We finally made it to Holbrook in one piece, albeit much later than we cared to. Our first stop was this fossil shop off the main drag. I was also super into dinosaurs back then and I wanted to see what this tiny shop had for sale. Turns out they had Jack Shit for sale. That is, if a dinosaur named Jack made the coprolite (fossilized poop) that my parents bought for me. Some parents buy their kids postcards or other trinkets as a trip souvenir. Mine…well they’re not your average parents. I had a good talk with the owner of the shop and he assured me that it was a genuine piece of crap. To this day I honestly think it was probably what’s called a concretion, which can form around pretty much anything and sometimes look like poop, but I’m just an amateur here. Could actually be real. 14-year-old me thought it was real and that’s what mattered dang it!

We stayed at the Super 8 Motel for the duration of our visit to Holbrook and what I remember of it was nice. Our room was pretty spacious, enough to fit three growing/hyperactive boys and two aging parents. No complaints from any of us. Dad went on his job interview and I can’t remember how we killed time at that point, we might have wandered around town or we might have just stayed at the motel. I don’t even remember how the job interview went, but later on we did go see a bunch of houses, so maybe it did go well. Wonder what my life would be like today if we HAD moved to Holbrook? Hm…

The next few stories aren’t necessarily told in chronological order because I can’t remember the exact order they happened in. We actually went to Holbrook twice so some of these stories might have happened on our second visit. Ah well, read on!

At some point, we went to this antique/knickknack store in a place called Joseph City. The store heavily banked on the fact that it was located on Historic Route 66; there were multiple signs that kept telling people how close they were to the store. A giant “HERE IT IS” sign with a jackrabbit marked the spot where the store stood. A giant jackrabbit sculpture served as a popular spot for people to take photos. Take a look at 14-year-old me braving my fear of heights and taming the wild jackrabbit in its natural habitat.

After perusing the shop and perhaps buying something (again, can’t remember, it’s been about 12 years so give me some credit here), we headed back to Holbrook to do some house shopping. Another little detail about me is that at the time I was scared of big dogs. I don’t know where this fear came from (especially since we had a big dog a few years before our Arizona trip) and I love all furry animals these days, but it was a genuine fear. One of the houses we went to had a very friendly dog that just happened to weigh, oh, 100 pounds or better. I caught sight of the dog and took off running. The dog thought it was a game and gave chase. The realtor laughed and my parents kind of chuckled too as the dog that thought I was playing chased the boy who thought he was going to lose his life by way of a brutal mauling. When the dog finally let up, the realtor took us to this shop and bought us kids some snacks while the adults talked shop. She was really nice.

At some point we all headed out to the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff. (OK, before we go on, I just remembered this was back in ’07 and was not part of our ’08 trip. I’m still gonna include it because it’s too late to go back now.) This was the place where Clyde Tombaugh first discovered Pluto and it was really neat to see the very telescope that he used. The trip was very informative, a solid 10/10, and even know-it-all me learned some new things there. Here’s a pic of our family at the observatory. I’m the kid in a denim jacket and…of all choices…shorts. I swear my fashion sense has gotten a lot better over the years.

I so wish I had photos of our trip to the old Holbrook courthouse. Sadly for some reason we didn’t think to take them. Oh well, I can still share that story here. So the courthouse that we toured was kind of like a museum. You could see the place where the old mail runners, running a route similar to the Pony Express, would do their business. There was a lot of information on the town and the state in general. But the coolest part for me and mom was the old jail cells, which were free to explore. Our tour guide told ghost stories of people hearing things that aren’t there, doors opening and closing by themselves, all the cliche stuff. I swear to this day I heard a clanking and a growl right after she finished and I took off running and never looked back. When we left we saw a homeless guy either pooping or throwing up in public. Can’t remember which, we’ve seen both at different times and even though it involves stuff coming out of opposite ends, I always get those experiences mixed up.

Part 1: https://johnnysjots.travel.blog/2020/02/05/arizona-adventure-part-i/
Part 3: Coming soon

This blog’s got a lot of ground to cover. I’ve been traveling since I was a toddler, taking photos of my travels since 2008, exploring ghost towns since 2009, and traveling in my own vehicle since 2015. This post will cover what I consider to be my first “classic” adventure. You’ll see what I mean by that here soon.

All the way back in the year 2008, when Katy Perry was just getting her start on the radio and ER hadn’t quite ended yet, my family lived in Brigham City for a few months. I was, obviously, with them, being a 14-year-old, as were my two brothers. We had sold our house in Roy, which is basically turning into a bedroom community for Ogden, and were potentially looking to move to the Grand Canyon State: Arizona. Dad was looking at taking a job at a hog farm and we were all going to look for houses in the beautiful Route 66 city of Holbrook. For a little context before we start here, I was super into astronomy back in those days. I packed a couple of astronomy magazines with me on this trip because we were going to the Lowell Observatory in our spare time, which was where the (now-ex) planet Pluto was discovered. That’s what I was looking forward to the most.

Disaster struck during the first couple hours of our journey. Our car broke down on the side of Highway 6 in Spanish Fork Canyon before the sun had even come up. It was February and the spring warmth was still over a month away, so we boys got real cold real fast. While we spelled “HELP” in the fogged up windows, dad (a trained mechanic) looked at the engine and tried to figure out what was wrong with it. I think it had something to do with the timing belt, I can’t remember exactly, but I do remember it wasn’t a quick fix and we needed to get to a mechanic. We had to wait by the side of the road for someone to stop and help us out, but the problem was, we had broke down around a curve. It would be hard for someone to stop after seeing us.

