We drove to Spokane

I'd just met Aliina at the Grand Canyon then hiked to the bottom of it and back, day 2 of my journey included a packed in drive to Cedar City Utah. The bed there was INCREDIBLE. Especially after hiking 15 miles in 85 degree (at least!) heat and sleeping on a rickety bunk bed above a grumpy and often-moving lady.

Cedar City was simple, we bought a few CD's and otherwise left the town to itself. After a great night of rest and some real food, we began our drive to Salt Lake City to stay with a UCSD friend of mine, Hala. Hala's currently in Med school and she graduated from UCSD last winter. She kindly took us out to dinner and then we got another bed to sleep in (twice as many as we had expected considering we were road-tripping!). Hala is one of those girls who you can't help but love, even though sometimes the things she says make you double take. I don't know anyone who doesn't enjoy her company and as a tour guide alumni she has lots of great stories of her time at UCSD. Salt Lake City then for us was a little bit of walking and a lot of enjoying the company of one of the most entertaining friends that I have.

But of course we weren't there for long and had to begin our longest drive yet, from the middle of Utah (SLC) to somewhere (to be determined) in Montana where we set our sights on camping for the night. Driving was a little tough on both Aliina and I because of the lack of sleep and the fact that the seats of her car are SOO uncomfortable. Really though, I love her car but the seats are really hard and oddly shaped and just not the best for a road trip (my car on the other hand, lovingly referred to as the couch car, is a Great car to drive lots of miles in because it is Sooooo comfortable). So we would try and switch off driving at this point to allow each other to get some rest but of course that never really worked because of the darn seats.

With a long history of road trips Liin and I have a few key traditions. We must always have one of our "J boys" to sing us through the trip (Jack Johnson, John Mayer, or Jason Mraz), this trip we were accompanied by Johnny and Jason, as well as Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga (maybe that last one was a mistake, but hey she has some catchy stuff!). We also ALWAYS get ourselves some tortilla chips and an avocado (long story about a trip on which we wanted guacamole and instead just had an avocado and scooped out the fruit using chips..it's now the standard requirement for the snack box on all trips). Aliina also likes drinking Lots of water, so we have a few bottles of that each time.

Driving along I managed to get us our only ticket of the trip in a construction zone in Utah. Fortunately for us the guy was nice because 20mph over the limit in Construction would not be a pretty ticket. Especially considering the fact that the officer said if he hadn't have knocked it down I would have HAD to appear in court...in the middle of Idaho...a month from that day. Phew for him being a nice enough guy to spare us that. The rest of the drive was uneventful; Liin and I were tired so not the most inspiring conversationalists, but we sure do have a knack for getting along with each other even if we're both tired, grumpy and uncomfortable (aka our status most of the trip).

We finally got into Montana in the late afternoon and stopped off at a random campsite off of a random highway we decided would be fun to take (thank you blackberry for showing us this path). We set up camp in an incredible little campsite whose caretaker was a grumpy yet kind old man living in an RV with his wife and a few dogs. At the campsite we realized we didn't have matches or any cash so we had to bug the man a few times before we could actually get settled in.

Aliina, the master of campfires, got us a good one blazing and we set up the tent. We had bought some yummy bratwurst, marshmallows, and a shrimp cocktail (it made sense at the time). And so we sat down to dinner amongst a beautiful forest in the mountains of Montana. It eventually began to rain which meant we went to bed, then realizing that though our tent entrance faced the campsite, it was also 90 degrees wrong in the way it faced, so the entire night we were rolling off of our mats down the hill. It was a pretty chilly night during which the rain poured the whole time so we were both cold and ready to clean up when we awoke in the morning.

Back on the road, Aliina for some reason really wanted to stop in Missoula, so we pulled into that town and used the pretty bathroom of a random hotel to wash our faces and teeth while otherwise cleaning up to be more publicly presentable. It just so happened that we were in spokane the afternoon of a lovely little weekly festival that the city hosts, so we went and got some curry from the market and sat on a hill watching the strange people who roamed the town and listening to a band. Then we found this AMAZING little store which had WALLS full of tea of every variety and spices and just amazing, incredible jars of cooking supplies. I got some help by the boys at the desk in choosing some tea then Liin and I got a chai latte shake (delicious but left that weird film in our mouths).

And then it was on to Spokane.