An account of my roadtrip 2010 and life afterwards.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
New Years is close
As kids, I think we always imagine and believe that we will have this perfect life. I’m going to be a movie star, a rock star, an astronaut, a firefighter, an athlete, a jedi. I’m going to marry the most beautiful girl, have a big house, great kids, and a perfect job. As we grow up we slowly figure out that life isn’t going to be perfect; it isn’t going to be everything we imagined. It turns out that I don't have what it takes to make it as a professional athlete or a rockstar. I probably wont make enough money to live in a big house, and I probably wont marry the girl of my dreams. Maybe life isn’t supposed to be perfect. Maybe it’s just a big challenge and the best we can do is get through it. Maybe what we’re supposed to do is find the people and do the things that help us best get through it. So I guess my goal for new years isn’t to start working out more, or to fall in love, or to get straight A’s, but rather, my goal is just to get by; to find people and do things that make all the challenges bearable and most of all to be happy with what and who I have in my life.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Times are a-changin
Times are a-changin
I have so much to say about so many different things I figured id just write a blog about it all. Don't expect this to be coherent or have any kind of flow at all. There has been a lot going on with the ultimate team, with my house, with my teaching, and with my life in general. Some things are falling apart and some things are coming together. I guess everything cant go right at the same time right?
The ultimate team has been in a way falling apart this semester. We’re having a team meeting tonight which will hopefully help figure some things out. I would say the A team guys average about 50% attendance. Things are just different than they have been in the past. For the last two years there has been a complete sense of community and even family among the team members. I know that in the past guys would’ve fought for each other, not just on the field but off it to. We have all been best friends, partied together, hung out, went on trips, ate dinner together, even lived together in a lot of cases. This year that same love of the team and of our teammates is nonexistent. We have struggled to keep freshmen on the team because we are struggling to have fun with the team. I don't blame people for not staying when I myself am not even having fun with the sport. The team is so divided into factions and cliques this year. Friendships that were there in the past have deteriorated into acquaintanceships? If that's a word. People are too busy, care more about too many other things, and don't care enough about the team.
The ultimate team will always be the first thing I remember about my time in college. The four years spent working hard to get to a goal that we set for ourselves. I still have that goal for our team and I still have hope that we can reach it. But in order to get there we need to get back to our roots. We’ve always been a really athletic and skilled team, but so is every good team in the country. The thing that has set us apart in the past was the chemistry, love, and willingness to die on the field for our teammates. I've never worried about getting injured or being too sore to go to class on Monday or not finishing an assignment because I was gone all weekend. I knew being on the team was worth all those sacrifices because I loved the guys on the team. I still feel that way and I hope that everyone else can get back to that too. I would sacrifice almost anything for this team. We’ve all already made huge sacrifices, maybe some have given too much of themselves and can’t give anymore but I know that I have more to give. I have eight or nine more months to be a wizard and in that time I want to see us succeed more than we ever have. To have that success on the field we need to become a family again off the field.
Next up: The house. The dynamics of our house have changed a ton this year also. That’s not to say that the house hasn’t been a blast all year, at least for me. I love my roommates and have had a great time with them this year. I consider all five guys I live with to be very good friends of mine and would drop everything if they were in a moment of need. Some stuff has happened this semester that has changed the feelings in the house. I guess it’s a lot of the same stuff that is going on with the team so ill try not to be redundant. I guess I just wish the house could all spend more time together and have as much fun with all of us as we used to. For the last two years, I have imagined that these would be the guys that would stand in my wedding right next to me as I made the big mistake…haaaaa. After college these are the guys I will still be close to. Go to Colts games with. Get together for a drink every Thursday night. Call up when I have a bad day. Hopefully that's how this goes.
Now to stop being a downer. I started going into the schools this week. Im observing/participating with two eighth grade prealgebra classes. Other than having to wake up at 615 every morning, I absolutely love it. I know for sure that teaching is what I want to do. My kids misbehave, are obnoxious, and don't understand a lot of stuff, but I love them. Theyre fun to be around. Even when they are out of control I still enjoy being in the classroom.
I've known for a while now that I wanted to teach and I knew that when I got into the classroom id enjoy it. I didn't know how I would respond to the whole part of being a role model and having to make a difference in kids lives. I kinda thought I would be the kind of teacher who would go to class and leave and not take my work home with me or think about my kids all that much when I left. Sounds bad when I put it like that haha. After being in the class with these kids I already know that I want to make a difference. Seeing them make the same mistakes that I made or that my friends made when we were their age makes me want to help them to not make those mistakes. There’s one kid in particular in my second period class that is, well lets just call him a classroom management problem. He gets great grades and is really not a bad kid at all, he just makes trouble in the class. He is in that spot where he thinks its cool to be disrespectful and to cause problems. He is going to grow up and realize that he shouldve acted differently and that he shouldve learned what he is supposed to be learning. I want to help him realize that and hopefully change his course that he is on. That is just one example that has already happened in only three days. I cannot wait to have my own classroom and be a teacher.
I guess that's about it for now. My life is going well all around I suppose. Im awfully busy with school and work and Frisbee and homework but its okay because I enjoy most of it. Im looking forward to being home on Friday since I haven’t been in a very long time. Too long. But it will be nice to be home for a night before I have to get up and go to our tournament which we will win. Sorry this ones so long, just a lot going on all at once. Its been kind of overwhelming and it feels good to get it out to the world even if no one reads it.
I have so much to say about so many different things I figured id just write a blog about it all. Don't expect this to be coherent or have any kind of flow at all. There has been a lot going on with the ultimate team, with my house, with my teaching, and with my life in general. Some things are falling apart and some things are coming together. I guess everything cant go right at the same time right?
The ultimate team has been in a way falling apart this semester. We’re having a team meeting tonight which will hopefully help figure some things out. I would say the A team guys average about 50% attendance. Things are just different than they have been in the past. For the last two years there has been a complete sense of community and even family among the team members. I know that in the past guys would’ve fought for each other, not just on the field but off it to. We have all been best friends, partied together, hung out, went on trips, ate dinner together, even lived together in a lot of cases. This year that same love of the team and of our teammates is nonexistent. We have struggled to keep freshmen on the team because we are struggling to have fun with the team. I don't blame people for not staying when I myself am not even having fun with the sport. The team is so divided into factions and cliques this year. Friendships that were there in the past have deteriorated into acquaintanceships? If that's a word. People are too busy, care more about too many other things, and don't care enough about the team.
The ultimate team will always be the first thing I remember about my time in college. The four years spent working hard to get to a goal that we set for ourselves. I still have that goal for our team and I still have hope that we can reach it. But in order to get there we need to get back to our roots. We’ve always been a really athletic and skilled team, but so is every good team in the country. The thing that has set us apart in the past was the chemistry, love, and willingness to die on the field for our teammates. I've never worried about getting injured or being too sore to go to class on Monday or not finishing an assignment because I was gone all weekend. I knew being on the team was worth all those sacrifices because I loved the guys on the team. I still feel that way and I hope that everyone else can get back to that too. I would sacrifice almost anything for this team. We’ve all already made huge sacrifices, maybe some have given too much of themselves and can’t give anymore but I know that I have more to give. I have eight or nine more months to be a wizard and in that time I want to see us succeed more than we ever have. To have that success on the field we need to become a family again off the field.
Next up: The house. The dynamics of our house have changed a ton this year also. That’s not to say that the house hasn’t been a blast all year, at least for me. I love my roommates and have had a great time with them this year. I consider all five guys I live with to be very good friends of mine and would drop everything if they were in a moment of need. Some stuff has happened this semester that has changed the feelings in the house. I guess it’s a lot of the same stuff that is going on with the team so ill try not to be redundant. I guess I just wish the house could all spend more time together and have as much fun with all of us as we used to. For the last two years, I have imagined that these would be the guys that would stand in my wedding right next to me as I made the big mistake…haaaaa. After college these are the guys I will still be close to. Go to Colts games with. Get together for a drink every Thursday night. Call up when I have a bad day. Hopefully that's how this goes.
Now to stop being a downer. I started going into the schools this week. Im observing/participating with two eighth grade prealgebra classes. Other than having to wake up at 615 every morning, I absolutely love it. I know for sure that teaching is what I want to do. My kids misbehave, are obnoxious, and don't understand a lot of stuff, but I love them. Theyre fun to be around. Even when they are out of control I still enjoy being in the classroom.
I've known for a while now that I wanted to teach and I knew that when I got into the classroom id enjoy it. I didn't know how I would respond to the whole part of being a role model and having to make a difference in kids lives. I kinda thought I would be the kind of teacher who would go to class and leave and not take my work home with me or think about my kids all that much when I left. Sounds bad when I put it like that haha. After being in the class with these kids I already know that I want to make a difference. Seeing them make the same mistakes that I made or that my friends made when we were their age makes me want to help them to not make those mistakes. There’s one kid in particular in my second period class that is, well lets just call him a classroom management problem. He gets great grades and is really not a bad kid at all, he just makes trouble in the class. He is in that spot where he thinks its cool to be disrespectful and to cause problems. He is going to grow up and realize that he shouldve acted differently and that he shouldve learned what he is supposed to be learning. I want to help him realize that and hopefully change his course that he is on. That is just one example that has already happened in only three days. I cannot wait to have my own classroom and be a teacher.
I guess that's about it for now. My life is going well all around I suppose. Im awfully busy with school and work and Frisbee and homework but its okay because I enjoy most of it. Im looking forward to being home on Friday since I haven’t been in a very long time. Too long. But it will be nice to be home for a night before I have to get up and go to our tournament which we will win. Sorry this ones so long, just a lot going on all at once. Its been kind of overwhelming and it feels good to get it out to the world even if no one reads it.
Monday, September 20, 2010
A little aftermath
Hans:
so i'm sitting in studio and i should be doing some work, but when you posted that badlands thing on my wall i got to thinking when i looked up the distance to there from here.
every time i think about that trip or look at a map of the united states i get this really weird feeling...i miss that trip so much. i wish we could just do that forever; just take a group of friends and drive around the country and live on our own and never stop exploring and investigating. i want to go back to the badlands and yellowstone and the black hills. i want to be back at big sur and yosemite. i want to hike the grand canyon again.
do you ever get those feelings just randomly? you stumble on something on the internet that reminds you of it? or you look at the pics from it or go back and read a blog? cause i do. all the time, actually. it gives me a little bit of an empty feeling in my stomach knowing that i'm not that free right now. but it makes me happy cause i can be whenever i want, if i really want to.
no matter what happens, we have to take another road trip next summer. all the east coast. we NEED to do it. it just won't be complete without it. we need to finish this journey. we need it. i'm going to figure out where my internship is going to be next summer and i'm going to base all my decisions for it around leaving that last month of the summer open for another trip. i love ya man. i'm so glad that we decided to take that trip - the first leg of an arguably much larger trip. we can talk more tonight or whatever, smoke some hookah and watch the game or whatever, but i miss it. and i need it again. need it.
Me
Yeah definitely. As soon as i posted that i started looking at my badlands pics. I effing love that place. I think between there and yellowstone was the epitome of the freedom of the trip. We had literally no plans at either place other than to do whatever looked cool. Like climbing to the highest point we could reach in the badlands haha.
But yeah i basically think about it every day and about how much i want to have that feeling again. It sucks being set into a mundane routine every day where most of my day is planned out for me. I feel like the road is where i belong. Like im from the wrong generation of 9-5 business men, all worried about money instead of living. I wish i was from kerouac's beat generation. All i care about is *living* and experiencing everything that should be experienced. I dont care about a house or a job or setting down roots.
And yeah i feel like the road trip while being a huge thing and incredible, was really just a stepping stone or the first leg to this whole bigger journey that is starting. Now is our time to figure out what we want to do with our lives which was basically what we were doing on the trip. I feel like that freedom is coming in the next couple of years and so far we have just gotten a taste of it. And now im dying for more.
I dont know, but yeah its definitely something we should talk about. Im down for hookah and talking.
so i'm sitting in studio and i should be doing some work, but when you posted that badlands thing on my wall i got to thinking when i looked up the distance to there from here.
every time i think about that trip or look at a map of the united states i get this really weird feeling...i miss that trip so much. i wish we could just do that forever; just take a group of friends and drive around the country and live on our own and never stop exploring and investigating. i want to go back to the badlands and yellowstone and the black hills. i want to be back at big sur and yosemite. i want to hike the grand canyon again.
do you ever get those feelings just randomly? you stumble on something on the internet that reminds you of it? or you look at the pics from it or go back and read a blog? cause i do. all the time, actually. it gives me a little bit of an empty feeling in my stomach knowing that i'm not that free right now. but it makes me happy cause i can be whenever i want, if i really want to.
no matter what happens, we have to take another road trip next summer. all the east coast. we NEED to do it. it just won't be complete without it. we need to finish this journey. we need it. i'm going to figure out where my internship is going to be next summer and i'm going to base all my decisions for it around leaving that last month of the summer open for another trip. i love ya man. i'm so glad that we decided to take that trip - the first leg of an arguably much larger trip. we can talk more tonight or whatever, smoke some hookah and watch the game or whatever, but i miss it. and i need it again. need it.
Me
Yeah definitely. As soon as i posted that i started looking at my badlands pics. I effing love that place. I think between there and yellowstone was the epitome of the freedom of the trip. We had literally no plans at either place other than to do whatever looked cool. Like climbing to the highest point we could reach in the badlands haha.
But yeah i basically think about it every day and about how much i want to have that feeling again. It sucks being set into a mundane routine every day where most of my day is planned out for me. I feel like the road is where i belong. Like im from the wrong generation of 9-5 business men, all worried about money instead of living. I wish i was from kerouac's beat generation. All i care about is *living* and experiencing everything that should be experienced. I dont care about a house or a job or setting down roots.
And yeah i feel like the road trip while being a huge thing and incredible, was really just a stepping stone or the first leg to this whole bigger journey that is starting. Now is our time to figure out what we want to do with our lives which was basically what we were doing on the trip. I feel like that freedom is coming in the next couple of years and so far we have just gotten a taste of it. And now im dying for more.
I dont know, but yeah its definitely something we should talk about. Im down for hookah and talking.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Addition thoughts/start of school
Additional thoughts/start of school
School started today. I had one class today. That class was boring. Its good to be back here and getting right back into the swing of things. Ultimate practice starts tonight, which im looking forward to more than I thought I would be. This could be my last season and I want it to be a great one. Our team is ready to put in the work needed to be great this year and personally, im ready too.
When we got back to school, it was pretty much just right back to the usual stuff. Not much has changed. We spent the weekend partying and hanging out with some of the best and most fun people I know. I've seen pretty much everyone now that ive been back for a couple of days.
One thing that Hans and I have talked about since being back is just that everyone should take the time to do what we did. Take a road trip. See this country. Sometime you are going to have to choose a place to live for a long time and when you are choosing wouldn’t it be nice to have been to a lot of different places so you can choose the right one. There is so much in this country to see that you are really depriving yourself if you don't go out and see it.
Even beyond roadtripping and seeing the country, simply do the things you want to do. If you want to take classes, do it. If you want to sky dive, do it. If you want to build a house, ride a horse, skinny dip, get a job, quit your job, move across the country, do it. It’s so easy to start making excuses for why you cant do something you really want to. I don't have the time. I don't have the money. Forget that stuff. Taking this trip is something I have wanted to do since I was in high school really. I never imagined we would actually make it happen; I figured it would be one of those things we always talked about wanting to do but never did. Well we actually did make it happen and ill never regret a single minute of it. So if you know of something you really want to do, but you keep telling yourself reasons you cant, forget that. As cliché as it sounds, follow your dreams. Don't let people get you down telling you about how you cant do something because it isn’t reasonable or anything like that. Being on the road for 30 days isn’t reasonable. Driving 9000 miles in a month isn’t reasonable. Driving through Florida and Washington state in one trip is not reasonable. But we did it and im damn glad we did.
I've learned a lot and at some point ill be able to put it down on paper. Ill try to keep blogging some and letting the world know what im up to.
