Vanlife In Arizona _ Camping, Cooking and Jetskis on Lake Powell

Nothing like waking up in a Burger King parking lot. Late night snack at my campsite. Don't shame me. Last night, we stayed at this Navajo truck stop in the desert, and there really wasn't too many people that drove in and out of this place last night, mostly because it closed at 9, which sucked because then I couldn't use the bathroom, but made for a peaceful night's sleep over there. But, it is time to leave our wonderful campsite for the night, and I don't know how to explain it, but I'm getting this feeling, or this energy, or like a sign that I should go get Navajo tacos for breakfast. I don't know why I'm feeling that way, but I just feel like a Navajo taco is speaking to me for some reason. Every time I pass through Arizona, I have to stop somewhere and get this. But basically, what a Navajo taco is, is traditional Navajo fry bread, which is like a light, fluffy, crispy bread that is so good. It's almost like a funnel cake, but without the sugar. And then you load it up like a taco. This one's a breakfast one, so it has an egg on it. But, these were born on the Navajo reserve back in the late 1800s when the U.S. government forced relocation and rationed out flour, lard, and salt. And fry bread came as a result of just making do. Now, it's the official state dish of Arizona. And this is one of those places that I've driven through probably 90 times since I've lived in the van. And I've stopped a few times, and just about an hour down the road from here, there's a town called Page, Arizona, that sits on the edge of Lake Powell, which is probably one of the most, in my opinion, beautiful lakes in the country. And I've never really gone out and explored, or checked out the lake, which hopefully we're going to do today. I just hope I actually can, because I've looked up a few places to rent jet skis, and everywhere seems to be booked up, so hopefully we can find something. We made it to Page. We're just in a grocery store parking lot, but I've been on the phone for the last 20 minutes with Jet Ski and Boat Rental Companies, trying to get something rented for the day, for me and Alan, because Alan texted me he's going to come meet me. But I've got one more place I'm going to call, hopefully we can get a jet ski rented, and get out on the lake. Awesome. Okay, sounds good. I'll probably be there in about like 45 minutes. Alright, thank you very much. Got him. And I really don't want to stealth camp again tonight in a parking lot, so I'm hoping that we can find a nice campsite somewhere nearby. But we are in Van Life Outdoor Mecca, so I'm sure somewhere scenic to watch the meteor shower tonight would be pretty cool. So they didn't have jet skis for us today. Apparently reserving them doesn't mean anything. But it ended up working out, because now we can go out tomorrow. Full day tomorrow. I think we'll be sick. But we got a good campsite at Lone Rock, which used to be underwater, but now it isn't. The water is all over there. Ah, that's in everything, dude. I had to get the smallest fishing rod that I could possibly find for tomorrow, because we're not going to have a lot of room on the jet ski. So I got this. It's got a three pound line on it. Should be hopefully strong enough to catch a largemouth on. If I can set it upright and don't yank on it too hard, that'll be my goal for tomorrow is to catch a bass on this thing. But yeah, last time I was here, I'm going to have to look at the footage from my video that was last year or the year before. Oh, did you shoot a video here too? Yeah. And I camped here, and the water was either up to there, or up to here. I think it was up to there. I don't really remember. Alila's down in the mud. Alila, you're going to get yourself stuck! Alila! Hey! Hey! Come here, bro! She's like jumping around. Dude, look at yourself. Alila! No, no, no, no, no, no. Hey, sit! Sit, sit, sit. Look at yourself, dude. Look at that mud. It's like stalactites. Look at yourself, dude. What you do? It's like you can see exactly where she swam. Dude, crazy. You're still kicking up mud, dude. It is kind of cold out this morning. Not in the sense of, like, regular temperature cold. Like, it's actually a pretty comfortable temperature. It's about 55. But when you're going 15, 20 miles an hour on a jet ski in nothing but a t-shirt and a bathing suit, it feels a lot colder. So I'm really hoping it warms up here quick, so we don't freeze to death. Got myself all packed up for the day. Hopefully this is enough stuff for 12 hours on a jet ski. Got camera equipment, fishing equipment, food, and other stuff like sunblock and things. And the weather says it's supposed to get up to 20 mile an hour winds today. Right now it's perfectly still, so it's very nice. And the water looks very nice. I'm hoping it stays like this and the wind holds off. There they are. Nice. How's it going? Morning. Sorry we're a little late. Yeah, so you got your anchor. You got some rope. Also got your oars and fire extinguisher just in case for emergencies. Hope we don't need those. If you guys were to anchor it. