US Highway 6

I awoke on my own this morning.  There was no little dog jumping and whimpering, asking us to join him in the new day.  Finn went to dog jail yesterday and we wont see him until late July.  The power was also off, the alarm clock lifeless without its red block numerals.  We didn’t need an alarm though; the excitement and anticipation of the travels ahead alerted the mind into waking.

 

We packed the car the night before.  It took us one hour to pack for our travels and then another hour to clean the house before we left.  The best thing after a long travel is to come home to a clean house.  Cara and I each packed our essentials, each packing list composed of certain commonalities, yet each list also amassed of necessary personal artifacts:

 

Brent Essentials:

Science magazines for the road

Long Board (Skateboard)

Multiple black and blue pens

Two pair sunglasses

Fishing hooks and weights

Climbing rope, rack, and shoes

Two pocketknives

 

Cara Essentials:

Bloated cosmetics bag

Two yoga mats

Flip Flops

Reading Glasses

Water bottle

Veggie-Bootie Chips (?)

School Work

Sun Screen

 

The Jetta was packed with all our needed items for 6 weeks on the road.  Should a climbing opportunity present itself we could climb.  Should the sky open and we receive hot radiance from the sun, we have SPF 30.  Not to mention flip flops, fishing gear, and sun dresses for South East Asia (Cara will be in the dresses..ha).  

 

As we drive through the kaki gray desert of Highway 6 Utah, I can only reflect on the soon to be opposite landscape of tropical Cambodia.  In the canyons of Utah the sage and rabbit brush thirst for their 10” of rain a year.  In Cambodia the plants have so much water drizzling onto them they have evolved various leaf shapes to better drain it away. 

 

With each minute of Cara driving we get a little closer to Cambodia.  For now there is open plains and rocky canyons.  Space for the mind to whirl, dream, fear, and anticipate the great journey ahead.  Quickly the land will grow green with prairie grass, enclosed with conifer trees, open with the ocean, and then tropical with new continents.