It was time to start my long drive from Asheville, North Carolina to Ehrenberg, Arizona. I had less than a week to make it to Skooliepalooza, The Ungathering. GPS said it would be a 32 hour drive, but it always takes me longer in a bus, and I had an additional stop planned in Arkansas
The drive through Tennessee seemed never-ending, and I stayed in Cracker Barrel and Walmart parking lots along the way. While I was in one parking lot a girl came up and started talking to me. She was interested in the lifestyle and wanted to know what it was like. She was very kind and I gifted her a crystal. In return she gifted me a very pretty bracelet.
When I hit Arkansas, I was headed to a place I had heard about online called Crystal Vista, a hiking trail that leads to an abandoned crystal mine. You can now go there for free and dig up your own crystals. I was not about to miss that opportunity.
I had to go down a long, bumpy dirt road to get there. I parked in a dirt lot along with a few other vehicles, grabbed a backpack, a trowel, and both my pups before starting the mile hike up.
It was a beautiful hike, and eventually there were signs letting you know when you arrived at the places where you could dig, which was a large area overlooking a cliff. I tied the dogs up to a tree right next to me and started digging. To my delight, it was not hard to find crystals at all, and I began digging up clear quartz left and right. Most of the pieces were small points, which are exactly what they sound like, crystals with physical tips at one end. But there were also larger rocks with quartz chunks sticking out of them. I dug until the sun started to set, and figured I should hike down even though I wasn’t ready to stop yet. On the way down, I ended up running into two very nice women who had also spent the day digging. When I told them about my blog, they asked me for a card so they could check it out, which made my day even better.
I wanted to try to dig more the next day, so I had to find a place to stay. The closest place was a free little campground I found online, and it ended up being a beautiful place, deep in the woods. Since it was winter, there was barely anyone there. I pulled into my own campsite that had a fire pit, picnic table and two different types of grills. I wanted to explore more, but the sun had set, so I decided to save it for the morning.
I woke the next morning to the sound of rain coming down. I hadn’t thought to check the weather, and it poured for a while, but eventually let up. In between the little showers, I explored the rest of the site. There was a creek that ran along side it, and a dam had been built out of stone at the far end, which created a little swimming area and a nice little waterfall. It was one of the loveliest free campgrounds I’ve ever seen.
With the rain being sporadic, I wasn’t sure if I should go look for more crystals, or just continue on my way. I had come all that way though, and the worse that could happen was I would get rained on, so I went back. I left Maggie in the bus this time since she hates the rain, and set off with just Sophie, who loves it. Thomas followed for half the hike, but got bored halfway through and went back.
I had just as much luck this time as I had last time. Everywhere I dug, little quartz pieces popped out. I was sure that Sophie would help dig, since digging is one of her favorite activities, but it turns out she doesn’t dig on command. She mostly just chilled and watched me in confusion, likely wondering why we had switched places.
After digging for four hours, my hands were tired and beat-up, my bag was also very full and heavy, and I still had to hike a mile back. I decided it was time to hit the road.
I drove for a while before stopping at an Oklahoma rest area. As I was on my way back from the bathroom, a man was standing next to my bus, and as I approached he asked, “this yours?” I told him it was, and he was so excited. Apparently he had passed me on the road a bit back and waved a bunch but I didn’t notice, and he loved my bus. He owned a crystal shop and was on his way to a crystal show in Arizona, and we chatted for a bit about the bus and crystals before he said he had to take off.
I took Maggie and Sophie over to a little dog park area where they could play. A woman came in with her pup and sat at a picnic table next to me. She was in her 70s and was traveling across the country by herself in a 30ft RV. We sat there and talked for a few hours, she told me many stories of her life, and even gave me a tour of her RV. I loved meeting her as she was quite the character. It inspired me to see someone that age doing it by herself.
When I came back to my bus, I saw a giant crystal sitting on the hood. It was black with green, shiny points growing out all over it. I figured the man who I had met earlier left it there. It was beautiful and I was thrilled.
Farther on in Oklahoma, I found a free shower that was just ten minutes off my route. I was ecstatic since it had been a bit since I’d showered. I pulled up to a beautiful lake next to a park where there was a tiny little building with showers. When I tried the shower in the ladies room, it worked, but not well. The water came out in one solid stream, and the button had to be held down the entire time. Since nobody else was around, I decided I might as well check the shower in the men’s room. It worked perfectly. I showered without incident, but after I had finished and was brushing my hair, someone else came into the bathroom. I froze in my stall, hoping to not be caught. Then a little boy said, “Hello?” What could I do? I made my voice as deep and manly sounding as I could, and said “Hello” in return. He asked what stall I was in and I told him in my deep voice. He went into a different stall, did his business, and then left. I thought I was in the clear, and was about to leave when someone else came in. He went into the same stall the little boy had been in, and then instantly went back to the main door. He held the outside door open and I had no choice but to listen to their conversation.
“Get back in here and wipe your ass boy!”
“Dad, I did.”
“No, you didn’t! There’s shit in that toilet and no paper.”
I stood there in my stall, embarrassed as they bickered back and forth, weighing my options. I figured at this point my best bet was to just leave. I gathered my stuff together and opened my door. The dad turned around, and his eyes widened in mortification. “I’m so sorry, I thought this was the men’s room!” he said. I had to explain that it was, the shower in the women’s room was broken, and I was in the wrong, not him. Thank goodness for me he was very understanding, laughed with relief, gave me a fist bump, and that was the end of it.
