General life on the farm

The life on the farm is pretty fantastic. There’s been countless times when I’ve thought “I can’t believe we’re actually living this way”. Our time off is mostly spent at the beach swimming, playing football or playing frisbee. At first we all sucked at frisbee but luckily for us Will is willing to teach us and Tom is a national champion at Ultimate Frisbee so we’ve got pretty good tutors. And Will has offered to teach us how to surf so we’re hopefully gonna learn how to do that too. The beach is a beautiful place and most of the time it is generally quiet so we have the place to ourselves. Lately we’ve been going to a mostly empty pub where we can play pool and ping pong, and the games are only a dollar each so everyone’s a winner.

Santa Barbara is a spectacular town. Although, it does take about 40 minutes on the bus and then another 20 mins to even get to the bus stop. SB and most of the town has a Spanish/European vibe to it with terracotta coloured roofs and white buildings. One of the many markets that Shepherd Farms attends is in this beautiful town, and we take full advantage of our association with the farm. Because we work for Tom we get vendor discount at the market and it ranges from 50% off to a dollar or 2 off, and it’s awesome. The guy at the cheese stand gives us half off and occasionally gives us whole bags of cheese for free.

Fiesta in Santa Barbara

SB looks so much like Spain because it’s history is closely tied to the Spanish influence in Mexico and south-west America. Once a year on the first full moon of August the town throws a week long party called Fiesta. Essentially everyone gets drunk and throws confetti filled eggs at each other which coats the street in multi-coloured paper for weeks to follow. We decided to join in with the traditions and get very, very drunk.

The night began with us all getting dolled up and ready to get drunk. Unfortunately, we fucked up and managed to miss the bus by 5 minutes so we had to sit waiting another hour for the bus. Eventually the bus arrived and we travelled into Santa Barbara and promptly started drinking in a place called London Road Pub which didn’t seem much like an English pub to us but they did serve pretty expensive drinks. We then headed to a place called Santa Barbara Brew Company where they serve their own brand of beer so we got  4 pitchers and began the process of getting nice and drunk. Cathy met up with us and took us to a club called Soho where we had to pay $14 to get in, but on the bright side there was 2 local reggae bands on which were pretty good (not that I can remember much of them).

Will got a bit lost and ended up somehow getting a sandwich. Because Carp is so far away and there was no busses on we chose the option of a taxi. This turned out to be the wrong option. The taxi cost us somewhere within the region of 50 bucks and that wasn’t even all the way to the farm. Sam called the driver a “thief” and we got out of there. Sam and George started to run home and then the police pulled them aside and started bugging them. Me and Will walked and were still given a talking to by the police but we somehow managed the 2 or so mile walk back from Carp, and I fell asleep in the spare bed with a towel for a blanket and my own underpants as a pillow. So all in all it was an incredibly dignified, and was cheap to boot!

Laguna Beach - 1 week at Shepherd farms


So im back. I have neglected my blogging duties for to long but i decided id update and give the other Sam from writing the blog, which i must say he did a good job at.
So as Sam said we spent a night at Laguna beach which is a really beautiful place, one of the best. The amazing coastlines are breathtaking, as well as the California babes!

We headed to our final destination with our little car, Los Angeles. I must say it has been a great week driving across the west. Some of the open roads were what i have dreamed of for years, however the traffic on the west coast is nothing like i have driven in before. People just seem to do what they want, no order whatsoever. It was like wacky races driving on the interstates which we tried to avoid. I just wanted to get the car safely to LA now and not have to worry.
It didn't take long to get to the "City of Angels" and we had to spend one night there so we decided to find the nearest place as traffic yet again was booming. We found ourselves in China town in dowtown LA so searched for the nearest motel which turned out to be a pretty nice find. "The Patagonia" was a classic chinese style building, was cheap and had all the basics so we checked in. We went for some cheap, really tasty chinese food then went to catch a movie which seems to becoming a habit over here. I dont know if alot of them are out in England yet which makes me want to see them in a weird way. We went to see "Brave". Its a pixar animation movie about a scottish girl who turns her mam into a bear. It was a little childish but we enjoyed it! On the way back we went to the shop to buy junk food then headed back to the motel.
We woke up early and decided that we would catch the earliest greyhound bus to Santa Barbara, two hours north of LA after we had dropped the car off downtown. After a little confusion finding the hidden car rental drop off place which was located underground we began our 2 mile walk out of downtown to the greyhound bus station to get some tickets. As you have gathered we didnt do any exploring in LA. Maybe we should of but it just didnt seem appealing in the slightest. There seemed to be alot of pretentious, uptight rich people around which wasnt good. Once out of downtown we all began to realise we were walking through what can only be described as a "Ghetto" on the outskirts of LA. It was horrible. All the building were closed down, closed up and covered in graffiti, people walking around looking like they were searching for there next crack fix. It would of been bad enough walking through on a normal day, but walking through carrying huge rucksacks and bags was the last thing we needed. It also didnt help we were the only white folk within the next ten blocks. We kept our heads down and plowed on through trying our hardest not to make eye contact with anyone.
Having turned away a few people asking for money and food we managed to make it to the bus station, and after 45 minutes of queuing we finally got our bus tickets and went for a quick burger before getting on the bus.
Two hours later we had arrived in the beautiful town of Santa Barbara. The golden beach stretched for miles with beautiful girls playing volleyball, long haired hippies riding skateboards and people sat outside bars playing guitars, pretty much heaven.

