The Heart Knows

The heart knows what the heart wants but the universe has other plans for you...welcome to my life lol Yet, I can live with the fact that I am content in my life and I do not have to live a lie. I do not know how some people live like that, fully unable to love someone else but still have them in their lives.

Growth

Taking the trip to Wyoming did more for me than I realized. I feel like I went through a spiritual growth.  My eyes were opened up to the beautiful wonders that I saw and I felt the presence of God.  Before I got there, I felt despair and a lack of motivation. Now, I feel like I’ve been given another chance.  More than ever I want to be the difference that I want in my life.  I’m grateful. 

Day 4 Saying Goodbye and Back on the Road

Our last day in Wyoming and I was going to stay another night but there were no rooms available, place fills up quickly I guess.  We met the guys at the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar in the alley to help them unload equipment.  We said our goodbyes and headed back out on the road.  

The drive back to Salt Lake City, Utah seemed quicker.  We got back to the same Comfort Inn Suites and settled in for the night.  The next day we got up, left at 7am and headed back home. Nothing eventful happened but I sure will miss the guys, hope they have a great gig the rest of the week!  

Day 3 Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Today was the day that we had our photo shoot with the Mickey Utley Band.  It wasn't until the afternoon so we had some time to kill.  Tried to grab a Starbucks, no way that was happening.  With that many people in such a small town, the line was out the door. So we went to the Cowboy Coffee Shop, great coffee but I left my good water jug there.  Sad face.  

Went back to the car to clean it up a bit, finish our muffin and coffee before heading back to the room. We kind of tinkered around for awhile before heading out to the campground to meet the guys.   We stopped at a studio to get our old fashioned pictures done. Johnna and I were saloon girls, quite the experience though. It was fun but I'm not so sure I could do it again.  We went back to our hostel to try and take a nap, which was good since we knew we would be busy.

Their campground was absolutely beautiful. We drove through a tree lined dirt road with twinkling lights hanging on either side.  On each side were these cute cabins that you could rent, one day I will do that.  We get to the campsite and had an amazing shoot with the Mickey Utley Band.  Not quite content to stay there, we piled in my car while Lee rode his motorcycle. Let me tell you about my little car first, three grown men in the back of a Hyundai Accent, it was quite funny seeing them all crunched in the back lol

We pulled over to the side of the road to a beautiful scene complete with a mountain in the background, tree and a small river.  Perfect place to finish our shoot!  The shoot went amazing and all I wanted to do was edit these images.

We get done with the shoot and head back to camp.  Now this next part is even funnier, but you had to be there.  There were 3 grown men in the back seat and myself because Sammy was driving and we wanted to all go eat at the place called Streetfood at the Stagecoat.  Talk about uncomfortable but we did it and made it to our destination, and Lee was on his motorcycle. Not gonna lie though, when I first saw his motorcycle I thought it was part of the campgrounds antique looking feeling. lol

The Streetfood at the Stagecoach was amazing and comfortable.  The outside grass area had picnic tables and people were everywhere.  They had dogs, friends and were eating and hanging out. We get inside and order our dinners and it finally arrived, never had such good food in my life.  We finished up dinner and on the way back saw a group of people staring at the biggest moose I have ever seen, awesome to see.

We dropped off the guys and went back to our room for the night.  A great 3rd day!

On The Road Day 2 - June 29th

Waking up at the Comfort Inn Suites the next day was refreshing. We slept in a little bit before grabbing some breakfast items and coffee.  Stopped at Starbucks for more coffee because you know me, coffee snob.  Just was happy to put Salt Lake City behind us.

The drive we had ahead of us was only about 4 hours and 45 minutes long, easy compared to the almost 8 hours the day before.  The drive through Utah, Idaho and finally Wyoming was absolutely breathtaking. I could not believe it was real.  It was so beautiful that I had to turn off the radio because I did not want the music to tarnish the creation that was laid out before my eyes.  Surely it wasn't real, God definitely put his imprint on the land there.  The whole ride all we could do was sigh and comment on the beauty around us. On the way we did find a group of goats hanging out in someone's front yard and a beautiful little deer drinking out of a stream.  