School started today. I had one class today. That class was boring. Its good to be back here and getting right back into the swing of things. Ultimate practice starts tonight, which im looking forward to more than I thought I would be. This could be my last season and I want it to be a great one. Our team is ready to put in the work needed to be great this year and personally, im ready too.
When we got back to school, it was pretty much just right back to the usual stuff. Not much has changed. We spent the weekend partying and hanging out with some of the best and most fun people I know. I've seen pretty much everyone now that ive been back for a couple of days.
One thing that Hans and I have talked about since being back is just that everyone should take the time to do what we did. Take a road trip. See this country. Sometime you are going to have to choose a place to live for a long time and when you are choosing wouldn’t it be nice to have been to a lot of different places so you can choose the right one. There is so much in this country to see that you are really depriving yourself if you don't go out and see it.
Even beyond roadtripping and seeing the country, simply do the things you want to do. If you want to take classes, do it. If you want to sky dive, do it. If you want to build a house, ride a horse, skinny dip, get a job, quit your job, move across the country, do it. It’s so easy to start making excuses for why you cant do something you really want to. I don't have the time. I don't have the money. Forget that stuff. Taking this trip is something I have wanted to do since I was in high school really. I never imagined we would actually make it happen; I figured it would be one of those things we always talked about wanting to do but never did. Well we actually did make it happen and ill never regret a single minute of it. So if you know of something you really want to do, but you keep telling yourself reasons you cant, forget that. As cliché as it sounds, follow your dreams. Don't let people get you down telling you about how you cant do something because it isn’t reasonable or anything like that. Being on the road for 30 days isn’t reasonable. Driving 9000 miles in a month isn’t reasonable. Driving through Florida and Washington state in one trip is not reasonable. But we did it and im damn glad we did.
I've learned a lot and at some point ill be able to put it down on paper. Ill try to keep blogging some and letting the world know what im up to.
Friday, August 20, 2010
August 20th-thoughts
August 20th-thoughts
We woke up this morning and packed up for the drive home. We’re on the road now. Its been a long 33 days but somehow not long enough. I love being on the road, traveling. I love my home and Muncie too, don't get me wrong, but theres just something to be said about the complete freedom we’ve had in the last month. We had the freedom to choose where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do on any given day. We changed our plans more times than I can count. We saw more things than can be remembered at the time which is why weve been blogging about it, so we can remember.
It was the first time ive been far enough from home that I couldn’t just call up my dad and ask him to come fix something if it broke. We were completely on our own. We didn't get ourselves into any kind of trouble. Yeah sometimes we got lost or got into situations that weren’t the greatest, but we always found our way and got out of the situations we got ourselves into. We did that on our own.
The other night my uncle kept apologizing for calling us boys, which I didn't really mind when he did. I've always thought of myself as a kid and really wanted to be one anyways. Being a kid is great. I feel like now after this trip and this experience maybe im no longer a boy. Im not saying im different than I was before the trip, or that im all grown up, but I feel like more of a peer with adults than I ever have. When people want to talk about life experiences and the things they’ve seen in their lives, I can join in now. I've had some experiences.
All it took for us to do this was a little bit of money, a little bit of time, and a lot of ambition. I hope I never lose that ambition or the freedom to do things like this. It seems like people get so tied down into their lives that they don't have the opportunity to do something like this. They cant make time, they don't have money, or they have too many responsibilities to employers or spouses. I know that eventually I will have to do likewise and lay down roots somewhere. When that time comes ill embrace it and enjoy it, but for now ill keep being young.
We woke up this morning and packed up for the drive home. We’re on the road now. Its been a long 33 days but somehow not long enough. I love being on the road, traveling. I love my home and Muncie too, don't get me wrong, but theres just something to be said about the complete freedom we’ve had in the last month. We had the freedom to choose where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do on any given day. We changed our plans more times than I can count. We saw more things than can be remembered at the time which is why weve been blogging about it, so we can remember.
It was the first time ive been far enough from home that I couldn’t just call up my dad and ask him to come fix something if it broke. We were completely on our own. We didn't get ourselves into any kind of trouble. Yeah sometimes we got lost or got into situations that weren’t the greatest, but we always found our way and got out of the situations we got ourselves into. We did that on our own.
The other night my uncle kept apologizing for calling us boys, which I didn't really mind when he did. I've always thought of myself as a kid and really wanted to be one anyways. Being a kid is great. I feel like now after this trip and this experience maybe im no longer a boy. Im not saying im different than I was before the trip, or that im all grown up, but I feel like more of a peer with adults than I ever have. When people want to talk about life experiences and the things they’ve seen in their lives, I can join in now. I've had some experiences.
All it took for us to do this was a little bit of money, a little bit of time, and a lot of ambition. I hope I never lose that ambition or the freedom to do things like this. It seems like people get so tied down into their lives that they don't have the opportunity to do something like this. They cant make time, they don't have money, or they have too many responsibilities to employers or spouses. I know that eventually I will have to do likewise and lay down roots somewhere. When that time comes ill embrace it and enjoy it, but for now ill keep being young.
August 19th-Nashville
August 19th-Nashville
Welp we really out did ourselves this time. We arrived in Nashville around 5 and checked in to our hotel. We had been planning on getting jack’s barbeque since we had heard about it from our hosts in San Francisco. We hung out in the room til we were good and hungry then figured out where Jack’s was. Turned out it was right across the street from our hotel. The place was declared the best bbq in Nashville by the new york times. It lived up to its billing. The food was tasty, the servers were friendly, and there wasn’t a line. After filling up on food we walked back across the street to our hotel.
In our hotel we watched some television and pregamed for a night on the town. After the shows were over we looked up where any nearby bars were. There were supposed to be a few near by so we started out on our way to them. We didn't see any as we biked so we kept going. Next thing I know were close enough that we both agree to bike downtown. I had looked it up earlier and found out that downtown was five and half miles from our hotel. So anyways after probably about half an hour of biking we make our way to the bar strip downtown. There are quite a few neon lights and good-looking bars. We make our way into a few and walk around the area. While walking around two girls came up and gave us a free drink coupon. After hitting on them shamelessly and verifying that the free drink came without a catch, we headed to the bar to receive said free drink. The girls said they would be at the bar as soon as they finished passing out the free drink coupons. Well I guess they never got rid of em all cause we didn't see those girls again. But we did get a free beer so it was worth it.
After getting our free drink we decided to head back to the hotel. I wasn’t looking forward to the 5.5 mile bike back but it was worth it to hang out downtown. So we started biking back and looking for the streets that we knew we came in on. We biked past where the titans play. Good, we passed this on the way in. That was the last good thing that happened for about 90 minutes. We biked in the direction we thought the hotel should be. We crossed what shouldve been the interstate that was right outside our hotel. Nope. We biked a different direction. We found some power plant or factory where we probably shouldn’t have been. We hit dead end roads. We biked on the wrong side of the road since there were no cars. Oh wait theres a car. Oh great it’s a cop. “HEY WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING” Uh oh. We cut through a parking lot and hop on a sidewalk to a back road. Whew. The perfect get away. Were back at another power plant type thing. We ask for directions. Bike. Ask for directions. Ride farther. Pedal pedal pedal. Im dripping sweat since its still probably 80º out here. All in all we had to bike on 2 or 3 interstates, 2 more highways, and through 2 or 3 power plants. We probably biked about 12 miles on the way back. Maybe more.
When we got back we hung up our bikes and I tried to take my shirt off since it was soaked. It stuck to my body. Eventually I got it off and tried to get into the pool. We couldn’t because it was closed. On that note we went back to the room and hung out for a while. Pretty good last night of the trip.
Welp we really out did ourselves this time. We arrived in Nashville around 5 and checked in to our hotel. We had been planning on getting jack’s barbeque since we had heard about it from our hosts in San Francisco. We hung out in the room til we were good and hungry then figured out where Jack’s was. Turned out it was right across the street from our hotel. The place was declared the best bbq in Nashville by the new york times. It lived up to its billing. The food was tasty, the servers were friendly, and there wasn’t a line. After filling up on food we walked back across the street to our hotel.
In our hotel we watched some television and pregamed for a night on the town. After the shows were over we looked up where any nearby bars were. There were supposed to be a few near by so we started out on our way to them. We didn't see any as we biked so we kept going. Next thing I know were close enough that we both agree to bike downtown. I had looked it up earlier and found out that downtown was five and half miles from our hotel. So anyways after probably about half an hour of biking we make our way to the bar strip downtown. There are quite a few neon lights and good-looking bars. We make our way into a few and walk around the area. While walking around two girls came up and gave us a free drink coupon. After hitting on them shamelessly and verifying that the free drink came without a catch, we headed to the bar to receive said free drink. The girls said they would be at the bar as soon as they finished passing out the free drink coupons. Well I guess they never got rid of em all cause we didn't see those girls again. But we did get a free beer so it was worth it.
After getting our free drink we decided to head back to the hotel. I wasn’t looking forward to the 5.5 mile bike back but it was worth it to hang out downtown. So we started biking back and looking for the streets that we knew we came in on. We biked past where the titans play. Good, we passed this on the way in. That was the last good thing that happened for about 90 minutes. We biked in the direction we thought the hotel should be. We crossed what shouldve been the interstate that was right outside our hotel. Nope. We biked a different direction. We found some power plant or factory where we probably shouldn’t have been. We hit dead end roads. We biked on the wrong side of the road since there were no cars. Oh wait theres a car. Oh great it’s a cop. “HEY WHAT ARE YOU GUYS DOING” Uh oh. We cut through a parking lot and hop on a sidewalk to a back road. Whew. The perfect get away. Were back at another power plant type thing. We ask for directions. Bike. Ask for directions. Ride farther. Pedal pedal pedal. Im dripping sweat since its still probably 80º out here. All in all we had to bike on 2 or 3 interstates, 2 more highways, and through 2 or 3 power plants. We probably biked about 12 miles on the way back. Maybe more.
When we got back we hung up our bikes and I tried to take my shirt off since it was soaked. It stuck to my body. Eventually I got it off and tried to get into the pool. We couldn’t because it was closed. On that note we went back to the room and hung out for a while. Pretty good last night of the trip.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
August 15th-august 18th Dallas/NO/Mobile
August 15th-august 18th
We spent the night in dallas doing not a whole lot. We hung out in the hotel and eventually made our way out. We biked around to a bar in the area and got a drink there. There weren’t too many people out probably because it was a Sunday night, not the best bar night. We biked back to our hotel and hung out in the room for a while before going to bed for the night.
We woke up early enough the next morning to get breakfast at the hotel. After that we took off heading for baton rouge and new Orleans. Upon arriving in baton rouge we parked and got out of the car to eat some lunch. There were a ton of girls outside hanging around the building we parked at. After a few minutes we realized there were only girls. We must have parked by an all girls dorm. There was also apparently a dress code so that every girl had to be in a dress. Perfect. We biked around the campus some and found a spot to throw a disc. After about 15 minutes of throwing we were sweaty enough that it looked like we had been swimming. Good ole Louisiana heat I guess. We decided to leave and check out the downtown area. We filled up on gas in what looked like a not nice part of town before realizing that all parts of town looked not nice. On that note we got the butts out of there.
Our next destination was New Orleans. The drive was short, only about an hour. We checked in to our hotel and figured out what we would do for the night. Our plan was to head down to bourbon st which is basically New Orleans version of the strip. The street is bar after bar after strip joint after bar. There were some real characters down there. We spent a good bit of time just walking around and going into some different bars. We found one bar with a band playing Alanis Morsette covers. We stopped to join in the singing. After we had had enough of the bars and the characters we left to make our way back to the hotel. We were more successful finding our way back than we had been a couple other times on the trip.
We woke up late the next morning and rushed to check out on time. We headed down town and found a good parking spot then we biked into the city. We ended up back on bourbon st and explored the area in the day time. It was still pretty busy even then. After snapping some pictures and getting some souvenirs, we tried to find the car again. We knew the name of the road we were parked on, but not really where the car was in relation to anything. We stopped and asked a cop for some help after a while of searching. He told us the street we parked on was only three blocks long. How could we not find it if it was only three blocks? We kept searching and eventually realized we just turned the wrong way onto our street. Alas we found the car and we got back on the road for Alabama.
On the drive to Alabama we talked about how it would be a good relaxing night to kind of wind down the trip and recuperate. No one was home when we got to my aunt and uncles house but we got in and hung out. Uncle tony got home sometime around 5 or so and told us there were drinks in the fridge and to help ourselves. We assured him we were okay for the moment and continued to relax. Sometime before dinner we were convinced to drink a margarita as made by Uncle Tony. This isn’t quite the same as a normal margarita since he uses 943 gallons of tequila in it. Well after one of those he told us we had to finish the pitcher that he made which was about one more for each of us. So okay two margaritas, time to relax watch some tv and go to bed. Nope. “Ohh you guys have to try this caramel vodka we have,” says Aunt Mary. Well okay I guess just one shot. Just one shot from a double shot glass. “This bottles almost gone we should just finish it.” Well okay. Another double shot. What is this lady trying to do to us? Welp at this point im feeling pretty good. “Hey you guys have to try one of my other margaritas,” says uncle tony, practically twisting our arms. So we have another one of those. Then we finish the caramel vodka. Im officially drunk with two people that probably changed my diapers when I was a baby. This is awesome. That was almost the end of the night other than Aunt Mary getting sick. I thought it was funny enough to call my mom and tell her. I think everyone appreciated it. All in all it was somewhat ridiculous but great night. Something unexpected for sure.
The next day was actually our day to relax. We headed to the beach when we woke up and hung out. The beach was really nice and clean with a good amount of babes and things to do. It was a good time and definitely the relaxing time we were looking for. We went back to the house after we were satisfied with our beach time. We popped in the movie “Raising Arizona” and watched that with Uncle Tony. After that we watched a little tv then watched Wild Hogs and went to bed.
Now we are on the road to Nashville for our last stop before finally heading back to Muncie. Its been a long month and im excited to get back. There are definitely some people that I want to see and hang out with. Being out on the road has given me some perspective on a lot of different things. I know more of what I want to do when I get back and what I want to do with my life. Hearing people talk to us about the trip and about life has really reassured me that we did the right thing in taking this trip while we can. We’re starting to put together some preliminary ideas of an east coast version of the trip for next summer. Im already excited. One more day of this trip though and were gonna make it a good one.
We spent the night in dallas doing not a whole lot. We hung out in the hotel and eventually made our way out. We biked around to a bar in the area and got a drink there. There weren’t too many people out probably because it was a Sunday night, not the best bar night. We biked back to our hotel and hung out in the room for a while before going to bed for the night.
We woke up early enough the next morning to get breakfast at the hotel. After that we took off heading for baton rouge and new Orleans. Upon arriving in baton rouge we parked and got out of the car to eat some lunch. There were a ton of girls outside hanging around the building we parked at. After a few minutes we realized there were only girls. We must have parked by an all girls dorm. There was also apparently a dress code so that every girl had to be in a dress. Perfect. We biked around the campus some and found a spot to throw a disc. After about 15 minutes of throwing we were sweaty enough that it looked like we had been swimming. Good ole Louisiana heat I guess. We decided to leave and check out the downtown area. We filled up on gas in what looked like a not nice part of town before realizing that all parts of town looked not nice. On that note we got the butts out of there.
Our next destination was New Orleans. The drive was short, only about an hour. We checked in to our hotel and figured out what we would do for the night. Our plan was to head down to bourbon st which is basically New Orleans version of the strip. The street is bar after bar after strip joint after bar. There were some real characters down there. We spent a good bit of time just walking around and going into some different bars. We found one bar with a band playing Alanis Morsette covers. We stopped to join in the singing. After we had had enough of the bars and the characters we left to make our way back to the hotel. We were more successful finding our way back than we had been a couple other times on the trip.
