our trip to the USA part 7

woke up in the morning at the inn and had ourselves some breakfast, got in the car and started our short journey to the Grand Canyon. it was about an hour drive and we arrived. keep in mind that i was there once already but Ayelet has never been and i was curious to see the expression on her face as she saw it... 

us waking up at the inn and ready to go

the road was beautiful and through a forest... its funny because its all very flat land that you go through and there is nothing preparing you for this amazing thing hiding in plain site just beyond the trees...
suddenly the traffic stops.
its and Elk! ha! 

 took some exited photos (we live in Israel, so no wondering animals on the roads) and continued to the visitors center just a few minutes away... what a rush! 
we parked mini Max (that was the name given to the silver rocket we got from Avis. named after Max, the Dodge Ram 3500 super duty i had as a farm manager back in Israel) and walked to the center to get some maps. here still there is no visibility of this amazing wonder lurking behind the trees..
we took the walking rout on the south bend so we can see the canyon on foot (the bus tour takes an hour and we just did not have the time... all so quick) 
as we were arriving on foot to the edge we could hear the crowd just ahead of us going WOOOOW!!!!
i told Ayelet, here it comes! and..... BAM!

the view was stunning!!! 
what a site!
although it was a cloudy day and very cold, it was SO beautiful!!! such grandeur! such beauty! oh my... this place is just unreal....

spreading the unity energy from the peace prayer wheel in my hand

 after spending about an hour and a half walking the trail and just being mind blown we realized that we need to keep moving if we were to get to our final destination at the end of the day... 
this is actually a funny story because our "end day destination" was not in our original plans when i was planning our rout. 
back in the Vajrakilaya retreat we met two couples Craig & Skye and Stephan & Judith who were all from a place called Boulder (but not the Boulder i was referring to in Colorado, but in Utah...)
this place, Boulder Utah was a nowhere land out of time and maps... if you try to look for it on the GPS it will find it, but no roads lead to it... so all you need to do is get on highway 12 and drive till you reach Boulder.
but i am getting a head of my self...
both couples back at the retreat made us promise that we will come and visit them on our road trip right on the 24th of November so we could all have a Thanksgiving Dinner together... we never had a dinner like that so we said yes! even though we did not think this through but that was fine. it all worked out well and dandy in the end.

back to the Grand Canyon.   
we said our goodbyes to the canyon with a feeling of gratitude for the most incredible experience and got back in the car. now we were heading to the Horseshoe Bend which is a place where the Colorado river makes a bend that looks like a horse shoe... it is right next to Page on highway 89. 
this was a two and a half hour drive, but as we got there we realized that there is no parking and we started to circle the parking lot to look for a spot. there were many cars and many people and there was not a lot of patience (which i must say was the first place in the US that i have noticed that)... 
time was moving forward and i started to get impatient, not because of the situation but rather from the fact that if we did not go soon, we wont get to Boulder in the day time and that would be a shame because the road was SOOOOO beautiful..
Ayelet went out of the car and started to look for a parking spot to save as i circled around with the car. 
all of a sudden, the car right next to me moved out of its parking spot and i jumped right in and parked. that was awesome!
i regrouped with Ayelet and we started the mile hike to the river bend.
we walked the trail and got to the bend and, 
WOOOOOOW!!!!

  its hard to tell from the photos but this is SO high! and SO huge!!!
wow.....
we tripped around for a half an hour trying to maintain our joyOmeter and started the mile walk back to the parking lot...
as we got back to the car we realized that the car line now waiting to get in from the road was a mile or two long! if we were to arrive half and hour later, we could not see this... 
so so lucky we were! ha!

we got back on the road on highway 89 and started our trip north to Boulder. 
this was a 4 and a half hour drive and i started to realize that no matter what we do, we will not make it there in time of daylight but i was cool with it because we won't be so late for dinner so not to have them all wait for us too long...
the road was one of the most amazingly beautiful roads we drove on... 