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Let's go see what kind of hidden caves and weird places we can find in Lake Powell. Welcome to Antelope Canyon. Or the other side of Antelope Canyon. A few months ago I was in the dry side of Antelope Canyon with a local Navajo guide. All the flash floods that come into that canyon, that form that canyon, end up. Pretty crazy. These are massive cliffs. The further in you go, the narrower and narrower it gets. It really puts it into perspective for how small we are as people. It's just like being next to these massive monoliths of walls as they kind of slowly encroach in on you. It's a really weird, weird, kind of eerie feeling. And it's crazy to think that this is like the lowest the lake has ever been in the history of the lake. I think it's 150 feet below full capacity. Which is crazy that the water would be I think up to that line right there. But I could be wrong. They don't even know if this will ever fill up to its peak again. Which is kind of sad, but I guess that's what happens when you build a lake in the middle of the desert. There's the end where it turns to dry land. Hopefully, those don't float away. Two years ago, this was probably all underwater. We'd be under probably 60, 70 feet of water right here. Even the map says we should be in water for another long while. So these canyons are carved from Navajo sandstone, which started out as massive sand dunes 190 million years ago, during the Jurassic period. And this whole canyon was formed entirely by flash... Entirely by flash... And this whole canyon was formed entirely by flash floods. That can happen literally in the blink of an eye. There was a group of 11 tourists who came here. It was a perfect sunny day like this, and they were killed by a flash flood that came through this area, which led to stricter safety protocols. But it just gives you some perspective for the immense power and force that that water has to carve these 150 foot canyon walls. It's just breathtaking. Every corner we walk around I expect those sand people from Star Wars to pop out with their little snipers. You can almost see how the water flows through these canyons when you walk through it. It's like... It's just crazy to think that at full capacity, this lake is 150 feet higher. And you can see all of the remnants of when the lake used to be higher. Like boat ramps that are hanging off cliffs and old tie downs and tires and floats and stuff. That's 100 feet out of the water. But at one point it was underwater. It's just so crazy. The water here is so clear. But the mud is like... You just like... It engulfs you. There's never a time where a sandwich hits. Yeah. And when like you're out of the pool or you're out of the water. Especially when you put some crackers on it. Ham, cheese, mayonnaise. Cheesy chicks mix. Talk about better. Alright. That's a pretty nice cast. Actually. We've moved to land. These houseboats that they have on this lake are just absolutely massive. Fishing from the jet ski proved to be a little much with this tiny rod. We'll have to give this thing redemption at some point in some proper conditions. But it's getting late. We gotta get back to the dock. Back to camp. We made it back. We were gonna go somewhere else tonight. But it's already getting late. And I gotta cook dinner still. So we're gonna stay in the same spot. Mark my words. We will catch a fish with this rod. At some point on this road trip it got jammed a bunch. And it's also super hard to string up. Cause you gotta like string it through the tube. So like it just was a pain to use. But we'll get one. Doing something pretty simple for dinner tonight. A little bit of a tomato pasta dish. Or I guess I don't know. Is gnocchi a pasta? I think it's a pasta. I know it's made of potato but it's technically a pasta. And gnocchi is actually one of my favorite things to cook. Because it cooks so fast. And you just cook it with all the sauce. You don't have to cook it separately in like a pot. So it's a nice one pot meal candidate. And there's basically no prep work. Which is very nice. Especially since today was a long day. So I'm not really feeling very intensive cook. A little bit of butter in the pan. Add in some garlic to the oil and butter. Alila's out there making friends. What's up Alila? What's up Alila? What's up? You smell what I'm cooking? I like to cook and not bake because you can eyeball cooking. You can't eyeball baking. We're throwing in two tablespoons of tomato paste. A full can of Italian style diced tomatoes. Just about a fourth of a cup of chicken broth. And then we can throw in a few Italian seasonings. We've got some oregano, basil, garlic powder, and then some salt and pepper. And then once that's nice and bubbling throw in an agnocchi. Gnocchi if you will. I also threw in some smashed fresh tomatoes because I had them. I'll let that sauce thicken up and cook for about ten minutes. And the sauce will kind of naturally thicken up because the gnocchi releases starch. Now that it's almost finished cooking we can add in a ton of parmesan and then some fresh basil or as fresh as I could get. This says fresh for four weeks so they didn't have any fresh basil at the store. Toss that in. Give that a nice stir. And then we'll just wait for the cheese to melt and this is done. I also got some meatballs in the oven for myself. Those meatballs look disgusting. Dude. They look like stones. But they're so dry. They're so dry. I guess that's what happens when you buy turkey meatballs but that's crazy. It doesn't even look like it looks like a rock. It looks like falafel bro. At least the pasta is very saucy so it'll be fine. Oh look at the stock. Yeah it looks like beer. Bet you guys wish you could see the sky. Just kidding. I'm going to show you guys. What a spectacular sunset to end the day with. Beautiful cotton candy skies. I'm hoping I have enough energy to stay up to watch the meteor shower tonight. It's supposed to peak tonight at like 12 o'clock but it's like it's already 8 o'clock and I'm feeling like I'm And right here. So the meteor shower is supposed to peak right in the constellation that rises over Lone Rock. I don't know if we saw any last night. I had the camera out. So you guys will know but I don't know because I didn't see any. I stayed up late last night, didn't see any and I finally just went to bed. But hopefully tonight I can stay up and at least see one of the meteors. But at least if not I'll get a shot of them for you guys. I think I'm going to take a little nap. Maybe wake up at like midnight and see if we can see the shooting stars. Because I don't think I'm going to make it. Bye!