Let's go Climbing in Joshua Tree!!! -Heather

Once we left the Desert of Love, we continued on to Joshua Tree National Park for the Desert of Climbing!

After all our delays, it turned out, that we would make it to Joshua Tree just in time for a Birthday gathering of my friends from San Diego- also known as: beer, climbing, and cake (with loads -nay- RIVERS of frosting) in the desert!!

We met up with Johnny and Adam (Birthday boy!) and had some pretty awesome times, including Manni’s FIRST OUTDOOR CLIMBING!!!!! For those of you who don’t know, Joshua Tree is a world famous climbing destination, famous for having very difficult and technical climbing… so Manni started out big! He did 2 climbs: the first without any problems, the second was a pretty technical climb involving lots of experience and he made it to the top with a bit of extra effort!!

The funny thing about climbing is that, when you’re focused, adrenaline is pumping, and you’re breathing hard, you don’t really think about anything else but the word “Up”; the word “Down” never enters your mind, and “down” is another beast entirely. You can get a cat up a tree but good luck getting it back down. Manni is presently working on overcoming a fear of heights- “up” has been a relatively painless obstacle to overcome, yay! But “down”- trusting rope, gear, and partner alone- is a bit harder. Our instincts when high above the jagged rocky ground, are to grip the rock (for dear life) and not let go… this facilitates the “up” part nicely… but then, once you get to the top, you’re just supposed to let go! “Ummm… excuse me? You want me to do what!!? Don’t count on that happening my dear!!!”

Don’t worry friends and family… we did manage to get Manni down…. He’s back and loving life… on the ground. (But just the other day, we were doing some pretty cool canyoneering- story to come- and he turned to me and said, “I want to go climbing again”… happiness!)

SOOOO Goodbye dust and dirt (and rock) of desert travels part 1.

VIVA LAS VEGAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heather’s scheiss Deutsch translation:

Wir reisen in die Wu:ste. Manni klettert fu:r das erste Mal. Er war sehr gut aber nicht so schnell. Er war auch nicht so fro:hlich als er ganz oben war... und sehr unglu:cklich auf dem Weg nach unten. Aber, er will noch ein mal klettern!! Ich bin glu:cklich!! Und jetzt.... gehen wir nach VEGAS!!!!

LOVE is Salvation... Salvation Mountain!!!! -Heather

Our next stop, was a dying little desert town, with abandoned buildings slowly eroding away like the surrounding desert sands and collapsing into rubbled ruin, a few old weathered desert people stand in front of the one store in town advertising Coca Cola via a rusted sign circa 1993. I think “standing” is the favored free-time activity in a town like this…. There isn’t any work here, so all there is, is free time, and it’s too hot and dry to do anything else but stand, drink an occasional beverage, and then stand around some more. I think for added excitement some folks might walk over to the only other building in town with a little shady spot, and resume their standing, there.

But just a little further outside of this pretty depressing little town, there is one man, who had one life-long dream, almost an obsession, who has become an inspiration. What he created required years of dedicated work, vision, inspiration, a touch of madness, and lots and lots of bright colors! Some of you might know this place from the movie “Into the Wild”… it is called “Salvation Mountain”. This man, named Lenard Knight crashed his hot-air-balloon into the desert and could not repair it. That crash happened almost 20 years ago, and once he realized he could not fly again, he began to construct- out of clay from the desert and some hay- a mountain and several “buildings” devoted to repenting to god and discovering God’s Love. What exists today, is a brightly painted mountain with flowers and waterfalls and a yellow brick road leading to the top which is crowned by a large cross. Amongst this fairytale landscape are verse after verse from the bible and in large letters at the top of the mountain visible from the road it is written “God is Love”. The area around is filled with abandoned farm vehicles and hippy vans also covered in colorful paint and bible verse. Every inch of the place in the desert is awash in color…. And Jesus.

