Sedona & Las Vegas

Twisted Jupiter Trees

I woke up to see where I was actually overnighting and realized that I was literally right by the Bell Rock in Sedona. To start the day I took a little morning walk to go and see the Bell Rock closer by. It is said by many “New Age” folks that have gathered to live in Sedona that there are energy Vortexes right by Bell Rock and to be more specific the vortex of Balance. The “proof” to this is claimed to be seen in the “Jupiter” trees all around the Bell Rock that grow in spirals from the effect of the vortex. I walked for awhile and granted I found these trees that indeed seemed to be twisting as they were growing where the other Jupiter trees in the area were not. I don’t know weather the vortex was there or not, but many seemed to believe so and it is a popular “New Age” travel destination.

After I got back to the car I stopped on my way back to Flagstaff in Sedona itself. It is a very calm little town with magnificent sights all around it. Not quite as in Moab, Utah, but not far from that. I also learned after that Sedona is an UFO sighting hotspot.. luckily I came out intact.. ;)

Hoover Dam

I checked few of the shops on the way and started driving towards Las Vegas where I had a place to stay. Another “sailing friend” from the south pacific trip. I also realized that it would be my second last driving day. The only one left after was the drive to LA. The Drive was nice and with variety. Though long long straight roads again! There was one quick stop that I wanted to do on my way to Vegas: the Hoover Dam. And I must say that… it was smaller than I thought! Still big and a great marvel of engineering, but somehow the movies made it look so much bigger. Oh well, got my pictures and were on my way.

I arrived to Las Vegas to meet Jennifer around 5 pm. And that firs beer after driving tasted GOOD! After catching up the past 2 years we hit the Vegas Strip a bit. Stopped to have THE photo taken: which is of course in front of the famous “Welcome to the Fabulous Las Vegas” sign. The Strip itself is a marvel of lights and attractions in the casinos. Funny enough as we drove pass all these monuments from around the world I couldn’t but think. I’ve been there, I’ve seen that in real size, that’s the third obelisk I see.. etc. Granted there were few places I hadn’t been, but not many.. felt kinda good :)

We drove by the whole strip and back and stopped in Mandalay Bay Hotel, where Jennifer had a chance to get to the top floor for the scenic view of the strip. Very fancy club with a perfect view! After we continued to another hotel where we had to try our luck with Black Jack. I’m not a big gambling man, but "once in Vegas". So 10 minutes and $80 later I had to bail (I know some of you go: “you played only $80!” and the others go “how could you spend that much on a game!”) I felt that it was a donation I was ready to make for the sin city.. ;)

The following day I had the full day time to explore the strip and I set out to see what Vegas had to offer at day time. Plenty of tours, attractions and excursions one could’ve taken, but since I had only one day to explore I decided to do it on my own. I started from the Las Vegas sign again and walked my way all the way to the Caesars Palace checking every sight on the way. On my way back I did the same but on the other side of the road ;) I know it doesn’t necessary sound that exiting just to walk up and down, but I got my “money’s worth” from it! And I can’t lie, for the whole day I was expecting for the evening to come! We had booked tickets for something I had wanted to see for years: a Cirque Du Soleil Show. And not any show, but the famous “KA”! After I got back to Jennifer’s place I had a quick change and off we went again. First off: Eat then show.

We ate in this Sushi place that Jennifer spoke very highly of. Funny enough only just two years ago I actually learned to eat sushi. Anyways.. this place looked like any kind of sushi place I’ve been before, but undoubtly I had the best Sushi I’ve ever had! (so far)

Then it was show time. We got in good time to the MGM Grand hotel where the performance took place and managed to get really good seats as well. The show itself is one of the only one’s from Cirque Du Soleil with a story line I learned. The whole theater was built for this show and it was truly something. The acrobatics, Moving sets, aerial acts. Just a combination of pure awesomeness in a form of a show! 

