November 11, 2024 • 37 mins
Taking a break from our usual routines can really open our eyes to new ways of seeing and doing things.
In this episode, I dive deep into the lessons I learned from my recent 33-day sabbatical journey, specifically how our understanding of ourselves influences our daily decisions and experiences.
Throughout this road trip, I embraced the role of the observer, making decisions based on my current understanding and needs, and allowing each new experience to shape me into a different observer by the day's end.
We often don't realize how our perceptions shape our reality, and on this trip, I lived how freeing it can be to not overcommit and to manage my expectations. This allowed me to truly relax and immerse myself in the experience, adjusting on the fly, which brought a profound sense of peace and enjoyment.
Whether you're someone who meticulously plans every detail or you thrive on spontaneity, this episode will offer insights into how your role as an observer affects your life and how you can become more adaptable and fulfilled.
So let's unpack these ideas together—how we perceive, react, and ultimately live our lives based on the continuous learning about ourselves. Join me as I share not just the sights and sounds of my adventure, but the transformative lessons about living more authentically.
Grab your headphones, and let's get into it.
- Mark
Let’s connect:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markrobertsonpcc
Email: mark@coachmark.com
Website: www.coachmark.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to Wake Up and PayAttention, the podcast fueling
(00:03):
positive change from the insideout. I'm Mark Robertson, your
host, with over 25 years as aprofessional coach, I'm thrilled
to explore the personal growthtools that have helped me and
hundreds of people just likeyou, design and awaken to their
best life. If you've ever feltoverwhelmed and unfulfilled,
like you're just going throughthe motions day after day. Maybe
(00:24):
you're afraid one day all theballs are going to drop. You're
in the right place. Together,let's expand our self awareness
and make sustainable shifts thatimprove our communication
skills, relationships andoverall well being. This is a
judgment free zone whereopenness, understanding and
support rule. So grab yourheadphones and get ready. It's
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time to wake up and payattention.
Well, well, well, goodafternoon. WUAPA listeners. I'm
back. Mark is here recordinganother episode of Wake Up and
Pay Attention. It's been quite awhile since I've dropped an
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episode. I think it's beennearly two months now. The last
episode was when Chalmers and Italked about Ontological
Coaching, which was around midSeptember. So I'm happy to get
back to the mic today. I haveactually been back from my
Sabbatical. I'm going to callit, even though it's a strange
word to embrace, for a week now,pretty much just about a week
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now, I think I got back here at3 30 central time last
Wednesday, and it's 3 21 onWednesday of this week.
By the way, it's the day afterthe election, 2024 here in the
United States, and I may say afew things that tie to the
ontological distinctionsregarding that. I've been kind
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of sitting in that all morningwith the election results. It's
a loaded topic, obviously, interms of who you voted for, but
I may say some stuff about that.But more than that, what I would
like to do with this episode iskind of just get back into our
conversation and share with youabout my journey.
I believe that I shared with youbefore I left that I was going
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on an extended journey. I neededto unplug. I needed kind of a
mental reset. I was feeling abit exhausted, and I hadn't
taken a vacation since August oflast year, when I went to
Scotland. Went to Scotland withmy sister because my family
heritage, the Robertsons, arefrom Scotland, and it had been
that long since I've been on avacation of just feeling tired
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and feeling worn out. And so Iwent out on extended stay.
I left Nashville Saturdaymorning, September the 28th and
I got back here last Wednesday,October the 30th. So it's 33
days of my math is correct onthe road, and it was an
incredible experience. Whatwould I say about the overall
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context of the experience? Sothere's the content of the
conversation, which I'll sharewith you in a minute. Then
there's the context, which isthe why, which I kind of just
shared about with you, about therecharge and the mental reset. I
was really expecting that Iwould come back at different
observer because of theexperience, and I am, I'm
clearly am, and yet I'm stillprocessing it a week later,
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still sort of getting a sense ofwhat I've learned and how I've
changed, but there are a fewthings that I can share with you
regarding that.
When I thought about the trip,one of the main things that I
thought about was, I'm not goingto do a lot of planning. I did
some research actually, into doI want to pull a trailer behind
my SUV? Do I want to rent an RV,or do I just want to do Airbnbs
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and hotels? I did that researchin August and September, and
decided that I was just going todo Airbnbs and hotels, which I
think ultimately was the bestdecision. It worked out really,
really well, but I didn't wantto plan the whole thing. I
really wanted to just kind offigure out what city I would be
in and where I was going to stayeach day as it unfolded. So I
was trusting the uncertainty andthe unknown, and I've done that
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before on trips to Chile and onvacation, so this wasn't
entirely new to me.
So spontaneity was the key.Flexibility was the key. So when
I went into the trip, the what Idid do was actually one Saturday
morning, probably three weeksout. I while I was having
coffee, I sort of sketched outthe basic route that I would go
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on and how many days that wouldbe in. At the time, I was
thinking five weeks, 35 days. Itended up obviously being 33
days. And the only othercommitment I made at that time
was to book an Airbnb in Sedona,Arizona for five nights, and
then later in the month ofOctober in Yosemite Park for
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four nights. Those were the twomain places that I want to go
when I thought about gettingaway, it was the Grand Canyon
and Sedona. That area mostly theGrand Canyon because I've never
seen the Grand Canyon, andprobably I was more excited
about Yosemite. Because of ElCapitan. I really wanted to see
El Capitan, mainly because ofthe movie free solo with Alex
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Honnold in it. If you've seenthat he free soloed El Cap back
four or five years ago. I can'tremember exactly how many, but
it was amazing. And so I waslike, I've got to go see that.
And so that was the only thing Ihad booked going in. And I
figured out the dates and said,I'm taking off on Saturday,
September the 28th as I beganthinking about, you know, the
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route, or the route, I don'tknow how you say that in your
neck of the woods, I usually saythe route. What also revealed
itself was that I wanted to seefriends and people that seemed
like family to me along the way,so the trip really became about
kind of two things. One wasgetting away and unplugging,
recharging, a mental reset,emotional reset. And then this
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big, big word for me this year,which is connection. Connection.
Connection, the opportunity toconnect with dear friends,
friends that are more recent,and friends from my past, and
then folks that were like myfamily, and I absolutely did
that. It was a blast. Well,that's what I'll tell you about
for the most part today, Ithink.
So, let's talk, and I'm justgoing to kind of riff here, as I
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have been on the last fewepisodes, and kind of share with
you what comes up related to myexperience and what was cool and
what wasn't cool and all thatkind of stuff. So what comes up
first is I wasn't alone. I hadmy trusted buddy, Nelly with me.
She was my passenger, my copilot, for the whole journey and
and a lot of people have asked,how'd she do? She did
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incredible. She was fantasticfor you that haven't listened
before. She's a little 16-17,pound half Shih Tzu, half
miniature pincher, my dog. She'sfantastic. She actually turned
12 years old on the trip. Herbirthday was October the 15th,
and so I knew I was going to seesome national parks. I suspected
going in that they might not letdogs on the trail. So I bought a
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Canine Sports sack and had heron my back for a few hikes
during the trip, which was alsoa blast, took a little bit of
her getting used to it. Thefirst couple of times she did
not want to get into that thing,but I think once she figured out
I was going to be doing all thework, and all she had to do was
look around, I think sheembraced it fully, and so I
wanted to get that piece in aswell. Nelly was with me.
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I didn't know how she was goingto do, but she did so so well,
and as I recall now packing up,I packed my SUV full. I mean, I
could not have gotten much moreinto it and still been able to
see out the back window. My goodfriend Aubre Aden helped me put
a hitch on my SUV, and I boughta really nice bike rack that
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would hold two bikes, and Istrapped that thing on, or
attached it, secured it, loadedup my car. I had one big
suitcase, one medium suitcase, abig Yeti cooler, mainly for
nelly's food, just food fordogs, which has to stay frozen,
but also drinks for me and stufflike that. One big Yeti cooler
in the back. And then I had theback seat full with clothes and
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all kind of stuff. If I had tosleep in the car, I had stuff
for that, blankets, comforters.I had my I brought my coffee
bean grinder and my coffeebecause I drink a special low
acid coffee. So it was full andnelly's bed was in the passenger
seat. She was my co pilot. Soaway we went the morning of
Saturday, September 28th.
First step, first stop along theway was Dallas, Texas, because
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we had to get out there toSedona in the Grand Canyon. So
that was probably the longestdrive. Actually, was the first
day. And I stayed with my dearfriend Lauren in Dallas for two
nights. And then on the secondevening, I got to sit and have
dinner with my old collegebuddies, Wendell and Kevin, and
it was just great seeing thoseguys. It was great getting to
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spend time with Lauren andreconnect with her, as I hadn't
seen her much since she movedhere from Nashville a couple
years ago. So there was thefirst connection.