We hiked our belongings to the nearest bar and got a pint in whilst we waited for one of our wwoof host's to come meet us. After about 30 minutes she arrived and introduced herself as Katherine, the daughter of Tom Shepherd who owns the organic farm. We downed our pints and got on the road to head ten miles down the coast to see our new home for the next month.

Shepherd Farms 
 

The farm in California is a totally different deal from the Gold Bar Ranch in Arizona. It’s about 1.5 miles away from the closest town called Carpenteria. Carpenteria is a small little beach town and is right next to an apparently world famous surf spot called Rincon. It’s an incredibly nice place and it only takes about 10 mins to get there on a bike, and it’s about a 40 minute walk. Shepherd farms is a fruit and vegetable farm and they grow everything organically, they also only supply their harvest to the local county.

The work mainly involves picking fruit and vegetables, packing them for CSA boxes (a sort of home delivery type dealy), helping pack the trucks for market, helping out at the market and then just general maintenance stuff. The work is far less intense, due to the lack of sun, and we work 2 less hours than we did in Arizona. So far we have found it more difficult to develop a connection with our host, Tom, as we rarely work directly with him. However, he’s a pretty cool guy and is really respected in the local community. Although I think this will change over time as we get to know the family.

The WWOOF’ing experience here is phenomenal. Our current living space is a bunch of tents set amongst the avocado trees about a 2 minute walk from the warehouse, and the other WWOOF’ing accomodation is inside the warehouse where there is a kitchen, 2 beds and 3 sofas. We are allowed to help ourselves to any fruits and vegetables we want, and because the work day is relatively short we have a lot of spare time. I think Paul influenced all of us in the way that he taught himself and so me, Will and Sam took it upon ourselves to learn Spanish. There is an amazing series of podcasts called Coffee Break Spanish which everyone has been listening to. This helps us get to grips with speaking and pronunciation, and it makes for a strange work environment out in the field; if you happen to take your headphones out you’ll realise you’re stood in a field in California with 3 other guys who are randomly spurting out Spanish phrases. There’s also Duolingo which teaches you spelling, grammar, reading and also speaking.

Boys Beach Tour 2012

A day after work all of the WWOOF’ers decided to go down to the local beach. There are 2 other WWOOF’ers here at Shepherd Farms: there’s Paul who’s a 32 guy from Irvine, CA who has taken it upon himself to strictly eat only organic foods and even then only specific kinds of organic foods. He has spent a lot of time researching topics he finds interesting such as law and health. And then there’s Will who’s a 22 surfer guy who’s originally from Philadelphia, PA and now lives in Santa Barbara, CA. He’s currently spending his Summer WWOOF’ing before he goes to study Environmental Science at Santa Barbara University.

Anyway... we spent a long time debating which would be the best way to get everyone to the beach, and then Cathy (Tom’s daughter) said we could lend the truck. We headed over to the local beach with a supply of watermelons (Paul cannot leave the farm without a healthy supply of watermelons), and dropped Sam and George off at the Local Llama coffee shop. Paul was the next out of the car where we dropped him off at the laundry place. Me and Will went straight to the beach and chatted while we waited for everyone. Me, Sam, George and Will all went in the water and had a go on buggy boards and messed about with a tennis ball. Because the tennis ball was the only ball we had we decided to play a toe-snapping game of piggy (or monkey if you’re American) in the middle.

 
Will wanted to check out the surf at Rincon so he drove us up to a vantage point where Paul crafted an improptu tripod for his camera phone, out of a sandal and a stick, and we took a photo of us all in “heroic adventurer” poses. After that we decided to call it a day and head back home.

Paul’s departure

When we arrived at the farm on a Friday we were introduced to Paul who was supposed to be leaving either the next day or on Sunday. However, his ride fell through and he was stranded on the farm. This happened multiple times and it became a running joke that Paul would never actually leave the farm. Although, one day he actually managed to pull it off by arranging a ride share on a website called craigslist.com. It’s essentially a wanted ad website where people sell, trade and buy goods or services but for a much cheaper price.

Anyway, Will, George, Sam and I had decided that we were going to get a few drinks in the local town of Carpenteria (or Carp as the locals call it). So we got dolled up and ready to hit the town. But, there was one small problem and that was transport. Although it’s not a huge walk we were feeling lazy and decided to call a taxi. After a few companys completely ignoring us and a few others saying they weren’t available for another 40-60 mins we finally got through to one. They said it’d take 20 minutes for it to be there so we waited around and played a game of T-W-A-T as it’s known in some parts of England. Essentially T-W-A-T involves trying to keep a volley going between a circle of people and whoever drops the ball gets a letter. Unfortunately I was the first to reach the last T and so I had to face the punishment of everyone else getting the chance to kick a ball off my arse. Sam and George missed and Paul just managed to glance the ball off me.