Here’s few some details about it:

Kà is a show by Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. Created and directed by Robert Lepage, the show and the theater cost $220 million to develop.

Kà is the first Cirque du Soleil production that deviates from the company's usual format—the production presents a more straightforward story, unlike the more abstract visuals presented by other Cirque productions.

In its review, the Los Angeles Times stated it "may well be the most lavish production in the history of Western theater. It is surely the most technologically advanced."^[2] The New York Times highly praised all the technical aspects and costumes, it was "essentially about the kind of wild physical feats that all Cirque shows are about, their jaw-dropping effect multiplied by the huge dimensions of the theatrical space." The show has been seen by more than one million spectators since its opening in October 2004. 

After all this awe it was time to get ready for the final day of driving. It was time to drive to LA!

Grand Canyon to Flagstaff

My goal was that on this day I'd do a hike down to the grand canyon and then start driving towards flagstaff, AZ. I got a nice and early start and drove down to the Grand Canyon visitor center. From there I found about the options for different hikes. The one that I found that suited my schedule was about 10km hike with a recommendation of 4-6 hours to do it. I actually really wanted to hike all the way down to the river, but it was very strongly recommended not to do it as a one day hike due to the high elevation. It would’ve been about 22km hike. I took the shuttle bus provided from the visitor center to the starting point of the hike. I had  chance on the previous day to check out the sunset over the Grand Canyon but I still had only seen one viewpoint of it. So the moment I got my first sights of the canyon were as it would’ve been the first time. Just pure awesomeness in a form of a view! The trail I started following was called the “South Kaibab Trail”. It stretched all the way down to the river, but you could do also shorter distances of the trail. 

The trail itself was pretty much struck to the hill with a constant drop off right from the trail. And it was steep as well! The scenery that the trail offered was definitely first class. The first time I saw the full view was from the “Ooh Aah Point” which got it’s name pretty much from the reaction of people when they come to it.  I continued all the way to the “Skeleton Point” which is the first point on the trail from where you can see the river in the canyon. This was also my turning point to start hiking up. It was said that whatever time you spend going down you should double when climbing back up. The moment I turned to start the climbing I found this urge inside of me that I really would’ve wanted to continue to the bottom of the canyon.. ‘sigh’ ..next time.

The Climb up didn’t actually take that long of me and I reached back up in a total of 3,5 hours of hiking down and up. I must say that walking uphill for 5 km (3mi) in 30’C (90’F) was something I started to feel in both my legs and body by the time I reached up.

I caught the shuttle back to the visitor center with a feeling that I had seen Grand Canyon and could continue with a good feeling.

I started driving from the visitor center and on the way decided to do a little detour. Marketa on the previous night was highly speaking about this quaint little town right south of Flagstaff called Sedona so I decided to go and take a look how it was. Since it was only about 1,5 hours away anyway.  It did get dark on my way there so I decided to stop by in Flagstaff and do something I hadn’t done for awhile: a movie night! I found the movie theater and took whatever two movies that were available at that time. Which ended up being the “Hotel Transylvania” and the “Looper”. My thirst for entertainment was filled after seeing these two movies and I continued to drive down to Sedona. I wanted to stay in the car for that night and I had heard that there were big “energy centers” or “natural vortexes” in the area. So I thought that I might as well go and overnight there. See if I can balance myself.. ;) After awhile I did find the “Bell Rock” and overnighted right by it.

Leaving Utah & Arriving to Grand Canyon

I managed to sleep in a bit even though sleeping in the car. I think I started to get used to it AND I did a vital purchase that made the car nights a bit better: camping mattress. It's funny how much a piece of foamy plastic can help to your sleeping!

newspaper rock

On my way back to the highway I found the meeting point where I was supposed to meet with the climbers the previous night. And no wonder I didn't find it in the dark. It was right by the road but there was no signs to it. nonetheless the drive itself was again beautiful by the indian Creek in the canyon lands of Utah. I did manage to see the "newspaper rock" where you can find carvings from 1000's of years back. I decided to head straight ahead to the Grand Canyon Natural park and try to catch the sunset in there. To get there I ended up driving over my last bigger mountain before the desert plains. But lots and lots of straight road was ahead of me on the way to Arizona.

