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....

our trip to the USA part 6

as we started our road trip after parting from Martin and Alex and their amazing dogs, we got to see the road we came in on (it was already dark when we arrived at Martin's place) and it was SO beautiful!! we drove for about 5 hours and reached Klondyke AZ... i have not driven on this road for about 19 years but i remembered it perfectly!

the road to Klondyke... just a 30 miles of dirt road

arrived!

me standing next to a fairly large cactus

we drove a bit more to reach the church and once we got there i started to trip out a bit... this place was once one of the most amazing places i have ever visited... the most incredible things happened to me there and if i try to put it all on paper (or keyboard) it will be a never ending story which non of you, or at least most of you will find it hard to believe...

the gate to the church property

the church house

we arrived and were greeted by Kaneshka, a very sweet man from Afghanistan who lived there from time to time for long periods to help with the church and attend to the grounds. he was very happy to see us and said that the hippies told him we were coming and that they both went on a "town run" to get some supplies and should be back in a few hours... he was also surprised when i hugged the house corner and said that he has never seen a man hug a house before! hahaha!
when we introduced our selves he said: "yes i know you, there is a photo of you on the kitchen wall"
what?! a photo of me?!
i walked into the church, got overwhelmed by the flood of memories that came rushing in... and as i walked into the kitchen, lo and behold! a photo of me and my older brother Lior hanging on the wall! from 1999!!
it was taken by Emanuel back in the day and he hung it on the wall to remind himself of us.... oh boy... what a trip! hahaha!

me tripping out next to the photo

the two brothers back in 1999

we spent a few hours with Kaneshka as he showed us the grounds and what has happened over the years when i was not there... it was so beautiful and full of sweet memories.. what a pleasure!
as the sun started to set we felt a bit tired from the long trip over the past two days realizing that just 48 hours ago we got out of the retreat! wow, it seemed like a lifetime ago and it was only 2 days! so much was happening and so much emotions running through my system...
Kaneshka said that he is going to do some yard work and we leyed down on our bed and started to fall a sleep... Ayelet turned to me and said: "its only 6:43 in the afternoon, are we going to sleep now?"
the next thing that i remember was waking up in the morning and the time was 6:43... we slept for 12 hours on the minute! mmmm..... this is strange...i thought to my self, but here this is so normal :)

we got up and walked to the kitchen to find Kaneshka who was surprised to come from his duties and not find us... did they go to sleep so early? he thought to himself...
we had coffee and waited for the masters of the domain to arrive from their home at the other side of the property...
Mathew came through the door and my heart almost exploded from joy! i leaped out of my chair and we hugged for a long time.... wow, 20 years?! has it been so long? oh....
we sat and talked for about 2 hours trying to cover the last 20 years apart.. what happened to me, what happened to them... then Annie showed up and the whole ritual of hugging and laughing started..
we sat with them all for another hour or so and then we had to go... so short!
"are you leaving so soon? you just got here!" the most famous of all the sentences we heard on our trip.... again...
after a long goodby session with many hugs and gift exchanges we took some last photos with our hosts and got into the car to go, and then gave them one last gift, a small handheld prayer wheel with the Medicine Buddha mantra inside as we felt it would be helpful for those who come in search of a spirit walk... again many tears of joy and more hugs and we parted, promising to return again but not in 20 years hahahaha!

we got in the car and headed out to our next stop which was the painted desert and the petrefied forest... since it was too far to do this ride in the day time (it was 12 noon when we parted from Mathew and Annie) we decided that we will get as close as possible and spend the night somewhere... and so we did.
the trip was 272 miles and was so much fun! we sew some amazing views along the way... stopped for a burger and coffee and ended up in the Lexington Inn for the night.
in the morning, after a light breakfast we got back in the car, thinking we only had 25 minutes of driving to the painted desert (true on any map... you can check me) but for some reason, and for the first time on our trip i did not check the road on the GPS and just trusted it... and started driving.
after about an hour of driving we got to the point on the map that the GPS had taken us to and realized we have been driving in the wrong direction!
we doubled back and told ourselves that there is always a reason why things happen the way they do and that it is all for the best!
drove it all back and got to the visitor center of the painted desert... took some maps and started the tour.
whooooooh! what is this?! what am i seeing here in front of me?! wow! (Ayelet)
we stopped along the drive in the lookout posts and looked around on this amazing, most incredible view possible...

this face says it all.... whoooooh!

at one of the stops we got to talking with this elderly gentleman who told us that him and his loving wife have been retired and have been traveling for that past 25 years "and we haven't even left the west!" he said laughing! so much to see!
we drove to the petrified forest and took the tour... this is something out of this world! a whole forest that in the past 220  million years (yes, that number is correct) these trees have been turning into Jasper and quartz trees...! what?!?
trees made of semi precious stones? what is happening here?!

