St. George to Moab, and Wishing Well by The New Hippies
What a beautiful drive full of empty space and awe-inspiring rocks. That pretty much sums up Day 2. We drove 340 more miles through Utah and honestly the whole thing was pretty breathtaking. It really does a lot to remind you of your relative insignificance in my opinion. But in a really nice way. In a way that makes you grateful to be alive and on the planet at this moment. We stopped off for a bit at the Salt Wash view point about halfway through the ride and took some photos that I really can’t wait to see because I think I got a really nice photo of Bryana. We’re at the hotel now and we’re done for the night. Tomorrow we’ll have breakfast, hang out in Moab, maybe have lunch in Arches national park and then we’re off to Denver, which I’m excited to visit again.
Two other things happened today that were noteworthy to me. First, we passed the site of a photo I took when I drove through Utah the first time in 2015, on my way to California to move into the house on Jacaranda. The first time I drove across the country I went with Frankie, my best friend growing up. I didn’t know anything about what the country looked like outside of places I had been for vacations, sports tournaments, or school, and it really opened up my world. In addition to that, that trip kind of felt like the beginning of the rest of my life at the time, because I packed my car full of all my things and took it to California, feeling like a man on a mission to make it somewhere, somehow. Seeing that same ridge on route 70 brought back a lot of memories and made me feel proud to have taken myself this far down the road. Which brings me to the second thing that happened.
At the onset of our drive this morning, I was feeling frustrated, which is becoming a very familiar feeling on release days. Today, Wishing Well by The New Hippies is out in the world, about six years after its creation. Honestly, this may be my favorite New Hippies song of all time. It feels right to me - everything that The New Hippies means to me, how The New Hippies sounds sonically to me, and the essence and attitude of The New Hippies - it’s all in this song. It encapsulates my modern mood as an artist in my 20s, and as a man in this world. Though I find myself disillusioned, turned off, and my nature is generally to say nay, I push myself to stay open, to remember the good times, and to hope for the best for everyone. I really, really, hope you listen to Wishing Well, even if it’s the only release of ours that you listen to this year. This song is really special to all of us. But these songs (New Hippies songs in particular) are going mostly unheard, and to be honest it hurts my heart. I can’t make total sense out of it, but rest assured I’ll keep trying to breakthrough.
Anyway, that struggle is what leaves me feeling extremely frustrated, so I was venting and ranting about it as I started driving. I was saying something like, “It’s really annoying to be not be able to get to where you want to go, where you feel like you should be” and then BOOM. Dead stop in traffic on the highway. A truck was carrying a carnival ride that fell over and started a brush fire, and we ended up stuck in park on the highway for over an hour. Funny how that happens, isn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like the universe is listening? All you can really do is trust in yourself, do what you say you’re going to do, have faith and be patient. It’ll come.
Off to Denver tomorrow.
-J.P.