Getting into Jackson Hole, Wyoming was another story.  I have never seen such a tiny town filled with so many people.  It was absolutely adorable the town though so I was super excited to get checked in, cleaned up so we could explore and meet up with Mickey and the band. 

We checked in at the Anvil Hotel to get to our Hostel, The Cache House.  The hardest part was finding a parking spot and we ended up finding one around the block.  We unloaded what we could carry and walked to our Hostel and stepped inside.  What a different experience this was but I was excited to start our adventure.   

The commons room had sofas, tables and chairs for everyone to linger around to either work on your laptop, read, play games or just  hang out.  Down the hall and immediately to the right was the bathroom area.  The bathrooms were numbered to match our Bunk, which was 10.  We had a queen bed on the top bunk and our bathroom number was 10; our locker number was 10 as well.   It was definitely inconvenient for me since I had so much photography gear with me but none-the-less, exciting as well. 

We settled in and showered and got dressed to go walk around town.  It was so darned adorable.  I took some macro shots of some beautiful flowers.  We ended up going to the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar first to grab some dinner, which was amazing, and then we moved to wait for the guys to show up.  I was never so excited to see someone as I was them.  OMG, it felt like an eternity that I saw them.  As usual, our greeting were met with hugs and happiness.  After all, I consider them brothers, friends.  

They started their performance at 8:15pm and went until 12:15pm.  The place was jam packed with people dancing, hanging out and enjoying the performance. In between pictures and videos, I did my fair share of dancing. Most people who have gone out with me know how much I love to dance.  

We helped the guys load the bus after their performance, said our good nights and walked back to our Hostel.  We could not find it at first lol.  As I'm crossing the street because we found our way, I had to take off my cowboy boys because my feet hurt.  This cute, drunk girl across the street offers me her shoes and yells "It doesn't cost anything to love someone"  Love it.  This was at 1:30am in the middle of town, and I was drunk myself but not so much that I could not appreciate this.  

Trying not to giggle, we got to our room and went to bed. Me, I went to bed in my jeans and shirt. lol

On the Road June 28th

On June 28 we left for our trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  The drive became beautiful once we hit Mesquite, Nevada.  What seemed crazy to me was that we started in Arizona, went through Nevada and then hit Arizona again before crossing to Utah.    Beautiful terrain it was so I am so grateful to have been able to see it.  

We got to Salt Lake City, Motel 6 to check in.   This motel was located in center of Salt Lake City, Utah.  When we pulled into the driveway we noticed the chain link fence around it.  I thought it was weird at first but I didn't want to seem a snob or lose out on my $70.00.  Since we were there, I didn't think I was allowed to cancel. So we went in and checked in.  Everyone seemed very nice, I paid my $70.00 cash.  I wanted to not use a credit card there since it was kind of sketchy.

We walked into the room and I was disgusted.  By the trash can there looked to be a urine stain on the wall, and it certainly smelled like it.  The bed was only a full and the bedspread was stained, ripped and had cigarette burn holes in it.  The whole room just reeked and the bathroom no better.  Ok, I have a blanket so we sprayed the mattress and area with bed bug spray just in case.  Still didn't want to be a snob so we decided to go shopping at Kohl's.

Got to Kohl's and I could not focus on shopping, the more I thought about that place the more I felt anxious.  We left Kohl's and I contacted Hotels.com to see if I could cancel. I did but when I got to the Motel to give the guy back his keys, he did not return my money.  What the hell?  Ugh.  So as we are backing up to leave I told Johnna to get some video or pictures of the homeless encampment against he fence.   As we are driving to the right of us is a pimp and prostitute, no mistaking that. She was a bit heated and then handed him some money.  I'm like "OMG" and as I came full circle to the right of us was a guy leaning against the wall smoking something.  What the actual Hell?

We got out of their fast and on our way out I made a wrong turn and ended up going around the block, wall-to-wall homeless people and tents lined the sidewalk.  Then we saw some of the people in the hotel mingling with the people on the streets. No judgement on my part, but the whole prostitution and drug activity going on, we hightailed it out of there.

We drove until we saw a sign for Comfort Inn Suites.  I got out to see if they had a room, told the girl my story and we got our room. She must have felt badly for us because when we opened the door to our room, it was a suite.  We got settled in and went out for Chinese Food!

All in all, it was an eventful first day.