We woke up late the next morning and rushed to check out on time. We headed down town and found a good parking spot then we biked into the city. We ended up back on bourbon st and explored the area in the day time. It was still pretty busy even then. After snapping some pictures and getting some souvenirs, we tried to find the car again. We knew the name of the road we were parked on, but not really where the car was in relation to anything. We stopped and asked a cop for some help after a while of searching. He told us the street we parked on was only three blocks long. How could we not find it if it was only three blocks? We kept searching and eventually realized we just turned the wrong way onto our street. Alas we found the car and we got back on the road for Alabama.
On the drive to Alabama we talked about how it would be a good relaxing night to kind of wind down the trip and recuperate. No one was home when we got to my aunt and uncles house but we got in and hung out. Uncle tony got home sometime around 5 or so and told us there were drinks in the fridge and to help ourselves. We assured him we were okay for the moment and continued to relax. Sometime before dinner we were convinced to drink a margarita as made by Uncle Tony. This isn’t quite the same as a normal margarita since he uses 943 gallons of tequila in it. Well after one of those he told us we had to finish the pitcher that he made which was about one more for each of us. So okay two margaritas, time to relax watch some tv and go to bed. Nope. “Ohh you guys have to try this caramel vodka we have,” says Aunt Mary. Well okay I guess just one shot. Just one shot from a double shot glass. “This bottles almost gone we should just finish it.” Well okay. Another double shot. What is this lady trying to do to us? Welp at this point im feeling pretty good. “Hey you guys have to try one of my other margaritas,” says uncle tony, practically twisting our arms. So we have another one of those. Then we finish the caramel vodka. Im officially drunk with two people that probably changed my diapers when I was a baby. This is awesome. That was almost the end of the night other than Aunt Mary getting sick. I thought it was funny enough to call my mom and tell her. I think everyone appreciated it. All in all it was somewhat ridiculous but great night. Something unexpected for sure.
The next day was actually our day to relax. We headed to the beach when we woke up and hung out. The beach was really nice and clean with a good amount of babes and things to do. It was a good time and definitely the relaxing time we were looking for. We went back to the house after we were satisfied with our beach time. We popped in the movie “Raising Arizona” and watched that with Uncle Tony. After that we watched a little tv then watched Wild Hogs and went to bed.
Now we are on the road to Nashville for our last stop before finally heading back to Muncie. Its been a long month and im excited to get back. There are definitely some people that I want to see and hang out with. Being out on the road has given me some perspective on a lot of different things. I know more of what I want to do when I get back and what I want to do with my life. Hearing people talk to us about the trip and about life has really reassured me that we did the right thing in taking this trip while we can. We’re starting to put together some preliminary ideas of an east coast version of the trip for next summer. Im already excited. One more day of this trip though and were gonna make it a good one.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
August 13th-august 15th midday
August 13th-august 15th midday
The next morning we woke up and headed out to the pool/hot tub. After hanging out there for a little bit we headed to down town phoenix to check out the city. There wasn’t a lot to see in the city as far as buildings or attractions goes but the architecture and landscaping in the downtown area was pretty cool. We explored a few different areas of the city spending most of our time at the Arizona center shops or something like that. The temperature in the city was around 110 degrees but felt more like 90 which was not too bad. We biked around and eventually made our way back to the car. Upon arriving back at the apartment we almost immediately went back out to the pool. The pool was not exactly hopping but we spent some time there before dinner.For dinner we headed over to Aaron’s apartment and had our first home cooked meal of the trip. Aaron’s girlfriend made us real authentic tacos with all the trimmings. They were delicious. Scrumptulescent if you will. We ate more food than anyone should eat and hung out for a while.
Our only plans for the night were to hang out by the pool and possibly go out if we felt like it. We took some brewskis out to the pool and hung out for probably about two hours waiting for girls or really anything to happen. Nothing did. We went back into the apartment. After debating for a little while if we should go out or not, we decided not to. We went to bed.
On the morning of the 14th we woke up and said our goodbyes and thank yous for the hospitality. We decided to change our plans and instead of heading for santa fe we would be driving to san Antonio. We made a stop shortly into the drive to get some taco bell and get the oil changed in the car (8399 miles overdue). This took about half an hour and we were back on the road. The drive to San Antonio was supposed to be about 16 hours in total. We drove through the night only stopping for gas. At about 4 in the morning we decided we would stop and rest for a few hours and finish up the last hour or so of the drive in the morning. We “slept” in the car for about two hours and woke up so “refreshed.” We headed into the city.
Our first stop upon entering the city was the river walk which was eerily similar to the canal in Indianapolis. We walked along the river for a little while then turned around and biked towards the Alamo. I found it interesting how the Alamo was in the middle of the city. We checked out the buildings and read about the history of the site. It seems the Alamo is more engrained in Mexican history than it is American history but it now belongs to America cause were awesome. We biked around to a few other sites in the city namely The Towers of the Americas and some big mall. We took a few pictures and biked around most of the city before deciding it was too hot to be alive. We left the city.
The drive to Dallas was boring and I could not stay awake through most of it but we made it and we are now at our hotel. We’re thinking about napping and going out for the night to find some sexy Mexicana chicas who will hopefully let us fold their laundry and read novels to them. What more could a guy want. Welp. See ya later.
The next morning we woke up and headed out to the pool/hot tub. After hanging out there for a little bit we headed to down town phoenix to check out the city. There wasn’t a lot to see in the city as far as buildings or attractions goes but the architecture and landscaping in the downtown area was pretty cool. We explored a few different areas of the city spending most of our time at the Arizona center shops or something like that. The temperature in the city was around 110 degrees but felt more like 90 which was not too bad. We biked around and eventually made our way back to the car. Upon arriving back at the apartment we almost immediately went back out to the pool. The pool was not exactly hopping but we spent some time there before dinner.For dinner we headed over to Aaron’s apartment and had our first home cooked meal of the trip. Aaron’s girlfriend made us real authentic tacos with all the trimmings. They were delicious. Scrumptulescent if you will. We ate more food than anyone should eat and hung out for a while.
Our only plans for the night were to hang out by the pool and possibly go out if we felt like it. We took some brewskis out to the pool and hung out for probably about two hours waiting for girls or really anything to happen. Nothing did. We went back into the apartment. After debating for a little while if we should go out or not, we decided not to. We went to bed.
On the morning of the 14th we woke up and said our goodbyes and thank yous for the hospitality. We decided to change our plans and instead of heading for santa fe we would be driving to san Antonio. We made a stop shortly into the drive to get some taco bell and get the oil changed in the car (8399 miles overdue). This took about half an hour and we were back on the road. The drive to San Antonio was supposed to be about 16 hours in total. We drove through the night only stopping for gas. At about 4 in the morning we decided we would stop and rest for a few hours and finish up the last hour or so of the drive in the morning. We “slept” in the car for about two hours and woke up so “refreshed.” We headed into the city.
Our first stop upon entering the city was the river walk which was eerily similar to the canal in Indianapolis. We walked along the river for a little while then turned around and biked towards the Alamo. I found it interesting how the Alamo was in the middle of the city. We checked out the buildings and read about the history of the site. It seems the Alamo is more engrained in Mexican history than it is American history but it now belongs to America cause were awesome. We biked around to a few other sites in the city namely The Towers of the Americas and some big mall. We took a few pictures and biked around most of the city before deciding it was too hot to be alive. We left the city.
The drive to Dallas was boring and I could not stay awake through most of it but we made it and we are now at our hotel. We’re thinking about napping and going out for the night to find some sexy Mexicana chicas who will hopefully let us fold their laundry and read novels to them. What more could a guy want. Welp. See ya later.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
August 10-12
August 10-12
The morning of august 10th we woke up and headed out to red rocks canyon with Marcus. We had planned on doing some hiking and climbing while we were there. On the drive in it was pretty obvious where the red rocks were as they completely stood out against the rest of the mountains. We got in to the park and checked out the visitors center then started our drive around scenic road which loops through the park. We made a stop pretty early into our drive and started free climbing up the rocks. The climbing was dangerous and probably not too smart of us to do but we did it anyways. At one point I was climbing straight up a 10 foot wall which was pretty fun. We eventually made it up to the top of the formation and could see approximately 8933 miles. We got a perfect view of the entire city of vegas and of the desert in the other direction. The view was incredible. After hanging out up top for a few minutes we started our descent. The way down was probably even more fun than the way up. We found our way into some canyons and tiny crevices. Eventually we found our way down after some side and back tracking. The rest of our time at red rocks was spent hiking a couple of trails. One of the trails went out to a small water fall that was mostly just a drip of water, but it felt good after the hike.
We spent that night hanging out and heading back to the strip. We sat down at some slot machines and played for a few minutes. Mostly we just walked around though and found cool places to hang out.
The next morning we woke up and drove to the grand canyon. The drive there kind of sucks because you have to cross the dam to get there. Traffic over the dam is stupid since no one can drive without stopping to look at everything. When we got to the canyon we checked out the trail maps outside the visitors center and decided which trail we would do in the morning. Of course we picked the hardest one. After looking at the trails we just biked around the south rim and found a good point to watch the sunset from. The sunset was pretty cool with the way the light played on the canyon walls. After watching most of the sunset we headed back to the car and noticed that the clouds looked incredible. There were more colorful clouds than ive ever seen. The coulds were purple, blue, yellow, orange, and pink in different parts of the sky. We left the canyon and headed out to camp.
We found a pretty good spot to camp and set up our tent. After laying and watching the sky for a while we got out of the tent to get something out of the car. We realized that the sky was ridiculous looking. There were more stars in the sky than I had ever seen in my life. We could also see the milky way which was intense and something I had never seen before. It basically just looks like a band of light through the stars. Its hard to explain but its awesome.
We woke up for our second day at the canyon and prepared for our grueling hike down and back up. We packed about 5 pounds of food, filled our water bottles, and lathered ourselves up with sunscreen then drove over to the trail. We parked, got out, and found the trail. We started hiking. At the beginning of the trail we passed several people, all walking much slower than us. There were checkpoints for water each mile and a half so we stopped to fill up at each and made sure we were drinking enough water. We kept passing people til the second check point then the trail got a little less populated. We made it down to the bottom of the trail, 6 miles down, in about 2.5 hours. The view of the canyon and the river from that spot was worth the hike down. After hanging out, eating lunch, and taking pictures we started hiking back up. We passed several people on the way back that were going up when we were going down. People walk really slow. The hike up was hard work but we made it in the same time it took us to get down. 5 hours and 4 minutes for the whole trail. The suggested time to allow was 8-12 hours.
After hiking we decided we’d like to have a bed for the night and drove to phoenix. My cousin Aaron helped us out and got us an apartment for the night. The apartment is ridiculously nice and the pool looks like something that belongs at the playboy mansion. We hung out, showered, watched tv, and went to the pool before going out for the night. We decided to check out the bar scene but it was dead on the Thursday night. We headed for the apartment and went to bed.
The morning of august 10th we woke up and headed out to red rocks canyon with Marcus. We had planned on doing some hiking and climbing while we were there. On the drive in it was pretty obvious where the red rocks were as they completely stood out against the rest of the mountains. We got in to the park and checked out the visitors center then started our drive around scenic road which loops through the park. We made a stop pretty early into our drive and started free climbing up the rocks. The climbing was dangerous and probably not too smart of us to do but we did it anyways. At one point I was climbing straight up a 10 foot wall which was pretty fun. We eventually made it up to the top of the formation and could see approximately 8933 miles. We got a perfect view of the entire city of vegas and of the desert in the other direction. The view was incredible. After hanging out up top for a few minutes we started our descent. The way down was probably even more fun than the way up. We found our way into some canyons and tiny crevices. Eventually we found our way down after some side and back tracking. The rest of our time at red rocks was spent hiking a couple of trails. One of the trails went out to a small water fall that was mostly just a drip of water, but it felt good after the hike.
We spent that night hanging out and heading back to the strip. We sat down at some slot machines and played for a few minutes. Mostly we just walked around though and found cool places to hang out.
The next morning we woke up and drove to the grand canyon. The drive there kind of sucks because you have to cross the dam to get there. Traffic over the dam is stupid since no one can drive without stopping to look at everything. When we got to the canyon we checked out the trail maps outside the visitors center and decided which trail we would do in the morning. Of course we picked the hardest one. After looking at the trails we just biked around the south rim and found a good point to watch the sunset from. The sunset was pretty cool with the way the light played on the canyon walls. After watching most of the sunset we headed back to the car and noticed that the clouds looked incredible. There were more colorful clouds than ive ever seen. The coulds were purple, blue, yellow, orange, and pink in different parts of the sky. We left the canyon and headed out to camp.
We found a pretty good spot to camp and set up our tent. After laying and watching the sky for a while we got out of the tent to get something out of the car. We realized that the sky was ridiculous looking. There were more stars in the sky than I had ever seen in my life. We could also see the milky way which was intense and something I had never seen before. It basically just looks like a band of light through the stars. Its hard to explain but its awesome.
We woke up for our second day at the canyon and prepared for our grueling hike down and back up. We packed about 5 pounds of food, filled our water bottles, and lathered ourselves up with sunscreen then drove over to the trail. We parked, got out, and found the trail. We started hiking. At the beginning of the trail we passed several people, all walking much slower than us. There were checkpoints for water each mile and a half so we stopped to fill up at each and made sure we were drinking enough water. We kept passing people til the second check point then the trail got a little less populated. We made it down to the bottom of the trail, 6 miles down, in about 2.5 hours. The view of the canyon and the river from that spot was worth the hike down. After hanging out, eating lunch, and taking pictures we started hiking back up. We passed several people on the way back that were going up when we were going down. People walk really slow. The hike up was hard work but we made it in the same time it took us to get down. 5 hours and 4 minutes for the whole trail. The suggested time to allow was 8-12 hours.
After hiking we decided we’d like to have a bed for the night and drove to phoenix. My cousin Aaron helped us out and got us an apartment for the night. The apartment is ridiculously nice and the pool looks like something that belongs at the playboy mansion. We hung out, showered, watched tv, and went to the pool before going out for the night. We decided to check out the bar scene but it was dead on the Thursday night. We headed for the apartment and went to bed.
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
August 8th and 9th-vegas
August 8th and 9th
After my last blog we finished our drive out to vegas arriving at a relatively early time. We brought our stuff into marcus’ house, showered, ate dinner and headed down to the old strip. We had no plans other than to check out the casinos and shops down there and hang out for a little while. The shops turned out to be very cheap so we bought some souvenirs and then went over to the casinos. While we were walking towards the casinos the overhead canopy started having a lightshow, which was pretty awesome.
When we got into the casino we sat down and started playing slot machines. Hans won big right away on one of the first machines we sat at. We didn't really understand how to win or anything but we just kept spinning and hoping for good things to happen. While we were sitting down a waitress came by and asked if we wanted drinks, so of course we couldn’t refuse.
We moved around within the casino and to different casinos because we wanted to continue getting served without tipping waitresses. Were poor. When we left one of the casinos hans realized he forgot his wallet so we hustled back to find the wallet perfectly intact laying at one of the slots we were at. Disaster averted.
We kept playing slot machines and I kept losing my money. I didn't understand. Why was I so unlucky. We stopped at ate dinner at mcdonalds. Yummy. Then we kept playing and kept getting free drinks. I wasn’t so upset that I was losing my money because I was having fun and getting drinks so really it didn't matter. I was considering this to be a very good night. The night was drawing to a close and I was nearly out of money. I kept playing and eventually I was down to 50 cents left. I figured I might as well just play ten lines for five credits each (costs 50 cents). So I did that and the machine started going and when it stopped it started making the win noise. So I was like oh cool maybe ill get a few dollars back. Well it didn't stop counting up until I had 2500 credits. Perfect. 25 bucks on one spin. I immediately cashed out and collected my moneys.
We walked around the strip for a while to let some alcohol wear off. During our walk we were propositioned by hookers and drug dealers alike. “Hey where you boys goin? Need some company?” “No thank you ma’am.” We had to get out of there before we ended up with a disease or seeing a drug deal go bad or something. It’s a pretty shady place to be at 3 in the morning. So we went back to our car and headed out. We both ended the night winning money and getting 5 or 6 free drinks. Not too bad of a night.