40 minutes later the taxi was still nowhere in sight so we asked Will to give them another ring. The guy had no idea who we were, nor that we had ordered a taxi with his company, and told Will “we’ll be there in 15 minutes” to which Will replied “I haven’t even told you the address.” So without the prospect of a taxi we set in motion another game of T-W-A-T, just as things were getting tense (3 of us were on A) Paul’s ride arrived. 2 hippy-esque girls got out the van along with a dog named Onyx and another one who decided to stay in the van called Klondike. Paul loaded up his huge shipment of organic food, of course including many watermelons, and we said our goodbyes.

With sunken stomachs we returned to the warehouse and began talking about our favourite things about Paul where we realised we were talking about him as if he was dead. The taxi was still nowhere to be seen so we sacked it and jumped in the Yukon to go and get some beer! Unfortunately the decent bars were already closed so we just had one and went back home. We introduced Will to the Peep Show, which he loved, and then went to sleep down by the avocado trees.
P.S Sam and George got married!

Goodbyes

Our final day on the ranch was very strange. It was odd to be leaving a place which had
practically been our homes for the last month. We didn't really do much on the actual ranch that day. Just woke up, got ready and packed. Lillie took a group photo of us, Mike and Ella and the French WWOOFers in the back garden and we all said our goodbyes. We were told that
we were welcome back at any time and I'm sure if any of us return to the US it'll be on the
to-do list.

Mike offered to drive us back into town and as usual he entertained us with some stories. We eventually arrived at the airport to find out about our rental car. We shook hands with Mike and said goodbye. It was a very weird experience to be saying goodbye to Mike after getting to know him so well. We all said we'd come back and see the McCracken's if we were ever back in Arizona.

The car turned out to be a fair bit more expensive than we expected but we just had to bite the bullet and accept it as we had no other choice. It was Sam's first experience driving and he was a bit nervous but he quickly got used to it.

Chloride...

The first night after we'd parted ways with the Gold Bar we stayed in a quaint little town called Chloride not too far from Vegas. We managed to get a camping spot in an RV trailer park. The guy who ran the place was one of the friendliest people we'd met on the whole trip and he sounded like someone from Fallout 3. He kept coming over to help us with inflating the air beds and even offered us a camping lantern.

The next day we headed towards Nevada with Vegas in our sights. First of all we crossed the Hoover Dam which I thought was incredibly underwhelming. I expected it to be a lot larger and to be honest the water was far more interesting than the actual dam.

Vegas!

We decided to spend 2 nights in Sin City so we could make the most of it. We managed to book a hotel online and got a pretty good deal. Las Vegas is a very unique city indeed. It seemed to be one huge theme park with all the casinos/hotels linked together with walkways, and everything was themed around other cities such as New York and Paris. We walked around to get a feel for the place and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for a night out. There was a very strange and annoying bunch of people who would slap these little cards with numbers for prostitutes and escorts. It was funny at first but after the 100th time it started to really grind on us.

Our first bar was Coyote Ugly where there was a 2 for 1 deal on. We took full advantage of that offer and got 4 drinks and then headed elsewhere. There was an Irish bar in New York, New York which we thought we'd give a go and then wished we hadn't bothered when the pints turned out to be $8 each. We thought we'd try out the MGM and the drinks there weren't much cheaper. I gave the roulette table a try but I didn't have much luck and managed to lose $30. We met some guy that promised us he could get us into clubs, but he didn't seem to be able to make good on his promise so we left and went home.

The second day we went to see The Dark Knight Rises 2 days after the "Movie Massacre" which was a slightly edgy experience. we all agreed that the film was pretty darn good, but it couldn't have lived up to the hype surrounding it. That night we went back to Coyote Ugly and found out we had to pay to get in after 9pm and that it wasn't 2 for 1 so we had 2 drinks to make the 10 dollar entry fee worth it. We went off in search of some more cheap drink and found a very strange "rock" bar which didn't actually play rock music, but instead played shitty pop, dance and chart music. The Belagio was just down the road so we thought we'd check out the water display but we got there a bit late and only caught the last 2 minutes. After that we called a night and went to the Mad Onion for some drunken grub.

The day after we went to see Savages which I didn't think was all that great but Sam and George seemed to enjoy it. I bought my brother some cards which he'd requested as a souvenir and bought Sean and Sarah a post card but I ended up losing them somehow (sorry).

The tree of Joshua

Sick of the big cities we thought we'd try something on the opposite end of the scale, and decided to exchange a nice hotel for some camping. Joshua Tree is apparently famous for its rock climbing and that's no surprise; the scenery there is nothing short of spectacular. The drive there was incredible. There was literally miles and miles and miles of road stretching out across the desert without seeing 1 building. All of our iPods had died so we had to deal with the very limited choice of radio channels; 1 of them being a religious channel, 1 of them was an angry guy giving his opinion on the Colarado shooting, amongst other things, and the other channel just being insufferable country music.

