In college--like for real a while ago, I'm older than old balls now (I'm 30!!)--I wanted to start a blog that talked about the hard and weird and awkward. If you are out engaging with the world, then you probably encounter diversity every day. And it's often hard and weird and awkward to navigate that diversity. I think diversity is good for us, because it should make us examine our beliefs and opinions and either make us stronger in our convictions or make us open our minds up a bit to other possibilities.

With the trend some people are subscribing to of sharing every political or propaganda post they see and posting every time they fart, I've tried to keep myself as far away from Facebook as possible. However, every once in a while I get sucked in. I very firmly believe that if someone is saying bigoted things and you keep quiet, you are just as bad as the person being an asshole. That often makes for uncomfortable confrontations.

For me, it's far easier to get upset over something that is hurtfully directed at people I care about rather than myself. My only "marginalized" status is that of a woman. While I will fight every chance I get for a woman's rights, I've never had to choose. I have been put in uncomfortable situations work-wise and had to fight a man off after saying no, but ultimately, I've lived a life fairly free of bullying.

A "friend" on Facebook has started a crusade on the trans/gender fluid/gender dysphoric community. As I said, I don't get on Facebook often, and this person posts every time she farts, so her posts are frequent, but I saw the first comments a few months ago and didn't say anything. The second time I didn't say anything. The third time, I had to engage. I turned to modern science and the things I've learned from trainings I've taken for work with my LGBTQ+ students. She turned to the Bible and Bible YouTube videos. I do not think Facebook is the place to have these kinds of conversations, but I live 10 hours away so a conversation over coffee wasn't an option. Literally nothing got accomplished by my actions other than me unfriending her. Sometimes, you can know your stuff, have the research and the science to back you, and yet, you will never win the argument with a person  who's only source of knowledge comes from one source.

And the worst part is, she could say the same about me. She told me "science changes like the wind" and that the only thing that has lasted is the word of God. As much as I can't wrap my head around it, that's her reality. What's even more annoying about the whole interaction, was that I couldn't stop thinking about it. I felt uncomfortable confronting her. I felt so incredibly sad that there are people who feel differently than I do on this topic. I was a thousand percent sure I was the "right" person in the debate. I wanted other people to back me up in my comments and "like" what I was saying. I wanted to "win" the argument. Yet I really knew there was no "winning" because neither of us would change our minds.

So, how do we deal with these kinds of interactions? The kind part of me says that we agree to disagree and continue living our lives avoiding all conversation of such a subject. The idealist part of me says that we keep having the conversations and in the best kind of world, the person I was talking to would try to go out and have conversations with people of the LGBTQ+ community and broaden her world view and I would go with her to her church to broaden mine. In a Trumpian world, we turn things into "us" and "them" and divide ourselves clearly and distinctly from "those people" and "the other." I want to believe that having conversations with people who think differently from me is healthy for me. I want to believe it makes me grow, learn, and fortify my own beliefs or consider others.

As much as I thought I could offer great mounds of advice about navigating uncomfortable situations when I started this blog, I don't think I have an answer on this one. I do think if you believe strongly about something, you should always speak up. I also think it's OK to limit your contact with people who continuously make you feel uncomfortable or attacked or bullied. The world is full of different points of view--that's what makes it interesting, it's also why they say "two heads are better than one."  Don't be afraid to be one of those heads that are thinking and speaking and changing.

Yadi and I have a vow: to go on as many adventures as humanly possible, have a snuggle every day, and always come back. The last part meaning if I go on vacation and he stays with family or if I go to work, I will always come home. His side of that part of the promise is to always come when I call but sometimes he's not as good as he should be at that.

Yadi paddle boarding in Routt
National Forest

Traveling with a dog is not always the easiest thing. Sometimes he gets carsick. Sometimes he won't eat or drink very much on the road. While he's good about not barking when we leave him in the van or at home, there's no leaving him alone in a hotel room or another strange place because he'll cry for hours. It's always in the back of my mind that someone will break a window in the van if they see him, but we'd never leave him without the vent fan regulating the van's temperature. 

