As a guitarist, some of my favorite lines in 12 bar blues progressions are the turnarounds. Little personal licks of emotion, dirty and gritty as they can be, that lead back to the main rhythm and comforting progression of the song.

Marisa and I had experienced moments of our trip that seemed to have led to unknown, improvised directions of dirty, gritty, and truly blues filled trials that have eventually led back into the standard patterns of our trip that we are accustomed to.

Turnarounds, in my attitude, and the outlook of uncomfortable situations, have redirected me to the needed understanding of uncertainty. “Life is Chaos,” or more simply, “Chaos is . . .” I found myself repeating this to myself as if practicing Timism, a lesser known branch of Buddhism (please note this is not true at all). It's an understanding that the world is not out to get me, and that all things seem to settle back to normal if given enough time, attention, or realization that some things just will not change.

These reflections on life are so much easier to absorb when surrounded by nature. We found ourselves just outside Zion at Kolob Reservoir where we camped for 3 nights. We even met the very first of many fellow world travelers! They only camped one night, and they were smart, because God's wrath came down on us in the form of rain and hail to test my "life reflections".

We of course rode through Zion, but found that it was the more tourist friendly version of Canyonlands, Bryce, and Arches. In Zion, anyone can hop on a bus that will take you from one attraction to the next, whereas in Canyonlands, Bryce, or Arches, you will have to do a lot of hiking down some less than questionable terrain to get to some of the attractions. Zion was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it was much more crowded than I would have hoped. (we are tourists too... so I can't really complain)

One tourist location that I absolutely loved, and many may not, was Oatman, Arizona. It is where Doc Holliday meets some Eddie Murphy movie.
The reconstruction of a wild west town where instead of cowboys, donkeys have overtaken the streets and walk around freely. It was a good pitstop from reality on once we left Utah, and into Nevada on our way to the Grand Canyon. I say it is a must see.... but you may not agree. It was much more interesting to us than the Hoover Dam.

We headed towards the Grand Canyon, camping at little locations we found on FreeCampsites.net. I can't urge you to use this site enough, I couldn't believe how much free camping there was in the states. Marisa had never been to the grand canyon, and I had not been since I was a child. We were excited to camp and explore everything we could with no time constrictions or need to move on until we were ready.

Up next:
The Grand Canyon..