We reached a town close to the Joshua Tree state park. It was pretty unsure whether we'd actually be able to stay there but we thought we'd drive about and see if we could set up camp. Luckily there was campsites available and better yet... we didn't have to pay any additional fees to camp there!

San Diego?/Calarnado?/Carlsbad?

San Diego was next on the list. It was an amazing feeling finally seeing the other side of America. We had actually done it, we'd gone from coast to coast and we were all dying to get into the sea. After a fair bit of driving about we decided to stay in a low cost chain of motels called Motel 6 and go for a dip. Mike had warned us that the West coast sea was actually really cold due to the water being pulled down from the Arctic. Unfortunately he wasn't lying and it was incredibly cold. Still we had a pretty good time in the sea and it was good to finish one of our goals of making it from Coast to Coast.

Laguna Beach

Laguna Beach was a pretty interesting experience. After just watching Savages (which is partially set in Laguna Beach) it was weird to actually be somewhere from the movies. Everything and everybody seemed to be incredibly well off and pretty fancy. That night we found a place right next to the beach and had a walk downtown to grab some food. We got some ice cream and had a romantic stroll on the beach which happened to coincide with some mental guys stroll on the beach where he spoke to himself loudly, so we left.

The next morning we went swimming again and went down to a little cove. We made a game out of getting wiped out by the waves. I've never experienced anything like it. The waves and currents were so strong that it literally flipped you over and twisted you on your head. The lifeguard asked us to dive under the waves but that kind of killed the fun so we headed to another beach to carry on the game. We found another beach where the waves were even bigger and more deadly, again the life guard came over but he just asked if we were ok and then let us get on with almost injuring ourselves.

The Grand Canyon Day - The Last Day of the Gold Bar Ranch

Sam fell a tad behind on the blogging situation due to our busy schedule so I (the other Sam, Morpeth) decided to take a hold of things and get everyone up to date on what we’ve done, what we’re currently doing and what we’re going to do in the very near future. As far as I know the last day that the blog was updated was just after we’d finished doing an exhausting 9 mile hike on the Bright Angel trail of the Grand Canyon. In case that’s wrong here’s a very brief description of those events:

The Grand Canyon

We decided to do a relatively easy trail called the Bright Angel trail because I’m a pussy and I didn’t want to die on the more difficult trails. It’s supposed to be easier because it has water stops every 1.5 miles but I still wouldn’t describe it as a stroll in the park. The way down wasn’t so bad but it was still pretty exhausting, we stopped for lunch at a place called the Indian Garden and enjoyed our tuna sandwiches, cereal bars and trail mix. We then decided to head back up to the top which was not achieved easily. We started out with a pretty steady pace and strategic rests in the shade, but eventually I began to lag behind and Sam and George made it up to the top about 15 minutes before I crawled victoriously to the top. We had our pictures taken by an incredibly enthusiastic and friendly American man.

All in all our epic journey took about 4 and a half hours and was incredibly tiring but me (in particular) and George were humbled by our own unhealthiness. It was still amazing to be there and just witness the epic scenery.

Payson, AZ

The night following the Grand Canyon triumph we rested our weary bones in a town called Payson. It was a very nice and quiet little town, apart from the religious guy screaming stuff out of a megaphone at passing cars. We decided to stay in a pretty swanky hotel as a reward for our supreme walking abilities. This was also the town in which I broke my 10 month streak of not eating meat and went to town on a bacon burger. George and Sam decided to try and eat buffallo and said that it tasted slightly different to beef so maybe it was worth the couple of extra bucks.

Flagstaff, AZ

We spent 2 nights in the beautiful hippy-ish town of Flagstaff, a town which Mr. Barron holds very dearly. This being the place in which he spent some of his time with ACE 2 years ago he was able to show us some of his favourite places to eat and places to go. We visited the delicious NiMarco’s pizza for lunch, enjoyed a drunken meal at Granny’s Closet (which had an American version of chicken parmo with spaghetti) and the unbelievably fantastic Wildflower Bread Company for breakfast. Wildflower was one of my favourite places to eat on the trip so far, it was just such a laid-back place with spectacular food and pretty cheap to boot.
Phoenix, AZ

Phoenix was very interesting indeed. We decided to splash out again on a hotel as it was insanely hot (reaching 53 degrees in the car at one point, and up to 43 degrees in the city), and no one could be bothered to look for a cheaper alternative. We visited our first Hooters restaurant since we’d landed in the US solely so we could sample the fine food on offer. Like I’ve mentioned earlier Phoenix is so hot there are misters hanging over the sidewalks to cool people down. We later learned most of the city is concrete causing it retain the majority of the heat. Having a bit of spare time on our hands we decided to go bowling, but we were warned that it was quite expensive by the hotel receptionist. Arriving at the bowling alley we were surprised that $8 dollars (including shoes) is expensive in America. Sam proceeded to hammer us all at bowling and won every single game from then on (even those we’d later play in Prescott).

