5/22 - Spending a Night in the Desert with a Stranger for an Impromptu Photo Op While in an Alternative State of Mind.

11am

I left the phoenix area around 11am saying goodbye to Troy, Katrina, Anne, and Mya. I was still a bit drained from the prior day’s jaunt up Echo Canyon in the 100-degree heat, so my goal was to reach the Grand Canyon and take some night photography without too much exertion.
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12pm-3:30pm

The landscape starting shifting around Flagstaff from the flat desert to the beautifully carved canyons and colorful rocks I had witnessed near Zion. I only missed one turn off!

​Around 3:30 my legs were in need of a breather and I was coming up upon the Navajo Bridge. I stopped and walked across the pedestrian bridge 467ft. above the raging Colorado River, taking photos of the quickly rising elevation and landscapes. 

I noticed a few people with some nice 500mm lenses pointed towards part of the cliff face and saw a rare endangered condor nested there. A then saw a fellow solo traveler and photographer also taking in the sights. I was simply looking for hiking and/or photo spot recommendations so I said “Hi.”…and that one friendly outward interaction opened the door to the following 16-hour encounter that felt like another world.
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As a preamble, this night was by far the most positive, creatively interesting night that I’ve spent with someone I’ve never met before. I decided to trust them for no other reason than to let life guide the way and maybe glean some food for thought.
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​The traveler’s name is Talor (Taylor without the "Y"), and she hails from Vermont. A former OCIS officer of the Air force (think NCIS and Law & Order SVU combined), she is now a veteran and a manager of social media influencers. Alongside being a fantastic photographer, Talor is preparing to begin her PHD study of neo-liberal economic trends impacting third world economies (the stuff I dig a lot in economics and business). Atop of all of this, 2 months ago, her husband’s years of infidelities were revealed to her through extortion efforts by one of his multiple lovers. This prompted her to take a spur of the moment 5-month cross-country trek across the United States. 

Her stories were unique, quirky, and unbelievable at times. I told her that she needed to write a book, which she is already planning to do. She showed me an excerpt and her writing had me hooked after only half a page. From her first memories (drowning at the age of 4), to the intense recounting of assault and discrimination in the military, to backpacking across Switzerland to have the her recently deceased mother's cremated remains forged into a diamond…her life has held the highs and lows comparable to that of Greek tragedies.

I learned these pieces of her life throughout the remainder of that day and the following morning. And now I will recount the 16-hour encounter that followed this happenstance of adventure.
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4:00pm (Hour 1)

The encounter began as an offer to hike down to the Colorado River to ascertain some sand for her collection (she puts them in labeled bottles as a record of her travels). It was more of a carpooled drive than a hike, but we made good conversation and I happened to have a sharpie to help her label her samples. She made comments about meeting so many new people on this trip and loving to let life have the reigns. 
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6:00pm (Hour 2)

As we headed back to my car parked at the bridge, we discussed more of where we had traveled so far on our journeys. She had been traveling the opposite direction as I had, so she was headed for some of my stops as she continued north towards Canada.
She was lucky enough to witness a blood moon at the White Sands Monument in New Mexico. She passingly mentioned how she really would have liked to trip while the red moon soaked into the glittering sands, but doing so alone in a desert isn’t a smart idea or as fun without someone else. I said that would be a great experience to share with someone. We laughed about at first, then decided that’s what we we’re going to do; Alter our minds in the desert with a stranger while taking photos. We hopped in our cars and headed north as we knew that was where we both were originally headed, we decided we would figure out a plan for that evening along the way.
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8:00pm (Hour 4)

She got a recommendation to camp on Lake Powell from the couch surfer host she was originally going to stay with. After an hour of driving north we reached the Page canyons. We stopped at a couple overlooks and spent some time at the iconic horseshoe bend to take photos. Horseshoe bend was fairly busy for a Monday, and I was asked to take photos by multiple groups (I felt like I took more pictures for other people than myself).

Talor had paid for a tour of  the Rainbow Arch scheduled for the following day (hence the reason she was headed to Page), so we passed the area she would be departing from and stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam. As the 4th tallest dam in the U.S. it has an interesting history; it essentially created a reservoir that turned Page from a dusty canyon land into a tourist Oasis.
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10:00pm (Hour 6)

We made it to the national park camping area as the sunset offered it’s last breath of color. We found a spot on the beach between the rows of RV’s for our blankets, cameras, and snacks. The sunset faded and we realized the new moon gave us an incredible view of the Milky Way, which neither of us had seen in person before due to light pollution where we lived. At first we wondered why the sky looked a little like it had a fabric sheen, then after realizing what it was, the Milky Way without the moon blew our minds. By then the “effects” had started to kick in as we swapped life stories that mostly dissolved into puddles of giggles. 

