Daily Life + My Southwest Road Trip

The last two weeks have brought a lot of change (good change), travel, and celebrations. I accepted a promotion at a new store, turned 29, and went on a week long 3,300 mile road trip through the southwest!

I kept my birthday low key and spent it at home with my family and boyfriend. Later we went kayaking at sunset (I’d never gone before) and enjoyed a few beers on the water. I’ll save the big celebrating for next year when I’m turning the Dirty Thirty. And why is it dirty? Can anyone explain that one?

Then last Tuesday we hit the road for our big road trip. We drove south through Missouri and Oklahoma so we could drive parts of the old Route 66 and camped overnight in Oklahoma. We were plagued by heavy rains the first few days, but managed to finally out-drive it to the southern part of New Mexico.

We camped all but one night (a Travelodge feels like The Ritz-Carlton when you’ve been camping all week). We ran around the white sand dunes in New Mexico, hiked Red Rocks State Park in Sedona, AZ, and finally got to enjoy the great wonder that is the Grand Canyon. I even fulfilled my goal of yelling, “PENIS!” as loud as I could which is what I wrote that I wanted to do at 17 years old on my original bucket list. I clearly had some great goals back in the day.. haha

It was perfect timing to take this trip before starting my new position and heading into the busy holiday retail season. We got to explore a lot in a short amount of time and managed to not get sick of one another or think homicidal thoughts after being in a truck or tent 24/7 for 6 days straight. I’ve been wanting to make this trip happen for many years and felt very fortunate that our finances, schedules, and planning all came together for a once in a lifetime trip. Although I don’t know if it will be a one time kind of thing because we’re already talking about plans to go back and see some of the places we missed the first round!

Reflecting on everything that has happened this year up until now.. I can’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. I have a wonderful and supportive group of people around me, every day I’m a few steps closer to my goals, and my entire perspective has shifted. All of which have resulted in dealing with stress better (okay.. I still swear like a sailor and have a few glasses of wine before calming down), and I’m able to curb that negative downward spiral thinking much quicker. I’m able to appreciate the good moments while I’m in them rather than focusing on where else I could be or what else I could be doing.

Life is just really good right now. Cheers to being another year older and wiser!