And then my next stop, I droppeddown, and this was a shorter
drive to San Antonio the nextday. My, what I would call my
second set of parents, John andLinda Lopes and their daughter
Michelle and her husbandErnesto, live in San Antonio,
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and her daughter ash, andMichelle's daughter Ashley also
lives there. So I got to see allof them over a couple of days,
and that was wonderful. And thenI took off on, I think it was,
let's see, Tuesday or Wednesdaymorning, headed for Sedona. And
if you've ever been out in Texasand you leave San Antonio and
you're going west, it doesn'ttake long for you to realize the
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terrain is different out therethan it is here in Nashville,
Tennessee. It becomes flat anddesert like pretty quickly.
I actually went to high schoolin Oklahoma, southwest Oklahoma,
so I've been familiar with thatterritory, and I've been to San
Antonio a number of times, but Ihad never driven that stretch,
and so that drive, that day, wasfrom San Antonio to Las Cruces,
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New Mexico. So I almost made itto the Mexican border. In fact,
I actually, when I got aroundthere, I believe it was around
there, there was actually likean immigration station where
everyone had to stop and gothrough. And there was an
officer, several officers there,just checking to see if you were
a citizen or not, which was kindof interesting. I encountered
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another one of those later in mydrive in New Mexico.
So that night, I stayed at LasCruces, New Mexico. Not a whole
lot going on there, although oneof my clients recommended a
restaurant because she went tocollege there at New Mexico
State. I think it was in LasCruces. So I had dinner there at
chalos in Las Cruces. If you'reever there, check it out. And
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the next day, I headed on toSedona. And Sedona was amazing.
I spent five nights there. Andone of the cool things again,
the theme of connections, myold, old friend that I had not
seen in years, seems like I'vebeen seven or eight years. Rice
Pierce met me in Sedona. Helives in Phoenix, and he came up
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for a couple nights, Thursdaynight and Friday night, my first
two nights there. And we went tothe airport in Sedona. We went
to the airport vortex, and Ispent five nights at Sedona. And
it was incredible. I had anAirbnb. That was when I was
drinking my morning coffee. Waslooking directly at Thunder
Mountain, and I think it wascalled steeple rock and maybe
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Saddleback mountain. I can'tremember the names anymore. It's
been a while ago, because I wasin Sedona from October 3 through
the ninth, maybe something likethat. Had a really nice, really
cool Airbnb, really fell in lovewith Sedona. Actually, the
terrain is so different outthere than Nashville. So much
red, very stark desert, like nograss. So this is something that
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was funny. It took Nelly a whileto get used to going to the
bathroom without grass, becauseshe's so used to that here in
Nashville. And finally, one day,she just had two right in the
road. So I just thought I'd dropthat. There no pun intended.
But anyway, it was reallyinteresting watching her getting
used to there being no grassaround. But Sedona, you know, I
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looked around and part of what Iwant to say on this journey was
also a discovery, sort of goingin that I think I want to leave
Nashville. I've had a bit ofdiscontent, you know, of late
with Nashville, actually, on andoff the whole time I've been
here for 35 years, but feelinglike as I'm getting older, and
I'll be 59 on November the 25thin just a few weeks. But feeling
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like as I'm getting older, I therelentless growth, growth,
growth here in Nashville, andexpansion, expansion is just not
so much for me anymore. So kindof looking for a smaller
community, really looking for mytribe, and really looking for
connection these days.
And so part of my noticing was,could this, wherever I am, be a
community that could fit? And Ilove Sedona. It kind of felt
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that way. In many ways, it'smuch smaller, but easy to get
around. I like the vibe and theenergy of the place, there were
so many vortexes you could govisit. I did a number of hikes.
In fact, Rice and I did a hikeone day at about 10 30 in the
morning, we started, and hadNelly on my back. Was our first
trip in the backpack, and it hadalready heated up to mid 80s,
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and it just it got dangerous. Sowe had to take her back to the
condo, Airbnb, and then we wentback out and hiked, and we
almost got ourselves in trouble.We were out at 11 45 it was
already in the 90s, and we wererunning out of water and weren't
sure where we were. So we'veobviously found our way back.
But it can get dangerous outthere, as I understand it in a
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hurry, but did a lot of hiking.It's just beautiful. And the
esthetics, the look and feel ofthe place, were just amazing, so
much so that I actually ended uptalking to a realtor and seeing
a house and a condo out there inSedona. So it was thinking, you
know, this could be an option.
What else to say about Sedona?You know, one night, I went up
to the airport and had dinner upthere, just picking places to
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eat. Was fun. I went up toJerome, Arizona, which is a
little mountain town, spent partof an afternoon up there. That
was kind of cool. Yeah. So itjust spent quite a bit of time,
perfect amount of time atSedona. I was ready to head out
when I did. And after I leftSedona, I went to the Grand
Canyon. So I just decided tomake kind of a day trip of the
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Grand Canyon. And have to saythat the excitement of driving
up to the Grand Canyon, likeentering Grand Canyon National
Park, was cool. And the arrangerthere actually talked me into
getting an annual pass. He askedme, Are you going to visit three
or more parks, and I hadn'treally thought about I was like,
Yeah, I probably will. And Iended up buying one for 80
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bucks. And love it, becauseactually, what I'll tell you is
I actually visited sevennational parks on my tour, one
national monument and onenational memorial, which I'll
talk to you about. I'm seeingrather quickly now that. I won't
be able to cover the whole tripin this one episode, which I
kind of thought might happen.
Actually, when I left, I thoughtI might drop a couple podcasts
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from the road, but what Idiscovered is I had the mic
never made it out of the box,and I never really pulled my PC
out at all. I just was soimmersed in the experience and
enjoying the experience that itjust didn't happen. I thought
about it a few times, but I waslike, No, it's just, it's not
gonna happen. And so I enteredGrand Canyon National Park, and
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you can kind of, there's sort ofa lead up to being able to see
the canyon. You drive past onesort of smaller Canyon area, but
that's still a huge Wow. Thedepth of it is still amazing.
But I tell you, the moment Ipulled up to the canyon itself,
I went to this place called, Ithink it was called Lippin
point. Was the first place Ithought it is a massive Wow. The
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scale of it is extraordinary.I've never seen anything like
it. It just takes your breathaway and it catches you.
So here's the back story on whyI went to Lippin point. While I
was in Sedona, one of the coolplaces that I ended up finding
was Sedonuts, and I met thewoman that was the owner. Never
got her name, but I met her andtalked to a really cool place
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donuts and coffee. And one ofthe mornings I was there, there
was a flight crew that was thatthese guys, a group of five or
six guys that had this, theseshirts on this had flight crew
on the back, and they wereordering, or they had just
gotten done eating at a littlerestaurant right next to
Sedonuts, and I had ordered somefood to go from that restaurant.
It was a recommendation from myAirbnb guy, and I just struck up
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a conversation with these dudesfrom the flight crew. I said,
Hey, I heard one of youmentioned the Grand Canyon, or
do you fly over the GrandCanyon?
I got into a conversation withthese two guys, and I think his
name was Nathan. I wish I couldremember, but, but two great
guys. We got to talking, and Itold him I was going to the
Grand Canyon the next day, ortwo days later, he said, here's
what you should do, becausehere's the insider stuff. He
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said, Go to Lippin point. Pullin the parking lot, and there's
a little trail off the leftside. Walk down about 100 yards.
Take your lunch. Find a rock,sit on it. He goes you it's
probably the best view of thecanyon, because you can see in
two different directions. Youcan see the river in both
directions. So I was reallyexcited to go to Lippin point,
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and I got there and was excited.I even I walked through where
everybody else was walking justto look at the canyon because of
the wow factor. And I got Nellyout and walked her around. And
it's just extraordinary.
And then, unfortunately, rightaround the same time I got
there, two big tour busses oftourists showed up and really
kind of overran the place. Itwas It wasn't frustrating. It
was disappointing. I might sayit didn't really trigger me, but
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I was, yeah, I'd say it wasdisappointed, because I really
was hoping for some solitarytime. And I know that's probably
sounds crazy, given it's a GrandCanyon, but it was in October,
and I was hoping to get downthat little trail and have some
time by myself and really kindof connect with the place. And
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that didn't happen, becausethere was so many tourists. They
were loud. They were takingpictures. They overran the
place. And so it had an effecton the experience. I thought I
would get down the trail and getaway from them, but lo and
behold, there was about eight or10 of them down there as well.
