Grand Canyon
M A Y
A trip to Grand Canyon was next on the bucket list for Kim and I. We planned out a trip and were ready to accomplish our next goal, but first I needed to finish up my duties as a little league coach for Denver Parks and Rec. It was the last game of the season for my 5-6 and 9-10 year old kids. It was truly an unexpected experience me working with kids. Who knew I would be capable of coaching kids? I certainly didn't, but it was fun and I'm glad I did it. We received medals for our participation in the league. We said our goodbyes and now had the green light of no responsibilities for weeks to come.
After a 6 hour drive we made it to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We started off by checking into our Motel 6 to give Bailey (our dog) a place to relax. Beside our motel was an incredible medal and glass shop, that made cool figurines of sugar skulls, Mexican suns, and other mythical objects. We left the shop to go get food at Ying Yang Chinese Restaurant. We had their food last times we visited in January and it was absolutely delicious. We parked in the center of the town and walked around. The local markets, gift shops, and basement mall was indeed what we checked out. We met up with our friends Courtney and Stephanie. We took pictures in front monuments and Loretto Chapel, an old church turned into a museum and chapel. It was fun, but Kim and I were ready for the highlight of the night which was to go to Meow Wolf. After departing ways we made our way back to the motel to take Bailey for a walk. We went to Railyard Park, an urban boot camp, pop art park. It was very unusual and I loved it. It had an industrialized tunnel, ropes you can crawl on and through, and rocks to climb. Once we dropped off Bailey, we made our way to our final destination of the night.
Meow Wolf, WOW! I had high expectations and they exceeded them by far. The space is a music venue, fun house, bar, chill spot. We paid $15 entry fee to see DJ's perform and enjoy the exploration. We were more aligned with exploring the venue. It starts with a walk way through a neon trees, then onto an ice cave, a tree house that lead to many strange themed rooms, a walk in refrigerator that brings you to a spaceship, a washing machine that swallows you into a portal. As well as many other obstacles and treasures. It was a fantastic experience, we stayed and watched the DJ perform. Courtney and Steph later came to Meow Wolf unexpectedly due to a terrifying experience of a man with "large guns" being across from their motel room starring at them with his door open. After a thriller night of enjoying Meow Wolf to it's fullest extent we all went back to our Motel room and called it a night.
The next morning we checked out and started driving towards Arizona. We made a pit stop in Albuquerque for breakfast at The Boiler Monkey Bistro which was fantastic! We drove for endless hours in the desert. We saw hitch hikers, dirt tornado's ( also known as Dust Devils), prairie dogs standing in the middle of the road, I saw signs along the highway promoting Knife City, a place I remember too well. Knife City is an outlet store in the middle of nowhere AZ. After I won The Price Is Right in 2013, my LA roommate tried blackmailing me for my prizes. So, I caught a Greyhound bus going to Florida. While we were driving through AZ, my bus caught on fire in front of a store called Knife City. It was weird, but exciting in an odd way seeing the place I was stuck at for over 7 hours. We walked into to use the bathroom, but was told we had to purchase something in order to do so. Considering I have no real interest in knives, we continued our journey.
Flagstaff, Arizona was the only bigger city we were near by. The down town was nice, it had a youth historic vibe to it. The surroundings were forest, nature, local businesses, and a train station. It was very refreshing after seeing nothing, but desert land for hours. Los Gorditas is where we got yummy burritos that were well priced. When we were finished our meal we lingered around Buffalo Park searching on Campendiem on where to stay for the night. That's when we discovered Forest Road 302 campsite in Kaibab National Forest. It was only an hour away and is about 10 minutes away from the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. During our drive to the site ambient music came on the radio which was kind of surprising because it was cooler than anything else we listened to during the trip. The sun was setting and the mountains had an orange tint to them. We pulled off next to a chapel in the middle of forest. I opened the door, but no one was inside. There were chairs, a podium, and books inside. It was beautiful, but had a creepy presence in the air. We took pictures and left to finally make it to our campsite.
