Hi everyone!
It’s official; I’ve spent one full month on the road! 31 days ago was April 18th, the first full day of my road trip (I actually left DC the evening of the 17th, and really 4 weeks on the road was just on Tuesday but I am keeping things flexible because I am lazy because I haven’t had a reliable internet connection recently). So far I’ve traveled 6561 miles, which means that my original estimate of 15,000 my miles for the full trip will likely prove to be a serious underestimate 😅.
Heyy it’s ya boi and he doesn’t really know what he’s gotten himself into here
This post is really just a mini-update announcing this trip-a-versary; I am still working on the update for what I’ve seen since the Grand Canyon, but trust that it’s the coolest stuff I’ve seen on this road trip by far. In the meantime, here is a visual hint, a spyglass’s look at what’s to come:
Tonight I am in Mancos, Colorado, but tomorrow I will be making my way west to Kanab, Utah on the way to Zion. My brother, Spencer, firmly defends that Zion is the second most beautiful place in the entire world (second only to a mountain range in Switzerland with a hard-to-pronounce name) (Sis, you should text him for the details and see if you can take the train down that way for a weekend if you have the time!). I believe that most beautiful place is Lake Solitude, Grand Teton National Park, but now I’ll get to find out definitively 😁.
Also commensurate to this update, I want to announce the start of a postcard club! As my dear friends Meredith and Liz noted, you will miss your friends much while you are away for 5 months, and I am missing you guys as much by now. So let me send you a postcard to keep in touch! It’s a bit old-fashioned, but I think postcard are kitchy and cute, and I find finally find myself among their target demographics: retirees, drifters, spendthrifts, and other minimally employed folks who somehow have the time to go to a post office dropbox once a week. If you’d like to receive a postcard from me, please text me your address, and I will send one to you in the next couple of weeks! We can actually make this into a fun game; postcards are sold basically everywhere, so if you have a particular roadside you think I should see, text it to me and I will try to send you a postcard from that locale 😀 (Cat, you are restricted to only one or two suggestions, since I know you’ll readily send me a dozen if left unchecked 😉) (I’ve taken them to heart though! Lowry Pueblo in Canyons of the Ancients was amazing, thank you for the recommendation!). And don’t worry about the cost, it’s barely $1.05 for a postcard WITH the postage so I’m happy to mail them in scores back east.
By the way, I recently upgraded my phone to this bad boy, but my phone number is the same as it ever was. I can’t send texts, but I can receive them because…uh… comedic convenience?
Anyways, that’s all for now! Stay tuned for an upcoming update on my travels in the Four Corners region. And text me if you want to join the postcard club! (LMH Leaders Eric, Sarah, Kim, and Matt you have been voluntold to join the club as part of ongoing leadership training I have lots of cool hike suggestions I would like to send back home!)
Thanks everyone,
Stay well,
Evan 💙
P.S. my dear friend Cameron recently asked what I’ve been eating on the road, and I’m happy to report that I’m eating very well! Before I left for my trip, I went through dozens of my mother’s Cooks’ Illustrated magazines and compiled around 40 recipes that can be made without refrigerated ingredients, or that have easy shelf-stable substitutes for those ingredients (like ghee in place of butter, dried peas in place of frozen, etc.). Here is the recipe for a dish I made this week while I had access to a real kitchen at a private campground I stayed at:
Admittedly, this is a bit more complicated and took a bit more time than I would normally spend without a full kitchen at hand. However, cutting the recipe into thirds would make it manageable enough on my little Coleman stove. Even the microwaving can be easily replaced by salting, sweating, and squeezing of the eggplant to remove its bitterness.
And all told, it turned out really good! Give it a whirl and let me know how it turns out Cam 🙂