Western Sun Number One!

This one week trip was a whirlwind. By the end I feel a combination of complete exhaustion, slight good-riddance, and a good amount of satisfaction. This was the ultimate 'girl's trip', nine lovely ladies and myself! Despite the obvious challenges of guiding nine European girls around the Southwest, we all managed to have an amazing trip and a little femme boost is always good forthe soul!

Highlights of the week included an amazing sunset at the Grand Canyon followed by a clear night of star gazing followed by an incredible sunrise. Renting a party bus in Vegas equipped with two stripper poles and proving to all my girls that Canadian tour guides are quite gifted dancers. Driving on the recently opened (two-days prior) Tioga Pass to Yosemite Valley. The road is still lined with snow and the waterfalls are gushing with runoff into rushing rivers and sky blue lakes.

Our group was fairly dominated by the energy (and noise) of four of the five British girls on the trip. With demeanours that can politely be described as 'girly girls' I am not sure if any of them actually read the trip notes before our departure as they seemed to be surprised on a nightly basis that we were on a camping trip and therefore sleeping in tents. When they weren't passed out in the van they were most likely berating me with thought provoking questions like:

"Where can I straighten my hair?"

"Why are there so many old people at this star party?"

"Do bears really eat British people more than American?"

"How many strip clubs can we go to"

"Why does your fake British accent always make English sound whiney?"

My answers were as follows:

"try the outlet in the port-o-pottie"

"a star party is a group of people star gazing, not a night club"

"yes, but they will only know you are British if you keep talking"

"as many as we want"

"I am really good at imitating"

Although they were ridiculous in their girly ways, they certainly kept me entertained and I even managed to learn a few new things about Vegas night life!

All in all this week leaves me even happier and exited about the miles I will cover this summer and the people that will join me. Now it is back to Santa Rosa for a week to clean my equipment and wind down in Occidental with a russian river beer...

Let's Roll

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.

May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Edward Abbey

I am sitting in a laundromat in Santa Rosa, CA thinking back on the last month and completely enjoying the reality of my life right now. With all this positive energy surging through my mind and body I think that it is about time to send some of it out into the world. So as I explore the physical landscape of the U.S., babysit vacationing Europeans, and put the petal to the metal in a 15-passenger van, I would love to take you all along for the ride.

I am spending my summer working as a tour guide for Intrepid-Suntrek, an amazing tour company that is actually paying me to camp in National Parks and party in Vegas. When I am not on the road I live in Occidental, a town on the "Bohemian Highway" and work out of Santa Rosa. In Occidental we live in beautifully rustic cabins which provide us with the quaint atmosphere of no cell phone service and group showers. The general goal of the summer is to spend as little time in either of these towns as possible, thus maximizing my time on the road and getting paid.

My first paid job was unfortunately not a guiding trip, but instead a 3,200 mile convoy to Colorado and back to drop off a couple of vans. We spent the first 18 hours driving straight to the town of Montrose in a 5-van convoy averaging about 90 mph and stopping only to fill up. I felt an affinity with truckers that I didn't know I could feel and I hope to never feel again. As soon as we arrived in Montrose we dropped our vans off at the designated dealership and were picked up by another Suntrek van to head home. The trip lasted only three days, during which I slept a total of three hours and drove a total of twenty-three. I am happy to have survived and I am seriously looking forward to never doing that again!

So I am now preparing for my first guiding trip, a quick one weeker that goes from L.A. to San Francisco. I will spend this week cleaning my equipment and van and then leave Friday to head the hotel in L.A. where I pick up my passengers on Sunday. My excitement and nerves are building as I begin to anticipate my passengers and hope to at least not get lost!