us glued together with conversation and relaxation. We burned out when the fire did, the girls in one tent, Peter and Parker in another, and myself under the cloud cover in my bivy sack. A few stars broke out to show themselves, and a few rain drops too.

We woke up in the morning and were rolling in no time. We got to Zion park and caught the shuttle to the base of Angels Landing, a good hike I'd been on once before with Candice and her dad. The five of us made our way to the top and enjoyed the incredible view. On the way down we spotted an interesting hole in the rock and climbed up in it, it lead to a deep crack. We caught it at the perfect time, the 10 minute window of the day where the sun shined through.

We headed all the way down, Peter got my attention at one point asking if I'd seen a guy's glasses who walked past us, I hadn't. We all got on the road, the girls and I followed behind as Peter whipped up through the roads to a spot he had in mind for camping the next couple nights, the scenery was deep, red rocks, wide open spaces, very cool to see.

We got to the spot and got some food in us, we were essentially on top of a plateau in one of six camp sites. I saw what looked like a hell of a view through the trees a couple hundred yards away, we all headed in that direction.

It was an incredible view of a number of plateaus in the distance, popping out of the ground like rigid marshmallows. We all laid out for a while taking it in.

We relaxed back at the campsite later, light rain here and there, and finally a decent down pour that sent some of us into the tent, Parker to his hammock, and Kelly to the car for some sleep. We talked for a while until the girls had to get on the road.

We stayed up for a little while, but the incoming dark and rain made sleep seem like the thing to do. I had my spot in the hammock with a tarp over it, playing my harmonica to match the whipping winds and rain pounding down.

We woke up in the morning at the same time, relaxing with some cereal. We decided to walk further down the dirt road the another view point. We ran into a guy who said he'd been sleeping in his car pulled off the road a bit, but ran off by a ranger for not having a legit camp site. Peter recognized him, he was the guy with the thin glasses he'd pointed out to me on the hike the day before.

We got to talking with him more and told him he could pull into our campsite for the night, he was also up for going on a hike with us. He went to grab his car, we finished a joint in the woods and went back to to the camp spot.

The four of us hopped in two cars and went towards the trail head. The hike was pretty flat at first, a peaceful forest. We at last got to a an opening that looked out on some peaks and the wide open. We ventured down the trail some more and stopped for some food once we hit a shady spot, then continued on.

We got to the flaky slope, indian paint brush flowers growing from the rock. We decided to soldier up to the top, it was steep going. We at last made it, Pete, the older guy, just a pinch behind us. The view from the top was the most amazing geographical sight I've seen. Red rocks of all shapes, scattered greens and it was in all directions. We stayed up there with a celebratory joint, Pete didn't partake, saying he hadn't smoked in years.

In the distance we saw a pyramid looking rock with a flat top and spires in all corners. We were intrigued, after a bit of debate we were set on getting to it. As mountains go, it's tough to say just how far away it was. We started going straight down another face, different from the trail we came in on. It was much steeper and flakier, but we made our way down.

Instead of jumping back on the trail we spotted, we headed along a little valley until deciding to cut up. Before long it was clear we were well off the trails without a clear sense of where one was. The pyramid itself that we were headed for was of questionable location now too. We kept trucking in the general direction.

Parker questioned whether we should turn around or keep going, it wasn't clear which would even be quicker to do. Peter and I were set on adventuring forward, Pete was somewhat indifferent, but clearly wondering what he'd gotten himself into. His water bottle was dwindling, all of our water was, we'd come with just enough for a short hike.

We ventured down the side of the slight hump we were on, down towards the dried up river bed. We came across a human looking footprint in the rock down there and continued on. Parker became a bit frustrated with our situation, water was on his mind. We wandered out of the river bed and up towards a peak. We finally reached the top to realize that we were in fact on top of the pyramid we were looking for in the beginning. It was pretty amazing, like a courtyard on top of the world, a decidedly great camping spot for a later date.

We were still a bit disoriented and off trail, unsure of the way out. We climbed out of the courtyard and winded around a bit more until we found a high point to get a view. Sure enough, we spotted a road in the distance. We were high above, a valley and another small mountain range between us and the road. Peter scouted forward down a crack to see what it looked like as far as getting down, turned out it was a sheer cliff, so no getting down that way.

At this point there were increasing murmurs about the possibility of forced camping out in the wilderness, without water or much, if any, food left. We opted to head for the river and follow it, if we could find it. We curled around the way we came, back through the high pyramid courtyard, down and around a ridge. We found ourselves following animal paths most of the time, seeing all type of cat tracks and droppings we couldn't reliably identify.

After cutting through some pretty thick bush we finally found the river bed and got to rock hopping our way down it. Alas, we came across a small stagnant puddle of water. Parker took out his water filter and him and Pete crouched around it filling up their bottles, Peter and I watched and waited. I still had a few sips left in my camel bak, I figured there'd be more water later.

They drank their slightly tinted water and we continued on. A ways down we came across a whole mess of running water, Peter and I filled up at that point, it was cold and refreshing hitting the spot, we'd been hiking for five hours or more.

We finally came across an actual trail, and then people. "You're almost there!", a group of older guys shouted to us, they were loaded up with gear. We skipped down the trail, it eventually started to go straight up. Pete stopped a few times on this stretch to catch his breath, he'd soldiered through the whole ordeal with us for the most part with no complaints. The steep bit was through and turned to a nice flat home stretch that led us, finally, to a parking lot.

We all headed for the road to get to hitchhiking to get back to the cars. A perky girl called to us from the parking lot and we went over to her, she was drinking a sierra nevada pale ale. She told us her boyfriend would be back in a minute and could shuttle a couple of us up, and that's what he did when he got there.

Parker and I waited while Peter got shuttled up and then came back with his car to take us back to the camp site. We reflected back on the day, estimating between 15-20 miles covered, the sun was just dropping from the sky now. We got some food in us back at camp, then I got a fire going. We sat by that discussing the stars and whatnot until sleep was the thing.

We packed up pretty quick in the morning and got on the road. Outside of the park we stopped at a diner called the Wagon Wheel, Peter picked up my breakfast which was a tasty one. I went into the bathroom and cleaned up a bit, I had to wipe a few days of camping off me in anticipation of hitchhiking to Vegas where Nick was waiting.

Peter and Parker dropped me off at the south end of Saint George and I was on my way. I stood by the on ramp until a pickup truck with an older couple inside picked me up. I sat in the backseat amongst tools and other things they'd just picked up form home depot, they were headed back to their home in mesquite.

My next ride came from a guy who'd been out driving in search for future camping and fishing spots, he lived in Vegas. He got me to the far north end of town and dropped me off near a bus. I barely had enough money, but I hopped a bus, switched to the Deuce, and made my way all the way to and down the strip past Mandalay Bay. I had some time until I had to meet Nick, I scraped up just enough coins to get a burger at McDonalds and sit there for a while with my laptop, left with about 30 cents to my name.

I wandered down the way to what I thought was the shopping center Nick said his friend worked at. I went into the book store there and waited for his call. I shot him a message after a long while, turned out he was and had been 10 yards behind me in the same store for a little while with his friend.

We got on the road and drove all the way to Phoenix, Nick dropped me off at Larry's place somewhere around midnight. It'd been a good week, and now in Phoenix I was ready to put in some time getting Trip Hopping rocking, this would be the story of the weeks to come.