We’re going (coming?) back to Vegas.

In a perfect synchronicity of events, at the same time we decided that it’s the right time to go back to the land of sports betting and free buffets, our friend Amanda is closing on her new house and needs some fine upstanding hobos like us as roommates. The gambling “thing” in Oklahoma still could have value, but we decided we would have more potential in Vegas as far as money, hiking that isn’t flat and hockey for Andy. The weather in the winter isn’t bad, and somehow, it just feels like the right thing to do, right now. I hope that the last sentence isn’t some indication that Vegas somehow has a hold over me like an abused woman going back to her tormentor. “Vegas didn’t mean it. It just can’t control itself sometimes. It’s not that bad. It’s really nice to me when we’re alone.”

I feel like I want to write something amazing, funny, touching….something. But, I’m having a little bit of writers block. Usually this happens when, well, why does this happen exactly? Am I uncomfortable with something? I’m having trouble coming up with how to form words into meaningful sentences. I know we’ve just started planning this momentous hike, but it feels like it’s becoming a real thing, and I think…I’m uncomfortable. It’s a feeling of being established and undisturbed and leaving that to jump off a cliff (hopefully not literally) into the unknown. I’m not a stranger to this feeling. Every time that I’ve trusted it there have been amazing results

The last time I really felt like this was when I (re)met Andy for the first time after months of emailing and phone calls. I remember sitting at my computer desk the night before he showed up thinking that I knew deep in my heart that tonight was the last night of my life as I knew it. In a good way. Even so, there were things I had to give up. All of them worth it and none I can think of that didn’t make me a happier, calmer, better soul. This trip feels the same somehow. I believe that the unforeseen benefits will far outweigh the hardships, but jumping off into the unknown, even if it’s an amazing adventure, is a scary thing.

I don’t want to make this all ominous and weird, because we’re having a pretty fun time planning things. I’m planning the food portion. My sample box of dehydrated vegetables and beans came yesterday and I’ve been experimenting with different creations. When we get to Vegas and I have a full kitchen again there’s no limit to what my culinary mad scientist brain can come up with. Andy has been meticulously researching proper gear and is doing an amazing job. Right now he’s “pulling the trigger” on a long sleeved merino wool shirt, possum down (we’re hoping they shear them like a lama and not club them like a baby seal) gloves and his ultra light backpack. As of tonight we’ll have our sleeping system (tarp, bivy sack and sleeping bags) and packs ordered. We both recieved our cold weather jackets and I got a pair of ultra light trail shoes that I’m very excited about trying out.

The Value Place room that we’ve called home for the past three weeks looks like a clothes bomb exploded in it. I should be trying to get our stuff wrangled together. Instead I’m searching craigslist for food dehydrators and getting sucked into the never ending vortex of the internet. Andy will be done with the ordering in a few minutes and I’m going to take him out for a night out on the town at Furr’s home cooked buffet. I didn’t make the connection earlier but, I think cooks at Furr’s may have first hand knowledge of how to prepare a clubbed possum.

We should be back in Vegas by Friday at the earliest but we might take a longer route and camp a few days.