The photographs we took were amazing, especially when our altered states actually made the stars dance and trail visually in the sky and also on our camera screens. We nerded out over passionate technical and academic topics as the night continued (her undergrad was sociology, part of mine in psychology). We grabbed more blankets and relocated my vehicle closer, continuing to share our pasts, as we both are open and talkative people. 
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12:00am (Hour 8)

She mentioned she only has 6 CDs in her car to listen to on her 5-month journey (as she left without much preparation), and began listing them off. One artists she prefaced as “someone I likely hadn’t heard before”. It was Damian Rice. He’s one of the artists I discovered during a low point in my life and helped me through it. I've  been in love with his raw acoustic music and the incredibe power of his emotional voice.

I had to laugh at her mention of him and got up to grab my guitar. I proceeded to play 9 Crimes and Blower’s Daughter on my acoustic guitar. Trying to whisper sing as quietly as possible in order to not disturb the people around us in the near pitch black while in a non-sober state of mind was more difficult than I anticipated, but fun none the less.
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1:00am (Hour 9)

Eventually the cold got to us, and since we had essentially been taking the same photo over and over for an hour (albeit a beautiful photo), we decided that our energy would be better spent preparing our sleeping arrangements. After we cleared everything of sand (I hate sand, except my feet, my feet love sand, especially that night), I set up the blow up mattress in the back of my car. 
​It required some serious reorganization efforts (Since I’ve been slacking in putting everything back after waking up), but soon we were looking up out of my moon roof at the amazing night sky. The covers and platonic cuddling retained our heat as the cool desert breeze brushed over our faces.

We continued to exchange stories. I learned about her article 15 administrative reprimand in the air force (Preventing her from ever receiving another promotion). Because she come forward with a group of women about being assaulted by a male officer and he denied it, her military career had ended. Sadly he didn’t stop those actions towards women and was shot and killed while assaulting another woman years later in self-defense…a sort of satisfying vindication for Talor after being denied justice so harshly. 

We discovered that both of us experience Synthesesia; a condition where sound triggers additional senses, in our case it takes the form of light across our visual field. That was the first time encountering someone else with this condition. Her Synthesesia manifests as angular and sharp images in relation to any jolting or continuous sound (like a water drip or a door being slammed) making it hard to ignore, whereas mine are fuzzy like visual static and I can usually ignore it.

2:00am (Hour 10)

Our conversations continued, and around 2am, bright headlights swept across the lakeside and blinded our eyes. A couple pick-up trucks were off-roading up the side of the canyon about a ½ mile from the campsite. At first we were confused and couldn’t believe people were being so rude as their high beams and engine revving were very prominent in the otherwise quiet night scene. They did this on and off, cresting the canyon ridge for over an hour, it got really annoying. 

3:00am (Hour 11)

Around 3am we both realized that the Milky Way had shifted its latitude and was perpendicular with the night sky instead of across it. I looked at Talor and said that we needed to take photos of our silhouettes against such a majestic show of nature’s grandeur. At first the idea of leaving the warm enclosure was not appealing, but eventually our creative energy encouraged us. We got out, shedding layers for figures’ sake, and held statuesque forms for 25-second exposures while standing atop her car. With the Milky Way as our backdrop, the photos turned out to be my favorite shots of the whole evening. Though the color depth on her Fuji 10TX camera surpassed what my T3i’s image sensor could produce. Photo Cred to Taylor Stone, her camera caught the shots and she set the initial one up.

We took turns pressing the shutter button and counting down the excruciating seconds as we watched each other hold poses balanced atop a brisk Honda Civic (It surprisingly felt longer behind the camera than atop the car). After about 10 of these night shots we called it good and were back within the comfort of my protégé around 3:30 am as the rude off-roaders finally left.
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4:00am (Hour 12)

We continued to chat and laughed at the whole situation of spending an evening with a complete stranger in the desert and the trust we put into life to guide the way (I’m sure she could have kicked my ass with her military background). The happenstance of seeing someone on a bridge, choosing to say hello, and the metamorphosis into a night of enjoying each other’s company and nature was so coincidental it seemed ironic. 

She used the word serendipitous when describing the whole situation, as her grandpa Pat Patterson had a sailboat by that same name. Serendipity is one of my favorite words along with “sonder”. I hadn’t heard another person use that word in conversation before and I have been keeping that word in my head for writing a song someday…It may be a sign that Its ready to be used... 