Most of you know that I am not so religiously inclined, but I was truly touched by this man’s passion. Lenard himself, who must be about 70 years old, welcomed us and said “Well, Hello there! Feel free to walk around and take lots of pictures”. As you walk around you can hear him in conversation with other observers, mainly talking about just how tickled he is that so many people want to come and take pictures of his work… and tell their grandmas about it! He is such a friendly happy man, his love and his passion are truly infectious. He just wants people to be happy and find love. It is a truly inspiring site that a man, for 17 years, can devote himself to one great work of art, and this work has inspired so many people!!

With love and peace, our Great Adventure officially begins!

Manni's new dance in the DESERT!!! -Heather

As we started our first day of actual stealth desert camping, the two of us alone against the backdrop of vast browns yellows and reds of the desert and deep blue of the sky, Manni decided to premier his fancy footwork in a new dance I like to call, “I’m scared of Lizards”.

It was a combination of 1 part soccer skills and 3 parts terrified spaz seizure. Brilliant. By the time we get through the next 2 or 3 weeks of desert, I think he’ll be ready for Broadway.

It went a little something like this: jump with high knees from one foot to the other, alternate in rapid succession. Now place your body in a slightly crouched position with your hands at mid-height and wave them back and forth. Now shout, “Woah! Woah! Woah!” repeatedly. Actually the whole thing was just the right amount of masculine and scared… I could see the Fight vs. Flight response trying to make up its mind; I think fight might have won out in the end if his enemy had not been so agile, and hard to see… and tiny... because for the most part he was crouched and ready to spring like he was prepared to do wrestling battle against a very large lion.

To his credit, I got to see the whole situation develop so it was not as startling and thus scary for me as it was for him. He was focusing on setting up the camp stove very intently and I saw the lizard dart toward him. All he knew was that we were alone in the middle of the desert and suddenly something slithered and made quick movement ON TOP of his foot and then darted around in front of him before taking quick shelter in the bushes. Like I said, the dance was an appropriate and respectable enough response… but funny none the less.

On second thought, perhaps we should try surprise alligator wrestling once we get to the south, that should illicit a pretty entertaining response and perhaps further evolve an already wondrous dance performance into something simply magical by the one, the only, Manni.

After our first night at our lizard-attack campsite in the Anza Borrego desert of California we proceeded to the best kept secret in Southern California; The badlands of Arroyo Tapiado. These badlands contain one of the only known systems of Mud Caves in the world!! There are over 20 caves (that have been discovered) and they range from small crawl spaces and tight squeeze channels to caverns with 80 foot tall ceilings and miles of winding cave passage-ways…

So, Manni and I go Spelunking!!!! These caves, except for a few collapsed sections called “skylights”, are totally pitch black, and you need a light source in order to explore the tunnels. After a little coercion on my part, Manni finally relented and bought a “totally cool” head lamp… I think he actually likes it now (not just because it’s practical, but because of the inherent “stylish” qualities of a headband, with an attached light- Holla!!). We explored some of my favorite caves including an enormous canyon with remnants of its long-ago collapsed cave ceiling still above, a secret cave off the side of that same canyon called Footprint Cave, a tight passage leading to a dried waterfall shaft towering about 100 feet above called Plunge Pool Cave, and the Air Conditioner cave which provides welcome relief from the heat of the desert because it blows cold air out of its mouth… so cool.

Unfortunately California has had some pretty bad weather this winter, and recently, several intense rain storms. Because these caves are not stone, but rather mud, they are carved and shaped by the floods that go through the area during these types of rain storms. I have been to these caves many times in the past, and I could clearly see changes in shape and even direction of these tunnels as well as evidence of many new collapses. After some rock-fall in the Plunge Pool Cave that landed nearly on top of us- we were in the middle of a peaceful meditation… which made the sudden sound of rocks crashing down even scarier. Needless to say, we were both a little bit weary of further exploration. I think the solitude and silence of the place rattled our nerves just as much as the rockfall… and we ended up leaving a little early to head to our next stop, but not until we had explored 4 separate caves- so we were definitely not left wanting J. The mud caves are so beautiful and eerie at the same time, stepping out of one of those caves feels like stepping back in time to the age of dinosaurs when mud and grit and instinct was law of the land. It is truly a unique landscape and it was only the beginning of our “Desert” portion of our trip. In an environment where water is so scare, it is amazing to realize that water and rain will play a huge role in the landscapes we are about to see…

Rome wasn't built in a day... -Heather

Rome was certainly not built in a day, and neither, it seems, was our road-tripping car.