we ended up the tour and got back in the car trying to understand the time frame of this geological history of the land we were now crossing... so much has happened here on this land... it feels like the white man has been here for the past minute or so and that the natives have been here for 10 minutes... what has happened here for millions of years is unbelievable...
we got back into the car and started our way to Sedona, a 3 hour drive of 182 miles or so..
the view was breathtaking all along the road and we enjoyed every second of it :)
we got to Sedona in the daylight and walked around for 2 hours or so, had an amazing lunch and drove to the Stupa. we circled it a few times spinning our prayer wheels and reciting mantras, dedicated the merit and got in the car to drive up north to get as close as possible to the Grand Canyon while it was still daylight.

by the time we got to Williams AZ it was dark and we decided to stop for the night, but a moment of misscomunications between us and we decided to go a bit further in the dark to Vale to spend the night there since it was just a bit closer to our destination which was the Grand Canyon.
along the was there was no cellphone reception so we could not see if there were any places to sleep in Vale and as we got there we realized it was a tiny town with no place to sleep (or so we though being in the middle of nowhere in pitch dark and dead tired from a long day) so we decided to back track and return to Williams... (sounds farmilier? this happened this morning as well as we drove for an hour for nothing in the wrong direction)
and of course, as we got back to Williams after an hour drive and cellphone reception returned we realized that back in Vale, if we just drove one minute more we would have reached the Grand Canyon Inn! hahahaha!
two wasted round trips in the same day! (this was the only two times it happened on the entire road trip)
we told our selves that everything happens for a reason and went to sleep in the Inn we found in Williams...

more to come!

our trip to the USA part 5

sorry for the long delay... we were out in the forest for 12 day... will have a separate post on that as well, but for now back to USA part 5...

as we parted from Cassy and his loving mom we got into this fabulous car and realized that the first thing we have to do is laundry. after being in the GBI for 12 days it was time to do it... so we started to look for a laundromat in the area.
found one and started a load. we had about 20 minutes so we headed out to have a coffee.

Ayelet at Starbucks!

we then returned to the laundromat to put the load in the dryer... once that was done we walked outside to wait and found the most lovely man sitting out side smoking a cigarette... we immediately started a conversation with him... Mike was a veteran and was just charging his electric wheel chair inside and we got to talking about life and all that...

Ayelet and Mike

i love being me... just to strike up a conversation with a total stranger waiting for my dryer to finish :)

the dryer did its job and all the laundry was now dry and ready. we got some real insight to life through Mike's view... we gave him some gifts and hugs and we were on out way...

here is where i need to take a brake and give some background to where we were driving to.


back in 1999 i was living in Boulder CO with my older brother. we were there for about 7 to 8 months and at that time i was working for an amazing man named Martin Mosko who owned and operated his company called Marpa Landscaping. Martin was (and still is) a master garden builder. he has build large Japaneses gardens out side of Japan and i got the benefit of working for him. back in 1999 i knew nothing of Buddhism and had no clue to where my future was heading.... but, Martin gave me a job and told me: "we sit quietly in the morning. you are most welcome to join us"
sitting quietly? what is that about?! i thought... little did i know that Martin was also a Zen master and a teacher.... i was still not ready for the future that was knocking at my door...
as time went by my older brother was telling me about a dream he had a long long time ago to meet with Native Americans and dive into their spiritual world and learn their ways... he was very much into Peyote at that time and wanted to study that subject with the Natives.
it seems that this was very important to him and he convinced me to follow him and look for Native Americans and their Peyote.... i asked Martin if he knew any Natives and he said yes. but he was extremely sad that i was leaving him and his company... he looked at me as a future investment and that maybe one day i can take over... he offered to send me to college and study landscaping (on his dime) but i refused... he was very sad to see me go...
looking into the internet (remember it was 1999) we found the Peyote way Church of God in Klondike AZ and headed down there. it was in the middle of nowhere... i mean 50 Kilometers of dirt roads... but we followed our map (yes, 1999) and found them in the middle of this vast desert... it was an old Indian named Emanuel and the two hippies that lived with him, Mathew and Annie and their 3 children, Joe, Joy and Tristan.  
we spent some time there and did the spirit walk. got really friendly with them and i must say that over time, that spot on earth gave me the most amazing experiences in life.. i mean some of the most magical shit happened down there but that is for another post :)
Emanuel and i became friends and i asked him about the ways of the Indians and how to follow them... he said: "you were born in Israel as a Jew were you not? are you an Indian? no you are not... why don't you go home and figure out why you were born there? and if after a while you learn all that you can and are not satisfied, then you can come here and follow a different path. but first, go home and try to figure it out"
mmmmm.... this was a real mind bender. i never felt belonging to where i was born and always felt it to be a mistake, but his words made sense to me and i felt the need to go home. and so we did.
after spending time with them we packed out stuff and traveled back to Israel, back to our old home, the Kibbutz... Ein Hashofet.

back to now, well almost to now

at the last day of the retreat i though it would be smart to maybe give a heads up to Martin that i am planning to have tea with him once we get to Boulder at the end of our road trip so i messaged him through the Facebook messenger app... he answered that he would love that but he is not in Boulder for the winter but was spending his winter time in Patagonia AZ where he and Alex bought a winter home to escape the snow of Boulder...

