Piece of Cake

Welp… The Grand Canyon was incredible.

I really wish we had a hidden camera on us while we were actually doing the camping part. Our reality show would have played out something like this: The camera would have panned around the North Rim Campground focusing in on all of the serious camping groups, families with airstream trailers, hikers with elaborate tents, etc… then that “idiots attempting to complete a seemingly simple task” background music would begin and it would zoom in on our little campsite – which consisted of a two-person tent held together by some tape – and Ryan and I trying to light a fire with a mini Duraflame log and some paper towels, swatting away insects, and drinking wine out of a box.

I guess we didn’t really think the whole camping thing through as much as we should have but we compiled a list of items that we will be SURE to bring next time:

- A tarp

- Tape

- Rope

- Pocket knife

- Wood

- Newspaper

- Mattress pad

- Lantern

Once we got through the first night of “sleep” atop the pile of rocks on which we decided to place our tent, we got up in the morning and got ready for a hike… to me this meant putting on the same clothes I would wear to a yoga class, filling up a bottle of water, and heading out. The hike ended up being over 10 miles but it was so damn worth it. You always hear about how spectacular the Grand Canyon is and how moving it is to actually see it and blah, blah, blah but for some reason I wasn’t expecting to be THAT impressed. I was. I mean, it is unbelievable. That first time I saw it my jaw just dropped. I was also kind of thrown off by the fact that anyone can go right to the edge of this thing, really anywhere they want along the rim, and accidentally plummet to their death. I think maybe I was expecting like railings or something? I don’t know.

Anyway, we got back from the 1,000 hour hike, passed out for a couple of hours and woke up to rain sprinkling on our tent. Give me inclement weather in a tent on night 2 of this trip and I would have been fine but thunderstorms on night 8 almost had us packed up and driving through the night to the West Coast.  Luckily, the rain eventually subsided and we started in on our dinner. You are CRAZY if you think we didn’t make Velveeta Shells and Cheese while camping. That’s right. You know my feelings on Mac and Cheese and it just had to happen. We also made an egg concoction consisting of onions, peppers, corn tortillas, and enough pepper jack cheese to kill a man. We were pretty damn proud of ourselves to be honest. Tell me to provide you with shelter for a night and I’ll give you a pop-up tent held together by medical tape. Tell me to make you dinner with a match and a box of Velveeta and you gotchyoself a meal.

So our final stop on this trip was what I consider to be a success. After 48 hours of not bathing (during which we completed a 10 mile hike and an 11 hour car ride) we decided against making any additional stops. The most human interaction I wanted at that point was telling the nice young lad at McDonald’s that I didn’t want ketchup on my cheeseburger.

Our final trip totals:

- 3,795 miles

- $628 in gas

- Hundreds of national treasures such as the Grand Canyon and Prairie Dog Town

- Approximately 27 meals

- 2 Subway Veggie Delites

- 0 cases of West Nile

ahhhhh… finally… the other coast

We are finally here in San Diego and I can’t imagine getting here in a better way than what we just did. I can’t wait to get settled and start to post about cooking again. I also can’t wait for our belongings to get here (sent over with a moving company) because I am currently sitting on an air mattress on our living room floor.

This concludes the 4th and final volume of Jenna and Ryan DO AMERICA. The complete box set will be available Spring 2013. Until next time  folks….