Desert Rocks Music Festival

On Friday we went to a music festival in Moab, and lots happened.
Actually, I'm going to go take a shower before I write this because I'm having trouble thinking of words right now...

***TIME***

Where should I begin... Danny has a RV that we took up to camp in. The festival was Bonnaroo style, but way smaller. We got there, dropped off the RV and traded cars with the Brits so we could go to the store. The store was incredibly exciting, however I discovered that my debit card is no longer working, so even though I was in civilization I could not restock on anything. We also got 10 cases of beer that held 30 beer each. Once we returned to the festival we began to drink. We got very drunk. We headed to the music area maybe about 10 or 11. On the way there somebody decided to take a short-cut, which was directly down a cliff. My inner-mountain goat does not come forth when I am drunk. I ended up tripping and tumbled, literally head over heels, for a bit. I now have a 4in scrapey-scab thing on my left arm. The music was good, but it was a lot of reggae and jam band type stuff, so definitely not my favorite. We actually didn't stay for too long because Liz, one of the Brits, was incredibly trashed. Me and two others went back with her, and the walk that should've taken about 10minutes took 45. Then I went to sleep.
On Saturday I basically woke up and sat in the sun all day. Yes, I am sun burned. At this point its less of a burn than rather a dark red, leathery splotch all over my body. My freckles turned into almost browny-purple spots, so as you can imagine, I look pretty fucking good right about now.
Here is reason #5 why my Molly should've come with me, for if my Molly was here I would not have done molly. On the bright side I didn't smoke any pot this weekend, however I did smoke some Spirits. But anyways, the molly wasn't actually that bad and I quite enjoyed myself. It was similar to being drunk, but I was just very happy. Actually, I was already drunk so the effects of molly may be nothing like being drunk, but whatevs. Do I regret doing molly? No. I was apprehensive because I figure if I can't handle weed how the fuck am I supposed to handle anything considerably stronger? But I took the plunge and I was fine. We ended up staying until about 2 or 3. We made it over to the rave tent and sat on a cliff with an incredible over look for a while. Oh, and at the cliff I fell again and scraped my knee. As the night wore on it got colder and windier. By the time we walked back we were walking through a full on dust storm. It was cold, windy, and it sucked.
We got a late start home on Sunday and 3 of the 4 Brits left, which was a bit sad. However, on our way back to the ranch we stopped at this super weird petting zoo. The petting zoo was awesome, but around it there was just weird touristy stuff. oh, and it was all on the side of a giant rock formation. Thats important/why anybody goes there. But at the petting zoo I got to pet some cool deer thing, a bison, a watusi (the African cows with the giant horns), a camel, and an ostrich! Ostriches are super weird. They're heads move super strangely and it hurts when they eat cheerios from your hand.
Very soon after leaving the zoo, some part of the truck, which was pulling the RV, broke. The truck could still drive, but it wouldn't shift so the RPM was way high. At least, I think that was the problem. They used a lot of car part words I didn't understand. We made it back safely though. Once we were back i basically just went to bed.
I feel like something else happened too.
Oops.

 Our camp site. 

A way better view than at Bonnaroo...

We were at a music festival, so we needed a flag. 

The Brits provided one of Wills and Kate. 

It was perfect. 

Pictures!!!!

 Above are pictographs that are over 1,000 years old. We saw them on a hike we took last Wednesday.

 A gorge we climbed through to reach the waterfall.

 View on top of a mountainy thing looking at the front of the canyon.

View from mountainy thing looking further into the canyon.

I loathe painting.

All of my body is sore.
Whenever I decide I don't like something unreasonable I generally stop associating with said "unreasonable" thing. However, since I've stopped interactions with the "unreasonable" thing, I forget how much and why I dislike it. Like painting. After I painted my grandmother's house I vowed to never paint walls again. I kept this up for about 2 years, but over the years I forgot how much I truly hate it. So today, I painted. It sucked. And the worst part is that I'm actually kind of good at it. Why can't I be good at things that are important??? Like French! Or cooking! The paint got everywhere and I'm sick of the color yellow, which sucks because I really like the color yellow.
After work we did on a really amazing hike. Eventually I'll post the pictures, but my feet and legs are exhausted from my extensive rock hopping. We hiked to a waterfall at the end of a canyon/ravine thing but the water was freezing. I was very tempted to jump in anyway, but we ended up not getting back until after dark so finishing the hike in wet cloths would've been awful. We also saw 1000yr old pictographs and artifacts.
Shit, I can't believe its nearly 1. No wonder I'm so exhausted. So much for reading...

Monday, May 23, 2011

Things I Left at Home:
Camera
Bathing Suits
Contact Case
Tooth Brush
Winter Cloths

Perhaps this is why its not recommended to begin packing for a 6wk trip at 11 o'clock the night before you leave.

So here I am, sitting on a porch at the bottom of a canyon. Its kind of awesome. I've never been to a dessert and I must say, they're quite incredible. One of the most astonishing things is the silence. What I would hate in the campus woods at Maryville and in the Smokies, was that no matter where you go you can always hear cars and "civilization" and such. Here, there's nothing. The only thing I hear right now is a few crickets, a fly, and that eerie sound the wind sometimes makes that I love so much.
So far the weather has been good, but cold. When Danny, the farm owner, picked me up at the Durango Airport we still had a 3hr drive over the Rockies until we got to the farm. On the drive we went through a snow storm and two thunder storms. I was wearing shorts and flip-flops, but at least I looked adorable... cold and adorable. Apparently, there has been a lot of rain lately, so the canyon is much greener than I would have expected. Yesterday we went to a nearby lake/reservoir to swim and hike. It was too cold for me to want to swim, but I took a very long hike. I probably didn't cover very much ground, but I went up and down every bouldery formation I could find. My Chacos held up well as my inner Mountain Goat was satisfied.
Now I see three birds. And I hear an owl. And I've decided that fly might actually be a bee.
So here at Montezuma Ranch there's me, Danny, a guy from South Carolina, A guy from Utah, four British people, a French guy, and two dogs.  Although I don't know for sure, I'm fairly certain that Danny comes from some serious money. He's mentioned that his grandfather was an ex-VP of American Airlines and his dad is an investment banker who raised Polo horses for fun. He basically went to college in Santa Cruz, went to LA to work in television for a while, hated it, so he bought some land in Utah and started a vineyard. The vineyard definitely does well, but I can't see how he was able to start from nothing without some serious financial help.
Now there's a flock of small birds (sparrows maybe) and that "fly" was definitely a bee.
In conclusion, I'm working on a farm in a canyon until July 2nd, which is owned by 27yr old, probably rich, hippie. Beer is drunk at an alarming, although not surprising rate, and usually it can be guaranteed that at least two of the many people living here are stoned. Right now, life is very satisfying.