One of the last notable conversations we had involved laughing over how I would try to describe this night to anyone else. Being a romantic at heart, “of course I would find a chick who I didn’t sleep with but still managed to spend a night in the desert with under the milky way taking photos, nerding out, and cuddling on a blow up mattress in the back of a hatchback.” Our mind altering had peaked around midnight so we were descending the stairs of overstimulation. Our conversation waned and we peacefully passed out around 4:30am for maybe 30 minutes of sleep.

5:00am (Hour 13)

I awoke with my left arm feeling like it was in 3 places at once (that was my honest first thought, that it was physically in 3 different places). A quick survey of my surroundings showed the sun was rising. At the same time, the moon was also waning above the same horizon as the sunrise (The serendipity continues). It was another magnificent showcase of the desert sky performing a dance of colors across the atmosphere. 

We realized our bodies were in serious need of sustenance and that we should probably take a photo of the sunrise (hanging out with a fellow photographer is dangerous for slacking off in these parts of the country). So we got ready to face the chilly desert morning, packed up our cars, and headed for the entrance to grab a few photos on our way out.

6:00am (Hour 14)

After snapping a few pictures, we located a Denny’s nearby in Page offering 24/7 greasy food to please our stomachs and we departed the camping ground. We got there around 6:30am and ordered huge breakfast portions. Soon after we began to feast, our bodies quickly realized we were eating food with less than ideal nutritional value (junk food) and neither of us finished our plates as we felt like we may explode. Taylor’s car had thrown a check engine code when we left Lake Powell so we waited for an auto parts store to open to have the code read. The engine light was simply a delayed response from an oxygen sensor and I had some spare Seaform in my car to clean the lines.

8:00am (Hour 16 - The Final Hour)

Shortly after 8am our journey concluded. Talor had to find a way to sleep enough to go on her all day hike to Rainbow Arch and I needed to get the Grand Canyon portion of my trip underway. We exchanged multiple forms of contact info and both left knowing we would remain a special type of acquaintance in each other’s memories. That serendipitous encounter added to a small chapter to my journey and I’m happy that it all happened the way it did.

All in all, I learned something valuable on this trip, and meeting Talor only solidified it. As she put it, "Kindness is a universal trait. When given a chance, most people choose to be kind." Her life has held numerous moments when things have fallen apart and her mind has been plagued with the words “but I’m a good person, why is this happening to me?”. Hearing this broke my heart because I could sense the same desperation for closure I’ve felt in my past. 
​Talor has a story the likes of which I haven’t encountered even in the media I consume. Game of Thrones is about the only thing that has thrown me for that much of a spin. Her story however, being genuine, hit my empathy like a wrecking ball…though the evening’s choice of recreational activity impacted that as well.

What inspired me the most about this stranger, is that through it all, she has remained positive, logical, and willing to show compassion and kindness to those around her (even her now ex-husband). These are the same values I personally strive to show the world everyday. It’s not often that I meet people with a similar passion for that disposition…like a distant flame in the night shining brightly for all those looking for it to help guide them along the way...

After we said our goodbyes, I returned to Denny’s for another few hours as my body, soul, and mental capacity replenished thanks to the free coffee refills (I was able to show my receipt and continue to receive refills from my earlier breakfast, I gave the first server and then the 2nd who replaced her a nice tip for my being there). I probably consumed 2 pots of coffee.

While in Denny's I wrote down most of the outline for this blog post, finished my post about Zion, and edited a bunch of photos. All the while I considered the encounter of coincidences I had just undertaken and recognized that it was a highlight for my trip in the sense of living life in a new way. It was simply and wonderfully platonic. Taylor and I coming together as travelers sharing our stories and exchanging life in a way I’ve never experienced before with a stranger. By the end I sensed an almost familial bond similar to what I share with my sister and close friends in life. This incredibly refreshing moment is one of the many staples repairing my faith in humanity.

Around 12:30pm I exited Denny’s and proceeded to take a 30-minute nap in my car in the hot desert sun. I couldn’t manage to sleep anymore due to the heat but I felt fairly alert considering the lack of sleep so I headed towards the Grand Canyon. Though now I would only get to spend ½ a day seeing the South Rim instead of the 2 full days I had originally allocated, I felt like the trade-off had been more than worth it. =)

 
I will leave you with the words of a song that touched my soul as soon as I heard it. I have found it to be more and more true as life passes by:

"Its not a matter of time, its not a matter of timing." ~ Motion City Soundtrack: Timelines