rAnDoM tHoUgHtS
the stats:
8.797 miles
52 days
10 states
2 hotels; 2 hostels; 1 B&B; 47 nights in my car
4.647 photos
one oil change; 3 lights replaced
I wore my down jacket approximately 40 of the 52 days
things overheard….
One woman, looking out into the Grand Canyon, talking seriously to two other people...”Yes, I think this is a little different than the Ozarks.”
best hiking outfit….
A little girl about 5 in pink leggings, tech long sleeve t-shirt, hiking boots & a pink sparkly tutu with rhinestones ( at GCNP).
worst hiking outfit….
A woman in her 20’s wearing 3” wedge sandals & a mini dress....oh & her huge designer purse (There are a ton of women who hike with big huge purses...& I bet they’re not filled with hiking stuff either) (at GCNP).
I just wonder….
It’s the third day in Grand Canyon National Park & I’m sitting at a viewpoint, looking out into the Canyon & working on Tripscribbles. The weather has been super crappy-crazy here all day, but about 45 after I parked, the entire canyon was socked in clouds. I mean you could see NOTHING but white. My camera wouldn’t even take a picture of it because there was NOTHING to focus on. Yet, I saw about 10 people stop to take their pictures in front of the canyon. Them with a totally white background...interesting.
near catastrophes…
Almost stabbed in the foot with a hiking pole by a person not paying attention & taking up the whole trail…
Almost knocked off the trail by a person looking down at their phone…
Almost knocked off the trail by a group of three people, taking up the whole width of the trail & thinking I was an invisible hiker & just running into me….
Almost hit in the head on the trail by guy twirling a selfie stick…
Almost knocked off trail by a person looking down at their camera…
all of the above at the Grand Canyon.
Stay away from stinging nettles...not good to hike in sandals when these are growing onto the path!
PEOPLE…
I was in a off the beaten path scenic drive parking lot in Northern California. The only other car in lot was from Wichita KS. I visited with a guy about 30...taking his first road trip to California. He’d been in Yosemite & this was his first view of the ocean...he thought it was fantastic! Always great fun to run into people enjoying experiences so different than our plain home state!
STATES, cities & towns…
I was driving through Yachats, OR where there is a section of town with all street signs named after states...Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Washington, etc. and Knoxville. ummm...that made me wonder!
I think there is a Martin Luther King Boulevard & a Vietnam Veterans Highway is almost every town & city.
Victoria Canada...they don’t serve ice in any of their drinks; they will usually take American dollars but only give back Canadian; it’s a wash room, not a bathroom, & they all really do say ‘ayyy’ at the end of their sentences.
Long Beach California had a business that was a laundromat, tanning booth, scrapbooking store & would serve espresso...multitasking for sure!
When I was driving through Rockaway Beach, OR there was a sign up saying it was “Pedestrian Safety Day”. I was stopped at a crosswalk, so three elderly people could each cross the walk...separately --one with a cane, one in a wheelchair & one with an oxygen tank. There were a couple of photographers on site catching all the action. I thought this was odd.
However, while passing through LA, where the crosswalks are all those giant big huge blinking signals, a pedestrian would push the button, all the lights would glare & blink signaling everyone to stop...& I would be the only car stopped. Even the bicycles weren’t stopping to let pedestrians across...the cars just flying by.
I never understood (& it could never be explained by anyone) the Oregon Recreation Pass, but fell in love with the Washington Discover Pass!
Along the Pacific Coast, particularly in Oregon & Washington, there are ‘fish’ police...everywhere! Citing fines on fisherman & clam diggers! Tons of people in bright safety vests logging numbers on clipboards...I’m sure there’s a good reason for this...but this flatlander from the brown muddy rivers & lakes of midwest...didn’t get it.
Selfies....
Happy Girl!
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