We set up the tent and blew up the air mattress, everything was set. The car battery then died due to the amount of power we were using from it. We asked our tent neighbors to give us a a jump. It was two very nice Swedish guys that assisted us. We drove the car around the little town near our site to charge the battery for 30 minutes. Once we came back we passed out in the tent to the next day. That morning, we were woken up by helicopter tours flying over our site. It was very loud, so we packed up and made our way to possibly the most "local" spot in town. RP's Stage Stop was a crappy breakfast place, full of grumpy people. After our meal, we made our way over to Grand Canyon National Park. Seeing the historic site in person was astonishing. The drive was beautiful! We drove around the canyon, hiking and taking pictures for hours. Although, it started getting hot and we ended the journey at Desert View. I walked up in an old castle shaped house, and looked at the view one more time and we finally exited the park.
The service for our phones were nonexistent. We made our way to a Burger King in the middle of nowhere AZ to get on their wifi to look up places to stay and places to eat. During which we discovered Page, AZ was a much more populated town so we started going that way, As Kim was driving I noticed a baby horse running on the side of the highway next to cars. It was going so fast and must have escaped the farm it was on. After a few hours we made it to Page and got burritos at El Tapitio, After a filled meal, we went to McDonald's to use their wifi for hours and the bathroom for minutes (McDonald's toilet paper sucks I thought to myself). Once we got sick of being at McDonald's we found Lone Rock Campground.
This campsite was awesome! It's a phenomenal beach and is part of National Parks Services. We paid $14 to camp on site, set up our tent, drank some beers and called it a night.That morning, we walked around Lone Rock's lake known as Lake Powell exploring the beautiful site. The sand felt nice, but dipping our feet in the water felt better after being in the desert forever (basically). The bathroom at the campsite was in the middle of Arizona and Utah. It was awkward because the time kept on changing as we were utilizing the bathrooms. We got breakfast and finally hit the road. 10 hours away from home, the drive was brutal. Listening to Republican radio shows in the desert till it transitioned to "oldies music" going up steep mountains. Moab, Utah was the first legit town in hours, Pizza Hut was our cheap dinner of choice as we sat in a park surrounded by red rocks and a nice lake.
Campendiem is ever so helpful, as it gave us our last campsite of our trip. Willow Spring Campground is a free site where we stayed, that is only 19 minutes away from the town of Moab. We picked up Uno cards, snacks, Dog Fish Head 7.5% alcoholic beers for a fun night under the stars and a tree with our tent set up and NPR music soothing us as we enjoying the evening.
The last day of our trip we left Moab to go start our journey home. We made a pit stop in Glenwood Springs to get a lunch and walk around the gorgeous town. Glenwood Springs is one of the most astonishing towns in Colorado. The mountains surround the town, the town is surrounded by local businesses. We ate a place called May Palace, the food was incredibly delicious! Afterwards, we drove around the town briefly and after a few more hours we were finally home.
Thank you America, for another intimate trip in your NPS crevices.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Miscellaneous:
The month of MAY was an adventure. I donated blood at a local blood bank in honor of my aunt as well as all the other individuals that need blood (I discovered my blood type is: A-). I had a friend Steve Womp Womp Wimbleton (Joe) that was driving across country from Baltimore to California and needed a place to crash. He stayed on our futon for a few nights. We gave him an excellent tour of the city of Denver and surrounding mountains. Project Pabst was a recent music festival I biked around and got to see some acts such as Ice Cube and Strfkr.
Lastly, I got my own radio show!!!!!
HOW? I made flyers and hung them all around the city of Denver. They said something like "Hello reader, I'm interested in working for you! My skills are blah blah blah. My hobbies are blah media blah blah. Thank you"
You can now listen to The Shaky Experience Show on MET Radio every Monday 1-2pm.
http://mymetmedia.com/listen/
M U S I C:
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - "Anymore". The Pains are great! I've seen them 3 times, all for free by freak accident occasions. Kip Berman the front man has a deep intertwine with making his band sound like The Cure. I always get a hint of The Cure whenever I listen to them. This track "Anymore" is no different. It has the classic reverb, "weird" sounds, emotional lyrics as heard from previous albums. All in all it's a great summer track, I'm looking forward to what's next.