You may be asking yourself, “Why wouldn’t you just call a tow truck?” Well, dear reader, that is an excellent question. Let me tell you something about my parents at the time. They were way behind on the times. Dad had a work phone, but it didn’t get reception in that canyon, and that was the only phone we had on us. The sun had risen by the time a good Samaritan FINALLY stopped and asked if we needed help. Dad rode back to the town of Spanish Fork with him and thankfully the man wasn’t a serial killer. They stopped when dad had reception to call a tow truck. After what felt like hours but couldn’t have been more than two at most, we were towed into town. I rode in the tow truck with the tow truck driver and dad, and the tow truck driver was pretty nice.

At this point, we weren’t sure if we would even be able to make it to Arizona on time. Dad’s interview was supposed to be later that day, but obviously that wasn’t going to happen. We waited several hours at a repair shop for the issue (timing belt?) to be fixed, and while we waited we kind of wandered around downtown Spanish Fork for a bit. Finally, in the early afternoon, the car was done and the total for the repairs came to an exact $666. Coincidence or an omen for what was to come? You be the judge as you read on. Dad paid the repair costs, called the hog farm to reschedule the interview, they were understanding and rescheduled it for the next day, and we were back on the road!

It was getting dark by the time we reached the tourist trap town of Moab. My brother and I, bored out of our heads, started singing a song as we crossed the mighty Colorado River. “The Colorado River, the perfect place for fishing.” We sang it in different accents and we still occasionally reference it to this day. I believe it was a weekend and there might have been something going on in town, because pretty much all of the hotels off the main highway were full. The sun had sank below the horizon and the stars were out in full force as we drove to the next town: Monticello. Luckily there was room at a hotel on the north edge of town, so this is where we stayed. I remember standing outside and gazing up at the numerous stars in wonder. It was beautiful out.

The next day, we loaded back up into the car and continued our long-delayed journey into Arizona. We got gas in Blanding and an idea popped in my head. My mother had brought her digital camera, one of those big bulky ones that had those even bigger memory cards that only held, like, a couple gigs of data, and I had the bright idea of taking that camera and SMASHING IT WITH A HAMMAH! Nah, I just wanted to take photos of our trip. I snapped that photo up there when we got gas and that is the first photo I ever took with a digital camera. From Blanding, it was another…*checks Google Maps* three hours and thirty-eight minutes to Holbrook. And the drive took us through the beautiful and iconic Monument Valley.

Monument Valley is best known as the place where most spaghetti westerns filmed various scenes with cowboys and Indians and all the other cliche western stuff. Back To The Future Part III even filmed a scene here, the one where Marty travels back to 1885 in the parking lot of an abandoned drive-in movie theater. (0-88 MPH in that short distance? Puh-lease) We didn’t actually stop as we drove through this iconic American desert landscape…but I did whip out that trusty camera that mom had lent me and snapped a bunch of photos along the way. And what a beautiful place it is. Bear in mind that I took these in a moving car, so they’re not the best quality, but I still took them and they’re still my babies! OK?!

Part 2: https://johnnysjots.travel.blog/2020/02/05/arizona-adventure-part-ii/

Anyone remember that song from High School Musical? “Start Of Something New”? Congratulations, that song will now be stuck in your head.

For those of you who know me, I need no introduction. For those that don’t, well, your first impression of me was a High School Musical reference and I can’t promise my posts won’t have similar references/jokes. Consider yourself warned, I am highly sarcastic and this won’t be a conventional travel blog.

I’ve technically been making posts about my travels for years now. Facebook and Instagram have been a great way to share my travel stories with my friends and family. Since 2009, I’ve traveled over 60,000 miles all across the country. From high deserts to low wetlands, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean, I’ve been to hundreds of small towns, big cities, and abandoned towns. I’ve met probably thousands of people with thousands of different personalities, customs, and some with business opportunities. One of those opportunities led to me living in the Nevada desert for two years, working as a tour guide and bartender, sowing wild oats in one of the state’s oldest bars and sometimes in Sin City itself. I actually wrote a book about my Nevada life and adventures appropriately named “Johnny’s Jots: Adventures In The Nevada Desert.”

But you didn’t come here to listen to me plug my book, which is for sale for $15 per copy at the Pioneer Saloon, Silver Reef Museum ($20 per copy here), and my house. You either came specifically to read my travel stories or you just happened upon this blog and thought to yourself, “Self, let’s see what this guy is about.” Hopefully I haven’t scared you off yet. One thing I get asked a lot when I travel and share my stories with the people I meet is, “Do you have a travel blog?” Every time I get asked that, the answer is a resounding “no”. Now, I have written blog posts before. I used to have a Blogspot blog (in the days before it was called “Blogger”) that never saw any success. I abandoned it years ago and haven’t made an attempt at a travel blog since then. Until now, that is. I actually don’t plan on abandoning this one no matter how successful/unsuccessful it is.

As I said earlier, this won’t be your conventional travel blog. Not only do I plan on writing about my travels in a uniquely fresh way, I’ll also be giving you travel tips, do’s and don’ts, and anything else my mind can think of. I’d say you’ll never get bored on my blog, but chances are I don’t know you personally, so how can I know that? I’ll just say I’ll do my best to keep you entertained and engaged. So what are you waiting for? Hit that subscribe button and get notified by email every time I post! You can also follow me on Instagram (johnnysjots) and Facebook (Johnny’s Jots). I’m signing off for now, but stay tuned for my first non-introductory blog post! Go 49’ers!