The next day was a rather tame day for being in vegas. We didn't wake up until 1 in the afternoon which already set us back in our plans. We followed through on what we were supposed to be doing anyways. We drove out to see hoover dam and lake mead. The dam is a really impressive display of architecture and technology. They were also building a new highway to go around the dam. The new highway has a bridge to cross the gap between two decently sized mountains. The bridge, to me, was as impressive as the dam itself. We headed out after a little bit of hanging out at the dam and found a walmart to do some grocery shopping at. We scored some good deals on soup and other essentials.
After walmart we came back to marcus’ apartment. It was now about 5 oclock. We ate lunch/dinner and hung out for a bit. The rest of our plan was to hang out by the pool and then head down to the strip for the night. We took some beers out to the pool and were pleasantly surprised to see a hot tub off in the corner. We used the hot tub a lot more than the pool through out the evening. After a couple of beers we talked to some of the people in the pool area. We stayed out by the pool for quite a bit of the evening and I think finally came in around 9 or 10. At this point we debated whether or not to go to the strip as we had no way to get there and were pretty tired. After deciding we would just hang out around the apartment for the night, I crashed on the futon mattress, falling asleep before midnight.
Today we are planning to check out Red Rocks national park and hit the new strip for the night because we are leaving vegas tomorrow morning for the grand canyon. Ill let you all know how it goes.
After my last blog we finished our drive out to vegas arriving at a relatively early time. We brought our stuff into marcus’ house, showered, ate dinner and headed down to the old strip. We had no plans other than to check out the casinos and shops down there and hang out for a little while. The shops turned out to be very cheap so we bought some souvenirs and then went over to the casinos. While we were walking towards the casinos the overhead canopy started having a lightshow, which was pretty awesome.
When we got into the casino we sat down and started playing slot machines. Hans won big right away on one of the first machines we sat at. We didn't really understand how to win or anything but we just kept spinning and hoping for good things to happen. While we were sitting down a waitress came by and asked if we wanted drinks, so of course we couldn’t refuse.
We moved around within the casino and to different casinos because we wanted to continue getting served without tipping waitresses. Were poor. When we left one of the casinos hans realized he forgot his wallet so we hustled back to find the wallet perfectly intact laying at one of the slots we were at. Disaster averted.
We kept playing slot machines and I kept losing my money. I didn't understand. Why was I so unlucky. We stopped at ate dinner at mcdonalds. Yummy. Then we kept playing and kept getting free drinks. I wasn’t so upset that I was losing my money because I was having fun and getting drinks so really it didn't matter. I was considering this to be a very good night. The night was drawing to a close and I was nearly out of money. I kept playing and eventually I was down to 50 cents left. I figured I might as well just play ten lines for five credits each (costs 50 cents). So I did that and the machine started going and when it stopped it started making the win noise. So I was like oh cool maybe ill get a few dollars back. Well it didn't stop counting up until I had 2500 credits. Perfect. 25 bucks on one spin. I immediately cashed out and collected my moneys.
We walked around the strip for a while to let some alcohol wear off. During our walk we were propositioned by hookers and drug dealers alike. “Hey where you boys goin? Need some company?” “No thank you ma’am.” We had to get out of there before we ended up with a disease or seeing a drug deal go bad or something. It’s a pretty shady place to be at 3 in the morning. So we went back to our car and headed out. We both ended the night winning money and getting 5 or 6 free drinks. Not too bad of a night.
The next day was a rather tame day for being in vegas. We didn't wake up until 1 in the afternoon which already set us back in our plans. We followed through on what we were supposed to be doing anyways. We drove out to see hoover dam and lake mead. The dam is a really impressive display of architecture and technology. They were also building a new highway to go around the dam. The new highway has a bridge to cross the gap between two decently sized mountains. The bridge, to me, was as impressive as the dam itself. We headed out after a little bit of hanging out at the dam and found a walmart to do some grocery shopping at. We scored some good deals on soup and other essentials.
After walmart we came back to marcus’ apartment. It was now about 5 oclock. We ate lunch/dinner and hung out for a bit. The rest of our plan was to hang out by the pool and then head down to the strip for the night. We took some beers out to the pool and were pleasantly surprised to see a hot tub off in the corner. We used the hot tub a lot more than the pool through out the evening. After a couple of beers we talked to some of the people in the pool area. We stayed out by the pool for quite a bit of the evening and I think finally came in around 9 or 10. At this point we debated whether or not to go to the strip as we had no way to get there and were pretty tired. After deciding we would just hang out around the apartment for the night, I crashed on the futon mattress, falling asleep before midnight.
Today we are planning to check out Red Rocks national park and hit the new strip for the night because we are leaving vegas tomorrow morning for the grand canyon. Ill let you all know how it goes.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
August 2nd-august 8th LA
August 2nd-august 8th
On the night of august 2nd we got into LA around 7. The traffic was terrible getting into the city. That night we went over to gregs friends and played basketball. Our team went 0-3 but we competed in every game, which wasn’t bad for not having played in years. After the basketball game we headed up to the highest point in the area and overlooked santa monica for a little while. Then we headed back to gregs apartment and had a few drinks. Late in the night we went out to a hookah bar and hung out for a few hours before heading back home. It was a late and chill night.
The next morning we went to santa monica beach and pier while greg worked. We got out of the car and walked down the beach for a little while all the way to the pier. The pier just has a few little shops on it and was really nothing special. There were tons of people on the beach though and it was cool to get in the water and do a little body surfing. After the beach we headed back to the house and met up with greg. We drank at the house and stayed in for the night as we were all tired and figured we could go out whenever.
Wednesday morning we woke up and headed to a beach in the palasades. It was a public beach with a good amount of people. We tossed a disc around the beach, looked at pretty girls, and drank some beers before getting in the water. We hung out here pretty much all day before heading back to the apartment. On the drive back we had to blast out to some Aerosmith which included the song “Don't wanna miss a thing.” We pulled up to a stop light while rocking out to this song and singing at the top of our lungs. The guy next to us was a pretty big bro and enjoyed our serenade. Once we got back we kept partying a little and hung out. Greg had to work in the morning but hans and I decided we would go out for the night. We ended up just going down to the beach which was about a 5 mile bike ride. The pier at night was pretty awesome and provided a nice place to just chill and watch the waves roll in. It was a fun night and we had a nice little sing along all the way back.
On Thursday we woke up and went down to Venice beach. We figured it would be a hopping beach to go to during the day while greg worked again. Venice beach had a ton of really good looking girls laying out including one topless sun bather and two 20some year old ladies in thong bikinis. What a beautiful day. We hung out here all day really doing nothing. We intermittently got in the water and threw a disc around trying to entice ladies into talking to us. We failed. During the evening we came back and hung out in gregs apartment. I passed out before dan could get here and hans and greg went to pick him up together.
Friday morning we woke up a little earlier and got ready for another day on the beach. This time we were headed to another Malibu beach with a restaurant in the sand. We met up with Greg’s girlfriend, Melissa, and her friend, Alyssa. The beach was chill with not too much going on. We went up to the restaurant to eat and you can guess how the prices were. We split an appetizer and got the butts out of there. Then we got everything else out of there too.
We headed home and cleaned up to go to vegas for the night. Traffic was awful but we weren’t going to let anything bring us down when we were headed for vegas. We arrived in vegas pretty late but with the full intention of partying into the wee hours of the morning. We left marcus’s apartment after a few minutes of drinking. We filled our flasks and headed for the strip and since drinking in public is allowed in vegas we didn't even have to hide the flasks. We parked at the Venetian and walked around there first. Then we walked to other casinos and hung out. During the night we saw all the big spots on the strip. We hit up the Bellagio, the Mirage, the Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, and any other big place you can think of on the strip.
Saturday morning we headed back to LA. We got back in the afternoon and didn't really do much with our day. In the evening we headed out to a real Hollywood party with a guest list and all. Tons of good-looking (fake) girls, rich movie producers, and expensive drinks. The night went well. Sunday morning we woke up and went out to Venice beach and the board walk for a little while. The shops down the boardwalk have a lot of cool stuff that is actually pretty cheap. I was surprised.
All in all LA was a good break from the road part of the road trip. We haven’t traveled far distances in a week. LA was every bit as good as I expected it to be and as good as the rest of the trip has been but in a different way. There is so much money out here its unbelievable. The beaches are incredible and the people are as beautiful as you think they would be, maybe even more beautiful. Im glad that I got to see LA and to hang out with greg and dan. Im also glad that were getting back on the road now and resuming this trip. Were headed back east now with a good bit of stuff left to see. I feel like the trip is split into three legs: 1st leg was driving out to lA, 2nd leg being in LA, and 3rd leg is heading back east. Hopefully all the stuff on the way back will be as good as all the stuff so far has been.
Sorry there’s not much to this blog I just am not in a writing mood, haven’t had much time to do it, and really haven’t been doing quite as much stuff. This part of the trip was just a chill week on the beach. Not as much to write about. Ill keep updating more often again now that were out of LA.
On the night of august 2nd we got into LA around 7. The traffic was terrible getting into the city. That night we went over to gregs friends and played basketball. Our team went 0-3 but we competed in every game, which wasn’t bad for not having played in years. After the basketball game we headed up to the highest point in the area and overlooked santa monica for a little while. Then we headed back to gregs apartment and had a few drinks. Late in the night we went out to a hookah bar and hung out for a few hours before heading back home. It was a late and chill night.
The next morning we went to santa monica beach and pier while greg worked. We got out of the car and walked down the beach for a little while all the way to the pier. The pier just has a few little shops on it and was really nothing special. There were tons of people on the beach though and it was cool to get in the water and do a little body surfing. After the beach we headed back to the house and met up with greg. We drank at the house and stayed in for the night as we were all tired and figured we could go out whenever.
Wednesday morning we woke up and headed to a beach in the palasades. It was a public beach with a good amount of people. We tossed a disc around the beach, looked at pretty girls, and drank some beers before getting in the water. We hung out here pretty much all day before heading back to the apartment. On the drive back we had to blast out to some Aerosmith which included the song “Don't wanna miss a thing.” We pulled up to a stop light while rocking out to this song and singing at the top of our lungs. The guy next to us was a pretty big bro and enjoyed our serenade. Once we got back we kept partying a little and hung out. Greg had to work in the morning but hans and I decided we would go out for the night. We ended up just going down to the beach which was about a 5 mile bike ride. The pier at night was pretty awesome and provided a nice place to just chill and watch the waves roll in. It was a fun night and we had a nice little sing along all the way back.
On Thursday we woke up and went down to Venice beach. We figured it would be a hopping beach to go to during the day while greg worked again. Venice beach had a ton of really good looking girls laying out including one topless sun bather and two 20some year old ladies in thong bikinis. What a beautiful day. We hung out here all day really doing nothing. We intermittently got in the water and threw a disc around trying to entice ladies into talking to us. We failed. During the evening we came back and hung out in gregs apartment. I passed out before dan could get here and hans and greg went to pick him up together.
Friday morning we woke up a little earlier and got ready for another day on the beach. This time we were headed to another Malibu beach with a restaurant in the sand. We met up with Greg’s girlfriend, Melissa, and her friend, Alyssa. The beach was chill with not too much going on. We went up to the restaurant to eat and you can guess how the prices were. We split an appetizer and got the butts out of there. Then we got everything else out of there too.
We headed home and cleaned up to go to vegas for the night. Traffic was awful but we weren’t going to let anything bring us down when we were headed for vegas. We arrived in vegas pretty late but with the full intention of partying into the wee hours of the morning. We left marcus’s apartment after a few minutes of drinking. We filled our flasks and headed for the strip and since drinking in public is allowed in vegas we didn't even have to hide the flasks. We parked at the Venetian and walked around there first. Then we walked to other casinos and hung out. During the night we saw all the big spots on the strip. We hit up the Bellagio, the Mirage, the Venetian, Caesar’s Palace, and any other big place you can think of on the strip.
Saturday morning we headed back to LA. We got back in the afternoon and didn't really do much with our day. In the evening we headed out to a real Hollywood party with a guest list and all. Tons of good-looking (fake) girls, rich movie producers, and expensive drinks. The night went well. Sunday morning we woke up and went out to Venice beach and the board walk for a little while. The shops down the boardwalk have a lot of cool stuff that is actually pretty cheap. I was surprised.
All in all LA was a good break from the road part of the road trip. We haven’t traveled far distances in a week. LA was every bit as good as I expected it to be and as good as the rest of the trip has been but in a different way. There is so much money out here its unbelievable. The beaches are incredible and the people are as beautiful as you think they would be, maybe even more beautiful. Im glad that I got to see LA and to hang out with greg and dan. Im also glad that were getting back on the road now and resuming this trip. Were headed back east now with a good bit of stuff left to see. I feel like the trip is split into three legs: 1st leg was driving out to lA, 2nd leg being in LA, and 3rd leg is heading back east. Hopefully all the stuff on the way back will be as good as all the stuff so far has been.
Sorry there’s not much to this blog I just am not in a writing mood, haven’t had much time to do it, and really haven’t been doing quite as much stuff. This part of the trip was just a chill week on the beach. Not as much to write about. Ill keep updating more often again now that were out of LA.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Yosemite and san fran
July 30th rest of day-august 2nd
Once we got to Yosemite we got the map of the park and looked for the things we wanted to do. Yosemite didn't seem to have nearly as much to see as Yellowstone but had more hiking trails than anything else. We spent the rest of the evening seeing some of the major attractions. We saw half dome from Omsted point and saw some other stuff. We checked about getting a back country camping pass but we were denied by Nonattractivegirl Mcmustbethattimeofthemonth. After being denied we decided we would just camp in the national forest outside the park. We drove around and did some free climbing/hiking/sight seeing. We ate dinner in the park then headed out to the forest to find a camping spot. We ended up camping on the side of a mountain. Literally. My feet were a good 18 inches below my head because of the slope we were on. I woke up 4 or 5 times to pull myself back up to the top of the hill after sliding down in the night.
The next morning we woke up and packed up camp. We went into the park hoping to hike the 14 mile half dome trail, but apparently you have to have a permit on the weekends. Whatever. We took a different hike that was about 8 miles round trip and was pretty strenuous. The hike was fun and made us look like we hadn’t showered in seven days again. We decided that we had enough of Yosemite after this and left the park to go see an old friend of mine. On the way out we figured we would just follow the GPS directions to San Fran. The GPS was not looking out for us this time. It directed us down a road you cannot even imagine…
Picture this: Youre a pioneer exploring the new California territory. You’re on top of the steepest mountain around and you need to get down. You hack the weeds down in order to get down the mountain into the near by valley. While youre cutting the weeds down you obviously make tons of switchbacks because you cant just walk straight down the steepest mountain in the country. You notice the ground youre walking over is filled with ridges and drop offs. To your right is the sheer face of the mountain jutting out quite often. To your left is a cliff that drops off over 1000 feet. Maybe 8 feet from rock face to cliff. Now flash forwards 200 years. The road you cut out back then as a pioneer has not been maintained or worked on at all since that day you cut it out. Now you have to drive your car down the trail. This is the situation we were in. It took us 70 minutes to drive less than 5.5 miles. But we made it. Thankfully.
My friend Erin who lives just south of San Fran was willing to put up with us for a night so we drove down. We met her boyfriend Andy who turned out to be one of the coolest people we’ve met on this trip. He also had a pretty vast knowledge of beer. When we got there they had beer ready for us and we were drinking within minutes of walking in the door. Once we were sufficiently buzzing on this good beer, they took us out to the bars in the area. The first bar we went to was not as hoppin as we had hoped so we had a beer then walked back to the apartment. Andy was on a mission to score us some babes. He provided us with the name of an obscure rich guy that lived in the area. For the rest of the night we were Hans VanBechtelshein and Mateus VanBechtelshein. These names worked out pretty well for us. I found myself playing the role of wealthy douche bag with perfection. Girls were digging it. Until I told some girl her fake coach purse looked cool. She made a point of letting me know it was real and she spent a lot of money on it. Thankfully I made it out of the situation without a slap. The night went pretty well with me mostly just making a fool of myself, but hey that's what im good at. I kept talking to more and more random people and having a good time. We caught a cab home once the night took a turn for the worse with Andy puking on everything.
