the way home

so i'll be leaving arizona in a little more than a week. my feelings towards this are mixed - obviously. regardless, i'm incredibly excited about the drive home. dominic is getting here on saturday. i'll pick him up in phoenix. i hate phoenix. but - it's okay. saturday night i'm having a going away party - which will be funny and good. i've grown to really, really love my coworkers and the few people around here that i've gotten to know. the rest of our trip looks like this:

sunday - we'll leave the grand canyon at some point. i want to watch the sun set over horseshoe bend outside of page. i still remember the night we watched it set in 2005 - i think we all cried. it was the most beautiful thing i've ever seen. sunday night we're camping in kanab - right inside the utah border. we're staying at the coral sand dunes state park - i'm excited. i've actually never seen sand dunes.

monday - we'll go to zion. i've wanted to go to zion for a while now but never had the time/money to get there this summer. we'll hike. we'll listen to lauryn hill. it'll be great. we'll spend monday night there camping at watchman.

tuesday - drive mancos, colorado whatever way possible. we'll go through bryce, some state parks/national monuments as well as capital reef national park. we'll spend the night somewhere around cortez or durango. i got to know this area pretty well when i spent a week camping at mesa verde national park last fall. we'll go to the coffee shop in mancos. it'll rock.

wednesday - we'll leave. we'll drive the million dollar highway through the san juan mountains. the san juans have been voted the most scenic/beautiful mountains in america. the million dollar highway has also been voted one of the most scenic drives in america. we'll take a picture with wilson peak which is the mountain on the coors beer bottles. we'll have some coors. we will also hopefully listen to charles kuralt's "on the road." we'll go to silverton and i'll think about moving there, again. we'll arrive in boulder, eventually.

thursday - we will spend all day hanging out with chris and lacy. it will be great. i will consider moving to boulder.

friday - we will leave. we'll go to omaha. we'll listen to the counting crows song, "omaha." hopefully there's something else to do in omaha. hopefully it won't disappoint me.

saturday - we will drive to chicago. on the way, we will stop in madison county, iowa. we will take pictures with the covered bridges of madison county. i will relive my love affair with maryl streep and clint eastwood from the movie. we'll spend saturday night in chicago. i've never been to chicago. we'll see how it goes. "she came to chicago to party, i came to chicago to kill myself" is all i have to say to miss laurie trok.

sunday - we will drive the rest of the way home.

**if you know anything awesome about any of the places that i speak of, please let me know. especially omaha. we'll need something to do there besides listen to the counting crows song.