the sun was starting to set and we  were getting closer to Boulder, but, since these guys are waiting for us, our plan was that we will phone them from the road to let them know we got to Escalante and then they will know that we have about one more hour drive so they can leave home to meet us at the Boulder Inn where we will park our car and drive with Stephan to their home (since you need a 4X4 to reach it).
and so we did! 
it was dark when we got to Escalante and we know this was no where land since there were no lights any where in this vast dark space in front of us... 
we passed through this one horse town and continued to Boulder. later over dinner Skye would tell us that the highway we came in on, 12, was nominated among the 10 most beautiful highways on earth.. to bad it is dark now :(
all of a sudden a sign on the road, "Boulder city limits"...
this is funny says Ayelet, its pitch dark! no lights anywhere.... where is this Boulder?!
and then a light on the horizon, one on the right far corner of the  darkness... another one to the left somewhere...
i have to say that Boulder Utah has a population of 200 and it is spread over some seriously big ground so people live far from each other.
we drove and got to the Inn and waited for Stephan. 
this was a surreal scene.... middle of nowhere... took us HOURS of driving through nowhere... no cars on the road for hours... pitch black so you realize you are in the middle of nowhere.... and this Inn's sign says ,with big bold letters: 
"NO VACANCY"
what?! where did all these cars come from?! who are all these people that drove here?! what is happening?!
Stephan was a bit late (or us early) but arrived and we hugged and got in his car. actually we drove after him in our car for another mile or so down the road till he stopped and told us to leave the car here. 
we got in his car and drove off to their house. the road was and "off road" but i was thinking to myself "why did i leave the car there, it could drive here" and then the road disappeared and we just bolted with the car into the mountain. over rocks on a winding no road we drove till we sew his house up on the ledge to the left.
Ayelet is not a big off road driving fan and is the kind of person that if in a car, and she sees the hill ahead, she would get off the car and walk to meet you on top. as i said, not a fan of off road fan.
she told me as we got to the top and reached the house that the reason she did not get out is that it was dark and we could not see where we are, but on the way down she is walking this part of the drive... i told her that this is a great opportunity to try and get passed this fear but she was not to happy about that. at the end on the next day she was in the car on the way down. what a trooper! very brave!

we got into the house where Craig and Skye and Judith where all waiting with tremendous joy! (keep in mind that we have never seen these people till just a few days ago back at the retreat) we sat for an hour or so telling stories and then it was time for dinner. this was not the conventional Thanksgiving Dinner but rather much more interesting! we had so much fun! we were asked a gazillion questions about our home and where we come from, the experiment that we both grow up in called a Kibbutz, army, life in Israel, prayer wheel making and so many more.... the night was long and so interesting!

me blabbing about and moving my hands... hahaha

beautiful table!

our sleeping mats

from left to right: Skye, Judith, Craig, Ayelet me and Stephan behind me.. what a group!

 at one point we realized that if we were to speak more, this night will never end and so we said goodbye to Craig and Skye, hoping to see them sometime again in the future...

as we woke up to the first light, we started to realize where we are on this earth.... this is so remote, so isolated... on a side of a mountin, no road... this is so awesome! 
we had superb coffee with both Judith and Stephan and talked over pie for a while and then we had to go... managing only to spend very little time in one spot on this road trip...
outside was so beautiful now that the sun was up and we could see the vastness of this place! wow! 

the view from our bedroom window

the porch outside

having coffee and pie:)

Stephan showing us around

standing outside Stephan's studio

 

 we all got in the car and drove down the hill to meet with our car again. the ride was so beautiful and Stephan and Judith told us some history of Boulder Utah and how once there was an Israeli farmer who came there to teach them about permaculture farming and that we probably know him... i said that is highly unlikely since there are 8 million people living in Israel (only to realize as we got home and talking to friends that we DO know him! hahaha... how crazy is that?!)
we got to mini Max and parted with them both, not before leaving a prayer wheel as a gift to them both. they where so overwhelmed by this gesture that it was hard to leave it with them but we insisted and they accepted. what beautiful people... sadly we had to depart hearing the same words again: "you are leaving? you just got here!

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Stephan checking out the prayer wheel they got :)

 we got in the car and drove off...
it is going to be a long day of driving if we are to reach Monument Valley by sunset :)

more to come....