The next morning I awoke on the couch with Erin in the chair next to me. Gotta love passing out in random places in your house. After recapping the night (as per usual) we headed downtown San Fran with Erin and Andy as our guides. They took us to get a burrito from the worlds best burrito place, as voted by maxim. The burritos were delicious. Our next stop was the Golden Gate. The bridge provides a sick view of the entire city, Alcatraz, and the bay. It was really cool to stand out on the bridge and look at the skyline. Following the bridge we went down to Fisherman’s Wharf, which is basically just a strip of piers with little shops and cool views. We got to see the sea lions that are apparently always there. They seem to be the laziest animals in existence. After that we walked down to the part of the pier next to the water because I wanted to see if we could touch the water. It was too far down to reach down and touch it, but within thirty seconds of Hans and I standing there a wave crashed into the pier only where we were standing. The water was brisk and we stepped back. In the next few minutes of standing there no other waves hit in any other spots. I guess we just got lucky.
After the pier we went to Height St, which is basically just a big hippy part of town with a bunch of head shops and other little shops. The stores were pretty cool and had stuff you definitely cant get anywhere else. We saw some old school nba jerseys and considered getting them but they turned out to be too small. After that we left down town and went back to our hotel. That night we did nothing. We were in bed pretty early as we were both dead tired. Maybe were too old for this? Baha just kidding.
Anyways now were driving to LA. We just saw elephant seals on the beach next to the highway and about four seconds later saw zebras grazing in the field on the other side. No joke. Its interesting being out here on the west coast. I cant really explain it but its something to see. In the cliché way its like a whole other world out here. The landscapes are so vastly different and the people are too. Everything we have seen up to this point has been everything I hoped it would be. Nothing has been a let down and some things have even been better than I thought they’d be. We’ve been gone for two weeks now and somehow it seems longer and shorter both. Going out in Milwaukee seems like it could be months ago. But it also seems like we just started this trip recently. Again its hard to explain.
I don't know that any thing is being answered out here or that I am changing at all other than getting stupid by the minute. I do know that im having the time of my life and im glad that im out here. Life has a long time to happen and work out, but right now im just living, really living and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Im sure that everything ive done and seen out here will in some way redirect or reshape what I want to do with my life but ill just let that all play out in the future. This is about now and if I blink I might miss something.
Once we got to Yosemite we got the map of the park and looked for the things we wanted to do. Yosemite didn't seem to have nearly as much to see as Yellowstone but had more hiking trails than anything else. We spent the rest of the evening seeing some of the major attractions. We saw half dome from Omsted point and saw some other stuff. We checked about getting a back country camping pass but we were denied by Nonattractivegirl Mcmustbethattimeofthemonth. After being denied we decided we would just camp in the national forest outside the park. We drove around and did some free climbing/hiking/sight seeing. We ate dinner in the park then headed out to the forest to find a camping spot. We ended up camping on the side of a mountain. Literally. My feet were a good 18 inches below my head because of the slope we were on. I woke up 4 or 5 times to pull myself back up to the top of the hill after sliding down in the night.
The next morning we woke up and packed up camp. We went into the park hoping to hike the 14 mile half dome trail, but apparently you have to have a permit on the weekends. Whatever. We took a different hike that was about 8 miles round trip and was pretty strenuous. The hike was fun and made us look like we hadn’t showered in seven days again. We decided that we had enough of Yosemite after this and left the park to go see an old friend of mine. On the way out we figured we would just follow the GPS directions to San Fran. The GPS was not looking out for us this time. It directed us down a road you cannot even imagine…
Picture this: Youre a pioneer exploring the new California territory. You’re on top of the steepest mountain around and you need to get down. You hack the weeds down in order to get down the mountain into the near by valley. While youre cutting the weeds down you obviously make tons of switchbacks because you cant just walk straight down the steepest mountain in the country. You notice the ground youre walking over is filled with ridges and drop offs. To your right is the sheer face of the mountain jutting out quite often. To your left is a cliff that drops off over 1000 feet. Maybe 8 feet from rock face to cliff. Now flash forwards 200 years. The road you cut out back then as a pioneer has not been maintained or worked on at all since that day you cut it out. Now you have to drive your car down the trail. This is the situation we were in. It took us 70 minutes to drive less than 5.5 miles. But we made it. Thankfully.
My friend Erin who lives just south of San Fran was willing to put up with us for a night so we drove down. We met her boyfriend Andy who turned out to be one of the coolest people we’ve met on this trip. He also had a pretty vast knowledge of beer. When we got there they had beer ready for us and we were drinking within minutes of walking in the door. Once we were sufficiently buzzing on this good beer, they took us out to the bars in the area. The first bar we went to was not as hoppin as we had hoped so we had a beer then walked back to the apartment. Andy was on a mission to score us some babes. He provided us with the name of an obscure rich guy that lived in the area. For the rest of the night we were Hans VanBechtelshein and Mateus VanBechtelshein. These names worked out pretty well for us. I found myself playing the role of wealthy douche bag with perfection. Girls were digging it. Until I told some girl her fake coach purse looked cool. She made a point of letting me know it was real and she spent a lot of money on it. Thankfully I made it out of the situation without a slap. The night went pretty well with me mostly just making a fool of myself, but hey that's what im good at. I kept talking to more and more random people and having a good time. We caught a cab home once the night took a turn for the worse with Andy puking on everything.
The next morning I awoke on the couch with Erin in the chair next to me. Gotta love passing out in random places in your house. After recapping the night (as per usual) we headed downtown San Fran with Erin and Andy as our guides. They took us to get a burrito from the worlds best burrito place, as voted by maxim. The burritos were delicious. Our next stop was the Golden Gate. The bridge provides a sick view of the entire city, Alcatraz, and the bay. It was really cool to stand out on the bridge and look at the skyline. Following the bridge we went down to Fisherman’s Wharf, which is basically just a strip of piers with little shops and cool views. We got to see the sea lions that are apparently always there. They seem to be the laziest animals in existence. After that we walked down to the part of the pier next to the water because I wanted to see if we could touch the water. It was too far down to reach down and touch it, but within thirty seconds of Hans and I standing there a wave crashed into the pier only where we were standing. The water was brisk and we stepped back. In the next few minutes of standing there no other waves hit in any other spots. I guess we just got lucky.
After the pier we went to Height St, which is basically just a big hippy part of town with a bunch of head shops and other little shops. The stores were pretty cool and had stuff you definitely cant get anywhere else. We saw some old school nba jerseys and considered getting them but they turned out to be too small. After that we left down town and went back to our hotel. That night we did nothing. We were in bed pretty early as we were both dead tired. Maybe were too old for this? Baha just kidding.
Anyways now were driving to LA. We just saw elephant seals on the beach next to the highway and about four seconds later saw zebras grazing in the field on the other side. No joke. Its interesting being out here on the west coast. I cant really explain it but its something to see. In the cliché way its like a whole other world out here. The landscapes are so vastly different and the people are too. Everything we have seen up to this point has been everything I hoped it would be. Nothing has been a let down and some things have even been better than I thought they’d be. We’ve been gone for two weeks now and somehow it seems longer and shorter both. Going out in Milwaukee seems like it could be months ago. But it also seems like we just started this trip recently. Again its hard to explain.
I don't know that any thing is being answered out here or that I am changing at all other than getting stupid by the minute. I do know that im having the time of my life and im glad that im out here. Life has a long time to happen and work out, but right now im just living, really living and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Im sure that everything ive done and seen out here will in some way redirect or reshape what I want to do with my life but ill just let that all play out in the future. This is about now and if I blink I might miss something.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Sacramento awesomeness
July 28th late night-july 30th midday
We ended up driving most of the way to Sacramento that night. We pulled off into a national forest campground and pitched our tent at about 2 am. We slept for 4 hours or so and left to head towards Sac town. It took a couple hours to get there and when we did we couldn’t check into our hotel. We walked over to the hotel next to ours and stole some internet to post blogs and pictures. We searched for disc golf courses in the area and found one. We headed over to the course and played 18 holes. The first nine was pretty terrible for both of us but we sharpened up on the second round and shot respectable scores.
Following disc golf we headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep. After some dumb conversation we finally decided to actually take a nap. We slept for a couple hours then showered up and watched some Jersey Shore for the first time ever while drinking. Interesting show. Once we were sufficiently drunk we decided to head over to what we thought would be some good college bars. I cannot remember the name of the first bar but it was in playboys top 100 college bars. The name sounded something like sparky’s but that is definitely not correct. The bar sorta sucked and was pretty dead. We headed back outside and asked the bouncer if he knew where a good bar would be for us to pick up chickeronis. He pointed us in the direction of bar called Bisla’s.
We walked maybe a mile to Bisla’s and were pretty relieved to see some girls and some college aged people. The bar was having a beer pong tournament which we probably could’ve won but it was too expensive to enter. We hit on/bombed with some girls who were apparently looking for some good Mexican or BG wiener. BG meaning black guy. After flaming out with these girls we walked to another section of the bar which was an out door hookah lounge. At the hookah lounge I decided to initiate conversation with some babes by asking how much hookah was. Turned out it was really expensive. Also turned out the babes were engaged. How did we find out? Well their fiancés came back to the table. No problems though, the bros introduced themselves (brenden and damon) and we introduced ourselves and talked for a while. We asked them where to go in this city to pick up girls. They had some suggestions. They were also pretty stoked about our trip and suggested things for us to do in various other places we are going.
The bros left the table to go play their game in the beer pong tournament. We hung out with their ladies and smoked more hookah. The chicks had some suggestions for us also. They informed us of all the good beaches to hit in san fran and LA. They told us where to go to pick up chicks and which beaches to go to to see fake titties. Their words, not mine. These chicks were about as cool as girls can be. Pretty lucky guys, Damon and Brenden.
We left the bar upon Brenden’s suggestion that we hit up another bar some 30 blocks away. Im not sure if our plan was to head back to the hotel or to walk to this bar. We walked and walked and walked. Then we walked a little more. Then we stopped to ask for directions from a hotel clerk. She pointed us towards our hotel. Or so she thought. We walked some more and we didn't find any road that looked familiar but we did find a lot of roads in general. The night continued to go much the same way. We found random people probably about 8 in total to ask for directions from. They all gave us directions that seemed to be reasonable. Most included directions to go over a bridge which we knew was near our hotel. We kept walking and walking and asking for directions. I called 411. I called the hotel. I called 911. Okay not the last one. But after about 2 hours of walking we somehow ended up at the bar we started at. Great. The bouncer says “oh you guys are good” as we approach the door. He must have remembered us. I have an inclination he remembered us because of our hats. Anyways we asked him for directions and finally got the right directions.
We headed for our hotel knowing there was a taco bell near by. I now realize the taco bell was on the opposite side of our hotel from the bar. We must have walked past it to get to the Tbell. The lobby was closed. We decided to walk through the drive through. After standing there for a good few minutes and nearly giving up hope of anyone taking our order, a car pulls up behind us in line. “Hey you guys trying to get taco bell?” “Yeah man” “Well hop in, they wont serve you that way” Now I know my mom always said not to get in the car with a stranger, but taco bell was on the line. We pretty much had to. So we hop in Ken’s car and we go through and order our tbell. Ken covers about half of it for no reason. Bro. He takes us up to the curb, bids us ado and we part ways never to see each other again. Hans and I walk up to the Mcdonalds curb that's right next to the tbell and we sit down to eat. Eating somehow makes me more drunk. We walk around our hotel again somehow and enter from the opposite side. We’re pretty smart. The night ends with us in our bed talking about how ridiculous this was. Then we sleep. I estimate that we walked around 10 miles and passed our hotel probably 3 or 4 times total. We jumped a fence, played with sprinklers, soaked ourselves, pissed on everything, pulled leaves and flowers off the trees and ran places for no reason. It was a great night.
We wake up this morning remembering that Hans left his flask at the taco bell where we sat down to eat. We travel around the city trying to find that damn taco bell again but of course it takes us forever. Eventually we find it and the flask is there. We get some mcdonalds, fill up on gas, and head out for the day. Pretty late start but it doesn’t really matter for what we are doing today. Since then we’ve been on the road to Yosemite. The driving isn’t bad and the jokes of course keep rolling. If you can even call them jokes. We’ll be in Yosemite for a couple days then off to sanfran which is probably where ill be able to post this. Til then, so long gaiii boyss
We ended up driving most of the way to Sacramento that night. We pulled off into a national forest campground and pitched our tent at about 2 am. We slept for 4 hours or so and left to head towards Sac town. It took a couple hours to get there and when we did we couldn’t check into our hotel. We walked over to the hotel next to ours and stole some internet to post blogs and pictures. We searched for disc golf courses in the area and found one. We headed over to the course and played 18 holes. The first nine was pretty terrible for both of us but we sharpened up on the second round and shot respectable scores.
Following disc golf we headed back to the hotel to catch up on sleep. After some dumb conversation we finally decided to actually take a nap. We slept for a couple hours then showered up and watched some Jersey Shore for the first time ever while drinking. Interesting show. Once we were sufficiently drunk we decided to head over to what we thought would be some good college bars. I cannot remember the name of the first bar but it was in playboys top 100 college bars. The name sounded something like sparky’s but that is definitely not correct. The bar sorta sucked and was pretty dead. We headed back outside and asked the bouncer if he knew where a good bar would be for us to pick up chickeronis. He pointed us in the direction of bar called Bisla’s.
We walked maybe a mile to Bisla’s and were pretty relieved to see some girls and some college aged people. The bar was having a beer pong tournament which we probably could’ve won but it was too expensive to enter. We hit on/bombed with some girls who were apparently looking for some good Mexican or BG wiener. BG meaning black guy. After flaming out with these girls we walked to another section of the bar which was an out door hookah lounge. At the hookah lounge I decided to initiate conversation with some babes by asking how much hookah was. Turned out it was really expensive. Also turned out the babes were engaged. How did we find out? Well their fiancés came back to the table. No problems though, the bros introduced themselves (brenden and damon) and we introduced ourselves and talked for a while. We asked them where to go in this city to pick up girls. They had some suggestions. They were also pretty stoked about our trip and suggested things for us to do in various other places we are going.
The bros left the table to go play their game in the beer pong tournament. We hung out with their ladies and smoked more hookah. The chicks had some suggestions for us also. They informed us of all the good beaches to hit in san fran and LA. They told us where to go to pick up chicks and which beaches to go to to see fake titties. Their words, not mine. These chicks were about as cool as girls can be. Pretty lucky guys, Damon and Brenden.
We left the bar upon Brenden’s suggestion that we hit up another bar some 30 blocks away. Im not sure if our plan was to head back to the hotel or to walk to this bar. We walked and walked and walked. Then we walked a little more. Then we stopped to ask for directions from a hotel clerk. She pointed us towards our hotel. Or so she thought. We walked some more and we didn't find any road that looked familiar but we did find a lot of roads in general. The night continued to go much the same way. We found random people probably about 8 in total to ask for directions from. They all gave us directions that seemed to be reasonable. Most included directions to go over a bridge which we knew was near our hotel. We kept walking and walking and asking for directions. I called 411. I called the hotel. I called 911. Okay not the last one. But after about 2 hours of walking we somehow ended up at the bar we started at. Great. The bouncer says “oh you guys are good” as we approach the door. He must have remembered us. I have an inclination he remembered us because of our hats. Anyways we asked him for directions and finally got the right directions.