And so it just wasn't exactlythe experience I thought I'd
have, but I went ahead and, youknow, checked it out as long as
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I could still sort of caught inthe wow of it. It's just
extraordinarily beautiful, andit's so deep, it's unbelievable
how deep it is.
And so I actually drove off fromthere and visited a few other
points and stopped at a fewscenic viewpoints. But what I
experienced at the canyon was abig wow. I realized what my
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Airbnb owner was saying is,like, it's not really a place, I
think for me, or a lot of peoplethat go and stay for multiple
days, in fact, that heard a jokelike the average time at the
Grand Canyon is 12 minutes. Youpull up, you look and you go,
okay, seen it, and you go. Butit was more than that for me. I
was there for probably two orthree hours. It stopped me at
different places and talking tosome people. But yeah, it was
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enough. It was enough. I stoppedat five or six places and got to
see different views anddifferent aspects of the canyon.
I may go back and see more.Fact, I met a couple of ladies
in Idaho Falls, Idaho, muchlater on my trip, who were doing
a similar thing to me. They werefrom South Carolina and Florida,
so shout out to Juanita andTammy. But they were kind of
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going in the other direction.They were going counterclockwise
where I was going clockwise, andthey ended up the Grand Canyon
and doing a helicopter tour ofthe canyon, and also doing a
pontoon in on the ColoradoRiver. So I think those would be
really fun if I go back.Couldn't do any of that stuff
with Nelly with me, but that wasokay. I kind of I knew that
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going in.
So, you know, I drove back fromthe canyon late that afternoon
and decided I wanted to stayrather and then in Sedona that
night, I wanted to stay inFlagstaff, because I had heard
really good, really cool thingsabout Flagstaff, and so I stayed
in Flagstaff, and it is a reallycool town. It's, it's higher
elevation than Sedona. Sedonawas at about 40 505,000 feet. I
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think Flagstaff is up around5700 feet, maybe college town. I
can't remember what school. Ithink it was a college town,
yeah, University of NorthernArizona. And that night, I got
an Airbnb bottom of a dude'shouse, which was cool, and went
to a brewery. This the secondbrewery I stopped at dark sky
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brewing and flags that while Iwas in Sedona, I went to Sedona
beer company and really lovedit. It's a great place, really
fantastic. So if you're ever outin Sedona, be sure to go there.
And there's two locations.There's the Uptown Sedona
location, and then there's theWest Sedona location, which was
the area I was staying in, theolder that's called base camp.
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So two things I want to saybefore I make sure I say before
I wrap perhaps this episode, I'mnoticing we're coming up on 20
minutes. One is for the trip,and I didn't get it until I got
to the next stop, which wasSequoia National Park and Kings
Canyon National Park. But Iremembered my good buddy Richard
(21:20):
Hunter saying you got to get theapp. And I had already actually
gotten the app. It's a guidealong app. It's called guide
along, and it's fantastic to dois it? It tracks your phone's
location. And as you're driving,there's a guy that comes on and
talks to you and tells you aboutthe stops that are coming up,
the things you absolutely wantto see depending on how much
time you have, talks about howmuch time you should have, but
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if you don't have that time,here's where you should go and
where you don't need to go.Recommendations tells you what
you'll see if you go there. Soit's a fantastic app, and it's
almost like having a writingpartner. I nicknamed him Jerry
because for some reason Ithought he might be Jerry
Garcia, but he's just awesome.Good sense of humor recorded. If
you've ever used it, you'll knowwhat I'm talking about, the
(22:05):
coolest app. And so I ended upbuying that for Sequoia and
Kings Canyon, and then laterended up buying it for Yosemite.
So it gives you an idea where Iwent.
And then later just ended upbuying the Discover the US West,
a whole package with 21 places,because I ended up going to more
places and made more sensefinancially, just go ahead and
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buy the package for like 99bucks instead of 20 to 25 bucks
for each park. So I use theguide along app, which is cool.
One of the other things thatevolved as the trip unfolded was
I began to buy some swag. So Ibought stickers. And my thing is
kind of coffee cups. I think Iended up coming on with five new
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coffee cups. I love morningcoffee cups from places I've
been kind of tell a story. But Ibought stickers and began
putting them on my Yeti cooler.So now my Yeti cooler, the front
and parts of the sides and topare full of all these stickers.
They kind of tell a story aboutmy journey, which is really cool
when you see the cooler, and Ijust added to it as I went. And
(23:10):
so that was really cool.
Why did I bring that up? I wasin Flagstaff and went to dark
sky brewing for dinner.Remembered that I had gone to
Sedona beer company. Sedona beercompany is cool. And I actually
bought a growler, 32 ouncegrowler, from Sedona beer
company with a light beer that Ihad intended. I decided I'm
going to get this and I'm goingto keep this. I'm not opening it
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till I get to Yosemite. I'mgoing to open it when I get to
El Capitan, and what I want todo is drink it from a meadow
overlooking El Capitan, and atthe time that was my intent, it
was sort of a celebratory beerto have, because I got to
Yosemite, I got to see ElCapitan, and I could celebrate
(23:53):
with a good cold beer from theSedona beer company. Actually
ended up drinking it at adifferent point along the
journey. Actually shared it withmy sister, but that's a later
story. So I'm rambling. I'm kindof all over the place here.
Where are we? We're inFlagstaff. So at this point, I'm
now mapping out my time betweenthere and Yosemite. And I
(24:13):
thought about going to Bryson'seye on because I was close to
theirs, close to those places.My Airbnb guy told me, Grand
Canyon, yeah, it's cool, but youreally want to go to Monument
Valley. But I just couldn'tlogistically figure it out. And
timing wise, to get to monumentand then get out of monument and
go see some of the other thingsI wanted to see in time to make
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it to Yosemite for my only othercommitted stay on Airbnb, which
were those four nights inYosemite.
So I decided to just go aheadand leave Flagstaff, and I took
off from Flagstaff and I foundmy stopping point from Flagstaff
on the way to Sequoia wasBarstow, Nevada. Ended up
(24:56):
staying the night at a home tosuites hotel in Barstow. Nevada,
which is actually a big MarineBase, I think, or big military
town, there were a lot ofmilitary guys, and I think they
were Marines. So that was kindof interesting. And I really
liked home to suites, becausethey have couches, nice couches,
a bigger setup, and it mimickedmore what I have at home. And it
(25:18):
was able, this is crazy, wasable to absorb or capture mine
and nelly's morning coffee andbreakfast routine much better
with the couch there, ratherthan just a hotel bed or an
Airbnb someone's house. Sothat's one of the other things
that you figure out as you takean extended trip like this, is
all the unloading and loading,and unloading and loading
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putting stuff back in I gotreally efficient pretty quickly
within that first week at tryingto minimize my number of trips
on each go round. The first fewnights were kind of a bit of a
mess, and then got it reallydialed in and could almost make
two trips. I was either twotrips or three trips each time,
because I had Nelly and she wasa separate trip and and all that
(26:02):
kind of stuff. But, yeah, it wascool. It was fun, kind of
figuring all that out. I tookway too much stuff. I probably
use 60% of what I brought, maybe65 so there's a whole bunch of
stuff I didn't need to bring,but I didn't know that.
So that could be one of theontological lessons, right? Is
like, as you plan for a trip,or, you know, like, be okay with
(26:25):
uncertainty. Be okay with theunknown. Be okay with making
choices. And Lynn later down theroad realizing I didn't need
that, but I didn't know that atthe time. So what's the
ontological lesson is, like theobserver you are here at this
moment, as you forecast, as Iforecasted a 35 day trip.
There's only so much I couldknow I couldn't plan for and
(26:45):
know everything. So you know,folks that have to have
everything nailed down andbuttoned down are probably going
to struggle with that, folksthat a lot of folks would
probably struggle with what Idid, which was to only plan a
very small portion of the tripand then let the rest of it be
spontaneous and flexible. I knowfolks that are dear friends that
probably that would stress theheck out of them. It would be
(27:06):
really hard for them to do, butit was really cool. Like the
observer I was on September 27suspected I'd need this, so I
packed it and took it and Ilearned along the way. I learned
every day, oh, I'd need this. Ididn't need this. I needed that.
There wasn't much that I didn'thave that I needed. Actually, it
was more. I had a bunch of stuffthat I didn't need, but I
(27:27):
planned for certaincontingencies.
So the lesson there is, youknow, we make choices and
decision every day from theobserver we are, and then as we
experience the day and itunfolds and we're hit with
reality, we learn from that,hopefully, and we become a
different observer after that.And that's kind of what happened
to me each day. It makes methink now about, you know,
(27:50):
people wondering like, was Irelaxed? Did it really relax me?