i looked at the map in google on my phone, figured that it will take about 5 to 6 hours of driving down to see him and decided that we should see him, even if this part of the trip was not planed.

so, the laundry was done. we were in the Charger and driving down to Patagonia AZ...
road trip USA!!!

we got to Martin's place at around 22:00 and he was still awake and ready to show us our living quarters for the night... it was an adjacent house to his which served as a shrine and a sitting meditation room... and also a guest room but it has never had guest before and we were the first ones! ha!
there were Tibetan flags hanging on the porch and a Buddha statue and Tankas on the walls.... we felt at home :)
took a shower and went to sleep.

in the morning Martin and Alex came and we took a ride with them not so far to walk their two HUGE great Dane dogs...

 we drove to a wild life sanctuary not far from their house and took a long walk with the dogs catching up on 20 years of not seeing each other... it was a beautiful morning! the view was amazing! keep in mind we drove there in the dark and did not know where we were...

when the dogs had enough we packed them up into the car and went for breakfast at the local breakfast joint in town... had us a lovely time and talked more about peace and peace prayer wheels... what happened to me over those 20 years and what a turn my life took... much to the fact that i met him and how he has affected my life....
for Martin, i was a speck in time... i was there for 7 months 20 years ago! but for me, he played a big roll in how my life turned out...

eating breakfast together

 we spent about 4 hours together and then we had to depart... our time was very short if we wanted to achieve all the things we wanted to do... places we wanted to visit... all so short.
i think that the most frequent question that we heard over the next few days as we went gliding on the highways of America was:"what? you are leaving so soon? you just got here!"
we both gave Martin a peace tabletop prayer wheel before departing and asked him if he can help us find an authentic Native American prayer to place inside and he said yes! turns out that the ground cart taker back in his home Zen garden temple in Boulder was with the Indians for about 30 years and he will be able to help us out... once we get to Boulder we should pay him a visit and see what he can do. his name is Paul and here is his phone number said Martin...
we parted much to everyone's sadness but also with much joy and love and great appreciation of this few hours spent together....

 we got back in the car totally overwhelmed by the few hours we spent together with Martin, how time is cyclic and non linear... how Karma at its finest moments shine like the brightest light, making the path unfolding beneath our feet glow with brightness...

drove for many hours until finally we reached Klondike and the Church to visit the hippies (Emanuel has passed away back in 2015)

on what happened there, next time :)
love,
Micha

our trip to the USA part 4

as the retreat was coming to an end, it felt strange... as if we have been accustomed to this lifestyle by now and were not ready to depart from it that fast... but, as we all know, all meetings must end in separation. and so as the last day came we were all feeling this same feeling, of a family parting from each other, not knowing if we will ever meet again in this lifetime...
the closing ceremony did not leave a single dry eye and we all cried :) there was a very moving speech by Garchen Rinpoche and we all cried some more...
once the Drubchen ended we all went to the dinning hall to eat lunch and say our goodbyes...
we had the best karma to have a mother and son team take us to Prescott in their car. we quickly said goodbye to all trying not to start crying again, hugs, more hugs and we got into the car and drove off to America (because all this time we were in Tibet in America)
the car ride was so awesome! we were so energized form the Drubchen and up until that moment in time we were not completely sure where we were on earth and that actually, we were about to embark on a tremendous super fantastic journey across some of the most beautiful landscape on earth... oh boy...
as the car drove on the dirt roads we told Cassy and his mom the story of how did we get to be in this Drubchen and of all the hardships we had to plunge through and overcome. they were very understanding and were SO kind and helpful.... they drove us to the AVIS counter so we can rent a car

we at the AVIS counter about to get the car key

Cassy the man! happy for us!

at the counter, the super nice man asked me many questions, and one specific one: "what type of car would you like to rent?" all along when i was still planning the trip in Israel i made calculations of our mileage and tried to figure out the mileage per mile of each car the rental place had to offer and figured out that the best choice would be in the Toyota Camrry size, so that is what i asked for. the man said: "well, we do not have a Camrry here but i can give you a car in the same size category, i have a Dodge Charger here. would that do?"
i said yes, not knowing what car that was but putting my faith in the sales man and his offer of a car "similar" to a Camrry... i signed all the documents and we got out to the parking lot to find it..

oh boy oh boy.... WHAT A CAR!!!!!!

me kissing this amazing car, not sure if this is real.. ready to take off!!

Cassy and his mom Sherry parted with big hugs and many good wishes, we gave them each a prayer wheel pendant of their choice and took the luggage out of their car and into our new amazing machine! it all fitted and we were so happy! oh man... this is going to be a sweet ride! ha!

sad to go but we must!

now starts the crazy part of our trip... and i must say that there were SO many amazing moments and that i am sure i can not convey the feeling of all that happened but i will try to do my very best....see you on part 5 :)