We headed for our hotel knowing there was a taco bell near by. I now realize the taco bell was on the opposite side of our hotel from the bar. We must have walked past it to get to the Tbell. The lobby was closed. We decided to walk through the drive through. After standing there for a good few minutes and nearly giving up hope of anyone taking our order, a car pulls up behind us in line. “Hey you guys trying to get taco bell?” “Yeah man” “Well hop in, they wont serve you that way” Now I know my mom always said not to get in the car with a stranger, but taco bell was on the line. We pretty much had to. So we hop in Ken’s car and we go through and order our tbell. Ken covers about half of it for no reason. Bro. He takes us up to the curb, bids us ado and we part ways never to see each other again. Hans and I walk up to the Mcdonalds curb that's right next to the tbell and we sit down to eat. Eating somehow makes me more drunk. We walk around our hotel again somehow and enter from the opposite side. We’re pretty smart. The night ends with us in our bed talking about how ridiculous this was. Then we sleep. I estimate that we walked around 10 miles and passed our hotel probably 3 or 4 times total. We jumped a fence, played with sprinklers, soaked ourselves, pissed on everything, pulled leaves and flowers off the trees and ran places for no reason. It was a great night.
We wake up this morning remembering that Hans left his flask at the taco bell where we sat down to eat. We travel around the city trying to find that damn taco bell again but of course it takes us forever. Eventually we find it and the flask is there. We get some mcdonalds, fill up on gas, and head out for the day. Pretty late start but it doesn’t really matter for what we are doing today. Since then we’ve been on the road to Yosemite. The driving isn’t bad and the jokes of course keep rolling. If you can even call them jokes. We’ll be in Yosemite for a couple days then off to sanfran which is probably where ill be able to post this. Til then, so long gaiii boyss
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Its the hard part but the true love way
Night of Wednesday the 28th.
Were still driving through the mountains on our way down to sacramento. We just stopped for gas and I ended my turn of driving. While I was driving I was thinking about how many different things a song can do for a person. The right song can put you to bed or wake you up when youre tired. It can make you happy or sad. Bring back good memories or bad memories you wish it hadn’t. A good song can excite you or make you somber. It can make you think, or let you forget about everything and just sing along. A really good song can pretty much do anything. For me there are a couple of songs like this.
First there’s Konstantine, one of my favorite songs ever. It always makes me think of a girl I used to date for a little while. But it never makes me think of how it ended or any of the bad things; it just makes me think of all the times we were happy and having good times together. The song makes me reminisce and mostly just makes me happy.
Theres pretty much anything by Kings of Leon but mostly Revelry and True Love Way. Theyre both fun songs. Really good songs. Shes a fun girl. A really great girl with way too much pull on me. These songs make my thoughts heavy, bittersweet. Nice to have them at all but wish I could hear more of them I guess. Metaphor make sense? Yep lets hope so.
Then there’s anything by Jack’s Mannequin which just makes me immediately happy and playful. Mostly these songs remind me of times spent with good friends doing fun stuff and being dumb. Reminds me of an ultimate tournament we made a dumb video at. Reminds me of signing the lease for our house. Most times I have been listening to jacks in my life have been good times.
1000 times a day by The Early November for some reason makes me feel hopeful. The story behind the song goes that this couple dated for a while before breaking up and not talking for a long time then got back together and got married at the end of the song. I guess it’s the happy ending that makes me hopeful that ill have a happy ending also.
There’s a ton of songs that just make me feel goofy and like dancing or being stupid. It wasn’t me by shaggy comes to mind right away.
Seventy times seven reminds me of some stuff ive done and been through on both sides.
The point is a good song can completely change your mood/outlook/attitude. Moments in my life are marked by the songs I was listening to while I was living the moments. Right now, life is incredible and im listening to a lot of Third Eye Blind. So im sure ill always have good feelings when I hear them from now on. Suppose that whole conditioning thing we learn about in psychology might hold some weight.
Were still driving through the mountains on our way down to sacramento. We just stopped for gas and I ended my turn of driving. While I was driving I was thinking about how many different things a song can do for a person. The right song can put you to bed or wake you up when youre tired. It can make you happy or sad. Bring back good memories or bad memories you wish it hadn’t. A good song can excite you or make you somber. It can make you think, or let you forget about everything and just sing along. A really good song can pretty much do anything. For me there are a couple of songs like this.
First there’s Konstantine, one of my favorite songs ever. It always makes me think of a girl I used to date for a little while. But it never makes me think of how it ended or any of the bad things; it just makes me think of all the times we were happy and having good times together. The song makes me reminisce and mostly just makes me happy.
Theres pretty much anything by Kings of Leon but mostly Revelry and True Love Way. Theyre both fun songs. Really good songs. Shes a fun girl. A really great girl with way too much pull on me. These songs make my thoughts heavy, bittersweet. Nice to have them at all but wish I could hear more of them I guess. Metaphor make sense? Yep lets hope so.
Then there’s anything by Jack’s Mannequin which just makes me immediately happy and playful. Mostly these songs remind me of times spent with good friends doing fun stuff and being dumb. Reminds me of an ultimate tournament we made a dumb video at. Reminds me of signing the lease for our house. Most times I have been listening to jacks in my life have been good times.
1000 times a day by The Early November for some reason makes me feel hopeful. The story behind the song goes that this couple dated for a while before breaking up and not talking for a long time then got back together and got married at the end of the song. I guess it’s the happy ending that makes me hopeful that ill have a happy ending also.
There’s a ton of songs that just make me feel goofy and like dancing or being stupid. It wasn’t me by shaggy comes to mind right away.
Seventy times seven reminds me of some stuff ive done and been through on both sides.
The point is a good song can completely change your mood/outlook/attitude. Moments in my life are marked by the songs I was listening to while I was living the moments. Right now, life is incredible and im listening to a lot of Third Eye Blind. So im sure ill always have good feelings when I hear them from now on. Suppose that whole conditioning thing we learn about in psychology might hold some weight.
Seattle/Portland
Night of Monday july 26th-Wednesday july 28th
Monday night we finished up our drive to Seattle and got some tbell at the first one we could find. After tbell we found a walmart and did some grocery shopping. We mostly got more soup and vegetables to cook on the engine or over fires. After walmart we went over to starbucks nearby and stole internet for a while. I posted my pictures and most recent blogs, checked up on facebook, and read some world news. Nothing has happened it seems. After we finished up with the internet we headed back over to walmart and found a parking spot for the night. It wasn’t a great night of sleep but it wasn’t as bad as the first time we slept in the car.
We woke up the next morning and went to find our hotel, assuming we wouldn’t be able to check in for a while but we could at least explore the area. We arrived at our hotel around 9:30 and were actually able to check in right away. We checked in, ate breakfast, showered up and got ready to go out for the day. We filled up a bag with some snacks, water, our flasks, and long sleeve shirts. Then we rode the train to downtown Seattle. We explored some of the bigger attractions (pikes market, the space needle, and the only place in seattle with beach access.) Then we rode around to some parks and got subway. We filled our subway cups with the liquid courage from our flasks and walked around taking note of all happy hour deals. We found a good hang pier to hang out on and stayed there for a little while. Once our cups were finished we walked around to the happy hours we had noted earlier. The first one, also the first happy hour I had ever been to, was on a boat. I enjoyed a nice cold budlight there as the ship rocked back and forth trying its best to make me seasick. This was one battle I would win however. After getting off the boat seasick-free, we biked up to another happy hour in an Indian restaurant. The rest of the night went much the same way. Biking around, finding bars, getting one drink, leaving to go somewhere else.
At the end of the night, and by that I mean around 9 oclock, we headed back for the train station and boarded. I wasn’t sure hans had made it on the train so I texted him to check. He made it. We rode through the 39 stops before ours then got off the train and biked back to the hotel. We thought about going to another bar in this area but the time was getting short since it was a Tuesday night. We went to bed.
The next morning we woke up the latest we have on the trip. Probably because of sleeping in the car the night before and drinking the day away. But it was a good night of sleep none-the-less. We showered up again and packed up our stuff. We were too late for breakfast. Dang it. We left for Portland. We arrived around 2 and found parking near downtown then got onto our bikes to explore the city. After a little work we found a visitors center with maps and realized that Portland doesn’t have too many attractions. We biked around and found some cool parks, shops, and cultural areas. Portland seems to be a city with more culture/history/art type of things than attractions. Still it was a cool place to bike literally all the way around. Oh and yes, I fell off my bike for the first time or I guess I should say my bike fell without me. Those train tracks in the middle of the road should come with warnings. My tire got caught in the track and went down. I stayed on my feet in an impressive display of agility and awesomeness. Must be all the training.
Now we are back on the road headed to Sacramento. We’re not sure if we will just drive through the night there then find camp or drive about half way and camp or what. We’re 21 and 2200 miles from home and we’ll do whatever THE HELL WE WANT!! Just kidding. But really we will just see how we feel and do that. The next week should be pretty exciting. As with the whole trip. But the two big stops (LA and Vegas) are coming up at the end of this week and moving into next week. But truth be told, im not looking past any day of the trip. Every day brings something new and exciting for me to experience.
Monday night we finished up our drive to Seattle and got some tbell at the first one we could find. After tbell we found a walmart and did some grocery shopping. We mostly got more soup and vegetables to cook on the engine or over fires. After walmart we went over to starbucks nearby and stole internet for a while. I posted my pictures and most recent blogs, checked up on facebook, and read some world news. Nothing has happened it seems. After we finished up with the internet we headed back over to walmart and found a parking spot for the night. It wasn’t a great night of sleep but it wasn’t as bad as the first time we slept in the car.
We woke up the next morning and went to find our hotel, assuming we wouldn’t be able to check in for a while but we could at least explore the area. We arrived at our hotel around 9:30 and were actually able to check in right away. We checked in, ate breakfast, showered up and got ready to go out for the day. We filled up a bag with some snacks, water, our flasks, and long sleeve shirts. Then we rode the train to downtown Seattle. We explored some of the bigger attractions (pikes market, the space needle, and the only place in seattle with beach access.) Then we rode around to some parks and got subway. We filled our subway cups with the liquid courage from our flasks and walked around taking note of all happy hour deals. We found a good hang pier to hang out on and stayed there for a little while. Once our cups were finished we walked around to the happy hours we had noted earlier. The first one, also the first happy hour I had ever been to, was on a boat. I enjoyed a nice cold budlight there as the ship rocked back and forth trying its best to make me seasick. This was one battle I would win however. After getting off the boat seasick-free, we biked up to another happy hour in an Indian restaurant. The rest of the night went much the same way. Biking around, finding bars, getting one drink, leaving to go somewhere else.
At the end of the night, and by that I mean around 9 oclock, we headed back for the train station and boarded. I wasn’t sure hans had made it on the train so I texted him to check. He made it. We rode through the 39 stops before ours then got off the train and biked back to the hotel. We thought about going to another bar in this area but the time was getting short since it was a Tuesday night. We went to bed.
The next morning we woke up the latest we have on the trip. Probably because of sleeping in the car the night before and drinking the day away. But it was a good night of sleep none-the-less. We showered up again and packed up our stuff. We were too late for breakfast. Dang it. We left for Portland. We arrived around 2 and found parking near downtown then got onto our bikes to explore the city. After a little work we found a visitors center with maps and realized that Portland doesn’t have too many attractions. We biked around and found some cool parks, shops, and cultural areas. Portland seems to be a city with more culture/history/art type of things than attractions. Still it was a cool place to bike literally all the way around. Oh and yes, I fell off my bike for the first time or I guess I should say my bike fell without me. Those train tracks in the middle of the road should come with warnings. My tire got caught in the track and went down. I stayed on my feet in an impressive display of agility and awesomeness. Must be all the training.
Now we are back on the road headed to Sacramento. We’re not sure if we will just drive through the night there then find camp or drive about half way and camp or what. We’re 21 and 2200 miles from home and we’ll do whatever THE HELL WE WANT!! Just kidding. But really we will just see how we feel and do that. The next week should be pretty exciting. As with the whole trip. But the two big stops (LA and Vegas) are coming up at the end of this week and moving into next week. But truth be told, im not looking past any day of the trip. Every day brings something new and exciting for me to experience.
Monday, July 26, 2010
Yellowstone/shoshone
Saturday July 24th night-Monday July 26th evening
Saturday night when we arrived back at the campground we were greeted my Milf Mcporkable. She was awfully easy on the eyes for a 40 some year old woman. The rest of the night was spent doing nothing but drinking beverages and being manly. We woke up in the morning feeling phresh as usual and proceeded to the daily activities. We hit up hayden valley for our first stop which is basically a giant grazing ground for every animal in Yellowstone. It is the wolves rendezvous point and where they raise their cubs. We did not see any wolves however. What we did see was some bison, a bear, bison, elk, bison, a bald eagle, pelicans and bison. There was a herd of about 500 bison.
After hayden valley, we headed down towards Lake Yellowstone, which is the biggest high elevation lake in North America. Swimming is discouraged though, because the water struggles to get to 60 degrees even at the warmest times of the year. We checked out the lake a little bit, then went further south to West Thumb Geyser Basin. This had some of the coolest geysers in the park and also presented us with the chance to talk to a pretty lil thing who was totally diggin on us. We had to part ways after walking the trail however, and will most likely never see her again :(
After seeing this we had hit all the stops on our Yellowstone trip so we decided to leave the park. We left Yellowstone and headed for the national forest to find a place to camp. We decided to check in on one of the actual campgrounds that are in the forest. It was empty and self-registering. So we drove in and set up the tent. We figured no one would come to collect money or even come into the campground at all. A few people drove up to use the bathroom and one car actually came in to camp. We went down to talk to the people who much like us were college aged kids on a long road trip. We decided not to hang out with them and go back to our site to bro out more. We spent the night throwing entire trees onto the fire and laughing as the flames went over 6 feet high. Then we went to bed. A good evening for sure.
We woke up bright and early and pack up our things and left within 15 minutes. We drove out to twin falls, Idaho and saw Shoshone park. The falls are really neat to see. We free climbed up a sheer face to get a better view of the falls. Okay fine it wasn’t a sheer face, but the climb was steep enough to slide down at 40 mph. Okay fine it wasn’t 40 mph, but it was fast.
Next we left the falls and started driving to Seattle. This is still what were doing now. Its an awfully long drive. We saw an attractive girl driving her car as we passed by so we slowed down to hold up a sign that says “phone #?” After laughing, she promptly showed us her ring finger, which had a ring on it. Crash and burn. But it was still the highlight of the drive so far.
The only other thing worthy of a mention is how much of a barbarian I feel like. It has been 7 days since I last showered. We pooped in the woods, made fire, ate food cooked over a fire and food cooked in an engine. We’ve climbed several dirt covered mountains, played in muddy streams, fixed our bikes covering ourselves in bike grease, camped in forests, carried ash covered wood and just generally have gotten very dirty. We regularly do things that would be considered unacceptable in normal society (i.e. scratching ourselves blatantly, picking nose, pooping pants regularly, burping whole sentences, etc.) Hopefully soon we will be back in a city and return to being normal respectable humans. Hopefully.
Saturday night when we arrived back at the campground we were greeted my Milf Mcporkable. She was awfully easy on the eyes for a 40 some year old woman. The rest of the night was spent doing nothing but drinking beverages and being manly. We woke up in the morning feeling phresh as usual and proceeded to the daily activities. We hit up hayden valley for our first stop which is basically a giant grazing ground for every animal in Yellowstone. It is the wolves rendezvous point and where they raise their cubs. We did not see any wolves however. What we did see was some bison, a bear, bison, elk, bison, a bald eagle, pelicans and bison. There was a herd of about 500 bison.
After hayden valley, we headed down towards Lake Yellowstone, which is the biggest high elevation lake in North America. Swimming is discouraged though, because the water struggles to get to 60 degrees even at the warmest times of the year. We checked out the lake a little bit, then went further south to West Thumb Geyser Basin. This had some of the coolest geysers in the park and also presented us with the chance to talk to a pretty lil thing who was totally diggin on us. We had to part ways after walking the trail however, and will most likely never see her again :(
After seeing this we had hit all the stops on our Yellowstone trip so we decided to leave the park. We left Yellowstone and headed for the national forest to find a place to camp. We decided to check in on one of the actual campgrounds that are in the forest. It was empty and self-registering. So we drove in and set up the tent. We figured no one would come to collect money or even come into the campground at all. A few people drove up to use the bathroom and one car actually came in to camp. We went down to talk to the people who much like us were college aged kids on a long road trip. We decided not to hang out with them and go back to our site to bro out more. We spent the night throwing entire trees onto the fire and laughing as the flames went over 6 feet high. Then we went to bed. A good evening for sure.