The next day we set out with the aim of trying one of America’s favourite pastimes: baseball. Sam located a batting cage on the internet and we headed over. Unfortunately they were having maintenance on their cages and the other ones were booked. So we decided we’d visit the same bowling alleys from yesterday, being 1pm mid-week we expected this to be easy but for some reason there was a 30 minute wait on lanes so we sackede it off and decided to go and get something to eat. We arrived at Mrs. White’s cafe and ordered sandwiches which, to our surprise, did not turn out to be our own views of what a sandwich was. Instead of bread with a filling we were given the fillings, no bread (apart from some sponge cake like thing on the side) and a side-order. I left most of my choice of fish and Sam and George both gave up on their meal too.

Phoenix was also our last day with our faithful automobile, Mary, who had carried us 3500 miles across America. After our less than delightful meal at Mrs. White’s we headed off to the airport to hand in Mary’s keys and say our farewells. After an emotional goodbye (and a $5 bottle of orange juice) we boarded a shuttle to Prescott and were one day closer to reaching the ranch.

Prescott, AZ

Prescott is a small cowboy town in Arizona where we’d spend our last night before getting to Gold Bar Ranch. We stayed at a place called Sheldon Lodge where Sam managed to get a discount for being English, which was handy. We ate an amazing Thai place right next to the hotel, and were blown away by how spicy even the mildest food was. After we’d eaten we decided to go bowling again for some entertainment, and once again Sam cleaned house with George being squeezed out of victory in the last game. The bowling alley was like a school disco and it was $2 a game, which explained why the bowling alley in Phoenix was considered expensive.

The next day we got in touch with Ella so that she could come and meet us and pick us up. Unfortunately, Ella had some car trouble and we had to wait several hours for her to get everything sorted. However, it wasn’t much of a problem as Prescott always has something going on and we were treated to a Bluegrass and Country music festival. There were several groups of musicians whilst others wandered about playing solo, and sometimes they’d even just randomly join onto other groups and start playing. We also managed to talk to about 5 or 6 random strangers who just came over and began chatting. Again, the Americans showed just how friendly and helpful they are; some guy even offered us his business card in case “we got into any trouble and needed help”. Eventually Ella arrived and we introduced ourselves.

The Gold Bar Ranch

Since I’m writing this a month behind everything is a bit blurry so I’m just going to attempt to remember key events that happened and projects we worked on. All in all our time at the ranch has been incredible. It seemed like Mike and Ella did everything they could to make us feel welcome, and we truly felt appreciated and trusted. Mike at first seemed to be a very quiet and unassuming person, but once he got talking he told us some incredible stories. The inside of the house is filled with stuffed mountain lions, antelope, rams and elks, and it was clear that Mike was incredibly skilled at hunting. Ella is an incredibly friendly person who would do anything to make you feel apart of the family. You can tell that she puts her heart into the ranch and she was more than willing to put up with our incompetence and teach us.

Our daily schedule went a bit like this: wake up at 6am, get ready and walk up to the house at about 6:30am, begin work at 7am, have a break at 11am, begin work again at 12pm and work until 3:30pm and end the day with a swim in the lake. We worked on various projects and day-to-tasks such as: cleaning and feeding the dogs, putting away the chickens, painting fences, feeding the horses, constructing and painting a garden gate, weeding the gardens, cleaning up the camping facilities and a lot more.

The town of Prescott is about an hours drive from the ranch and occasionally we’d visit for certain events, and get a taste of the social life of ranchers.

The Country Dance

One of our first trips to Prescott was to go the country dance. If you imagine what you think a western country dance would be like... that’s exactly what it was like. Everyone was dressed in a  typical cowboy/cowgirl fashion: plaid shirt, huge stetson hat, cowboy boots, denim jeans. There was several people wearing American flag shirts/bandannas and it was odd but nice to see such a strong show of patriotism. Ella, Lillie (their daughter) and Liz (Lillie’s friend) offered to teach us all how to dance and so we took them up on it. Me and George found it a bit less embarrassing as fortunately we were 21 and were allowed to ply ourselves with liquid courage. I was surprised at how much I liked dancing and was looking forward to learning more of it.

The locals turned out to have a pretty good handle on the whole country dancing thing, and we watched as cowboys threw up cowgirls into the air and deftly twirled them about. There was a band playing live music and there must have been at least 1,000 people there.

The Rodeo

Whilst at the ranch we were lucky enough to go to the world’s oldest rodeo which was estabilished in 1882. Myself, George, Sam and Mike all had seats together and once again if you imagine what you think a rodeo would be like it was exactly like that. There was a heartfelt song about Arizona, the national anthem was sang with everyone stood up, their hands on their hearts and even a prayer was said. It was a very a strange experience for 3 English boys who wouldn’t know patriotism if it smashed them in the face.