Was I not stressed? I don't tendto get stressed much anyway,
because I'm really good withcapacity management. I don't
over commit, but I moved intothe trip pretty quickly, eased
into it and relaxed. And it wasjust fantastic to fully be
focused on just showing up andexperience what I wanted to
(28:12):
experience.
One other interestingontological observation I would
make would be, I think theAmerican cultural discourse,
we're steeped in logical,rational thinking and planning,
plan, plan, plan. So when I talkto people ahead of the trip,
they're like, what's your plan?What's your plan? I almost got
tired of being asked, What'syour plan, and then having to
say, or saying, I don't have aplan. And people looked at me
(28:34):
like I was weird or odd, andit's like I did not want to plan
it. That was the whole point. Itwas like, I wanted to be
spontaneous, flexible. I didn'twant to be attached to an
agenda. I knew I would figure itout as it went, and how it would
look and where I would dothings. I knew that it would in
a way. I'd say it this way. Itwould reveal itself. I was
almost trusting in my words,trusting the universe, trusting
(28:58):
the divine, that it would unfoldthe way it was supposed to and
it would reveal itself, which islike one particular way to do
life. You can do the planned wayof life. And in in hindsight,
when I look back on I think itwas a combo of both. I did the
planning in the moment when Ineeded to do it. I made the
choices and decisions when Ineeded to, but in large part, I
(29:18):
also had spontaneity andflexibility to go with it. So
for me, it was a nice balance.But you get to choose how you
want to do life. We've beentalking about this a long time
in the podcast.
So you are the observer you are.You know what you know, and you
don't know what you don't know.So you'll make decisions around
packing and the route you'regoing to take and what you want
(29:39):
to do that day based on theobserver you are, and it won't
be the one I am or that somebodyelse is, which is actually one
of the beauties of going on atrip like this by myself, is I
didn't have to accommodate orcompromise with another
observer. And those of you whoare married or have gone on
vacations with someone else ormultiple someone else's, you
(29:59):
know. Know, what that brings. Itcan be exciting and fun, and it
can also be challenging. For mea lot of times it was
challenging to try to have tohave those conversations, to
find a middle ground aroundthings. I didn't have to do that
this time, which was really ablast, other than, you know,
accommodating what Nelly mayhave needed. And there were a
couple instances along the way,where I think things were going
(30:21):
great for her and I needed toadjust, which I'll tell you
about.
So I'm noticing we're getting uppast the half hour point. So let
me just kind of begin to closeChapter One of the 33 day
sabbatical, which gets us toBarstow Nevada. That's where we
are. We're in Barstow Nevada. Idon't know what day we are at
this point, but it feels likewe're at about October 9. So
(30:45):
we're about 12 days in at thispoint. So about a third of my
little more than a third of myjourney could stay there. Took
off from Barstow, and the nextnight I landed. Where did I stay
for? Gosh, I'm drawing a blank.Oh, I'll wrap it around this,
this experience. I drove fromBarstow, Nevada to I wanted to
(31:07):
stay as close as I could toSequoia National Park and Kings
Canyon National Park. Andthey're right together there in
sort of central SouthernCalifornia, just north of
Bakersfield. And the nightbefore, I reached out to a place
and found a place by the river,they were cabins, and they
actually had one. So I reserveda cabin, had my place to stay,
(31:30):
but when I showed up at threerivers, it was not what I
wanted. The quality of the placewas just not what I wanted. So I
reached out to my guy, and Isaid, Hey, look, I've decided
not to stay. It's not what I wasexpecting, not what I was hoping
for, so I'm gonna find somethingelse. So it's like 3 34 o'clock
in the afternoon. I gotta find aplace to stay. So I'll tell you
what I did, and I'll tell youabout the drive up to three
(31:52):
rivers.
As I was driving up to SequoiaNational Park and imagining
these tall sequoia trees, I hadheard stories from friends about
how amazing they are and tall,and I'm driving through Southern
California, and I'm looking offin the distance, like, where is
this? Because I'm drivingthrough like, grape fields and
orange trees, or orange what arethose orange orchards? And it's
(32:16):
flat, and I'm like, wow, whereis this Sequoia Park going to
show up. Well, it's up in thefour to 7000 foot range, up in
the mountains. I think it's theSierra Nevada mountain chain
that I can see off in thedistance. But the drive up to it
was different than I've beenused to like when I think of the
Great Smoky Mountains or theColorado Rocky Mountains. It
doesn't look that way at all.It's very different. But as I
(32:39):
pulled up into three rivers. Irealized, man, this area of the
country hasn't had a lot ofwater. There was a big the lake
that's right there was way down.And it just was a different
topography, different look andfeel. Even the river that I was
gonna stay on with the cabins,there wasn't much water in it at
all. So just a littledescription of that.
But as I got to three rivers,and I realized this is not gonna
(33:00):
work, I was driving around. Iwas trying to pull up something
on my phone. I wasn't able toget access on things. So I saw
this real estate company that Idriven past. And so I drove up
all the way up to almost thepark entrance back down in Three
Rivers, which is a little townright outside of Sequoia
National Park. And I drove backdown to this real estate
company. I walked in and metthis young woman and struck up a
(33:22):
conversation with her loan. Isaid, Do y'all have any
properties? She began to lookfor me, and lo and behold, she
got out there on Airbnb, and wefound a place for me to stay. It
was about three and a half tofour miles off of Three Rivers,
which ultimately, after I stayedthere, I realized I would have
liked to have been closer. Iwould have liked to have been in
the Three Rivers area, but itwas out secluded, peaceful,
(33:45):
beautiful by the river. Therewas more water coming through
that branch of the river. Can'tremember the name of it, but it
was really pretty and secludedand peaceful. So I had a little
cottage, a guest cottage there,which was really nice.
So I think I'll stop here. Ihaven't yet entered Sequoia
National Park. That happened thenext day. I just kind of
(34:06):
anchored down for that night andgot settled in that place, in
the cottage. But what I'll saythere is sort of, again, the
whole, you know, trusting theuniverse, and I knew that I'd
figure something out. And worstcase scenario, I'd just take the
sheets and comforter and throwsome crap outside of my SUV and
sleep in the SUV that night. Iguess I would have done that's
(34:26):
what I would have done, but Iwas able to find a place, and
that's where I stayed my firstnight, and I stayed for two
nights there at Three Riversbefore then heading up to
Yosemite. So I'll tell you aboutthe Sequoia National Park
experience, where Nelly and Itake our first significant hike
in the backpack, which wasawesome. Kings Canyon, and then
(34:49):
getting up to Yosemite in thenext episode.
So I'll close this episode. Youknow, what would I say at that
point in the journey? Right? I'mabout 12-13, days in, I have to
be at Yosemite, October the12th, and it's like now October
the 10th. So get two nights 10thand 11th in Sequoia, or in Three
(35:11):
Rivers, which I really love. Thecommunity of Three Rivers. I
went to the Three Rivers BrewingCompany there, which was
awesome. Had a fantastic meal atthe restaurant that was right
next to it, and I can't rememberthe name of it. It was awesome.
And just met some really coolpeople. Got to talking to some
people at the brewery and andstruck up a conversation with a
(35:31):
couple from Wisconsin. They wereGreen Bay outside Green Bay,
they were cheeseheads. And thenthis other group of people that
were from just outside Atlanta,I think, is where they're from,
and we just had a greatconversation.
But anyway, close, sort ofclosing this episode, where am I
ontologically, you know, I'm 12days in by myself, but having an
(35:52):
amazing time, very relaxed, veryat peace, the place that I'm
staying is out a ways, and thereare wild animals. As I was
pulling in, back in the firstnight from dinner, there was a
coyote or wolf running down thedriveway. You know, I got Nelly
secured in the cottage, so she'sokay. But much of the notes from
(36:13):
that Airbnb were like, there arewildlife out here. There are
bears, there are other things,predators that will eat your
dog. So they're your, yeah, youranimals, so make sure to take
care of them. But it's goingreally well. So far, I've
refined my process of getting inand out. I've dialed in how I've
packed the car. Things are goingreally cool at this point. And
(36:35):
the next day, I will be enteringSequoia National Park, which was
really, really fantastic. SoI'll stop it there. I hope this
has been entertaining, useful,helpful, I don't know what for
you. Hope you've still stayedall the way with me here, and
I'll stop the episode at thispoint, and we'll pick up from
there on the next episode.
(36:57):
Well, my friends, that's a wrapfor today. I'm so grateful you
joined me, and hope you feelenergized by the insights we
took a deeper look at together.If anything resonated with you
or inspired new thinking, dropme a note. I'd love to hear your
biggest takeaway. Please join menext time, as we dive deeper
into this never ending journeyof self discovery. Until then,
(37:18):
be well. Be present. Live fullyand authentically, wake up and
pay attention.
