I feel like writing. I have two papers to write for Monday, but Lord knows I don't want to worry about them right now. I'm just back from Spring Break, which for me was a wonderful road trip to the Grand Canyon and back (barely). But what would a road trip be without a little adventure.

Myself and a group of 5 friends took two cars to the Southwest, hopping from one site to another until Scaz finally started grumbling about the fact that his catalytic converter was completely rusted out. Anyway, before that untimely incident, we managed to see Roswell, New Mexico, which is an unfortunate and depressing town that has alien decals on every building in sight. In fact, even the street lamps are made of alien heads. After that, we went to Carlsbad Caverns, which is the first cave I've ever been to that really stunned me. I just couldn't believe how massive the entire thing was and how we could walk for 3 miles inside it. And then we camped on federal land off of the side of a minor highway in the middle of nowhere, New Mexico. For dinner, I made rosemary chicken. And that was our first day.

Day two (Sunday) involved us driving to White Sands National Monument, which was a three hour drive from Carlsbad. The road there looked like Colorado, with timber lodges and a ski resort, all in the middle of the desert. (New Mexico blew my mind--we were in a new biosphere every 2 hours.) There was one 20 mile section of road that was 6% downgrade the entire way. Needless to say, I learned to keep my car in low gear for fear of destroying my brakes. After White Sands (which was gorgeous, by the way), we drove up to Santa Fe and stayed with Noga and her family. Overall, it was fun, but I was anxious most of the time about the "Maintenance Required" light that came on in my car and the fact that there was literally steam coming off my brakes after our trip to White Sands.

The next morning (Monday), I got up early and got my car checked out at a local shop. They gave me the green light about my brakes, so I relaxed and we went on to the Petrified Forest in Arizona. I enjoyed the park, but the coolest thing was the Painted Desert that looked like a more colorful version of the Badlands. The petrified wood was about as exciting as expected (read: not very). After that, we found a camping spot at Homolovi Ruins State Park and spent the night there. I made spaghetti with hot dogs (w/garlic and black pepper).

Tuesday was probably my favorite day of the trip, simply because we managed to squeeze so much into it. We explored Homolovi Ruins, which was surprisingly rich in archaeological fun, such as pot shards and pueblo ruins. Then, we drove towards Flagstaff, stopping at Walnut Canyon, which has cliff dwellings and the most echoing canyon I've ever heard. We drove to Sunset Crater Volcano, where we ate lunch and hiked up a beautiful scenic overlook of the San Francisco Mountains. After that, we drove through Wupatki National Monument and saw more Native American ruins. Finally, we arrived at the Grand Canyon and camped there. I made cinnamon chicken with apples and cheese for dinner.

Wednesday was a nice day, although I have to admit, I was fairly underwhelmed by the Grand Canyon. I really enjoyed hiking down to an overlook about 1/3 down the canyon, but was disappointed that we couldn't go to the bottom and back up in the little time we had there. The sunset was amazing and it was nice to have a night where we weren't racing to set up our tent (a huge 12-person behemoth that easily housed the 6 of us). I made chicken parmesan for dinner and we sat around the fire eating and drinking until about 9 pm (we had to go to bed early or risk freezing to death outside of the comfort of our sleeping bags).

Thursday, we watched the sunrise over the Grand Canyon, ate lots of oatmeal, and then packed up and got ready to head back to St. Louis. We made it to Albuquerque, New Mexico, at about 3:30 pm and stopped at a grocery store to get lunch. We ate and right as I was heading out of the parking lot, a low, rumbling noise started coming every time I hit the gas. I called Triple-A and they towed me to a shop just in time for them to bring it inside before they closed. We got to spend the night in a hotel in Albuquerque (6 people to a 3-person room). That night, we explored the town, which we all decided was the A-hole of the Southwest. It was essentially a city that couldn't stop being a town. Everything was dinky and sketchy--half the buildings were falling apart, but the other half looked nice and trendy. We ate at a bar called Maloney's and had a good time.

Friday morning, I went over to the auto shop to wait for my car. It turned out that the catalytic converter, as well as most of my exhaust system, was rusted out. The converter was the only essential fix, so we had that replaced for $360. Then, it was back on the road to St. Louis. We got to drive through a dust storm, a forest fire, and a thunderstorm on the way back. But, we got back to St. Louis at 4 am, healthy and moving. I still need to get my car checked again, quite possibly to have my muffler and piping replaced, but honestly, I can't complain. It was definitely my best Spring Break while here at college and I wouldn't take any of it back.

Also, I've decided to continue at WI this summer. I will try to make inroads into the theatre community when I'm not camping. Then, come next year, hopefully I'll be at least a part-time actor. We'll just have to wait and see. C'est la vie.