Lone - Ambivet Tools Vol 1. English musician Matt Cutler never fails! I think Lone lays down the best beats every time he releases something. It's perfect mix between house, hip hop, electronic. This 3 song EP has the perfect sounds for me to go on a hike, run, or lounge around the house. Lone is initiative music to get productive and progressive. His tracks have been used as background samples by likes of Azealia Banks. I'm certain the second volume to his EP will have the same magic as the first
Beach House - "Chariot". BH recently announced their b-sides and rarities album. The first track "Chariot" has a typical somber sound. Heavy synths, soothing vocals, dream pop Baltimore flavor. The track really doesn't stick out to me much, but considering they are from my home city how could I resist writing about them. They're new album is a thing, it will assist you into going to sleep. That is the best I can give it till I hear something else from the new (old) album.
Animal Collective - Meetings of the Waters. Baltimore band AC. It took me a long time to enjoy their sound. Although, once I listened to their album Painting With I became a full time fan. Their most recent EP Meetings of the Waters has a classic Baltimore Charles Village/Station North sound to it. I'm very fond of the creepy melodic sound this EP produces. They recorded the album in the rain forest in Brazil with only two of the members going on the trip to have inspiring exploration of capturing sounds within their trip. The sound they took while there formed a perfectly odd new AC EP that is definitely worth listening in.
Late Night Tales: BadBadNotGood. YES! LNT is back and I couldn't be happier. LNT is a compilation of music hand picked from artists chosen by the musician LNT picks. It the perfect mix of music the bands want to have on their album. The first 3 tracks on the album are Boards Of Canada and Erasmo Carlos. It's so perfect, ambient and then a fun foreign Brazilian pure indie sound. If you take anything from this blog, listen to Late Night Tales.
Erasmo Carlos
Thank you for reading! Do you have feedback, let me know at @jameslanee
A trip to Grand Canyon was next on the bucket list for Kim and I. We planned out a trip and were ready to accomplish our next goal, but first I needed to finish up my duties as a little league coach for Denver Parks and Rec. It was the last game of the season for my 5-6 and 9-10 year old kids. It was truly an unexpected experience me working with kids. Who knew I would be capable of coaching kids? I certainly didn't, but it was fun and I'm glad I did it. We received medals for our participation in the league. We said our goodbyes and now had the green light of no responsibilities for weeks to come.
After a 6 hour drive we made it to Santa Fe, New Mexico. We started off by checking into our Motel 6 to give Bailey (our dog) a place to relax. Beside our motel was an incredible medal and glass shop, that made cool figurines of sugar skulls, Mexican suns, and other mythical objects. We left the shop to go get food at Ying Yang Chinese Restaurant. We had their food last times we visited in January and it was absolutely delicious. We parked in the center of the town and walked around. The local markets, gift shops, and basement mall was indeed what we checked out. We met up with our friends Courtney and Stephanie. We took pictures in front monuments and Loretto Chapel, an old church turned into a museum and chapel. It was fun, but Kim and I were ready for the highlight of the night which was to go to Meow Wolf. After departing ways we made our way back to the motel to take Bailey for a walk. We went to Railyard Park, an urban boot camp, pop art park. It was very unusual and I loved it. It had an industrialized tunnel, ropes you can crawl on and through, and rocks to climb. Once we dropped off Bailey, we made our way to our final destination of the night.
Meow Wolf, WOW! I had high expectations and they exceeded them by far. The space is a music venue, fun house, bar, chill spot. We paid $15 entry fee to see DJ's perform and enjoy the exploration. We were more aligned with exploring the venue. It starts with a walk way through a neon trees, then onto an ice cave, a tree house that lead to many strange themed rooms, a walk in refrigerator that brings you to a spaceship, a washing machine that swallows you into a portal. As well as many other obstacles and treasures. It was a fantastic experience, we stayed and watched the DJ perform. Courtney and Steph later came to Meow Wolf unexpectedly due to a terrifying experience of a man with "large guns" being across from their motel room starring at them with his door open. After a thriller night of enjoying Meow Wolf to it's fullest extent we all went back to our Motel room and called it a night.