My first interesting stop was in the city of Bluff. If you're ever seen the Disney's Cars animation. that's what this little town reminded me off. There was a little museum for the original pioneers who charted the area and formed the first town in the area. You could see some of the original houses and caravans that were used to get there. I ended up watching a short documentary about the pioneers in the tourist shop. Quite a terrain to travel with horses and caravans!

The second stop I got lucky with. I kinda hoped that I would've had an extra day that I could've stayed behind for this one! In the Tuba City I was wondering why there was so many people, cars and even helicopters in the small town. So I stopped to see what was going on. What was happening was the annual over weekend event where the Navajo & Hopi indians had a fair and market and lots of program including traditional dancing, food and music. Even though I didn't have that much time to get to the Grand Canyon for the sunset I decided that this one was worth to spend some time in. I walked around the markets and saw lots of original handicrafts from the Navajo's & Hopi's. But what really caught my eye was the traditional dance performances in the middle of the market. I managed to see few of them and the dancers were of course in the traditional costumes. I felt like watching Native American Folkloric dancing (which of course it pretty much was, just very different to the Nordic versions of it). 

On my way back I wanted to try some of the delicacies they were selling. I forgot the name of this one but it was a fry bread with lots of Lamb meat, few other types of meat served with steamed pepper and corn. A nice combo. As I was eating it I got companied by the Jazzies family who belonged to the Navajo. They were kind enough to explain me about the festival and some of the traditions they were having there. So nice to hear about the culture from the real people living it! for one I didn't know that the Navajo's speak as their language...Navajo. Along English most of them of course, but from the elderly Navajo's there were many who never learned english that well.

I left the festival just in time to reach the sunset in the Grand Canyon. Funny enough I was thinking for the whole day that I wonder what will happen now or who will I meet since the Climbing didn't work out. Well first of all the sunset over the first sights of the Grand Canyon was spectacular, but that's all I managed to see.. I arrived just in time where the sun set behind the horizon about 15 minutes after I arrived. The Grand Canyon first of all. Never seen anything like it. Just the magnitude and majesties of it is absolutely breathtaking. I knew that the following day I'd do a hike down to the canyon so I wasn't too worried staying that much behind for the canyon. On my way out I found a great spot for a picture and asked the nearest person to take it. It turned out that she was doing something similar as me, Driving around with a rental car, though a shorter version of it. So we got into talking and she recommended me to this Motel near by.

I ended up spending the evening talking with her in the restaurant of the Motel and it turned out that she had an interesting story to tell. She was originally from Czech Republic but had lived in Chicago for quite awhile. What he did nowadays was massaging and healing with crystals. And as I'm always interested in different ways of living and seeing the world I was extremely interested with her story and life views. She explained to me of past lives, energies and meanings that she felt are worth while telling. 

The evening went quickly and I thanked her for the insight to her life. Then it was time to get ready for next days big hike down to the canyon!

Moab - Grand Canyon

Moab, Skydive and Arches

The Karaoke night was an absolute blast with a special performance in the end of "I believe in a thing called love" by a shirtless local guy wearing a blond wig. You can't buy these things with money - you just gotta be there..! btw. check more about Telluride from wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telluride,_Colorado - it's an interesting place

I was planning to leave telluride in the morning so that I could get to drive to Moab at daytime and maybe do the skydive on the same day. So when I went to get my computer in the morning from the store it was being fixed I found out that that there was still 3 hours LEFT! (of transferring the data back to the computer) so we decided to kill some time with Mitch and Maya in the local cafe - went for breakfast and killed some more time. (including petting kittens in the face - that's how cute they were ;) So after that three hours I went back to get the computer - and we had still 'about an hour' left.. oh well.. a bit more time kiling and went back in an hour - still about an hour left.. well it was time for lunch anyway. So finally on the 4th time the process was done and I was able to start leaving Telluride. 