Welcome to Wake Up and PayAttention, the podcast fueling
(00:03):
positive change from the insideout. I'm Mark Robertson, your
host, with over 25 years as aprofessional coach, I'm thrilled
to explore the personal growthtools that have helped me and
hundreds of people just likeyou, design and awaken to their
best life. If you've ever feltoverwhelmed and unfulfilled,
like you're just going throughthe motions day after day. Maybe
(00:24):
you're afraid one day all theballs are going to drop. You're
in the right place. Together,let's expand our self awareness
and make sustainable shifts thatimprove our communication
skills, relationships andoverall well being. This is a
judgment free zone whereopenness, understanding and
support rule. So grab yourheadphones and get ready. It's
(00:45):
time to wake up and payattention.
Well, well, well, goodafternoon. WUAPA listeners. I'm
back. Mark is here recordinganother episode of Wake Up and
Pay Attention. It's been quite awhile since I've dropped an
(01:06):
episode. I think it's beennearly two months now. The last
episode was when Chalmers and Italked about Ontological
Coaching, which was around midSeptember. So I'm happy to get
back to the mic today. I haveactually been back from my
Sabbatical. I'm going to callit, even though it's a strange
word to embrace, for a week now,pretty much just about a week
(01:28):
now, I think I got back here at3 30 central time last
Wednesday, and it's 3 21 onWednesday of this week.
By the way, it's the day afterthe election, 2024 here in the
United States, and I may say afew things that tie to the
ontological distinctionsregarding that. I've been kind
(01:49):
of sitting in that all morningwith the election results. It's
a loaded topic, obviously, interms of who you voted for, but
I may say some stuff about that.But more than that, what I would
like to do with this episode iskind of just get back into our
conversation and share with youabout my journey.
I believe that I shared with youbefore I left that I was going
(02:11):
on an extended journey. I neededto unplug. I needed kind of a
mental reset. I was feeling abit exhausted, and I hadn't
taken a vacation since August oflast year, when I went to
Scotland. Went to Scotland withmy sister because my family
heritage, the Robertsons, arefrom Scotland, and it had been
that long since I've been on avacation of just feeling tired
(02:33):
and feeling worn out. And so Iwent out on extended stay.
I left Nashville Saturdaymorning, September the 28th and
I got back here last Wednesday,October the 30th. So it's 33
days of my math is correct onthe road, and it was an
incredible experience. Whatwould I say about the overall
(02:55):
context of the experience? Sothere's the content of the
conversation, which I'll sharewith you in a minute. Then
there's the context, which isthe why, which I kind of just
shared about with you, about therecharge and the mental reset. I
was really expecting that Iwould come back at different
observer because of theexperience, and I am, I'm
clearly am, and yet I'm stillprocessing it a week later,
(03:17):
still sort of getting a sense ofwhat I've learned and how I've
changed, but there are a fewthings that I can share with you
regarding that.
When I thought about the trip,one of the main things that I
thought about was, I'm not goingto do a lot of planning. I did
some research actually, into doI want to pull a trailer behind
my SUV? Do I want to rent an RV,or do I just want to do Airbnbs
(03:38):
and hotels? I did that researchin August and September, and
decided that I was just going todo Airbnbs and hotels, which I
think ultimately was the bestdecision. It worked out really,
really well, but I didn't wantto plan the whole thing. I
really wanted to just kind offigure out what city I would be
in and where I was going to stayeach day as it unfolded. So I
was trusting the uncertainty andthe unknown, and I've done that
(04:02):
before on trips to Chile and onvacation, so this wasn't
entirely new to me.
So spontaneity was the key.Flexibility was the key. So when
I went into the trip, the what Idid do was actually one Saturday
morning, probably three weeksout. I while I was having
coffee, I sort of sketched outthe basic route that I would go
(04:22):
on and how many days that wouldbe in. At the time, I was
thinking five weeks, 35 days. Itended up obviously being 33
days. And the only othercommitment I made at that time
was to book an Airbnb in Sedona,Arizona for five nights, and
then later in the month ofOctober in Yosemite Park for
(04:43):
four nights. Those were the twomain places that I want to go
when I thought about gettingaway, it was the Grand Canyon
and Sedona. That area mostly theGrand Canyon because I've never
seen the Grand Canyon, andprobably I was more excited
about Yosemite. Because of ElCapitan. I really wanted to see
El Capitan, mainly because ofthe movie free solo with Alex
(05:06):
Honnold in it. If you've seenthat he free soloed El Cap back
four or five years ago. I can'tremember exactly how many, but
it was amazing. And so I waslike, I've got to go see that.
And so that was the only thing Ihad booked going in. And I
figured out the dates and said,I'm taking off on Saturday,
September the 28th as I beganthinking about, you know, the
(05:26):
route, or the route, I don'tknow how you say that in your
neck of the woods, I usually saythe route. What also revealed
itself was that I wanted to seefriends and people that seemed
like family to me along the way,so the trip really became about
kind of two things. One wasgetting away and unplugging,
recharging, a mental reset,emotional reset. And then this
(05:50):
big, big word for me this year,which is connection. Connection.
Connection, the opportunity toconnect with dear friends,
friends that are more recent,and friends from my past, and
then folks that were like myfamily, and I absolutely did
that. It was a blast. Well,that's what I'll tell you about
for the most part today, Ithink.
So, let's talk, and I'm justgoing to kind of riff here, as I
(06:13):
have been on the last fewepisodes, and kind of share with
you what comes up related to myexperience and what was cool and
what wasn't cool and all thatkind of stuff. So what comes up
first is I wasn't alone. I hadmy trusted buddy, Nelly with me.
She was my passenger, my copilot, for the whole journey and
and a lot of people have asked,how'd she do? She did
(06:35):
incredible. She was fantasticfor you that haven't listened
before. She's a little 16-17,pound half Shih Tzu, half
miniature pincher, my dog. She'sfantastic. She actually turned
12 years old on the trip. Herbirthday was October the 15th,
and so I knew I was going to seesome national parks. I suspected
going in that they might not letdogs on the trail. So I bought a
(06:57):
Canine Sports sack and had heron my back for a few hikes
during the trip, which was alsoa blast, took a little bit of
her getting used to it. Thefirst couple of times she did
not want to get into that thing,but I think once she figured out
I was going to be doing all thework, and all she had to do was
look around, I think sheembraced it fully, and so I
wanted to get that piece in aswell. Nelly was with me.
(07:19):
I didn't know how she was goingto do, but she did so so well,
and as I recall now packing up,I packed my SUV full. I mean, I
could not have gotten much moreinto it and still been able to
see out the back window. My goodfriend Aubre Aden helped me put
a hitch on my SUV, and I boughta really nice bike rack that
(07:40):
would hold two bikes, and Istrapped that thing on, or
attached it, secured it, loadedup my car. I had one big
suitcase, one medium suitcase, abig Yeti cooler, mainly for
nelly's food, just food fordogs, which has to stay frozen,
but also drinks for me and stufflike that. One big Yeti cooler
in the back. And then I had theback seat full with clothes and
(08:03):
all kind of stuff. If I had tosleep in the car, I had stuff
for that, blankets, comforters.I had my I brought my coffee
bean grinder and my coffeebecause I drink a special low
acid coffee. So it was full andnelly's bed was in the passenger
seat. She was my co pilot. Soaway we went the morning of
Saturday, September 28th.
First step, first stop along theway was Dallas, Texas, because
(08:27):
we had to get out there toSedona in the Grand Canyon. So
that was probably the longestdrive. Actually, was the first
day. And I stayed with my dearfriend Lauren in Dallas for two
nights. And then on the secondevening, I got to sit and have
dinner with my old collegebuddies, Wendell and Kevin, and
it was just great seeing thoseguys. It was great getting to
(08:48):
spend time with Lauren andreconnect with her, as I hadn't
seen her much since she movedhere from Nashville a couple
years ago. So there was thefirst connection.
And then my next stop, I droppeddown, and this was a shorter
drive to San Antonio the nextday. My, what I would call my
second set of parents, John andLinda Lopes and their daughter
Michelle and her husbandErnesto, live in San Antonio,
(09:12):
and her daughter ash, andMichelle's daughter Ashley also
lives there. So I got to see allof them over a couple of days,
and that was wonderful. And thenI took off on, I think it was,
let's see, Tuesday or Wednesdaymorning, headed for Sedona. And
if you've ever been out in Texasand you leave San Antonio and
you're going west, it doesn'ttake long for you to realize the
(09:35):
terrain is different out therethan it is here in Nashville,
Tennessee. It becomes flat anddesert like pretty quickly.