Manni and I have been in America for 5 weeks already(!!!) and we are both so happy to finally be on the road! At last we get to wake up with the sunrise each morning and taste the fresh air of freedom and the sweet thrill of the unknown out on the open road!...

What took us so long? First, we had to build our car; Now that we have been road-testing the finished project I can say that this is not just any car, it's pretty much the most epic, camping-SUV, hippie-roadster to ever travel across the great American plains! I imagine it took the Romans a long time to build their great historical masterpieces. Well, I assure you: This car... is our Car-osseum. A vehicle sculpted into traveling-vagabond-perfection by the very gods themselves (and I'm not talking about Manni). :)

So now.... Our Great Road Trip Adventure begins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps I should start a bit more at the beginning for those of you not so up-to-date. This adventure actually started some time ago... Manni and I met at Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany through mutual friends... and a few (several) liters of good German beer. What followed was a whirlwind romance with, of course, all of the stereotypical scenes like walking hand-in-hand along his quaint hometown river, going to little eateries, and a week together in the Italian mountains, etc etc... but mostly you would just find the two of us, eating a very good home-cooked German meal (courtesy of the amazing cook, Sir Manni himself) wearing matching football jerseys and screaming at the TV.

Fast forward, and I have officially "moved" to Germany in the hopes of pursuing a career in Teaching English as a Foreign Language! BUT before the school season begins, Manni and I decided to do an American Road Trip to basically every corner of the US.... Exciting times lie ahead indeed.

So....

In preparation for this trip, we literally stripped the Ford Explorer down to its frame, and built in our own conversion system to make the Ford a fully livable (and enjoyable) travel home. (See Manni's post for pictures and descriptions about all the changes!!!)
-All of this stuff was a ton of work and stress, but for the most part, Manni and I make a great team!! We are both perfectionists, so sometimes we both had to remind each other (often without success) that we are not performing heart surgery and can undoubtedly live without the hand-painted Sistine Chapel that we soooo wanted on the ceiling of our car... But alas, pride in the work we do is our creed.

Next, we went to Yosemite National Park!!!! The grand beauty of that place is simply indescribable. *Soon* we will have an additional photo album on the blog for you to SEE all of the amazing sights and things we do on this trip!!
In Yosemite, we hiked the Mist Trail up to Vernal and Nevada Falls. The next day we went to Mirror lake, and our last epic day of hiking we went to the top of Yosemite Falls (half the trail still covered in Winter snow). My legs and feet were pretty dead after we completed a 3 day total of about 18 miles and 3,500+ feet in elevation gain (and descent) but Manni and his long-enduro-soccer legs didn't seem to have a single sore spot. ha. It was a great start to the trip and Yosemite definitely set the bar high for the rest of the natural wonders throughout America!

After that we made a quick trip to LA for my cousins wedding ---Manni has now officially met my ENTIRE family and extended extended family.... and he still tells me he wants to stick around... so that's a good sign (and a little bit of a pleasant surprise haha). Then we headed down to San Diego to meet up with friends, learn to climb (manni), and visit Manni's highschool friend now living in SD- thanks again to the one and only Conway brothers for the house to crash :)!

and now...... the trip is ON!!!!!!!!!!!

Here it is: Our Great American Roadtrip Route!!!!
We don't have a time schedule.... we will just move from one awesome spot to another whenever it feels right! :) This is only a general idea of our "travel path" we will stop at many many more places than google maps will let us tag. :)

Happy Trails!

Ford Explorer Conversion - Manni

Hello Everybody,
to start out, we have a little photo story for you!
This is how we built the setup for our car, so that we can live in it for the next months!
You can enlarge every photo by clicking on it.


This is what we are working with! Our 2001 Ford Explorer!

