Thursday I came down with the flu. I was really surprised; I never really get sick to begin with. 2 months living in my car in all kinds of weather, from -30 degrees to 80 degrees, and nothing happened. 1 week with a bunch of college kids, drinking and not sleeping much, and I get the flu. That night I barely slept at all.
The next morning I felt a lot better. I went to the store and picked up some medicine, and just getting up and doing something made me feel better. Mike and Dustin, Mike’s 3rd roommate, showed me around the ASU campus. The only thing I really have to compare it to is UWM, and they are nothing alike. ASU has palm trees lining the main walk, sculptures along the sidewalks and buildings, even hidden garden spots that students can go and read or whatever. I was really impressed, a lot of older, well-kept buildings, but also lots of new, modern areas. After we walked around we all got some food. Dustin met a friend at the restaurant and took off. Mike had a whiffle ball game for a club he’s in. I was going to stay and watch but they didn’t play first. I went home and took a nap. When I woke up Brenden, Waleed, another friend of everyone, and I started drinking. We met up with mike after his game at the bars. Mike went home early that night so I just hung out with Brenden, and Waleed. Waleed works at the bar that Brenden and I destroyed the owner in pong. So we went back to the bar and chatted with the owner some more and had a good time.
Not much happened Saturday, I lost my voice, not sure if it was part of the flu or the bar or both? Mikes parents flew in for the week, and they took mike and I out for P.F. Chang’s. I think that was the first time I’ve been there. The food was great; Mikes Family always tries a bit of each person dish, so I got a taste of each. It was nice to meet his parents, and get to know them a little bit. I just felt bad, my voice was shot so I didn’t get to go into much detail about anything and I don’t know if they were even able to hear me. When mike and I made it back to the house I took a nap. Mike woke me up to play some beer pong with the roommates. We decided to go out to the bars, mike wanted to show me the Scottsdale bars. Im glad I got to see the bars, but I will never set foot in a Scottsdale bar again. It is a very different place, lots of guys dancing with guys. If it were any other place I would think they were all gay bars, but I guess that’s just the way they are there. It was just weird.
Sunday I went to the store and just made a bunch of food for the road. Mike had his parents over for dinner. He needed some help cleaning up and getting dinner together.
Monday morning I headed out. I drove to Petrified Forest National Park, AZ. I didn’t know to expect here. When I got there I watched a short video and started hiking around. Petrified wood is just really old wood that has turned to stone. I never really thought of it to be that interesting, but this place was like nothing else. The entire ground was covered in small pieces that shine in the sun. Then there are a few 200 foot trees that glow in all different colors. And the ground its self wasn’t sand or dirt, it was this soft silt material. The landscape there is called the Painted Desert, lots of small rolling hills all different colors. It turned out to be a really cool place. I drove the rest of the day to Durango, CO, the base of the San Juan Mountains.
The next morning I was able to pick up some medicine for my head. The flu I had turned into a sinus infection and my head was pounding with the elevation. I asked around to find the best spots to hike. I decided on a spot in the mountains that is a creek bed. My plan was to do 2 hikes, the creek bed and then an overlook area. I should have done the overlook first. The creek bed was not very exciting. Just walking through pine trees, they were too tall to see the mountains around me but not tall enough to be cool. After that hike I was completely warn out. I drove over the where I was going to do the second hike. The view was amazing, beautiful day; see for miles, lots of mountain peaks. I really wish I was able to hike there. After that I started driving to Boulder, CO. on the way I passed through a few cool small towns. I stopped in one small town because they had a hot spring. It felt great after the hike and with my head all clogged up. The hot spring was surrounded by 2000 foot mountains, at one point the sun went down so I left. I drove another mile or so and I realized there were still 3 hours of sun left, the mountains were just so close and steep. The rest of the drive was one of the best I’ve done. You just weave around the mountain crests; there were some frozen lakes way up there too. I finally made it to matts house at about 9:30. We talked about the trip a little bit and I got ready for hiking tomorrow.
Wednesday right when I got up I drove over the Longs Peak. I started hiking at about 8:30am. The first part of the hike is through the woods. You don’t really see too much just a lot of switch backs. In winter you can tell people who know the trails have made shortcuts along the trails. These are much steeper but cut off a good amount of time. After the first 2.5 miles you get above the tree line and start to get some great views. At that point you’re on a very wide, no so steep rocky area. I walked across this to another sign. If I took a little different path I could have gotten a lot further. I hiked over to Chasm Lake. Really cool view with a frozen waterfall, but to hike over there I had to put snow shoes on and the trail was getting rough. Finally the wind took over the trail and made it to sheer and steep for me to hike on. I ended up rock climbing over part of the mountain. After this I was exhausted. It felt like I had to fight for every breath, between the 10 degree air, the flu still lingering around, and my lungs were not happy. I would have to take a break every 30 feet or so the whole way up. The wide up there was killing me too, twice it knocked me over. I took some pictures and decided to head back down. Even on the way down the wind wouldn’t stop. There was once the wind funneled through a small area and it sounded like someone cracked a whip, which is a very strange thing to hear when nothing is near you. When I finally made it down my head completely out of it. I thought I lost my camera; I thought it so strongly I went and placed notes on everyone’s car. When I made it back to matts house I was laying down about to take a nap, and I remembered my camera was in a different pocket the whole time. It was a great hike; I just wish I was able to get further. That night we went to Stevie’s house and watched a movie.
Thursday morning I left to start heading home. I decided to stay the night in St. Louis, and then spend the weekend with Adam in Chicago. After about 40 miles east of Denver the land is flat with nothing at all to see for the next 10 hours or so. I got to St. Louis at about 12:30 am. I drove around downtown to find a place to park and sleep. The town didn’t seem very friendly/safe. There were a lot of people just kind of hanging out on the streets at 1:00 in the morning. I decided to drive a ways away and sleep in a hotel parking lot. The next morning I went to the arch and walked around the city museum. The city museum was a really crazy place; it’s like if someone tried to build a Wanaka house in their garage. Lots of crazy tunnels and caves. After that I drove to meet up with Adam at his apartment. We went out the met his friends at a bar then me and Adam went a few more after that. Like every time I hang out at Adam, had a fair share of beverages and good times. Saturday we all went out for pizza and had some really good beers at the pizza place/brewery. We were out around Ed Yanasak’s place, so we called him up and he met us at the bar for a little bit. I haven’t seen him is a long time, so it was nice to hang out with him.
Today I made the roughest drive of the trip. I drove home. It is nice to be home, but I would defiantly take the road any day. So that’s the end of the trip. I’ve learned a lot, met some great people and had the most fun of my life. All I know is I will be seeing the east coast next winter. I hope you will follow along then.
15 states Wisconsin, Minnesota, south Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, idaho, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, new mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin
13,000 miles
About 800 gallons of gas
84 days 11 weeks
30 nights in my car
42 nights at peoples houses
6 nights in a tent
5 nights in a hotel
1 random guys couch