I actually went to high schoolin Oklahoma, southwest Oklahoma,
so I've been familiar with thatterritory, and I've been to San
Antonio a number of times, but Ihad never driven that stretch,
and so that drive, that day, wasfrom San Antonio to Las Cruces,
(09:59):
New Mexico. So I almost made itto the Mexican border. In fact,
I actually, when I got aroundthere, I believe it was around
there, there was actually likean immigration station where
everyone had to stop and gothrough. And there was an
officer, several officers there,just checking to see if you were
a citizen or not, which was kindof interesting. I encountered
(10:19):
another one of those later in mydrive in New Mexico.
So that night, I stayed at LasCruces, New Mexico. Not a whole
lot going on there, although oneof my clients recommended a
restaurant because she went tocollege there at New Mexico
State. I think it was in LasCruces. So I had dinner there at
chalos in Las Cruces. If you'reever there, check it out. And
(10:40):
the next day, I headed on toSedona. And Sedona was amazing.
I spent five nights there. Andone of the cool things again,
the theme of connections, myold, old friend that I had not
seen in years, seems like I'vebeen seven or eight years. Rice
Pierce met me in Sedona. Helives in Phoenix, and he came up
(11:01):
for a couple nights, Thursdaynight and Friday night, my first
two nights there. And we went tothe airport in Sedona. We went
to the airport vortex, and Ispent five nights at Sedona. And
it was incredible. I had anAirbnb. That was when I was
drinking my morning coffee. Waslooking directly at Thunder
Mountain, and I think it wascalled steeple rock and maybe
(11:23):
Saddleback mountain. I can'tremember the names anymore. It's
been a while ago, because I wasin Sedona from October 3 through
the ninth, maybe something likethat. Had a really nice, really
cool Airbnb, really fell in lovewith Sedona. Actually, the
terrain is so different outthere than Nashville. So much
red, very stark desert, like nograss. So this is something that
(11:46):
was funny. It took Nelly a whileto get used to going to the
bathroom without grass, becauseshe's so used to that here in
Nashville. And finally, one day,she just had two right in the
road. So I just thought I'd dropthat. There no pun intended.
But anyway, it was reallyinteresting watching her getting
used to there being no grassaround. But Sedona, you know, I
(12:08):
looked around and part of what Iwant to say on this journey was
also a discovery, sort of goingin that I think I want to leave
Nashville. I've had a bit ofdiscontent, you know, of late
with Nashville, actually, on andoff the whole time I've been
here for 35 years, but feelinglike as I'm getting older, and
I'll be 59 on November the 25thin just a few weeks. But feeling
(12:31):
like as I'm getting older, I therelentless growth, growth,
growth here in Nashville, andexpansion, expansion is just not
so much for me anymore. So kindof looking for a smaller
community, really looking for mytribe, and really looking for
connection these days.
And so part of my noticing was,could this, wherever I am, be a
community that could fit? And Ilove Sedona. It kind of felt
(12:54):
that way. In many ways, it'smuch smaller, but easy to get
around. I like the vibe and theenergy of the place, there were
so many vortexes you could govisit. I did a number of hikes.
In fact, Rice and I did a hikeone day at about 10 30 in the
morning, we started, and hadNelly on my back. Was our first
trip in the backpack, and it hadalready heated up to mid 80s,
(13:18):
and it just it got dangerous. Sowe had to take her back to the
condo, Airbnb, and then we wentback out and hiked, and we
almost got ourselves in trouble.We were out at 11 45 it was
already in the 90s, and we wererunning out of water and weren't
sure where we were. So we'veobviously found our way back.
But it can get dangerous outthere, as I understand it in a
(13:39):
hurry, but did a lot of hiking.It's just beautiful. And the
esthetics, the look and feel ofthe place, were just amazing, so
much so that I actually ended uptalking to a realtor and seeing
a house and a condo out there inSedona. So it was thinking, you
know, this could be an option.
What else to say about Sedona?You know, one night, I went up
to the airport and had dinner upthere, just picking places to
(14:02):
eat. Was fun. I went up toJerome, Arizona, which is a
little mountain town, spent partof an afternoon up there. That
was kind of cool. Yeah. So itjust spent quite a bit of time,
perfect amount of time atSedona. I was ready to head out
when I did. And after I leftSedona, I went to the Grand
Canyon. So I just decided tomake kind of a day trip of the
(14:25):
Grand Canyon. And have to saythat the excitement of driving
up to the Grand Canyon, likeentering Grand Canyon National
Park, was cool. And the arrangerthere actually talked me into
getting an annual pass. He askedme, Are you going to visit three
or more parks, and I hadn'treally thought about I was like,
Yeah, I probably will. And Iended up buying one for 80
(14:47):
bucks. And love it, becauseactually, what I'll tell you is
I actually visited sevennational parks on my tour, one
national monument and onenational memorial, which I'll
talk to you about. I'm seeingrather quickly now that. I won't
be able to cover the whole tripin this one episode, which I
kind of thought might happen.
Actually, when I left, I thoughtI might drop a couple podcasts
(15:07):
from the road, but what Idiscovered is I had the mic
never made it out of the box,and I never really pulled my PC
out at all. I just was soimmersed in the experience and
enjoying the experience that itjust didn't happen. I thought
about it a few times, but I waslike, No, it's just, it's not
gonna happen. And so I enteredGrand Canyon National Park, and
(15:27):
you can kind of, there's sort ofa lead up to being able to see
the canyon. You drive past onesort of smaller Canyon area, but
that's still a huge Wow. Thedepth of it is still amazing.
But I tell you, the moment Ipulled up to the canyon itself,
I went to this place called, Ithink it was called Lippin
point. Was the first place Ithought it is a massive Wow. The
(15:51):
scale of it is extraordinary.I've never seen anything like
it. It just takes your breathaway and it catches you.
So here's the back story on whyI went to Lippin point. While I
was in Sedona, one of the coolplaces that I ended up finding
was Sedonuts, and I met thewoman that was the owner. Never
got her name, but I met her andtalked to a really cool place
(16:13):
donuts and coffee. And one ofthe mornings I was there, there
was a flight crew that was thatthese guys, a group of five or
six guys that had this, theseshirts on this had flight crew
on the back, and they wereordering, or they had just
gotten done eating at a littlerestaurant right next to
Sedonuts, and I had ordered somefood to go from that restaurant.
It was a recommendation from myAirbnb guy, and I just struck up
(16:36):
a conversation with these dudesfrom the flight crew. I said,
Hey, I heard one of youmentioned the Grand Canyon, or
do you fly over the GrandCanyon?
I got into a conversation withthese two guys, and I think his
name was Nathan. I wish I couldremember, but, but two great
guys. We got to talking, and Itold him I was going to the
Grand Canyon the next day, ortwo days later, he said, here's
what you should do, becausehere's the insider stuff. He
(16:59):
said, Go to Lippin point. Pullin the parking lot, and there's
a little trail off the leftside. Walk down about 100 yards.
Take your lunch. Find a rock,sit on it. He goes you it's
probably the best view of thecanyon, because you can see in
two different directions. Youcan see the river in both
directions. So I was reallyexcited to go to Lippin point,
(17:20):
and I got there and was excited.I even I walked through where
everybody else was walking justto look at the canyon because of
the wow factor. And I got Nellyout and walked her around. And
it's just extraordinary.
And then, unfortunately, rightaround the same time I got
there, two big tour busses oftourists showed up and really
kind of overran the place. Itwas It wasn't frustrating. It
was disappointing. I might sayit didn't really trigger me, but
(17:45):
I was, yeah, I'd say it wasdisappointed, because I really
was hoping for some solitarytime. And I know that's probably
sounds crazy, given it's a GrandCanyon, but it was in October,
and I was hoping to get downthat little trail and have some
time by myself and really kindof connect with the place. And
(18:06):
that didn't happen, becausethere was so many tourists. They
were loud. They were takingpictures. They overran the
place. And so it had an effecton the experience. I thought I
would get down the trail and getaway from them, but lo and
behold, there was about eight or10 of them down there as well.
And so it just wasn't exactlythe experience I thought I'd
have, but I went ahead and, youknow, checked it out as long as
(18:29):
I could still sort of caught inthe wow of it. It's just
extraordinarily beautiful, andit's so deep, it's unbelievable
how deep it is.