The rodeo itself was brilliant and we were kept on the edge of the seats in anticipation of some horrific maiming breaking of limbs. However, luckily every limb remained intact and unbroken and Ella assured us that it was a very tame rodeo compared to other years’ shows. There were several competitions held including bucking bronco riding, bucking bull riding and steer roping. Mike told us that there was a lot of money in professional rodeo which went part way to explaining why anyone would attempt any of this stuff.

Shooting with Bob

The Gold Bar ranch also runs a B&B business on the actual ranch itself. During our stay there were some guests at the B&B and naturally we got talking to them. Bob was one of the guests and he had a really weird accent, a mix between Australian, Texan and Brummie. Anyway, he invited us to go shooting at a little range down the road. Mike drove us down there and we were allowed to shoot all of the many guns Bob had brought with him. We used 2 rifles, 1 of them bolt action (which I think was everyone’s favourite), an automatic pistol, a snub-nosed relvolver and a regular revolver. Being from England guns were somewhat of a novelty and wonder to us and we loved getting to use them. After a few shots Bob placed a bottle of water on a post and asked us to shoot it. I went first and missed, George went next and got it and Sam went last and nailed it.

The Rattlesnake

On our last working day at the ranch George, Sam and I were stood around in a circle having a break, while Ella made us iced coffee, when Mike walked past carrying a shotgun. Naturally we enquired where he was going and he replied “going to kill a rattlesnake” in a very casual manner. So, like little kids, we asked if we could come and watch and ran to jump in the truck. Ella ran out carrying our iced coffee and we had to restrain ourselves from just jumping in the truck without them. Mike drove us to a different part of the ranch and showed us where he’d pinned the snake with a stick. He then caught the snake and brought it out into the open to show us its fangs. He told us it was the most deadly type of rattlesnake and swiftly brought a shovel down on it to decapitate it. The snake’s body writhed about even without a head and the head jumped around snapping wildly at nothing. Killing the snake might seem a bit harsh but because it was so poisonous it could kill livestock, pets or even people at the ranch, so it was the safest thing to do.

Michael and Caroline

2 weeks into our month long time at the Gold Bar we were joined by 2 other WWOOFer’s from France. We got on with them incredibly well and were very impressed by their level of English which made it very easy to joke around and talk to them. They had rented a car and were kind enough to take us on several trips around Arizona. We visited a park in Sedona where we spent a night drinking and talking in a campground. We all decided to go for a swim in a small river nearby which had a 10ft high cliff jump. The water was unbelievably cold and it seemed like the water wasn’t deep enough for adults to jump in. Then along came a bunch of high and drunk Americans who were out to prove us wrong. They started asking us if we thought the trees looked purple and if we could see monkeys in them. One of them plucked up the courage to do the jump and attempted a backflip, he failed and ended up slamming on his back. His friend attempted the jump afterwards and ended up failing even harder by essentially diving flat on his side into the water.

The next day we visited the Slide Rock park and snuck in on a trail so we wouldn’t have to pay. It was essentially a river which had several natural slides made of rock. The park was absolutely beautiful and it was crammed full of people. There was a small ledge jump off but we decided we wanted something a bit more challenging and went off looking for a bigger cliff. We shortly found a gigantic cliff jump, and then we all quickly decided against it.

A night in Flagstaff

We visited Flagstaff with Michael and Caroline so we could meet up with Sam’s friend Dave, who he knew from ACE. Michael drove us all up to Flagstaff where we stayed in the same motel we stayed last time. Again, we visited NiMarco’s pizza for tea and then met up with Dave. He had invited us all to a friend’s housewarming party so we went to buy alcohol and head over. Unfortunately the only rain we experienced in a month or so came pouring down that night and Flagstaff was soaked. Instead of the arranged BBQ we instead had to make do with moving the grill underneath the porch and cooking burgers in the freezing cold. We left the party early to go and have a night out in Flagstaff. The first 2 places were reminiscent of any random shitty club in England so we swiftly left and headed to somewhere more suited to us. We came across a cool looking bar and managed to get in. However, the bouncer for some reason decided George was too drunk and wouldn’t let him in so we left. After 40 mins or so of looking for more bars we called it a night and headed home.

In the morning I woke up at about 6am and went for a wander around Flagstaff. I went to get a drink of Ice Tea to rid myself of my hangover and then waited until about 8:30am to go back in the room so I wouldn’t piss everyone else off. After a while everyone else got up and we thought we’d show the French how good Wildflower was. With breakfast finished we planned to go and see Savages at the cinema but it wasn’t on until later so we went to see The Amazing Spider-man, which was, in my opinion, average. Sam had arranged to have some farewell pizza with Dave so, again, we visited NiMarco’s. After a few slices of pizza, heartfelt hugs and handshakes we parted ways with Dave and set out on the road again. Within an hour or so of driving we ran into some trouble. Michael swerved to avoid some broken pieces of tire in the road only to unluckily hit some metal and get a puncture. He managed to change the tire so we went looking for somewhere to get a new one, although it was a Sunday at 5pm so there wasn’t much luck. After a 7 hour drive home we limped back to the Gold Bar and fell exhausted into our beds.

Day 14 - Man its hot!

