Officer Neighbor / Sno Cones in the Cage

Officer Neighbor / Sno Cones in the Cage 

During my later college years I was doing a lot of hitchhiking -- photos and stories circulated my friend group. The economical and extreme nature of this form of travel was appealing to so many of my peers. Eventually I had a few friends who requesting that I sherpa them to different parts of the American west via hitching. My small town fame grew as some people criticized me for light-hearted lifestyle, others grew envious and wanted to join the fun. The seasons were changing from spring to summer and it was prefect season to sleep on the side of the road across the country. A good friend of mine —Sean— was able to get a few days off from work and was hoping to see the North Rim. I had yet to experience the Alpine Rim of the Grand Canyon so I was happy to oblige —oh boy did we end up having an adventure. 

Who is Sean? Well this absurdly handsome dude is one of the most level headed and fun individuals I have ever met. This combined with his knowledge of mixed material arts and passion for smoking pot made him an ideal hitchhiking partner. I knew that no matter what Sean was going to have an open mind and always have my back. 

Now arriving to the North Rim is an entirely different and amazing story of its own, but today I want to focus on our journey back to Colorado. Standing in the sun just several hundred meters from the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park, we were quite the sight for the passing tourist. 

Interesting conversations never fail to ensue when spending untold hours with another dude in the desert sun. Things always stay pretty light-hearted on the road and conversation usually doesn’t stray far from what girls we were chasing and what gas-station meal we were going to consume next. 

Thats when it happened —a sight that I will never get comfortable seeing— a state trooper slowly rolled up to us and stopped a few meters away (good luck catching a ride when the boys in blue are there with their lights flashing). Squinting through the afternoon sun I raised my hand to shade my face. Inside the car I could see a middle aged male officer checking in on his radio. 

“Don’t worry man, I know this guy. He is cool.” I reassured Sean as the officer opened his door and approached us, “how’s it been Officer Neighbor?”

“Caleb?!” The policeman recognized me on approach, “another disciple?” The officer gestured towards Shane. 

“Haha just another friend who wants to explore the world on a budget” 

“Well come on I’ll take you as far as I can.” Neighbor swiveled on his heels and started back towards his cruiser. 

Alright let me take a minute to explain to you the same thing I had to explain to Sean as we were removing our packs and trying to squeeze them in the trunk of an Utah State Patrolman’s Charger, next to his tactical shotgun. Like I have mentioned before I spent a lot of time hitching across the American West during my former years of college. During a previous trip (hitching with Dusty through some of Utahs National Parks) I met Officer Neighbor —a real public servant. This guy never made me feel like a criminal (unlike many other cop-encounters that I have experienced in my journeys). 

After the packs were stuffed into the truck I let Shane take the passengers seat and I climbed into “the cage.” I couldn’t stop smiling as I watched stoned-Sean nervously attempt to make small talk with Officer Helper. We filled our cop-buddy in on our plan and he said he had the perfect canyon for us to backpack into for the night, but first snow-cones. 

We pulled up to a local kids snow-cone stand and picked our flavors (I obviously went with “Tigers-Blood”). Officer Neighbor was gracious enough to pay for our frozen treats and I noticed some locals snapping pictures as he opened the door to the cage and told me to watch my head as I crawled in the back with my sno-cone (we decided that I was probably the first and more than likely the last person to eat a sno-cone in cage of Utah State Patrol Vehicle.) 

About 50 miles down the road we were unloading our packs at the Escalante River Canyon. Neighbor tipped us off on some of the better slot canyons in the system. We said our goodbyes and headed down the sandy desert trail fueled by sugar. The trail crossed the river multiple times and passed a beautiful enormous arch. 

When we finally made it to our spot, the night was so beautiful that we decided to not set up the tents, but instead rolled out our sleeping-pads on a nice sandy spot. After a few Bud-Light Ritas we passed out in the sand watching the miraculous display of desert night skys. No worries.