We woke up bright and early and pack up our things and left within 15 minutes. We drove out to twin falls, Idaho and saw Shoshone park. The falls are really neat to see. We free climbed up a sheer face to get a better view of the falls. Okay fine it wasn’t a sheer face, but the climb was steep enough to slide down at 40 mph. Okay fine it wasn’t 40 mph, but it was fast.
Next we left the falls and started driving to Seattle. This is still what were doing now. Its an awfully long drive. We saw an attractive girl driving her car as we passed by so we slowed down to hold up a sign that says “phone #?” After laughing, she promptly showed us her ring finger, which had a ring on it. Crash and burn. But it was still the highlight of the drive so far.
The only other thing worthy of a mention is how much of a barbarian I feel like. It has been 7 days since I last showered. We pooped in the woods, made fire, ate food cooked over a fire and food cooked in an engine. We’ve climbed several dirt covered mountains, played in muddy streams, fixed our bikes covering ourselves in bike grease, camped in forests, carried ash covered wood and just generally have gotten very dirty. We regularly do things that would be considered unacceptable in normal society (i.e. scratching ourselves blatantly, picking nose, pooping pants regularly, burping whole sentences, etc.) Hopefully soon we will be back in a city and return to being normal respectable humans. Hopefully.
Yellowstone
Day Something. Time doesn’t matter out here.
The last blog ends with us going out to a national forest to camp for the night. Although a national forest is generally a huge area, this one was hard to find. We actually ended up camping on private property, but the people around the area didn't care and let us stay the night. We started a fire and cooked up some tasty soup and mac and cheese. It was maybe the best cooked-over-fire-food ever made. Then we drank some keystones and broed out for a while around the fire. When we woke up the next morning we cleaned up camp and headed back for Yellowstone. There was a big traffic cluster almost as soon as we got into the park. Turned out there was a wolf out in a field that everyone was stopping to watch. He was too far away to take pictures really, but it was still pretty cool to see him.
We traveled down to the campground we wanted to get a spot at but it was full so we had to head back up to Indian creek, which is far north of everything we were doing that day. We got our campsite and checked out the hot foreign girls two or three sites down from us before heading out for the day. We went south to Norris geyser basin and saw some geysers, which are basically just big pools of boiling colorful water I guess. That's a pretty bad way to describe it cause it’s actually a really cool sight. After that we drove around to the upper and lower falls of Yellowstone, which are big waterfalls that the Yellowstone River flows over. The river also created the grand canyon of Yellowstone, which we obviously had to take a free climb up. Just kidding, that would be impossible. After the falls and canyon we headed back to our campsite, filled up our flasks, and got to work for the night.
Woke up today at 6:30 to 31º weather. Awesome. Packed up camp in the frozen tundra then headed down to another campground. We got a site for real this time and went on to see the sights for the day. This day started out with us being the luckiest people in the world. We drove down to old faithful and sat down only to see her go off about 3 minutes later. Then we biked ourselves over to morning glory pool. Morning glory pool is a spring with bacteria living in it that makes it look like the morning glory flower. The colors in the pool are incredible. The full effect of the pool has been lessened by dumbass travelers throwing stuff into the pool and plugging up its underground source.
Our appetite for biking was not quelled by this short bike to morning glory pool so we headed over to a much longer trail and biked up and down it. There were some decent sights on this trail. The coolest part of it was seeing two bald eagles flying around over a creek. Along the bike trail was a turn off for fairy falls so we decided we would walk down the path. The fourteen-mile trek turned out to be worth it. But really it was only a mile and a half. The temperature around the fall dropped about 15 degrees and the mist from the water pounding into the rocks around the fall was awfully chilly. Next stop was grand prismatic spring. This was as incredible as everything else out here. There’s really no other way to describe this stuff. The pool is just like most of the other geysers, with incredible colors and boiling water. This pool had some of the most pronounced colors of all the springs or geysers. Check out the pictures. Then we tried to drive back to our campground for the noche but we had a few stops. First there were elk on the side of the road. I was pretty surprised by how huge they are. The ones we saw were all females and basically just look like overgrown deer. Very overgrown. The next stop was for a motorcycle accident, which we didn't see but the traffic jam lasted about an hour and half. And now were back at the campground. Oh and we also saw two grizzly bears on the ride over.
So that makes the list up to wild black bears, grizzlies, buffalo, bald eagles, a bobcat, rattlesnakes, deer, elk, wolves, river otters, ravens, hawks, rodents.
The last blog ends with us going out to a national forest to camp for the night. Although a national forest is generally a huge area, this one was hard to find. We actually ended up camping on private property, but the people around the area didn't care and let us stay the night. We started a fire and cooked up some tasty soup and mac and cheese. It was maybe the best cooked-over-fire-food ever made. Then we drank some keystones and broed out for a while around the fire. When we woke up the next morning we cleaned up camp and headed back for Yellowstone. There was a big traffic cluster almost as soon as we got into the park. Turned out there was a wolf out in a field that everyone was stopping to watch. He was too far away to take pictures really, but it was still pretty cool to see him.
We traveled down to the campground we wanted to get a spot at but it was full so we had to head back up to Indian creek, which is far north of everything we were doing that day. We got our campsite and checked out the hot foreign girls two or three sites down from us before heading out for the day. We went south to Norris geyser basin and saw some geysers, which are basically just big pools of boiling colorful water I guess. That's a pretty bad way to describe it cause it’s actually a really cool sight. After that we drove around to the upper and lower falls of Yellowstone, which are big waterfalls that the Yellowstone River flows over. The river also created the grand canyon of Yellowstone, which we obviously had to take a free climb up. Just kidding, that would be impossible. After the falls and canyon we headed back to our campsite, filled up our flasks, and got to work for the night.
Woke up today at 6:30 to 31º weather. Awesome. Packed up camp in the frozen tundra then headed down to another campground. We got a site for real this time and went on to see the sights for the day. This day started out with us being the luckiest people in the world. We drove down to old faithful and sat down only to see her go off about 3 minutes later. Then we biked ourselves over to morning glory pool. Morning glory pool is a spring with bacteria living in it that makes it look like the morning glory flower. The colors in the pool are incredible. The full effect of the pool has been lessened by dumbass travelers throwing stuff into the pool and plugging up its underground source.
Our appetite for biking was not quelled by this short bike to morning glory pool so we headed over to a much longer trail and biked up and down it. There were some decent sights on this trail. The coolest part of it was seeing two bald eagles flying around over a creek. Along the bike trail was a turn off for fairy falls so we decided we would walk down the path. The fourteen-mile trek turned out to be worth it. But really it was only a mile and a half. The temperature around the fall dropped about 15 degrees and the mist from the water pounding into the rocks around the fall was awfully chilly. Next stop was grand prismatic spring. This was as incredible as everything else out here. There’s really no other way to describe this stuff. The pool is just like most of the other geysers, with incredible colors and boiling water. This pool had some of the most pronounced colors of all the springs or geysers. Check out the pictures. Then we tried to drive back to our campground for the noche but we had a few stops. First there were elk on the side of the road. I was pretty surprised by how huge they are. The ones we saw were all females and basically just look like overgrown deer. Very overgrown. The next stop was for a motorcycle accident, which we didn't see but the traffic jam lasted about an hour and half. And now were back at the campground. Oh and we also saw two grizzly bears on the ride over.
So that makes the list up to wild black bears, grizzlies, buffalo, bald eagles, a bobcat, rattlesnakes, deer, elk, wolves, river otters, ravens, hawks, rodents.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
End of Day 5 and day 6
End of Day 5 and day 6
We headed from devils tower over to the battle of little big horn monument. This was a really somber sight. To see so many graves of so many fallen soldiers really makes you think about things. It was a really good history lesson to walk through the park/monument area. For some reason I felt pretty emotional seeing everything there.
After leaving the battlefield we went to try to find a place to camp for the night. We figured it would be cool to camp near a lake and possibly cliff jump so we found one in the area that we thought would be in the national forest. The drive there was pretty incredible with the way the sky looked up in Montana. Guess it really is Big Sky Country. After arriving we found out it wasn’t in the national forest and was also the shadiest place ever. So we left. The road system into/out of this place was one very long road with a series of dead end roads branching off. This meant we had to back track over the last 40 miles or so of driving we had done. Then we figured it would take us so long to get to the next national forest we might as well try to get close to Yellowstone, which was our next destination. We started driving west and noticed the sky looking pretty ominous in front of us. We figured we would be driving into a thunderstorm or something but we had no idea what mother nature had in store for us.
The storm we drove into turned out to be the worst storm ive seen in my entire life. The winds had to be blowing over 70 miles per hour and the rain was moving horizontally. To add onto this we were driving across an Indian reservation and saw one or two cars in about 90 miles. There were no gas stations, no hotels, no shelters for cars, no homes, no signs of civilization. As if that's not bad enough, they forgot to pave the roads too. Without a doubt this was the most scared I had ever been in my life. I legitimately thought we were driving right into a tornado. The storm finally broke and I stopped fearing for my life…for the most part. Every once in a while a good bit of rain would come down again and id have to ask mother nature to cut it out, but it was not as bad as before. After the storm was pretty much over we drove down some more high way and eventually found a pull off in a national forest and slept for the night, waking up every couple of hours for lightning or thunder.
We woke up in the morning and headed for Yellowstone national park. The drive there was ridiculously scenic, awesome, and pretty dangerous. We stopped a few times to take pictures which all turned out really great. We also had to stop to play in the snow since you don't get many chances to do that in July. When we got to Yellowstone there was a huge traffic jam of people stopping to look at a herd of bison on the side of the road. Once we got farther inside we decided to see some of the top attractions in the part of the park we were in. Hans and I went down by Lamar river/valley and stuck our feet in after eating lunch. We strolled down the river a couple hundred yards and looked back to see a bison right where we started our walk. We also found a skull and spine of some large animal laying in the field we were walking through. It would’ve made a good wall ornament but we decided to leave it instead. We then drove over to tower’s fall, stopping on the way for another free climb as usual. We climbed up a small rock formation above a river and got a pretty good view of the river. When we arrived at towers fall we walked down to see the fall and took some pictures. Then we kept walking down and got into the river a few feet. The water was ridiculously cold. We headed back up the trail and decided to see the mammoth hot springs before we left the park to camp for the night. We hiked up a trail by the hot springs and got a good view from the top. The water was about as warm as a hot tub in some spots and even warmer in others. We weren’t supposed to touch it but obviously we did anyways. Then we hiked down and headed out of the park. The roads get pretty congested whenever there is wildlife to see, which is a pain in the butt, but its worth it. So far we have seen wild bears, buffalo, a bald eagle, a bobcat, rattlesnakes, deer, and several birds and rodents. The bigger attractions causing the traffic jams of course. Yellowstone is a beautiful place to be. We will be here for four or five more days. Im sure we will hike, bike, swim, see lots of cool things, and be satisfied by our experiences before we leave. I cant wait. As for now we are going up to a national forest to camp for the night and then heading back into the park tomorrow. Ill keep you up to date…if anyone is reading this.
We headed from devils tower over to the battle of little big horn monument. This was a really somber sight. To see so many graves of so many fallen soldiers really makes you think about things. It was a really good history lesson to walk through the park/monument area. For some reason I felt pretty emotional seeing everything there.
After leaving the battlefield we went to try to find a place to camp for the night. We figured it would be cool to camp near a lake and possibly cliff jump so we found one in the area that we thought would be in the national forest. The drive there was pretty incredible with the way the sky looked up in Montana. Guess it really is Big Sky Country. After arriving we found out it wasn’t in the national forest and was also the shadiest place ever. So we left. The road system into/out of this place was one very long road with a series of dead end roads branching off. This meant we had to back track over the last 40 miles or so of driving we had done. Then we figured it would take us so long to get to the next national forest we might as well try to get close to Yellowstone, which was our next destination. We started driving west and noticed the sky looking pretty ominous in front of us. We figured we would be driving into a thunderstorm or something but we had no idea what mother nature had in store for us.
The storm we drove into turned out to be the worst storm ive seen in my entire life. The winds had to be blowing over 70 miles per hour and the rain was moving horizontally. To add onto this we were driving across an Indian reservation and saw one or two cars in about 90 miles. There were no gas stations, no hotels, no shelters for cars, no homes, no signs of civilization. As if that's not bad enough, they forgot to pave the roads too. Without a doubt this was the most scared I had ever been in my life. I legitimately thought we were driving right into a tornado. The storm finally broke and I stopped fearing for my life…for the most part. Every once in a while a good bit of rain would come down again and id have to ask mother nature to cut it out, but it was not as bad as before. After the storm was pretty much over we drove down some more high way and eventually found a pull off in a national forest and slept for the night, waking up every couple of hours for lightning or thunder.
We woke up in the morning and headed for Yellowstone national park. The drive there was ridiculously scenic, awesome, and pretty dangerous. We stopped a few times to take pictures which all turned out really great. We also had to stop to play in the snow since you don't get many chances to do that in July. When we got to Yellowstone there was a huge traffic jam of people stopping to look at a herd of bison on the side of the road. Once we got farther inside we decided to see some of the top attractions in the part of the park we were in. Hans and I went down by Lamar river/valley and stuck our feet in after eating lunch. We strolled down the river a couple hundred yards and looked back to see a bison right where we started our walk. We also found a skull and spine of some large animal laying in the field we were walking through. It would’ve made a good wall ornament but we decided to leave it instead. We then drove over to tower’s fall, stopping on the way for another free climb as usual. We climbed up a small rock formation above a river and got a pretty good view of the river. When we arrived at towers fall we walked down to see the fall and took some pictures. Then we kept walking down and got into the river a few feet. The water was ridiculously cold. We headed back up the trail and decided to see the mammoth hot springs before we left the park to camp for the night. We hiked up a trail by the hot springs and got a good view from the top. The water was about as warm as a hot tub in some spots and even warmer in others. We weren’t supposed to touch it but obviously we did anyways. Then we hiked down and headed out of the park. The roads get pretty congested whenever there is wildlife to see, which is a pain in the butt, but its worth it. So far we have seen wild bears, buffalo, a bald eagle, a bobcat, rattlesnakes, deer, and several birds and rodents. The bigger attractions causing the traffic jams of course. Yellowstone is a beautiful place to be. We will be here for four or five more days. Im sure we will hike, bike, swim, see lots of cool things, and be satisfied by our experiences before we leave. I cant wait. As for now we are going up to a national forest to camp for the night and then heading back into the park tomorrow. Ill keep you up to date…if anyone is reading this.
End of day 3 and Day 4/5
Went to Sioux falls park two nights ago (Monday night) and saw the park, which was pretty awesome. We biked around the falls and went down to dip our feet in the water. After that we went over to our hotel and planned the next day out more clearly. We made an early night of it and got to bed around 10:30. The next morning we woke up and started the busiest day ever. We headed out from the hotel to badlands national park. Along the way we had to stop at the corn palace just to see what it was all about. There were some pretty cool giant murals made out of corn and some pretty cool wigs we had to try on in the gift shop, for no reason of course.
Badlands national park ended up being a really cool sight to see too. Apparently the Badlands were aptly named such by French explorers that tried to traverse the land, but failed because the rocks are too ridiculous. We did some free climbing there and made it up to the top of a ridge for a pretty cool view. After that we finished the drive through the park and headed up to Wall Drug Store. In the camping section we found two necessities for the rest of our trip: 1. Awesome 75-cent Budweiser hat that will be key in picking up chicks and 2. 8-ounce flask that will provide the liquid courage to hit on said chicks. We sat down for lunch and got a buffalo burger and worlds biggest beer. Buffalo meat was pretty tasty, and like always beer was immensely
tasty too.