Texas was mostly uneventful, a collage of nothing but windmills, cows and beautiful sunsets.
When I first arrived in New Mexico, it was snowing, which I hadn’t expected. I had been here previously, but it was summer, and in my mind, it was always sunny and warm here. Although I wasn’t thrilled by the snow, it did make for an amazing view. Those mountains in the distance covered in snow were breathtaking. The night was cold, getting down to 20 degrees. I covered my windows with blankets and towels, turned on my little heater, and that was enough to keep me and my animals snug for the night.
The next day it was still only 20 degrees when I awoke. I figured I would start off driving and cook later, once it warmed up at least a little.
As I pulled into a rest stop, I noticed a man trying to shield himself from the cold, holding a sleeping bag. I kept thinking, Teagan you don’t even know where your pepper spray is right now, just leave him, but I just couldn’t. I went up and asked him if he needed help getting down the road a bit. He said he was headed west, and any distance I would take him would help. He introduced himself as Sean, and we continued down the road.
We talked a little as we drove, but it was mostly silence. We drove through Albuquerque and I asked if he wanted to be left there. He said he would go a little farther if I was willing, so we continued on. After a few hours I began feeling antsy. I hadn’t eaten yet, had to work on my blog, and had things to do. I pulled off at a small town that had a few gas stations and other stores. I told Sean that I had things to do, so this is where I would leave him. He looked around and responded “Well it’s kinda in the middle of nowhere,” which seemed silly since I had literally picked him up in the middle of nowhere. But I didn’t want to strand him, so I told him I would take him another hour to the next city over.
As I pulled off the exit to the larger city he said, “Are we taking another bathroom break?” “No, this is where I’m leaving you,” I replied. “I’d rather just continue with you,” he said. I explained to him that I had things to do as I looked at the empty beer cans that used to be mine and full, that were now rolling around on the floor.
I tried to drop him off at a Taco Bell, but he didn’t want that, so I looked up nearby gas stations. When I asked him which gas station he would prefer, he said, “Well that’s a hard question because I would rather keep going with you.”
At this point I was annoyed and over it. I pulled up to a gas station where I told him to get out. We went back and forth multiple times with him not wanting to leave, but I was holding my ground.
Eventually he said he would leave, and pulled change out of his pocket, saying, “Oh no I only have a few cents,” then instantly followed up with “Would you want to come inside with me and have coffee?”, which obviously meant that he wanted me to buy him coffee. If he had been more respectful, I would have made him some coffee and breakfast, but I was beyond over it. As he got out of my bus, he kept telling me that he wanted to stay with me. And once he was out, he told me that if I changed my mind, he would be there waiting. I thought to myself, I’m not going to pick up anymore people. But that changed the very next day.
I was driving through the beautiful, twisting hills of Arizona, and there was a little pull-off where I decided to stop to walk the dogs and take in the view. At the other end of the parking lot was a guy on a motorcycle. As I returned back to my bus, I heard him saying, “Just start, please just start.” I called over and asked if there was anything I could do to help. He was headed to Sedona, which was still an hour out, and he had no clue what to do. I looked at his bike and then back at my bus. “I bet we could fit your bike in my bus, and I could take you both there if you’d like,” I told him. It seemed like the only option to me, especially since it seemed unlikely another vehicle would come along that his bike could fit inside.
He wheeled his bike up to my back deck. Getting it inside would be a big task; the bike was very heavy. At first he tried to do it himself, but it became quickly obvious that would not work, so I offered to help, being stronger than I look. We each got on one side and slowly, using all our might, lifted the first tire onto the porch. That was the easy part. Next we had to get the entire bike over the porch and into the bus. We tried, but had no luck. Finally, I got inside the bus and pulled as he pushed, and we somehow managed to maneuver it in.
We talked as we drove along. We came from two very different worlds. Even though he was barely twenty years old, he was about making money, the grind, as he called it, and being cool. He had money, his looks were very important, he had loved high school, he loved working, and wanted to work his way upwards. We were intrigued by each others’ way of life, neither fully understanding the way the other lived. He told me multiple times he had never met someone who lives like me, and he couldn’t wrap his head around it. It was nice having a conversation with someone with such different views, but who listened to mine instead of putting them down.
He filled up my bus with diesel when we got to Sedona, and he took me to dinner that night, where we talked more about our lives, peaking into each others’ worlds. I dropped him off at his hotel that night, and I was back on my way, grateful for the experience.
I drove for about an hour then pulled off a dirt road to a free camping area. When I awoke the next morning I looked out to see lots of snow falling from the sky, with a few inches already on the ground. I made breakfast, then hit the road. Unfortunately, at the end of the dirt road, there was a line of traffic, and when I stopped a man came up to my window. Apparently with all this snow, which didn’t seem like much to me, the roads had been closed for about five hours now. There was nothing to do but wait. I must have come at the perfect time because within ten minutes, the road opened. Unfortunately, they only opened the entrance to the road going the opposite direction I needed to go, but I didn’t have a choice. I had to drive fifteen minutes in the wrong direction before I could exit and turn around.
As I drove, the snow disappeared and the day grew warmer. Saguaro cactus started to pop up everywhere. They can grow up to fifteen feet tall and are magnificent. I had seen pictures, but had to stop to meet one in person, and discovered they were unlike anything I had ever seen; so majestic. I followed the beautiful landscape until I made it to my destination in the southwestern part of Arizona, right near the California border: Skooliepalooza.
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