The next morning we checked out and started driving towards Arizona. We made a pit stop in Albuquerque for breakfast at The Boiler Monkey Bistro which was fantastic! We drove for endless hours in the desert. We saw hitch hikers, dirt tornado's ( also known as Dust Devils), prairie dogs standing in the middle of the road, I saw signs along the highway promoting Knife City, a place I remember too well. Knife City is an outlet store in the middle of nowhere AZ. After I won The Price Is Right in 2013, my LA roommate tried blackmailing me for my prizes. So, I caught a Greyhound bus going to Florida. While we were driving through AZ, my bus caught on fire in front of a store called Knife City. It was weird, but exciting in an odd way seeing the place I was stuck at for over 7 hours. We walked into to use the bathroom, but was told we had to purchase something in order to do so. Considering I have no real interest in knives, we continued our journey.Flagstaff, Arizona was the only bigger city we were near by. The down town was nice, it had a youth historic vibe to it. The surroundings were forest, nature, local businesses, and a train station. It was very refreshing after seeing nothing, but desert land for hours. Los Gorditas is where we got yummy burritos that were well priced. When we were finished our meal we lingered around Buffalo Park searching on Campendiem on where to stay for the night. That's when we discovered Forest Road 302 campsite in Kaibab National Forest. It was only an hour away and is about 10 minutes away from the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park. During our drive to the site ambient music came on the radio which was kind of surprising because it was cooler than anything else we listened to during the trip. The sun was setting and the mountains had an orange tint to them. We pulled off next to a chapel in the middle of forest. I opened the door, but no one was inside. There were chairs, a podium, and books inside. It was beautiful, but had a creepy presence in the air. We took pictures and left to finally make it to our campsite.
We set up the tent and blew up the air mattress, everything was set. The car battery then died due to the amount of power we were using from it. We asked our tent neighbors to give us a a jump. It was two very nice Swedish guys that assisted us. We drove the car around the little town near our site to charge the battery for 30 minutes. Once we came back we passed out in the tent to the next day. That morning, we were woken up by helicopter tours flying over our site. It was very loud, so we packed up and made our way to possibly the most "local" spot in town. RP's Stage Stop was a crappy breakfast place, full of grumpy people. After our meal, we made our way over to Grand Canyon National Park. Seeing the historic site in person was astonishing. The drive was beautiful! We drove around the canyon, hiking and taking pictures for hours. Although, it started getting hot and we ended the journey at Desert View. I walked up in an old castle shaped house, and looked at the view one more time and we finally exited the park.
The service for our phones were nonexistent. We made our way to a Burger King in the middle of nowhere AZ to get on their wifi to look up places to stay and places to eat. During which we discovered Page, AZ was a much more populated town so we started going that way, As Kim was driving I noticed a baby horse running on the side of the highway next to cars. It was going so fast and must have escaped the farm it was on. After a few hours we made it to Page and got burritos at El Tapitio, After a filled meal, we went to McDonald's to use their wifi for hours and the bathroom for minutes (McDonald's toilet paper sucks I thought to myself). Once we got sick of being at McDonald's we found Lone Rock Campground.
This campsite was awesome! It's a phenomenal beach and is part of National Parks Services. We paid $14 to camp on site, set up our tent, drank some beers and called it a night.That morning, we walked around Lone Rock's lake known as Lake Powell exploring the beautiful site. The sand felt nice, but dipping our feet in the water felt better after being in the desert forever (basically). The bathroom at the campsite was in the middle of Arizona and Utah. It was awkward because the time kept on changing as we were utilizing the bathrooms. We got breakfast and finally hit the road. 10 hours away from home, the drive was brutal. Listening to Republican radio shows in the desert till it transitioned to "oldies music" going up steep mountains. Moab, Utah was the first legit town in hours, Pizza Hut was our cheap dinner of choice as we sat in a park surrounded by red rocks and a nice lake.