After Wall we headed over to Rapid City to see Bear Country USA. I suppose the best way to describe this is that it’s a drive through zoo where the animals are not in cages. Upon entering the place we see a giant wolf standing in the middle of the road, not willing to move for anything. In the place we also saw bobcats, reindeer, elk, foxes, and badgers. Oh and of course, bears. Hundreds of bears. Really incredible animals. At the end of the drive through part, there is a walk through part where you can see bear cubs and wolf pups along with several other smaller animals. The bear cubs were possibly the most playful animals imaginable. Its also pretty impressive to see an animal the size of a large house dog just climb up a tree like its no big deal.
The next stop was mount rushmore. Rushmore is awfully impressive. The size of it and the work that had to go into it make Rushmore really impressive. We snapped some shots and went back to the car to find a camp site for the night. We turned up a gravel road and traveled a little distance before finding a relatively flat land to throw the tent up on. Camping in national forests is free and awesome in case you were wondering. We set up the tent and started a fire up like men. Then we sat down on a rock by the fire and enjoyed the view and some keystones.
The next day we woke up pretty early to some animal exploring our little patch of land. We scared it off though. Hopefully it wasn’t a bear. We decided we wanted to go hiking so we looked on the map and found the hardest trail of course. After turning down a gravel road and driving approximately 12893 miles to find the trail, we gave up and decided to poop in the woods instead. At this point we saw some cool cliffs and decided it would be a good idea to free climb up to them. We ended up blazing a trail way higher than originally planned, but that's what being manly is I suppose.
Next we got back to the car and drove over to Devil’s Tower National Monument. This is basically just a giant cylinder of rock with thousands of large boulders around the main structure. Visitors are allowed to climb up about 100 feet on these boulders at the bottom. Hans and I had to climb up about 400 of course. Breaking rules. We’re total rebels. But seriously, risking life for the incredible view was a pretty good idea Id say. And really, we could only fall so far right?
And that's about all we’ve done in the last forty hours. Good thing we don't need sleep.
Went to Sioux falls park two nights ago (Monday night) and saw the park, which was pretty awesome. We biked around the falls and went down to dip our feet in the water. After that we went over to our hotel and planned the next day out more clearly. We made an early night of it and got to bed around 10:30. The next morning we woke up and started the busiest day ever. We headed out from the hotel to badlands national park. Along the way we had to stop at the corn palace just to see what it was all about. There were some pretty cool giant murals made out of corn and some pretty cool wigs we had to try on in the gift shop, for no reason of course.
Badlands national park ended up being a really cool sight to see too. Apparently the Badlands were aptly named such by French explorers that tried to traverse the land, but failed because the rocks are too ridiculous. We did some free climbing there and made it up to the top of a ridge for a pretty cool view. After that we finished the drive through the park and headed up to Wall Drug Store. In the camping section we found two necessities for the rest of our trip: 1. Awesome 75-cent Budweiser hat that will be key in picking up chicks and 2. 8-ounce flask that will provide the liquid courage to hit on said chicks. We sat down for lunch and got a buffalo burger and worlds biggest beer. Buffalo meat was pretty tasty, and like always beer was immensely
tasty too.
After Wall we headed over to Rapid City to see Bear Country USA. I suppose the best way to describe this is that it’s a drive through zoo where the animals are not in cages. Upon entering the place we see a giant wolf standing in the middle of the road, not willing to move for anything. In the place we also saw bobcats, reindeer, elk, foxes, and badgers. Oh and of course, bears. Hundreds of bears. Really incredible animals. At the end of the drive through part, there is a walk through part where you can see bear cubs and wolf pups along with several other smaller animals. The bear cubs were possibly the most playful animals imaginable. Its also pretty impressive to see an animal the size of a large house dog just climb up a tree like its no big deal.
The next stop was mount rushmore. Rushmore is awfully impressive. The size of it and the work that had to go into it make Rushmore really impressive. We snapped some shots and went back to the car to find a camp site for the night. We turned up a gravel road and traveled a little distance before finding a relatively flat land to throw the tent up on. Camping in national forests is free and awesome in case you were wondering. We set up the tent and started a fire up like men. Then we sat down on a rock by the fire and enjoyed the view and some keystones.
The next day we woke up pretty early to some animal exploring our little patch of land. We scared it off though. Hopefully it wasn’t a bear. We decided we wanted to go hiking so we looked on the map and found the hardest trail of course. After turning down a gravel road and driving approximately 12893 miles to find the trail, we gave up and decided to poop in the woods instead. At this point we saw some cool cliffs and decided it would be a good idea to free climb up to them. We ended up blazing a trail way higher than originally planned, but that's what being manly is I suppose.
Next we got back to the car and drove over to Devil’s Tower National Monument. This is basically just a giant cylinder of rock with thousands of large boulders around the main structure. Visitors are allowed to climb up about 100 feet on these boulders at the bottom. Hans and I had to climb up about 400 of course. Breaking rules. We’re total rebels. But seriously, risking life for the incredible view was a pretty good idea Id say. And really, we could only fall so far right?
And that's about all we’ve done in the last forty hours. Good thing we don't need sleep.
Day 3
Day 3
So last night ended up being about the most perfect night possible. Hans and I biked out to some bars around our hotel. The first bar was pretty hoppin for a Sunday night. Lots of people in there, live music, good looking girls. We had to order a Schlitz since it is the beer that made Milwaukee famous after all. We left that bar and headed out to another where there were no people so we left right away and went to the last bar, right next to our hotel. There weren’t many people but there were a few 30 year old bros sitting at the bar. We plopped down next to em and ordered a drink. We had to jump in their conversation when we heard them talking about family guy. This inevitably led to the discussion about our road trip at which our new friend Dan got really excited. He was probably the coolest guy ill ever meet, since I cant meet myself. While talking Dan ordered us a couple of drinks and told us about a road trip he went on to New York City. Slept in a sleeping bag in Central Park. OG.
Today we got up around 7 and packed up our stuff so we could get out on the road by 8. We got up to the Mall of America at about 1 and were greeted by approximately 2000 hot girls age 15-25. We figured someone told them we were coming and they were all just waiting to see us, but it turned out another fella named Zach Efron was gonna be there too. I guess they came to see him, not us. After spending about 3 hours in the mall walking around, gawking at girls that will graduate high school in about 2034, we headed out and are now on the road to Sioux falls. We’re gonna hit up the park tonight before checking in to our hotel. I hear it’s a beautiful park so im looking forward to it. And tomorrow will be a big day. After posting this I probably wont have internet for a while, but ill try to write something every night and just post it next time I have internet.
For some deep thoughts. Its pretty cool being out on the open road like this.. We just came around a bend on the high way and could see for literally about as far as possible down the high way. There’s just something about seeing so much open land that is completely undeveloped. Its also pretty interesting to look into peoples cars while we pass them and see what is hanging off their mirror. Every one has something different up there. Im having a pretty good time so far. Everything is going as planned, and going really well. I've taken some good pictures so far which ill post on facebook, but I feel like there will be a lot of really cool stuff to get pictures of in the next couple of days/weeks. Guess I don't have many deep thoughts going on right now…Maybe when we get out in the camping parts of the trip ill have more time to think.
So last night ended up being about the most perfect night possible. Hans and I biked out to some bars around our hotel. The first bar was pretty hoppin for a Sunday night. Lots of people in there, live music, good looking girls. We had to order a Schlitz since it is the beer that made Milwaukee famous after all. We left that bar and headed out to another where there were no people so we left right away and went to the last bar, right next to our hotel. There weren’t many people but there were a few 30 year old bros sitting at the bar. We plopped down next to em and ordered a drink. We had to jump in their conversation when we heard them talking about family guy. This inevitably led to the discussion about our road trip at which our new friend Dan got really excited. He was probably the coolest guy ill ever meet, since I cant meet myself. While talking Dan ordered us a couple of drinks and told us about a road trip he went on to New York City. Slept in a sleeping bag in Central Park. OG.
Today we got up around 7 and packed up our stuff so we could get out on the road by 8. We got up to the Mall of America at about 1 and were greeted by approximately 2000 hot girls age 15-25. We figured someone told them we were coming and they were all just waiting to see us, but it turned out another fella named Zach Efron was gonna be there too. I guess they came to see him, not us. After spending about 3 hours in the mall walking around, gawking at girls that will graduate high school in about 2034, we headed out and are now on the road to Sioux falls. We’re gonna hit up the park tonight before checking in to our hotel. I hear it’s a beautiful park so im looking forward to it. And tomorrow will be a big day. After posting this I probably wont have internet for a while, but ill try to write something every night and just post it next time I have internet.
For some deep thoughts. Its pretty cool being out on the open road like this.. We just came around a bend on the high way and could see for literally about as far as possible down the high way. There’s just something about seeing so much open land that is completely undeveloped. Its also pretty interesting to look into peoples cars while we pass them and see what is hanging off their mirror. Every one has something different up there. Im having a pretty good time so far. Everything is going as planned, and going really well. I've taken some good pictures so far which ill post on facebook, but I feel like there will be a lot of really cool stuff to get pictures of in the next couple of days/weeks. Guess I don't have many deep thoughts going on right now…Maybe when we get out in the camping parts of the trip ill have more time to think.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
First two days
We embarked on our journey yesterday evening traveling up to my house in valpo for the night. This night went about as planned minus the tough crowd of funny-joke-haters. Hans and i were throwing out comedic gold, but to no avail. After waking up at 7 am for no reason, we ate breakfast and packed up for the long journey ahead. We arrived in milwaukee today at about noon and checked in to our hotel. Then went to a grocery store and got some good eats. Liquor here is ridiculously cheap. We headed down town and took our bikes off the rack not knowing where we were going. We had about 20 minutes to find the brewery before the tour started and luckily got some directions from a pretty lady. Got to the brewery on time, drank good beer, learned how its made, then headed down to the beach. Water was about 7 Kelvin so we threw a disc around for a while impressing all onlookers. Had a couple bro's clap for us and ask if they could throw one. Nice people here in Milwaukee. Then we biked back to the car about 4 miles, not knowing where we were or where we were going, but using the sun and tall buildings as a guide. Good thing we're incredible navigators. Yep. Anyways. At the hotel now about to get ready to go out for the night.
Perfect start to the trip. Im excited to see what the next couple weeks have in store for us. Hopefully more of the same. Ill try to write more later and more of what i think instead of just recapping events, but for now i just want to enjoy myself and be worry free. Hope things are going as well for others as they are for myself.
Perfect start to the trip. Im excited to see what the next couple weeks have in store for us. Hopefully more of the same. Ill try to write more later and more of what i think instead of just recapping events, but for now i just want to enjoy myself and be worry free. Hope things are going as well for others as they are for myself.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Moments
Well seems like a great time for some late night philosophy with Mattski. I've been doing some more thinking and talking with people as the trip draws nearer. I’ve come to two semi-realizations. Two things to discuss: moments and clean slates.
Life is simply made up of a series of moments. Some good, some bad. Some memorable. Some not so much. How do we know which is which? Sometimes what you think is the worst thing at the time ends up being something youll look back on as a good moment. Sometimes what you think youll always remember, you have a hard time remembering the next year, month, or even week. Which moments are really important? Which moments define who we are and who we’re going to be? I don't have the answers to these questions, but I do know that I have had some moments of my own and that this trip will provide even more. In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen shooting stars, swam across a lake, bonged a beer under water, danced with people I don't know, made a fool of myself, but ultimately made memories.
I want this trip to be filled with more memorable moments, the good moments as this summer has been so far. I want to party in Las Vegas so that when someone asks me 15 years from now what the craziest thing I’ve ever done is, Ill know. I want to watch the sunset over the grand canyon so when someone asks what the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen is, ill know. When someone asks me a question about my life, I want to have good answers, exciting answers, real answers. I want to do everything that I can possibly do and make these moments as memorable as possible.
The other thing ill keep short since this is already getting long (that's what she said). Clean slates. Blank pages. Wouldn’t it be cool to wake up every day with a clean slate? Somewhere where no one knows who you are or what you’re like? You could be anyone you wanted to be. You could do anything you wanted to do. That's the situation im going to be in over the next month. I get to choose who I want to be for that day and no one is gonna know the difference. Then the next day I can choose to be someone else. Every day will be a fresh start. Im excited to see how that changes who I am. And when I come back if I have changed, ill be coming back with a clean slate also. A fresh start to my senior year of college. The future holds many possibilities, all of which excite me.
One week. Cant wait.
Life is simply made up of a series of moments. Some good, some bad. Some memorable. Some not so much. How do we know which is which? Sometimes what you think is the worst thing at the time ends up being something youll look back on as a good moment. Sometimes what you think youll always remember, you have a hard time remembering the next year, month, or even week. Which moments are really important? Which moments define who we are and who we’re going to be? I don't have the answers to these questions, but I do know that I have had some moments of my own and that this trip will provide even more. In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen shooting stars, swam across a lake, bonged a beer under water, danced with people I don't know, made a fool of myself, but ultimately made memories.
I want this trip to be filled with more memorable moments, the good moments as this summer has been so far. I want to party in Las Vegas so that when someone asks me 15 years from now what the craziest thing I’ve ever done is, Ill know. I want to watch the sunset over the grand canyon so when someone asks what the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen is, ill know. When someone asks me a question about my life, I want to have good answers, exciting answers, real answers. I want to do everything that I can possibly do and make these moments as memorable as possible.
The other thing ill keep short since this is already getting long (that's what she said). Clean slates. Blank pages. Wouldn’t it be cool to wake up every day with a clean slate? Somewhere where no one knows who you are or what you’re like? You could be anyone you wanted to be. You could do anything you wanted to do. That's the situation im going to be in over the next month. I get to choose who I want to be for that day and no one is gonna know the difference. Then the next day I can choose to be someone else. Every day will be a fresh start. Im excited to see how that changes who I am. And when I come back if I have changed, ill be coming back with a clean slate also. A fresh start to my senior year of college. The future holds many possibilities, all of which excite me.
One week. Cant wait.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Growing up
What started out as a simple road trip for a couple of friends to take during their last summer as college students has slowly become more. In a very cliché manner, the actual road trip part has become a mere representation of a larger journey. A journey to find answers to questions that perhaps cannot be answered. To me this trip is about finding out who I am, where I belong, what I want to do with my life. Maybe it’s stupid and this whole idea is naïve but maybe answers are out there. Maybe you just have to lose yourself to find them. This trip, it’s about finding my place, my answers. It’s about being twenty-one and having fun the way kids are supposed to before they grow up. It’s about making memories and leaving behind things I’d like to forget. It’s about taking care of “what ifs” and “could have beens.” Mostly this trip is about living. About living the one life were given without regret. No one wants to look back on his or her life and think, “I should’ve done this” or “I should’ve done that.“ We’re young, we’re healthy, we’re free; we have to take advantage of these things while we can because soon enough they’ll change.
I wrote that first part a couple of weeks ago and since then ive been thinking about a lot of different stuff. I've been thinking about growing up and what that means. I am 21, I am a year from graduating college, from having my own “real” life. What do I want to do with that? Shouldn’t I know the answer to that question? I still think of myself as a kid. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I got my drivers license, or turned eighteen. My mom still makes my doctor’s appointments, files my taxes, deals with my insurance. I am still a kid and I feel like that needs to change. I've always said that I don't really want to grow up and be an adult, that I would live the “college life” for as long as possible. While living life this way is fun, what comes of it? Where do I go next? I think that, inevitably, I will live some form of this “college life” for the next year, but at the same time I am going to make an effort to grow up a little bit or at least figure out what growing up means. I think this trip is a good place to start that.
I wrote that first part a couple of weeks ago and since then ive been thinking about a lot of different stuff. I've been thinking about growing up and what that means. I am 21, I am a year from graduating college, from having my own “real” life. What do I want to do with that? Shouldn’t I know the answer to that question? I still think of myself as a kid. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I got my drivers license, or turned eighteen. My mom still makes my doctor’s appointments, files my taxes, deals with my insurance. I am still a kid and I feel like that needs to change. I've always said that I don't really want to grow up and be an adult, that I would live the “college life” for as long as possible. While living life this way is fun, what comes of it? Where do I go next? I think that, inevitably, I will live some form of this “college life” for the next year, but at the same time I am going to make an effort to grow up a little bit or at least figure out what growing up means. I think this trip is a good place to start that.
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