1.2 Utah

(wrote this last night but had no wifi to post with.. and my hotspot was just not doin it...)

Soo I'm currently sitting in the passenger seat of the gangsta-mobile. yerpp... we got an RV. I kinda ghosted myself for a little bit because there was lots of biz and such going on for a while. and let me tell you-- shopping for BIG, EXPENSIVE things is exhausting. by the end of our day of shopping-- ok retract that-- after 2 hours of rv shopping.. I was done. spent burnt flustered fuzzy-- call it what you want, I had HAD it. never the less-- as I sat there, brain completely numb, George was ready to do his wheeling and dealing. we had a few brief discussions about it and then--- the sales people offered us my kryptonite-- PIZZA HUT. that manufactured, greasy, chain store pizza buttery goodness was just what I needed to get back that pep in my step. so out we went again with the golf cart and our sales guy brad.. Mind you my Brain was SCRAMBLED after having walked in and out of more than 50 machines.. multiple times. but we went back through our handful of favorites and we settled on one. and it's seriously a house on wheels. this thing is no joke. at 32 feet it's considered a "compact" luxury coach. (raises right eyebrow)

2 popouts. commercial fridge, oven, convection oven, WAYYY too many TVs. (4!! and one is outside wtffff!!?) and.. a fireplace. a fireplace.

yep... a fireplace. yeah so we're land-cruisin in style. oh and there's a CB radio. at some point I'm gonna start eaves dropping on lonely truckers conversations, I'll document them for you. anyway so the lead up to that was quite a few nights in Mount Pleasant, Utah. That's where Nik's rv was. For those of you who don't know. the purpose of this whole trip was initially to go retrieve George's brother's RV from Utah and bring it back to jers, Am I repeating myself? Maybe.. whatever now it's drilled into your head. So I don't exactly recall what day we arrived in mount pleasant, but since the last time I wrote was in Indianapolis, and I don't know what today is.. Sunday Sept 20? I think so. I'd have to reference my texts with mom to figure out where I was at what point. ...... ok got it. here's what's happened since Indy--- (thanks mom texts) ok--- left Indiana sept 9th, drove through Illinois and slept in Iowa at this MOOSE themed hotel. it was done so tastefully.. basically was like a Hilton, Marriott etc in terms of layout and accommodations but with moose EVERYTHING and totally made of wooden beams and logs. they may or may not have been fake. I LOVED IT. who doesn't love meese? sept 10th-- thurs. we got on the road again and drove drove drove all day.. made some stops along the way. what we saw I just can't say.

lots of flat AND MORE FLAT AND MORE FLAT. and then beautiful stuff. all of which involved various terrain and hues of browns reds and gold. we passed through the Great Plains (which were indeed simultaneously great and plain) and then approached the mountains. that night stayed in Laramie WY which was about 45 min west of Cheyenne. all these cities along route 80 were really cute. I liked Lincoln Nebraska a lot and there was this small city.. ummmm rock springs I think. where we made a ----- ok pause... we just crossed the Idaho state line and I missed the photo opp because I'm writing! damn! I'll have to get it on the way back or something. phooey. anyway we made a pit stop in rock springs and there was one Main Street with dusty roads and rocky terrain. I could swear John Wayne was gonna bust outta the saloon at any moment gun-slinging.. but.. to my dismay... I lived that fantasy only in my mind while sipping my soup and occasionally snagging forkfuls of Georgie's wedge salad. the next day Friday sept 11th we passed through Utah! (we also passed two 911 mesuems which i found odd but so comforting) and what a sense of accomplishment! we basically replicated the road trip that George took with his brother to get out there to begin with. so it was memorable. we recreated some of their rest stops. and hit all different realms of emotion, joy, wistfulness, sadness, anger, fear, confusion. etc. we hit laughter as often as possible. it was a nostalgic ride. we switched it up every 2-3 hours depending on how we were feeling. that night we rode into the town where the RV was parked with the sunset ahead of us. Nothing better than driving west at magic-hour. that night we checked into the Horseshoe Mountajn lodge and began to decompress.. or so I thought. -- Sept 12th. Saturday. we went to camping world and the great search began. by the end of the day we settled on the RV as previously mentioned. We thought that we'd pick it up Monday but we're way off base with that estimate. sept 13 Sunday we went ATVing to the top of the highest mountain in Utah, we knew nik definitely spent time there. That was emotional. thrilling and scary. and surprisingly physically draining! Pics of everything in a post to follow. sept 14 Monday

did laundry that was awesome --- we've done laundry 3 times already woo!! oh and I started a fun photo project that day.. we went to get some work done on the VW golf that we drove out from jersey. while we waited for the dealership to finish up the oil change etc. we went shopping bought new hiking boots AND.. a SELFIE STICK. yassssss. finally a reason to get one. hah. I disappeared into the world of myself for quite a while the next day. that evening we had awesome Korean food in Provo and then went back to mount pleasant for a happy nights sleep. we did not get to take the RV with us. they still needed time to get it ready. it was 3 months that we lost nick that day :'(

sept 15 Tuesday did nothing and it was glorious. worked on my photo project a bit, did a phone interview for a job I didn't want and wasn't available for anyway but figured it was good practice.. and was the first time someone had reached out to me online rather than the other way around. the rest of the day was a bust in the best possible way. naps, carbs, love. sept 16 Wednesday dropped off niks RV thought we would get ours.. didn't. slept in sandy Utah at a ghettotel. sept 17 Thursday packed up left got RV took all day celebratory dinner in Ogden. soooo cheap. slept Walmart parking lot sept 18 Friday went back to camping world -__- 6 years without normie dinner with jared sept 19 Saturday spent day with jared and fam. dinner and slept at jareds in niks room--- i'll explain all the jared stuff in another post. sept 20 Sunday spent day preparing for trip. hung out with jared, maddie and their kids. got on the road. and here I am! to be continued with more detail sept 16- present. xo