And so I actually drove off fromthere and visited a few other
points and stopped at a fewscenic viewpoints. But what I
experienced at the canyon was abig wow. I realized what my
(18:52):
Airbnb owner was saying is,like, it's not really a place, I
think for me, or a lot of peoplethat go and stay for multiple
days, in fact, that heard a jokelike the average time at the
Grand Canyon is 12 minutes. Youpull up, you look and you go,
okay, seen it, and you go. Butit was more than that for me. I
was there for probably two orthree hours. It stopped me at
different places and talking tosome people. But yeah, it was
(19:14):
enough. It was enough. I stoppedat five or six places and got to
see different views anddifferent aspects of the canyon.
I may go back and see more.Fact, I met a couple of ladies
in Idaho Falls, Idaho, muchlater on my trip, who were doing
a similar thing to me. They werefrom South Carolina and Florida,
so shout out to Juanita andTammy. But they were kind of
(19:36):
going in the other direction.They were going counterclockwise
where I was going clockwise, andthey ended up the Grand Canyon
and doing a helicopter tour ofthe canyon, and also doing a
pontoon in on the ColoradoRiver. So I think those would be
really fun if I go back.Couldn't do any of that stuff
with Nelly with me, but that wasokay. I kind of I knew that
(19:56):
going in.
So, you know, I drove back fromthe canyon late that afternoon
and decided I wanted to stayrather and then in Sedona that
night, I wanted to stay inFlagstaff, because I had heard
really good, really cool thingsabout Flagstaff, and so I stayed
in Flagstaff, and it is a reallycool town. It's, it's higher
elevation than Sedona. Sedonawas at about 40 505,000 feet. I
(20:20):
think Flagstaff is up around5700 feet, maybe college town. I
can't remember what school. Ithink it was a college town,
yeah, University of NorthernArizona. And that night, I got
an Airbnb bottom of a dude'shouse, which was cool, and went
to a brewery. This the secondbrewery I stopped at dark sky
(20:40):
brewing and flags that while Iwas in Sedona, I went to Sedona
beer company and really lovedit. It's a great place, really
fantastic. So if you're ever outin Sedona, be sure to go there.
And there's two locations.There's the Uptown Sedona
location, and then there's theWest Sedona location, which was
the area I was staying in, theolder that's called base camp.
(21:00):
So two things I want to saybefore I make sure I say before
I wrap perhaps this episode, I'mnoticing we're coming up on 20
minutes. One is for the trip,and I didn't get it until I got
to the next stop, which wasSequoia National Park and Kings
Canyon National Park. But Iremembered my good buddy Richard
(21:20):
Hunter saying you got to get theapp. And I had already actually
gotten the app. It's a guidealong app. It's called guide
along, and it's fantastic to dois it? It tracks your phone's
location. And as you're driving,there's a guy that comes on and
talks to you and tells you aboutthe stops that are coming up,
the things you absolutely wantto see depending on how much
time you have, talks about howmuch time you should have, but
(21:43):
if you don't have that time,here's where you should go and
where you don't need to go.Recommendations tells you what
you'll see if you go there. Soit's a fantastic app, and it's
almost like having a writingpartner. I nicknamed him Jerry
because for some reason Ithought he might be Jerry
Garcia, but he's just awesome.Good sense of humor recorded. If
you've ever used it, you'll knowwhat I'm talking about, the
(22:05):
coolest app. And so I ended upbuying that for Sequoia and
Kings Canyon, and then laterended up buying it for Yosemite.
So it gives you an idea where Iwent.
And then later just ended upbuying the Discover the US West,
a whole package with 21 places,because I ended up going to more
places and made more sensefinancially, just go ahead and
(22:25):
buy the package for like 99bucks instead of 20 to 25 bucks
for each park. So I use theguide along app, which is cool.
One of the other things thatevolved as the trip unfolded was
I began to buy some swag. So Ibought stickers. And my thing is
kind of coffee cups. I think Iended up coming on with five new
(22:47):
coffee cups. I love morningcoffee cups from places I've
been kind of tell a story. But Ibought stickers and began
putting them on my Yeti cooler.So now my Yeti cooler, the front
and parts of the sides and topare full of all these stickers.
They kind of tell a story aboutmy journey, which is really cool
when you see the cooler, and Ijust added to it as I went. And
(23:10):
so that was really cool.
Why did I bring that up? I wasin Flagstaff and went to dark
sky brewing for dinner.Remembered that I had gone to
Sedona beer company. Sedona beercompany is cool. And I actually
bought a growler, 32 ouncegrowler, from Sedona beer
company with a light beer that Ihad intended. I decided I'm
going to get this and I'm goingto keep this. I'm not opening it
(23:32):
till I get to Yosemite. I'mgoing to open it when I get to
El Capitan, and what I want todo is drink it from a meadow
overlooking El Capitan, and atthe time that was my intent, it
was sort of a celebratory beerto have, because I got to
Yosemite, I got to see ElCapitan, and I could celebrate
(23:53):
with a good cold beer from theSedona beer company. Actually
ended up drinking it at adifferent point along the
journey. Actually shared it withmy sister, but that's a later
story. So I'm rambling. I'm kindof all over the place here.
Where are we? We're inFlagstaff. So at this point, I'm
now mapping out my time betweenthere and Yosemite. And I
(24:13):
thought about going to Bryson'seye on because I was close to
theirs, close to those places.My Airbnb guy told me, Grand
Canyon, yeah, it's cool, but youreally want to go to Monument
Valley. But I just couldn'tlogistically figure it out. And
timing wise, to get to monumentand then get out of monument and
go see some of the other thingsI wanted to see in time to make
(24:34):
it to Yosemite for my only othercommitted stay on Airbnb, which
were those four nights inYosemite.
So I decided to just go aheadand leave Flagstaff, and I took
off from Flagstaff and I foundmy stopping point from Flagstaff
on the way to Sequoia wasBarstow, Nevada. Ended up
(24:56):
staying the night at a home tosuites hotel in Barstow. Nevada,
which is actually a big MarineBase, I think, or big military
town, there were a lot ofmilitary guys, and I think they
were Marines. So that was kindof interesting. And I really
liked home to suites, becausethey have couches, nice couches,
a bigger setup, and it mimickedmore what I have at home. And it
(25:18):
was able, this is crazy, wasable to absorb or capture mine
and nelly's morning coffee andbreakfast routine much better
with the couch there, ratherthan just a hotel bed or an
Airbnb someone's house. Sothat's one of the other things
that you figure out as you takean extended trip like this, is
all the unloading and loading,and unloading and loading
(25:39):
putting stuff back in I gotreally efficient pretty quickly
within that first week at tryingto minimize my number of trips
on each go round. The first fewnights were kind of a bit of a
mess, and then got it reallydialed in and could almost make
two trips. I was either twotrips or three trips each time,
because I had Nelly and she wasa separate trip and and all that
(26:02):
kind of stuff. But, yeah, it wascool. It was fun, kind of
figuring all that out. I tookway too much stuff. I probably
use 60% of what I brought, maybe65 so there's a whole bunch of
stuff I didn't need to bring,but I didn't know that.
So that could be one of theontological lessons, right? Is
like, as you plan for a trip,or, you know, like, be okay with
(26:25):
uncertainty. Be okay with theunknown. Be okay with making
choices. And Lynn later down theroad realizing I didn't need
that, but I didn't know that atthe time. So what's the
ontological lesson is, like theobserver you are here at this
moment, as you forecast, as Iforecasted a 35 day trip.
There's only so much I couldknow I couldn't plan for and
(26:45):
know everything. So you know,folks that have to have
everything nailed down andbuttoned down are probably going
to struggle with that, folksthat a lot of folks would
probably struggle with what Idid, which was to only plan a
very small portion of the tripand then let the rest of it be
spontaneous and flexible. I knowfolks that are dear friends that
probably that would stress theheck out of them. It would be
(27:06):
really hard for them to do, butit was really cool. Like the
observer I was on September 27suspected I'd need this, so I
packed it and took it and Ilearned along the way. I learned
every day, oh, I'd need this. Ididn't need this. I needed that.
There wasn't much that I didn'thave that I needed. Actually, it
was more. I had a bunch of stuffthat I didn't need, but I
(27:27):
planned for certaincontingencies.
So the lesson there is, youknow, we make choices and
decision every day from theobserver we are, and then as we
experience the day and itunfolds and we're hit with
reality, we learn from that,hopefully, and we become a
different observer after that.And that's kind of what happened
to me each day. It makes methink now about, you know,
(27:50):
people wondering like, was Irelaxed? Did it really relax me?
Was I not stressed? I don't tendto get stressed much anyway,
because I'm really good withcapacity management. I don't
over commit, but I moved intothe trip pretty quickly, eased
into it and relaxed. And it wasjust fantastic to fully be
focused on just showing up andexperience what I wanted to
(28:12):
experience.