Was actually fun to just hang around for the day. Ended up getting invited to come to Georgia by this Irish guy in the bar who'd been hiking for two weeks in the mountains.. the people you meet!

It was close to 4pm when I started driving and it was again an amazing drive toward Utah. I started driving down from almost 9000 feet down (about 3 km), I didn't even realize that we were that high! Driving down the curly roads was as fun as ever, but when I started to arrive to Utah and seeing all the red rocks "growing' in the horizon - man.. that was something. I drove straight to Moab and arrived there when it was dark already. I booked my skydive for the following day so I had the evening to spent. So I found this nice little local place and catch'd up with the blog a bit over a beverage. After it was time to start getting mentally prepared for the jump next day and "hit the sack".

Next day I woke up early and slightly nervous, not as much as I thought that I would've been considering that I was just about to jump off a plane in 10 000 feet (3,2 km). The Skydive Moab is about 20 min from downtown Moab and I arrived there just in time. It wasn't too busy that morning and the weather was perfect. A bit chilly but that's it. I got greeted by Keith from the skydive moab who guided me in and to fill the paperwork/safety video/safety instructions etc. etc. a lots of paperwork before I got to suit up. 

Not me.. :)

After learning to open my arms, kick my legs back and lift them for the landing I had a chance to finally  suit up to my great jumpsuit gear. And granted right after I got my harness on and soon enough I was already sitting in the plane ready to go. On that moment I actually realized that I've never even been on a small plane.. so I got too checks to the bucket list in one!

There was few other jumpers with us in the plane and they left in a bout 5000 feet (1,6km). It was crazy feeling to see the door open and them just dropping away from the plane! few funky flying moves and my guts in my throat we got the door closed and continued climbing up to our jump hight.

this is when we locked the jumpsuits together for the tandem jump. and soon enough it was time to open the door. At this point the nervousness had creeped in, but there was no turning back (not that I would've anyway) inside the plane we shifted back right by the door and then opened it. The wind was cold and strong and the voice of the plane was high. We stepped out on the little platform on top of the wheel. At this point I remember feeling the instincts to "kick in" - i don't want to go out there! and that's when I heard: ready! set! GO! the next moment I see the plane leaving my sight about 120 mph (a bit under 200km/h) and then it was all about falling. The air was cool - it was a bit hard to breath - but the things that you see. Utah is beautiful as it is, but this was something I hadn't seen before. After free falling awhile it was time to open the parachute and down we came.

It really makes me wonder why I waited for this long to do this. But I'm pretty sure it's not gonna take that long to skydive again!

After the skydive I drove back to Moab to figure out an issue with my credit card, which -not gonna lie - could've gone badly wrong. LUCKILY I was able to figure it out and got in contact with the 24hour service of my bank and got the card reactivated! it took me 3 hours to figure it out but worked out in the end.

I really wanted to see a bit more of the canyons near the city and I got really highly recommended to go and drive the arches nature park so I took a drive there. The formations were awesome and actually ended up being the best ones I've seen. There was one in particular that I wanted to see: the delicate Arch, now this is something that I had seen before in procures etc so I figured that It'd be quite an iconic sight to see. It was a bit further hike than I expected but after 40 minutes of walking I arrived to the arch.. it was bigger than I thought and the view around it was something to match! lots of people and very touristy but so worth while seeing it. Probably the greatest natural formation I've ever seen.. now when I think about it..