Campendiem is ever so helpful, as it gave us our last campsite of our trip. Willow Spring Campground is a free site where we stayed, that is only 19 minutes away from the town of Moab. We picked up Uno cards, snacks, Dog Fish Head 7.5% alcoholic beers for a fun night under the stars and a tree with our tent set up and NPR music soothing us as we enjoying the evening.
The last day of our trip we left Moab to go start our journey home. We made a pit stop in Glenwood Springs to get a lunch and walk around the gorgeous town. Glenwood Springs is one of the most astonishing towns in Colorado. The mountains surround the town, the town is surrounded by local businesses. We ate a place called May Palace, the food was incredibly delicious! Afterwards, we drove around the town briefly and after a few more hours we were finally home.
Thank you America, for another intimate trip in your NPS crevices.
...................................................................................................................................................................
Miscellaneous:
The month of MAY was an adventure. I donated blood at a local blood bank in honor of my aunt as well as all the other individuals that need blood (I discovered my blood type is: A-). I had a friend Steve Womp Womp Wimbleton (Joe) that was driving across country from Baltimore to California and needed a place to crash. He stayed on our futon for a few nights. We gave him an excellent tour of the city of Denver and surrounding mountains. Project Pabst was a recent music festival I biked around and got to see some acts such as Ice Cube and Strfkr.
Lastly, I got my own radio show!!!!!
HOW? I made flyers and hung them all around the city of Denver. They said something like "Hello reader, I'm interested in working for you! My skills are blah blah blah. My hobbies are blah media blah blah. Thank you"
You can now listen to The Shaky Experience Show on MET Radio every Monday 1-2pm.
http://mymetmedia.com/listen/
M U S I C:
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - "Anymore". The Pains are great! I've seen them 3 times, all for free by freak accident occasions. Kip Berman the front man has a deep intertwine with making his band sound like The Cure. I always get a hint of The Cure whenever I listen to them. This track "Anymore" is no different. It has the classic reverb, "weird" sounds, emotional lyrics as heard from previous albums. All in all it's a great summer track, I'm looking forward to what's next.
Lone - Ambivet Tools Vol 1. English musician Matt Cutler never fails! I think Lone lays down the best beats every time he releases something. It's perfect mix between house, hip hop, electronic. This 3 song EP has the perfect sounds for me to go on a hike, run, or lounge around the house. Lone is initiative music to get productive and progressive. His tracks have been used as background samples by likes of Azealia Banks. I'm certain the second volume to his EP will have the same magic as the first
Beach House - "Chariot". BH recently announced their b-sides and rarities album. The first track "Chariot" has a typical somber sound. Heavy synths, soothing vocals, dream pop Baltimore flavor. The track really doesn't stick out to me much, but considering they are from my home city how could I resist writing about them. They're new album is a thing, it will assist you into going to sleep. That is the best I can give it till I hear something else from the new (old) album.
Animal Collective - Meetings of the Waters. Baltimore band AC. It took me a long time to enjoy their sound. Although, once I listened to their album Painting With I became a full time fan. Their most recent EP Meetings of the Waters has a classic Baltimore Charles Village/Station North sound to it. I'm very fond of the creepy melodic sound this EP produces. They recorded the album in the rain forest in Brazil with only two of the members going on the trip to have inspiring exploration of capturing sounds within their trip. The sound they took while there formed a perfectly odd new AC EP that is definitely worth listening in.
Late Night Tales: BadBadNotGood. YES! LNT is back and I couldn't be happier. LNT is a compilation of music hand picked from artists chosen by the musician LNT picks. It the perfect mix of music the bands want to have on their album. The first 3 tracks on the album are Boards Of Canada and Erasmo Carlos. It's so perfect, ambient and then a fun foreign Brazilian pure indie sound. If you take anything from this blog, listen to Late Night Tales.
Erasmo Carlos
Thank you for reading! Do you have feedback, let me know at @jameslanee
Comments
Post a Comment