After piling on almost 1,200 miles in my car over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I needed a moment to reflect on how awesome of a month November was. Normally, I would dislike November because the days are so short and cold and the only task available in the garden is cleanup but this year, November has been a great month.

My aunt and I have been free of my mom since the middle of the month and we’re both screaming “Freedom!” off the top of our lungs as we tried to cram as many adventures as we could in the few short weeks. My mom will be home in two days and I’m dreading having my freedom, peace, and quiet be taken away again.

In November, before heading off to my Thanksgiving road trip, I completed probably one of the biggest garden project I’ve taken on to-date by transforming the pile of rocks my mom forced me to put in 4 years ago into a garden. I removed quite a bit of rocks during the transformation process. I removed rocks by the bucket load. It was tedious work but it was worth when the end result meant less rocks in the garden.

My aunt and I got to see the largest display of Christmas lights in Utah. I last went to this show in 2023 and I’m so glad I went again this year because it’s a little different than when I saw it last.

Normally, a road trip would feel like the days flew by but this road trip, I felt like it lasted more than 4 days. I’m not sure whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Perhaps it had to do with the pace of things. My aunt and I like to take things slow, unlike my mom who controls when I do stuff like go to sleep, shower, and wake up. Unlike traveling with my mom, our travel days don’t begin at 5 AM and end at 3:30 PM, no, our travel days starts at around 7:30 AM and ends at around 8 PM. My aunt and I didn’t eat ramen on our trip either, we went to town and savored local barbecues and top rated restaurants on Google Maps. Overall, it was one of the best road trip I’ve ever had.

We took a scenic plane tour over Grand Canyon during the first day of our trip. I was excited and nervous all day because I’ve never done anything like this before but once the plane was in the air, I relaxed and enjoyed the surreal landscape outside the window that was the Grand Canyon.

We spent the next day seeing the Grand Canyon from the tourist perspective by walking along the Rim trail before heading north to the Horseshoe Bend. For me, this was a re-do from 2023 when I couldn’t capture the beauty of the Horseshoe Bend in full light. I had to conquer my fear this time by leaning closer to the edge to capture the entire thing.

Day 3 was the most adventurous, in my opinion, as we spent the morning at Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park near Kanab, Utah. This place has served as the backdrop to many Hollywood movies, such as Arabian Nights in 1942. After that, we headed back into town to wait for our 1 PM tour to the Great Chamber and Peek-a-boo slot canyon. The Great Chamber is one of two trails located at the White Cliffs, which can only be access by all-terrain vehicles. I was also a nervous to be on an ATV for the first time but my guide assured me that it was perfectly safe. Both of these spots were absolutely breathtaking and I loved the pace of the tour.

So, now what?

Somehow, I feel like December is one of the shortest and one of the longest months of the year. Shortest because of the number of weeks I will be working and longest because of the number of days I won’t be working. There is also no Christmas festivities at home, at least, not with my mom here, which makes the month extra long because I won’t be going on any road trips. I don’t know what’s in store in December yet but I hope it’ll be good.