Don't Mess

I have a roadtrip planned this summer for my birthday. My boyfriend Ryan and I are planning on stopping at Yosemite and Death Valley before going to the Grand Canyon and Sedona. On our way back, we're driving through the Mojave! I hope I can convince him to go further south after we get back into California because I want him to see the Salton Sea/Salvation Mountain/Slab City. It would add another day to the trip, probably. Worth it.

I'm a little sad that I won't be visiting my favorite aunts in Dallas this year. Too much traveling. I'm already supposed to go to Vancouver with my mom and her boyfriend + his two sons in July. Not sure if I want to burden anyone with the airfare to Texas. Too bad. It's one of my favorite places to go! There's really not much to do and it sucks that everything is spread so far apart but I love the people. Last year, I met up with three really awesome guys who showed me around (at least, the abandoned parts). Because of them, I was able to experience draining for the very first time.

Sometimes they get even larger than this but there were some spots where we had to crouch. My back killed me and I'm only 5'2! Imagine if you were 6' tall. Ouch.

I loved it, despite the fact that there were times we'd have to walk in knee-deep water. Horrible if you're like me, who wore her brand new Doc Martens. They're not waterproof. No sir. And once gravel and water gets in, they don't come out. My feet started aching half an hour into our journey. When I got home, I stood in the shower with my jeans and shoes still on trying to wash off all the debris. Wet clothes are very hard to remove. So are boots that haven't been broken in yet. It took me 10 minutes to pull them off of me! My feet were a little beat up and hurt for another day.

It doesn't look like much but believe me, I wasn't enjoying it! TMI: I had a bandage on the largest wound that I didn't bother to change for a couple of days. I sat down on the couch and smelled something funky. I couldn't pinpoint the scent until I saw the bandage and realized that it's remained wet since my shower and was emitting that smell. EW!

There was a house on stilts I'd always see on the way to my aunt's work but I never got a good look at it since we'd always go 60+ mph and it was partially obscured by trees. Turns out one of my friends had noticed it too! We drove up and down the road at night with a floodlight shining on that general area before we figured out the exact location. The next day, we illegally parked our car off the side of the road and checked it out. One word: AWESOME!

  

Getting eaten by trees.

Since most houses over there are brick, it was strange to see something like that. The previous owners probably abandoned it due to the fire damage. We were scared to walk around up there in case the floor collapsed. Would've hurt!

There was also another little house I noticed during every vacation to Dallas. People used to occupy it up until 2 years ago. Most of the windows were boarded up but we got in pretty easily. I don't have many good photos of it because this was back before I had a tripod and my own flashlight. I relied on in-camera flash which don't yield the nicest looking pictures.

The previous owners had left a lot of stuff behind. Mostly kids' toys and what they considered junk (yearbooks, self-help books, fake plants, etc). We exited through the front door (which turned out to be unlocked the entire time!)

A few days later, my aunt told me that she saw someone enter the house. Probably the property owner. They replaced the board we removed to get inside. I was surprised that despite being seen by several people at the church across the street that night, the police weren't called! Lucky us.

Texas rocked last year. I'm going to miss it.