Yadi riding in my lap. Abba in the
doggie slot between seats. 

Even still, traveling with my dog is the greatest thing. He never has any idea where we're going, but damn he's pumped to be along for the ride. My most favorite thing in the van is that his favorite riding spot is in my lap so he can watch the journey. He's way too big to be a lap dog, but we make it work. 

One of the most disappointing things about traveling with a dog is that most national parks don't allow dogs. In many of them, it makes sense. They're crowded. Trails are narrow. There's wildlife. People don't bring adequate water and supplies for themselves let alone for their animals. In short, humans are just not always very conscientious of others, their surroundings, or their charges (I say charges because I've witnessed many people not pay attention to their children's actions either). The good part is that most national parks are surrounded by national forests and other public lands.

Poor altitude sick nugget

We learned about this rule at Yadi's first national park: Grand Teton in Wyoming last summer. It kind of worked out because the hike we wanted to do can be accessed from the western side of the Tetons (not part of the park), and we will get to do it this fall. We did a shorter hike, and Yadi had altitude sickness so he didn't want to go out anyway. We shifted our plans to hit Yellowstone the next day--more of a driving national park--so that Yaddles could continue sleeping. 

Working out with the Tetons in view
at our free site in Bridger-Teton
National Forest

Free campsite somewhere near Monument Valley
at a site called Mexican Hat for the rock formation

This spring we made another big van trip right after taking in a foster dog, Abba--named for Jared's love of music and because she's always making noises. We've since become foster fails and she's officially taken the vow with us, but that's something for another post maybe. We traveled through Utah spending most of our time on Bureau of Land Management land (BLM land) and state parks, then we traveled on to the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and back through Utah BLM lands. While we were spending time near Moab, we drove through Arches National Park at sunset. In the Grand Canyon, we stayed in Kaibab National Forest--dirt road access off the main road in the national park. We got to experience the park in a way most people probably don't. I had no idea there was a forest surrounding the Grand Canyon. There's a lookout tower where we watched the sunrise over the Grand Canyon. And we only spoke to one other person. The Grand Canyon does allow dogs on trails above the rim. They also have a kennel where we could take the dogs to stay while Jared and I went for a day hike down into the canyon. We dropped them off at 7:30 am open time and picked them up at 4:30 pm making the most of our day with a long hike, grocery stop, and shower.

All of us at the south rim
of the Grand Canyon

Yadi and Abba hiking Red
Canyon near Panguitch, Utah

Bryce has a similar policy: dogs above rim on limited section of the rim trail. But there were so many people at Bryce! We pretty much wandered the dogs-allowed section of trail and headed out. The BLM land trails of Grand Staircase-Escalante and the Red Canyon near Panguitch, Utah provided miles and miles of trails with minimal foot traffic. Also, Panguitch has the cutest theater in the world where we watched Endgame. 

Wild horses somewhere between
Mexican Hat and Monument
Valley near the Utah/Arizona boarder

Where I'm from there's not a lot of public land. I've always thought of Nebraska as being this wide open country, but it's not from a freedom standpoint. Nebraska has a landscape interrupted by fences and property lines. It's beautiful, in it's own way, but heading west gives open spaces a new meaning. It's not be wide open fields where you can see for miles. It's land with trails and adventure open to everyone. I don't think I really understood how much space is out there with free camping and quiet. We've even stumbled upon wild horses on a run. No fences. This is what all of those dumb songs I had to sing in grade school music class were about: public lands are your land and my land. This land really is made for you and me. 

Overlooking the canyon at
Dead Horse Point State
Park near Moab

There's a reason national parks are incredible. They encompass as much of the cool things going on in the area as they can and show it off. However, you can often see parts of the same wonders for free, with your dogs, in the areas around them. We'll always have a national parks pass hanging in the window of the van. We plan on visiting the backside of Grand Teton in Driggs, Idaho this fall and taking that aforementioned hike, then heading up to Glacier and Banff Nationals Parks, but you can bet the park time will be shorter on our trip and the unmanned wilderness time abundant.