Tomiko's Blog

Hey gang,

Been sick the last couple of days.  I think all this running around constantly caught up with me.  Feeling better tonight, but I can’t sleep.  My mattress is a donation and it kills my back so I have been having a horrible time sleeping.  I have my eyes set on the Hyatt mattress!!  I saw that you can buy it and ever since I stayed at a Hyatt, I have had it in my head that I absolutely need to save up and get one!

The only problem is I have to wait until after my surgery.  It will be in the Spring 2010, and then I am saving for that bed.  I can envision it now.  (harp music)

Anyway, I am supposed to be blogging about my camping trip and here I am talking about mattresses.  Sheesh!  lol

I was pretty excited about camping.  What I like about it is there is no cell service, no internet and absolutely no way anyone can get a hold of me, find me, etc.   I am out there with nature, falling asleep in my tent with the soft sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees.  You can hear the wildlife around you while you warm your body next to a campfire.  It is dark outside, so you can see the millions of stars in the sky, and there is a crispness to the air.  When you awake, the dew sits on your tent and you are awaken by the chill of the morning and the sunrise…oh yes..and the need to pee!

I don’t know what it is about camping, but when I awake, I have to pee like you wouldn’t believe and I have to really hurry to get my flip flops on while wearing my socks and unzip the endless zippers to the tent to get out and make a mad dash to the closest bathroom.  Sometimes I cheat and just go for it in the forest.  it just depends on how bad I have to go and what my confidence level is at holding and making it to the bathroom without peeing my pants.

I got a pretty good start last Friday and made it to Mesquite, Nevada around lunch time.  I had heard that there was this amazing Mexican restaurant there, so I had to check it out.  I normally eat really healthy, but when I go camping, all bets are off!  lol

Anyway, here is the restaurant and location.  if you are ever in that area, I totally recommend this place.  It is well worth it, and it is family owned with everything homemade.  If I am going to blow my diet, I make sure I choose something super delicious. 

Los Lupes Mexican Restaurant

312 W. Mesquite Blvd, Suite 2

Mesquite, NV  89024

Afterward, I continued my journey and caught the 14 in Utah and headed up the hill.  It was disturbing to me to see a burning newspaper on the road on the way up in the mountain area.  What was even worse, was cars kept driving by.  No one stopped.  Me and my friend stopped and pulled over, and my friend got out of the car, stopped traffic, and stomped the fire out.  It was kind of windy and all it would have taken was that fire to go to the side and hit some brush and then we are talking about a forest fire!  I can’t stand idiots like that who try to ruin it for everyone let alone endanger lives.  Needless to say, I was a little upset after seeing that.

I calmed down once I got deeper into the woods and was thrilled to see a sheep herder with 1000’s of sheep.  They were endless and there is no way I had the kind of camera on me that could capture just how much sheep this one sheep herder was controlling.  I pulled over the side of the road and started taking pictures and the sheep herder saw this and cruised over so that I could get a picture of him.  How cool is that?

My campsite was located at Duck Creek.  It was a nice clean campground and was cute just like Navajo Lake.  The nice thing was there weren’t nowhere near as many flies and I really didn’t see any mosquitoes.  I guess the area had less water around so that helped.

There were a lot of wild life when I was hiking around.  They were all so close that I was able to get some shots!  I was especially super close when I shot the Chipmunk!

I got way closer than the pic of me you see taking the picture.  I was right there in the chipmunks face and she continued to eat.  Crazy, huh?

I got way closer to this crow when he was walking around, but I really like this shot I got of him in the tree.

There were deer everywhere and super close to my campsite.  They really came out on Sunday when most of the campers left and it was super quiet.  I think that was my favorite day there.

Driving around, I had some other friends that were camped at Otter Creek so me and my friend met them to go fishing.

We were in good spirits at first, but when none of caught fish it was a downer.

…But Marco had a plan.  Let’s drop the boat off an hour later and make rum and oJ drinks.   I thought that was a great plan!  So we headed back and it seemed to lighten the mood!

Heading back to camp, We saw this advertisement for a gallery.  Not being able to resist art, we had to take a look.  This photographer was AMAZING!  I plan on purchasing one of his pictures when I start working on my livingroom.  In case you want to see some of his work, here is his website!
http:www.endsoftheearthphoto.com

His name is William R. Chapman

There were some shots of people from his travels and Bryce Canyon as well as other areas he has traveled.  The pics of Bryce Canyon were so amazing and really had the “WOW” factor for me that I didn’t have any choice but to go there the next day and see it for myself.  There was a $25 entry fee, but it was well worth it.  I was speechless by the beauty of this place and I plan on going camping there and doing many more of the hikes.

Here are some pics.  Enjoy!

I didn’t even notice the sign until after the fact, but it still didn’t stop me.

Can you believe the tree above this picture is 1600 years old???!

While hiking, I saw these wild blueberries.  Only saw two small batches the whole time.  This was really wild to me.

There is no way I can capture the beauty of this place, but I really hope you enjoy the pictures.  The weather was in the low 80s, sometimes more in the 70s in some areas, and it was sunny skies.

If you have ever been to the Grand Canyon, this place blows it away 1 million times over.  It is only around 4 hours from Vegas located in Utah.  If you are in Vegas and have some time,  I would strongly recommend checking this place out.  There are so many beautiful areas around there, too.  I don’t think you can see it all in a short time.  I find that I go back there a lot just to see more of the area.  It truly is amazing.

My next adventure is going to be Machu Picchu, Peru.  I leave next Thurs.

You are in for a treat with those pics, I guarantee.  I plan on taking a ton!

Before I go, I am going out with my buddy, AL to do some race car driving on the mini track.   That should be loads of fun and I totally plan on sharing that with you, of course.

Never a dull moment in my life, but I LOVE that.  Life is really worth living, isn’t it?  I don’t want to wake up and regret that I didn’t live life…I mean really live life.  It is so short and you just never know when your card is up.  I never want to wake up and go, “What if…or I wish I had, etc”.

That just doesn’t make sense to me to ever do that.  I have a lot of great opportunities coming up, but I am going to keep them a secret until they are actually here.  I don’t want to blow the surprise for my different blogs.  Makes life more interesting, don’t you think?

Well, I hope you enjoyed the blog and the pics.  I really appreciate you stopping by, and as always, thanks so much for your support!  I appreciate it more than you will ever know.

Have a goodnight.

xoxo

Tomiko

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