Across the country in 14 days.

We traveled by planes, cars, and RV.  It took 14 days to experience a part  the United States known simply as the west.  I spent one entire day getting to my destination by Airplane and vehicle.  I spent 13 days traveling back by roadway.  It was amazing, yet tiring, but truly memorable.  This trip opened my eyes to beauty that has aluded me my whole 17 years of existence.  This trip was a “guy trip”.  My dad, myself, my uncle and my cousin spent weeks preparing, packing, making sure everything was mechanically sound, secured to travel, and prepared for the long journey ahead.  I watched as my dad and uncle set out on the journey in the RV to Glamis Az., a great stretch of desert that borders the states of Arizona and California.  I watched enviously as the RV and trailer filled with man toys such as 4 wheelers, sandrail, tools, spare parts, extra tires, water tanks, gas tanks and food for 3 weeks, pulled away from our home.  I had to wait one more week for school to take Thanksgiving break.   It finally had arrived,  I boarded the plane with my cousin and we set out to meet up with our parents in mexicalli, a small town near Glamis where they had already set up camp.  It was everything I had dreamed,  rolling hills of sand as far as you could see.  This was a giant sandbox with lots of room to ride and enjoy.  I never thought of this trip as anything but fun in the sand but it became much more.  I spent time enjoying my father’s company, seeing morning rise over the calm sand and set at the end each day as it laid down behind the sand dunes to rest.    We rode sandrails and 4 wheelers across the dunes and explored desert land that was so far away from civialization one would think they are the only people on the planet.    We depended on our supplies to survive.  We played hard in the day,  fed our ravished appetites from food cooked on open flame.  The aroma from the food mixed with the fresh air of the night, gave a relaxing end to a hard day at play.  We talked, laughed, made repairs and modifications to the toys we brought and prepared for the next days adventure.  We spend 11 days taking in everything that desert had to offer.   As the trip was nearing its end, we packed all our gear, vehicles, supplies and headed back to the highway and back to the hustle and bustle of school, work, chores and life.   The trip home took 22 hours of hard driving.   We laughed and talked about each day.  I watched out the windows as we rode down the highway and thought of my guy trip with my dad.  I thought of growing up, watching my dad work, learning from him how to become a man, learning how to be responsible, caring and truthful.  Seventeen years had gone by so fast.  Soon I would be living life on my own and becoming my own person.   I will alway cherish those 14 days of just being out on the road with my dad.