Well as expected it was basically one of the worst night sleeps we have all ever had! Not only was it just really uncomfortable lying on rocks and twigs in the dirt but it got freezing cold which i knew would happen but not that bad. We were all just tossing and turning all night, people we were walking past us a few feet from our heads and when i woke at 6am i just went and sat in the car for an hour to un-freeze my poor old toes! Soon after George and Sam got up and sat in the car for a short while before we all got ourselves ready to go do a massive hike, lovely. But really we were all excited about it. We popped to the grocery store first and bought some supplies for dinner, packets of tuna called "Chicken of the sea" for some weird reason to make sarnies and one of the best things ever, trail mix. Its just peanuts, raisins, nuts and M n M's.So good and they give you energy. 

Changing our minds last night we decided to not hike the south kaibab since we couldn't go to the bottom because i have done it loads before and went for the Bright Angel trail which unlike the south Kaibab has water stops every 1.5 miles. After a little bit of confusion trying to find the start of the trail we set off at around 9.30am. It was already 34 degrees. We set a steady pace overtaking people on the busy trail. Going down is easy its just coming back up thats tiring. We made it to the first checkpoint and plowed on straight to next one where we tucked into some sarnies and trail mix. After a quick break we set off again. We couldn't really go to far down because we couldn't camp down there sadly, and Sam said he didn't feel comfortable going down and back up in one day as he hasn't done all that much hiking which was the right decision anyways, i don't think any of us would probably have done without alot of stress and pain. However we said that we would get reservations and sort it out to come back in a few weeks. 

Making it 4.5 miles down at the "Indian Garden" we took a break in the shade for 45 minutes and ate our dry stinky sarnies. It was so much hotter down here as the lower you go the hotter it gets.

We set off back towards the rim, immediately realising the difference in difficulty. We plowed on up taking rests in the shade. It was hilarious. Every so often you could here Sam saying " Wow, i am never eating Domino's pizza again!" and George shouting at himself for smoking during his time in york " I have the lungs of a 13 year old girl!". But neither of them do much hiking so it was a bloody good effort.

 Just before the top some big american guy was walking with his 9 year old girl when he let out a huge long fart as if no one was around then starting blaming the girl. Bad man. We reached the top at around 3.20pm and gave eachother a little pat on the back. Some enthusiatic guy from Chicago agreed to take our photo so we all gave a tired smile.

After we got back into the car/sauna and on the road heading to one of, if not my favourite place, Flagstaff AZ. I lived there for 3 months when i did my volunteer work out here. Its just a picturesque place full of laid back, bohemian characters where you can find a place to do pretty much any sport you would like, surrounded by mountains and hot girls riding old fashioned bikes.If there's a heaven then that's mine. 

We pulled into town early evening and noticed a motel downtown so pulled in there. Wasn't a bad price. We  were all quite tired from the hike so got showered and went out to a place i lived in when i was here "NiMarco's pizzeria". Its so good and huge pizza slices. We all got a "13 pizza each and tucked in, it was just as amazing as i recalled. 

Our eyes were growing heavier by the minute so we drove back round to the motel. Lying down was just amazing, our legs were aching from the hike so we just laid and watched tv all night. Not exciting but we needed to get an early night after last nights terrible excuse of a sleep. 

Day 13 - Oh my god that's high!


What a way to wake up, apart from a slight hangover. The sun was shining bright at 6.30 when we woke. It was a good way to come round listening to the waves. It was to bright to go back to sleep so we got up and packed our stuff away and headed up the hill to the car. The car by now is an absolute tip! so we chucked our stuff in and got going, all a little nervous about this jump which we all HAD! to do.
Crossing a bridge you could see the jump we were going to do and it looked even higher then we had remembered. Changing into our swim shorts we made our way up to the top of the cliff and looked down. I knew going first was the best as ive done it before. Once someone has gone before you can see how high it is as the person in the water looks so small, however if you go first its just water, if that makes sense. So i scrambled to the top, took one look and launched off it. It was ridiculous! I landed after what seemed an age in the air and realized i had a nose bleed from the pressure of the water shooting up my nose. The adrenaline was amazing. Corny but really felt alive! I sat in the water looking up at the petrified faces of them two when suddenly Sam came leaping off with a face full of fear screaming bad words. He smashed down and came up laughing which was a relief. Now George remained peering down at us trying to settle his nerves. He vanished from sight for a few seconds then appeared, leaping off and letting out the most feminine scream before hitting the water. It was hilarious. We swam round and climbed back up the rocks which was scary itself and decided to do it again and video it which made it even worse as the pressure was on. We had to do it as the camera was rolling. George let out another fantastic yelp on his way down which cracked us up again, Sam some more bad language and i did the same which my mam wont be happy about, sorry mam. I have tried and tried to upload the videos onto here but its not letting me but they are on my Facebook so hopefully this link will work if your bothered.
https://www.facebook.com/sam.barron2/photos

Having the hangover absolutely smashed out of us we headed to McDonald's to get a coffee and sat in the carpark with some sarnies we bought from Walmart the day before.
After filling ourselves up we hit the road heading for the Grand Canyon! No big deal! By far the best morning so far. It was a lovely drive there through the pine trees and little traffic. We were heading for a place called "Desert view" inside the park which cost us $25 to get into which was annoying but well worth it. I worked in the the canyon 2 years ago and completely fell in love with it. I couldn't wait to see Sam and Georges face when they saw it because i remember what i was like. They loved it obviously! It was amazing. There is a tower you can go to the top of which gives you an amazing panoramic view. The river looked beautifully pristine way down in the distance.

