A Venture Into The Stars

 

Hey all! Dana here (I’m in the middle)! I thought I’d write a little bit about our recent travel, if y’all would entertain me~ (Originally written January 26th, 2019)

First off, I’d like to give credit to Ben (mruncredible.com ) for this FANTASTIC shot of us (him, Dan, and I) near Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. We decided to make a stop on our long drive to our hotel in Durango, Colorado, after telling the guys that I’d never seen the night sky without light pollution blocking out most of the stars. I’d always wanted to so badly, ever since I was a wee girl. So we drove about a mile or so off the already very dark highway we’d been on, eventually pulling off a country road and parking in the middle of straight-up nowhere, with no light of civilization in sight. 

This was by no means the flashiest location that pancake art had ever taken us… this job has given us the most surreal of opportunities– to stroll about London and to entertain guests in its Castle, to go into the tallest skyscraper in the world and make the portrait of the prince of Dubai, to walk among and interact with big-name celebrities in Hollywood, even to sit in a five-star restaurant on a cruise and sip champagne with the great nephew of Walt Disney. But despite all of those experiences, despite all the wonderful moments this job has allowed me to live through, there was just something especially surreal about opening up the door of that Nissan Rogue, stepping outside onto the dessert dirt and into the crisp winter air, and peering upward into an almost frighteningly detailed night sky. 

The galaxy stared back down at us, millions upon millions of points of cool blue and brilliant white, sprawled across whispy clouds of light (which Dan quietly informed me was the Milky Way). You couldn’t even look at it all at once, nor could you even focus on one spot and begin to process all that was in it. A haunting, deathly quiet surrounded us, our hushed voices and light footsteps the only sounds interrupting the silence, as we slowly paced around in the dark and gawked up at the sky. The frigid cold of the desert seeped into our jackets and quickly froze our hands and faces, and the overwhelming, existential feeling of both our insignificance and the hugeness of everything was all that we– or at least, I–felt. It was one of the most breathtaking and awe-inspiring moments of my life. 

I have been continuously, almost painfully thankful and humbled by this silly pancake job and all the doors that it has opened for my team and me. I’m thankful for our clients who like our work enough to have us travel all over the world to entertain them, and who provide us with moments and lifelong memories like these (like Fort Lewis College , who had us come out to Durango for this event, thank you!), We’re dually thankful to all of you who follow us along on our ridiculous pancake adventures. We only hope that it’s entertaining, and that our gratitude and appreciation shows in our attitude, content, and in the ridiculous art we make for you all. 🙏🏻❤️