Das ist unser Auto! Ein Ford Explorer, Baujahr 2001.






First of all, we removed the rear seats and the covers, blocking the additional storage room in the trunk.

Als erstes haben wir die Rueckbank und die Klappen ausgebaut, die unseren zusaetzlichen Stauraum im Kofferraum blockierten.


As we are sleeping in the back of our car, we had to build a platform, to even out the inside surface of the car. This is the first of two parts we built. Both frames are removable and independent.

Da wir vorhaben in unsere Auto zu schalfen, mussten wir eine Plattform bauen, um eine ebene Oberflaeche fuer unser Bett zu bekommen. Das ist das erste von zwei voneinander unabhaengigen Teilen.





And this is the second part of the frame. We brought up both parts a little bit, so that we have enough space to store all of our stuff underneath the platform.

Hier der zweite Teil. Wir haben beide Teile etwas erhoeht, so dass wir darunter genug Stauraum fuer all unser Zeugs haben, das man so zum Leben braucht!



The car is fully loaded! Food, chairs, clothes, stove, tent for backpacking, sleeping bags... Everything we need fits underneath the bed!! ... Wait?? Bed?? There's no bed!! ... hang on!

Das Auto ist gepackt! Essen, Stuehle, Klamotten, Gasherd, Zelt fuer Wanderungen, Schlafsaecke... Alles was wir brauchen passt unter das Bett! Bett?? Welches Bett? Da ist kein Bett! ... einen Moment!




Now that is the actual Bed. A second platform, that fits on top of the first one. It has red carpet on it and some cushion underneath!
Please pay attention to our extraordinarily beautiful curtains!! ;)

Hier it das Bett! Eine zweite Plattform, die auf der ersten aufliegt. Sie ist mit rotem Teppich bezogen und hat etwas Polsterung dazwischen.
Bitte beachtet die unglaublich schoenen Vorhaenge!! ;)


And this is how we access our storage! Both, the front and the back end of the platform can be opened, as we installed big hinges to the second part, the bed. How cool is that??

Und so koennen wir unseren Stauraum erreichen. Wir haben ein paar dicke Scharniere eingebaut in den oberen Teil, das Bett, eingebaut. Dadurch sind beide Seiten, vorne und hinten, aufklappbar! Wie cool ist das denn, bitte??




Finally. The car is ready to go! After almost two weeks of work and intense planning. We proudly present our own Ford Explorer Conversion, from scratch! ;)

Endlich! Das Auto ist startklar! Nach zwei Wochen Arbeit und Planung, alles von Grund auf selbst gemacht! Unser Ford Explorer Umbau! Wir sind stolz drauf! ;)

How the Blog works - Manni

Hey guys!
This is the first post on our awesome blog!
During the next couple of months, we will keep you updated on our Road Trip Adventure through the U.S.!!

Now this is how it works. As you guys know, we are an international couple! Therefore, our plan is to have posts in two different languages! English and German.

Heather's posts will be in English, whereas I write in German or/and in English!

We already finished our first trip with our homemade Ford Explorer Conversion to Yosemite National-park! So the next posts will be about our Car and the first Trip!

That's it so far, keep track of us!!
Cheers, Manni



Hallo Leute,
das ist der erste Post in unserem coolen Blog!
In den naechsten paar Monaten werden wir euch ueber unsere Road-Trip Abenteuer quer durch Amerika auf dem Laufenden halten!!

Und so soll der Blog funktionieren: Da wir ja ein internationales Paar sind, haben wir uns ueberlegt in zwei verschiedenen Sprachen zu schreiben! Deutsch und Englisch!
Heather wird in Englisch schreiben und ich in Deutsch und/oder Englisch!

Wir haben schon einen Trip zum Yosemite Nationalpark hinter uns. Unser selbst umgebauter Ford Explorer hat alles gut ueberstanden! In unsere naechsten beiden Posts wird's daher ueber den Auto-Umbau und den ersten Trip gehen!!

Das war's erstmal. Bis zum naechsten Post!!
Bis dann,
Manni