One other interestingontological observation I would
make would be, I think theAmerican cultural discourse,
we're steeped in logical,rational thinking and planning,
plan, plan, plan. So when I talkto people ahead of the trip,
they're like, what's your plan?What's your plan? I almost got
tired of being asked, What'syour plan, and then having to
say, or saying, I don't have aplan. And people looked at me
(28:34):
like I was weird or odd, andit's like I did not want to plan
it. That was the whole point. Itwas like, I wanted to be
spontaneous, flexible. I didn'twant to be attached to an
agenda. I knew I would figure itout as it went, and how it would
look and where I would dothings. I knew that it would in
a way. I'd say it this way. Itwould reveal itself. I was
almost trusting in my words,trusting the universe, trusting
(28:58):
the divine, that it would unfoldthe way it was supposed to and
it would reveal itself, which islike one particular way to do
life. You can do the planned wayof life. And in in hindsight,
when I look back on I think itwas a combo of both. I did the
planning in the moment when Ineeded to do it. I made the
choices and decisions when Ineeded to, but in large part, I
(29:18):
also had spontaneity andflexibility to go with it. So
for me, it was a nice balance.But you get to choose how you
want to do life. We've beentalking about this a long time
in the podcast.
So you are the observer you are.You know what you know, and you
don't know what you don't know.So you'll make decisions around
packing and the route you'regoing to take and what you want
(29:39):
to do that day based on theobserver you are, and it won't
be the one I am or that somebodyelse is, which is actually one
of the beauties of going on atrip like this by myself, is I
didn't have to accommodate orcompromise with another
observer. And those of you whoare married or have gone on
vacations with someone else ormultiple someone else's, you
(29:59):
know. Know, what that brings. Itcan be exciting and fun, and it
can also be challenging. For mea lot of times it was
challenging to try to have tohave those conversations, to
find a middle ground aroundthings. I didn't have to do that
this time, which was really ablast, other than, you know,
accommodating what Nelly mayhave needed. And there were a
couple instances along the way,where I think things were going
(30:21):
great for her and I needed toadjust, which I'll tell you
about.
So I'm noticing we're getting uppast the half hour point. So let
me just kind of begin to closeChapter One of the 33 day
sabbatical, which gets us toBarstow Nevada. That's where we
are. We're in Barstow Nevada. Idon't know what day we are at
this point, but it feels likewe're at about October 9. So
(30:45):
we're about 12 days in at thispoint. So about a third of my
little more than a third of myjourney could stay there. Took
off from Barstow, and the nextnight I landed. Where did I stay
for? Gosh, I'm drawing a blank.Oh, I'll wrap it around this,
this experience. I drove fromBarstow, Nevada to I wanted to
(31:07):
stay as close as I could toSequoia National Park and Kings
Canyon National Park. Andthey're right together there in
sort of central SouthernCalifornia, just north of
Bakersfield. And the nightbefore, I reached out to a place
and found a place by the river,they were cabins, and they
actually had one. So I reserveda cabin, had my place to stay,
(31:30):
but when I showed up at threerivers, it was not what I
wanted. The quality of the placewas just not what I wanted. So I
reached out to my guy, and Isaid, Hey, look, I've decided
not to stay. It's not what I wasexpecting, not what I was hoping
for, so I'm gonna find somethingelse. So it's like 3 34 o'clock
in the afternoon. I gotta find aplace to stay. So I'll tell you
what I did, and I'll tell youabout the drive up to three
(31:52):
rivers.
As I was driving up to SequoiaNational Park and imagining
these tall sequoia trees, I hadheard stories from friends about
how amazing they are and tall,and I'm driving through Southern
California, and I'm looking offin the distance, like, where is
this? Because I'm drivingthrough like, grape fields and
orange trees, or orange what arethose orange orchards? And it's
(32:16):
flat, and I'm like, wow, whereis this Sequoia Park going to
show up. Well, it's up in thefour to 7000 foot range, up in
the mountains. I think it's theSierra Nevada mountain chain
that I can see off in thedistance. But the drive up to it
was different than I've beenused to like when I think of the
Great Smoky Mountains or theColorado Rocky Mountains. It
doesn't look that way at all.It's very different. But as I
(32:39):
pulled up into three rivers. Irealized, man, this area of the
country hasn't had a lot ofwater. There was a big the lake
that's right there was way down.And it just was a different
topography, different look andfeel. Even the river that I was
gonna stay on with the cabins,there wasn't much water in it at
all. So just a littledescription of that.
But as I got to three rivers,and I realized this is not gonna
(33:00):
work, I was driving around. Iwas trying to pull up something
on my phone. I wasn't able toget access on things. So I saw
this real estate company that Idriven past. And so I drove up
all the way up to almost thepark entrance back down in Three
Rivers, which is a little townright outside of Sequoia
National Park. And I drove backdown to this real estate
company. I walked in and metthis young woman and struck up a
(33:22):
conversation with her loan. Isaid, Do y'all have any
properties? She began to lookfor me, and lo and behold, she
got out there on Airbnb, and wefound a place for me to stay. It
was about three and a half tofour miles off of Three Rivers,
which ultimately, after I stayedthere, I realized I would have
liked to have been closer. Iwould have liked to have been in
the Three Rivers area, but itwas out secluded, peaceful,
(33:45):
beautiful by the river. Therewas more water coming through
that branch of the river. Can'tremember the name of it, but it
was really pretty and secludedand peaceful. So I had a little
cottage, a guest cottage there,which was really nice.
So I think I'll stop here. Ihaven't yet entered Sequoia
National Park. That happened thenext day. I just kind of
(34:06):
anchored down for that night andgot settled in that place, in
the cottage. But what I'll saythere is sort of, again, the
whole, you know, trusting theuniverse, and I knew that I'd
figure something out. And worstcase scenario, I'd just take the
sheets and comforter and throwsome crap outside of my SUV and
sleep in the SUV that night. Iguess I would have done that's
(34:26):
what I would have done, but Iwas able to find a place, and
that's where I stayed my firstnight, and I stayed for two
nights there at Three Riversbefore then heading up to
Yosemite. So I'll tell you aboutthe Sequoia National Park
experience, where Nelly and Itake our first significant hike
in the backpack, which wasawesome. Kings Canyon, and then
(34:49):
getting up to Yosemite in thenext episode.
So I'll close this episode. Youknow, what would I say at that
point in the journey? Right? I'mabout 12-13, days in, I have to
be at Yosemite, October the12th, and it's like now October
the 10th. So get two nights 10thand 11th in Sequoia, or in Three
(35:11):
Rivers, which I really love. Thecommunity of Three Rivers. I
went to the Three Rivers BrewingCompany there, which was
awesome. Had a fantastic meal atthe restaurant that was right
next to it, and I can't rememberthe name of it. It was awesome.
And just met some really coolpeople. Got to talking to some
people at the brewery and andstruck up a conversation with a
(35:31):
couple from Wisconsin. They wereGreen Bay outside Green Bay,
they were cheeseheads. And thenthis other group of people that
were from just outside Atlanta,I think, is where they're from,
and we just had a greatconversation.
But anyway, close, sort ofclosing this episode, where am I
ontologically, you know, I'm 12days in by myself, but having an
(35:52):
amazing time, very relaxed, veryat peace, the place that I'm
staying is out a ways, and thereare wild animals. As I was
pulling in, back in the firstnight from dinner, there was a
coyote or wolf running down thedriveway. You know, I got Nelly
secured in the cottage, so she'sokay. But much of the notes from
(36:13):
that Airbnb were like, there arewildlife out here. There are
bears, there are other things,predators that will eat your
dog. So they're your, yeah, youranimals, so make sure to take
care of them. But it's goingreally well. So far, I've
refined my process of getting inand out. I've dialed in how I've
packed the car. Things are goingreally cool at this point. And
(36:35):
the next day, I will be enteringSequoia National Park, which was
really, really fantastic. SoI'll stop it there. I hope this
has been entertaining, useful,helpful, I don't know what for
you. Hope you've still stayedall the way with me here, and
I'll stop the episode at thispoint, and we'll pick up from
there on the next episode.
(36:57):
Well, my friends, that's a wrapfor today. I'm so grateful you
joined me, and hope you feelenergized by the insights we
took a deeper look at together.If anything resonated with you
or inspired new thinking, dropme a note. I'd love to hear your
biggest takeaway. Please join menext time, as we dive deeper
into this never ending journeyof self discovery. Until then,
(37:18):
be well. Be present. Live fullyand authentically, wake up and
pay attention.
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