We spent a good hour taking it in and set off to try get ourselves into the village campsite. We were unsuccessful. It was so busy and completely full. He showed us a campsite just outside the park. He also informed us you need to reserve a camp spot at the bottom of the canyon to camp there which we hadn't done, so the plan to hike to the bottom tomorrow and camp had gone out the window. Feeling a little cheesed off its got to be said we headed to this campsite which luckily wasn't far at all. They had space but were charging $26 a tent which is ridiculous, so we decided to just put the one tent up. This didn't take long and we went to go get some dinner in a Mexican restaurant round the corner.
We chilled out for a short while but soon got bored so headed back into the park and looked from some of the observation points and then headed over to the South Kaibab trail which i worked on when i was here. We didnt want to do much so we hiked a 1.5 miles down just for a little taster for tomorrow. It really is an amazing place and would say to anyone you have to see it before you die! It just looks fake. We walked back up to the top which is really steep and left us having to stop in the shade for a quick rest.

It was now getting late in the evening so we headed to the overpriced shop to buy some food and then headed over to Yavappi point, a great place to watch the sunset. It was rather busy but we found a little space to sit and watch a truly spectacular sight. The colour's in the sky on the horizon are just crazy. My camera really does not do it justice. Everyone cheered and clapped as the sun slowly disappeared over the horizon, we are in USA after all. Everyone soon cleared off while we sat for a while. It was brilliant.
It was now about 9pm so we headed back as we

needed a good night sleep for our hike tomorrow. Setting up our camps, Sam with his paper thin roll mat and no pillow, George using his towel to lie on and no pillow and me with a flat roll mat and paper thin sleeping bag, it didn't seem like it was going to be the most relaxing night we have ever endured.

Day 12 - 3 states 


Well i havent been able to carry on the blog lately due to us camping and doing more outdoor activities so i am writing this trying my best to remember what happened a few days ago, so i will do my best.

We woke quite early and headed down for a quick swim in the indoor pool. Then once the 40st women left we got into the Jacuzzi to simmer in her leftover juices. With some time to spare we went headed over to get some breakfast in the dining room which was really busy. It wasn't bad but yet more plastic egg and bacon. Coffee's always good though. The storm from last night had clearly passed as we headed back onto the road  in the bright sunshine. The road was now taking us north west on lonely open roads through the orange wasteland. We began to enter the Native Navajo territory passing what basically looked like slums. It really is quite depressing around there. We stopped at McDonalds where George sampled his first beef in two years! We were definitely the minority around here and you could sense it. The locals didnt seem to fond of us but it didnt come as a surprise as last time i was here i was always told that alot of the Navajo natives havent forgiven the white man for taking over there America. 
We got back on the open, very open road again and crossed over the border into Arizona en-route to Monument Valley which is on the border with Utah. The journey there was absolutely spectacular. Horizons as far as the eye could see then sudden massive red rocks  touching the sky in the distance, it was amazing. We drove past a random group of donkeys just stood in the middle of the road, and lots and lots of roadkill.
Arriving at around 1pm we payed $5 each to get into the park and short drive later to the visitor centre we were awarded with an epic view. Wide open orange landscapes with nothing but a few enormous rocks. You cant really appreciate it until you are there, the photos dont really do it justice but we took a few good ones.

All in great moods after seeing such an amazing natural wonder we set off towards lake Powell which i hold memories of the last time i was over here. It didnt take to long and we stopped off at Walmart to buy some food to take to the beach. I was only going off memory to get us to the awesome spot i liked to visit so it was a little confusing, however after leaving walmart it soon became clear and i showed the guys a 40ft jump we have to do in the morning. We all felt a little nervous looking down off the cliff. 

Back in the car we drove a little further round looking down on the lake until we came to the entrance where yet again we paid $5 each to get in and drove on in. It all came back to me quickly and we pulled up in a parking space and grabbed our food and sleeping bags, aswell as a lovely crate of Bud, the main thing!

The beach was free apart from a lovely girl working out in a bikini which we didn't mind, its got to be said. It was around 40 degrees so we went for a dip. It was awesome. It was one of the best nights so far. The hot chick left after about an hour, we ate pasta and drank beers until the stars came out. Thats the one thing i got George and Sam excited about when we were England, the stars. They didnt dissapoint. We saw 10 shooting stars darting across the sky. Billions shone above us as the waves lapped against the shore a few feet from our feet. Perfection. We sipped beers until god knows when and slept like babies.