There was one more thing to do for the day (a long day) which was the climbing invitation I got earlier in Telluride. I still wanted to go and climb or at least see people climbing. But the time I left Moab it got dark already. The place I was headed was some drive away and pretty hard to find. I got instructions from the friend I was supposed to go climb with but in the dark, once I arrived to the area, I could' find the meeting point :( and it was so away from places that there was no network, so we couldn't contact each other either. After circling for awhile I gave up and camped over night in the car.

Telluride, Colorado

I managed to get an early start for this 5th driving day in a row because of the night I spent in the car. This was the last day of the longest single driving stretch without a day for resting since I left Chicago. I must say I started feeling it a bit, a break from the driving would do good at this point. 

At first the scenery didn't change that much. I drove the last part of the desert view. But soon enough the majestic views of the Rocky Mountains started emerging. It's been a while since I've seen proper mountains so when the first snow tops started showing in the horizon i started to get exited!

While getting higher and higher to the mountains I run into a wildlife roadside zoo. And since I didn't have any specific hurry I decided to take a break and go see what they had to show. Normally I'm not big in the whole Zoo/Aquarium/imprisoned animals thing, but I thought I'd give this privately owned one a change. I was able to catch few animals I hadn't seen before. First I was greeted by a "flock" of turkeys and few cats. I purchased the ticket to go and see the trail and the first one that caught my eye was this big bird right by the entrance: an Emu with few sheep. The Emu had company in the nearby areas with a Mountain Lion, Donkey, porcupines, an elk, wolves and a Grizzly Bear! which at first didn't want to come out but once brought a peanut butter sandwich stumbled out of it's "cave" just enough to munch it down and then went back to sleep. I've never seen most of these animals with my own eyes, so it was a nice experience after all.

The rest of the drive up was filled with breathtaking mountain views, snow tops, lakes and the autumn colors. The autumn itself was already so far that most of the trees had already dropped their leaves. But this somehow added to the feeling of such a different landscape that I had entered.

I arrived to Telluride right before the sunset and met with Mitch. The town itself is gorgeous! It has a population of a bit over 2300 people (which is the same amount as Vision of the Seas guest capacity) So truly a small mountain town. But what a place it was. First of all the view from the main street itself is one with no comparison. The town is surrounded by mountain tops and cliffs. But the atmosphere among the people and when walking the streets was the one that left a very keen memory. The only other place where I've had a similar warm feeling and spectacular view is  Geiranger in Norway. Which is one of my all-time favorites as well! 

Pretty much right after I arrived we parked the car by Mitch's place and took a gondola ride up to the hilltop to go and see the sun setting behind the "Coors Light Mountains" (Wislon Peak) at the southern part of the Rockies.

Me & Mitch on Telluride main street

For the evening we "hit the town" starting with a Trivia Night hosted by Mitch at a local cafe/bar.  During the trivia I met plenty of people from the town and noticed that everybody seemed to have a certain kind of positive feeling coming from them. Something very "small town" like, though most people I met had found Telluride one way or another and just decided to stay or come and visit it often. Everybody seemed to be one way or another nature and adventure sports orientated. Which then again, you are living right by the mountains in a small town. It's no wonder it attracts this type of people. Well.. I suppose the point is that I felt very much home there with the view, lifestyle and mentality of the people. Wouldn't actually surprise me to find myself from there another time in the future..

During the evening I got into conversations with few of the people a bit more and learned about the surroundings and what there is to do nearby. One thing that was highly recommended to me was to do a Skydive in Moab, Utah. Which was only 3 hours drive away from Telluride. Another was to go climbing near Moab by the Indian Creek. Both offers/ideas seemed very tempting so I decided to take a look at the possibilities later on.

After the Trivia we did a little bit of a bar hop with Mitch till somewhat late hours.. and good fun we had. Still a bit "bitter" from loosing that Darts game with the very last dart.. :)

The 2nd day in Telluride we pretty much just took it easy. Slept in and updated the blog in the morning, went for a late breakfast. Mitch wanted to show me this nearby waterfall and we planned on the previous day to hike up there... so we drove. After the previous night neither of us felt like exercising too much! Was a nice little drive though. Up the mountain road. It was the most "off road" I've down with my rental car and it did well. The waterfall itself was gorgeous even though there was not much water falling.. managed to see some snow and Ice swell.. which was nice! Rest of the day we pretty much chilled. Was really nice to just do nothing, since it had been quite a strenuous drive for 5 days to get there. I did manage to get my computer to be checked as well, since it had been growing extremely slow for the past months.

The event that we were waiting for the whole day was THE karaoke night at the same cafe/bar we were the previous day having trivia. Well.. it ended up being quite interesting: First of all during the whole evening there was maybe about 15 people in and out. So pretty much what ever you wanted to sign you could. BUT! the online karaoke system ended up being down. So we had a selection of about 500 songs to sign from the library with not one song that I've used to sign! So I ended up signing the following hits among many: Tribute, Tenacious D,  Chop Suey, System of a Down, mmm mmm mmm,   crash test dummies.. and many others!

Good night - good times!

Route 66 -Day 4: Groom, TX – Santa Fe, NM

My first thing on the 4^th morning of driving the route 66 was the mission to find the leaning water tower of groom. (I’ve never made it yet to the Leaning Tower of Pisa so I’ll try to compensate with this one) And funny enough I actually drove right by it during the previous night! It was about 2 miles back on the road I came down to Groom. I noticed that by the water tower there was a truck still that was there on the previous night as well. I spoke with the Driver for few moments and now he really wants to go for a cruise from New Orleans! :)  He’s truck had revoked it’s “contract” with him. (meaning it was broken) and he had to wait for 17 hours for a replacement truck to come and pick the load he was transporting. Anyways.. He was kind enough to help me out with the “Angry Birds” shot in front of the tower, which btw is coming really nicely together! I believe I have apx 40 clips at the moment of that bird flying around. I’m hoping that by the end I’ll have about 60 of ’em!

-      Well, after Groom I started heading more westly for I wanted to find the other famous roadside attraction that was in the “neighborhood” The Cadillac Ranch. I got a bit confusing information from the location and noticed that I had driven by it already. So I turned around and drove a good 30 km back to the small town of Panhandle, TX where it was supposed to be located according to my guide information. BUT once I arrived – no body had even heard about it! Until I found this younger guy who told me that it’s not even close, it’s after Amarillo… so I turned the car around again and headed toward Amarillo. In Amarillo I wanted to do a stop as well since there was another attraction: The BIG Texan restaurant. Known for the 72oz steak (don’t even know how much it is in Grams probably about 1000) which if you finish you get FREE. Well knowing my appetite I would’ve finished probably 1/7^th of it, so I gave up before even starting

-       After Amarillo I managed to find the Cadillac Ranch. And it was exactly that: 10 cadillacs dug halfway down in the middle of a field. But it looked pretty cool though! Here’s an idea for some local art project in the fields of finland!

    After seeing the cadillacs I started following the Route 66 where ever I could and arrived to New Mexico (where btw they just did the “space jump”) and in NM I found the “midpoint Café” where I had driven exactly the 1193mi (2000km-ish) and I had 1193 mi left of route 66. For me though a bit more since I was planning to drive to Colorado to see my friend Mitch from few years back on Oasis of the Seas take out.

On my way towards Albuquerque, NM I noticed that it would be quicker for me to take the scenic route and drive to Santa Fe instead. So I did. And on the way there I noticed the road to change drastically and becoming more desert like with the long straight roads!! And I saw my first (out of many) Red Rocks and landscapes and it was something. I felt like I drove straight into a western movie with the tumble weeds and all! All that was missing was a stand off and gunfights! Luckily didn’t see any of those!

I arrived to Santa Fe after dark and found a nice cosy place to sleep in my car and waiting for the upcoming mountain drive to the start of the Rocky mountains