I know it’s been awhile sense the last post. Life has finally started to calm down somewhat. I will be able to keep up on it better from now on. I finally have a few hours to go through the last week.
After the last entry I headed back to bourbon for the final night of Mardi Gras. I parked in the same place and grabbed a few beers. I walked around Bourbon for awhile. It was a ton of fun again but some of the other nights were better. Right at 12 the cops roll down Bourbon st. you don’t have to leave but it really kills the mood and most people do. First they sent a fire truck down, followed by about 5 squad cars. Then about 30 cops on horseback with 70 on foot behind that. Last but not lease another 5 squad cars. I walked around for a little while after that but people were really clearing out quick. I headed back to car and called it a night.
I was up pretty early and I had to get on the road. I sign up for couchsurfer web site and one person was looking for a ride out west. I offered but they never got back to me, so I took off. It was a cool drive to go through the bayou. All the freeways are built on stilts, but it was easy to see how huge waves devastated this area. I didn’t really see any damage from the hurricane but lots of things are built on or near water. I drove over to Houston and drove around the downtown area for a little while, just to get a feel of the city. But I had a ton of driving ahead of me and headed out again. The drive up to Dallas was pretty plain. I have a friend’s uncle, Jim, that lives there and I got a hold of him. Turns out he had to fly out for work the night before and wasn’t sure if he was able to get a flight back that night. When I got into Dallas I picked up a few things at the store and cleaned out the car. Jim couldn’t make it back that night so I headed west. It was dark when I was leaving the city, and it looked like a great place. Lots of things lit up and art scattered through the city. I do wish I had another weekend in here to check out more of TX but it didn’t work out. So the rest of the drive was in the dark, so I drove until about 12:30 and called it a night.
The next morning I was on the road again. I drove through a lot of oil fields and it actually smelled like oil. I was driving through a serious wind storm, I had to get gas at one point and it was in the middle of nowhere. They said the wind was 70 mph, and coming right at me for the drive. My car usually goes at 2500 rmp at 70 miles per hour. With the wind it was at 4000 going 70. It was a little scary passing semi trucks. It was crazy to watch them getting blown around the road. It was a really flat drive until I entered the Mountain Time zone. Then it all changed and made me smile. After everything I experienced and all the fun I had, I realized the west is the place for me. The rolling mountains with the light brown rock and sand. And the vivid green from whatever it able to grow. At some point I was driving right on the border of Mexico. I stopped at a place in Las Cruces for some southern BBQ. I ordered some ribs. They had great flavor but I was expecting fall off the bone juicy. It was great to get some food, all mine was spoiled at this point. I made it up to Tempe AZ around 8 pm. I stopped and picked up a pizza for dinner then meet up with my friend from high school, and the last trip, Mike. Mike lives in a great apartment overlooking a lake. It about 2 blocks from the main bar strip and everything about it is nice. He lives with his roommate Brent. I also met me him last year and stayed with him over Halloween. I was looking to go out to the bars but mike had to work early and I was fine with taking a break. I took a shower and we joked around a bit before it was off to bed.
Friday morning I was up pretty early and helped out by cleaning the place. They are pretty busy with school and work and I am always glad to help out. I brought in everything I needed from the car, and finally did some laundry. After that Brent and I went to the gym. We didn’t think I needed an ID but I did. So I had to head back and grab it. We met up with another good friend of mine, Brenden. Mike and Brenden lived together last year, so he knows all about my trip. It was great to see him again. After that we headed home. Mike was home soon after that and there was a pretty fun night planed. Some friends of Mike were getting free bottle service at a bar and everyone was invited. People always come over to mikes to drink before going to the bar, because of how close it is. Another guy from Brookfield, Ian came over with his friend Logan. It’s always good to see friends. We all headed to the bar and turns out there was a flaw in the plan and things didn’t work out with the free bottle. So mike and I headed to a different bar to hang out and catch up. Everyone else caught up later and mike ended up heading home early. I hung out with Brent for the rest of the night and had a blast.
Saturday we spent the day down by the pool. Brenden came over and it was great to hang out with everyone for awhile. When the sun left the pool area I went to the store and picked up some real food for the week! It was so nice to be able to buy things like salad and chicken and tortellini. When I got home I cook some things up and stuffed my face. Everything tasted amazing. Mike Brent and I hung around the house most of the night; we all hit it pretty hard the night before. We watched a few movies and finally decided to go out for a few drinks. We went to a couple bars and ran into some of mikes friends. I hung out with them for a bit and there was supposed to be an after party but that fell through too.
In the morning mike and I woke up around 9:30. I made sandwiches and mike had to run to a friend’s house to pick up some snowboarding gear. After that we headed out right away and drove up to Flagstaff, AZ. It’s a really beautiful drive with a lot of change in scenery. We made it snow bowl AZ. We were supposed to meet up with Brenden and a few of his friends but they left really early and headed home soon after we made it there. Mike hasn’t boarded in like 7 years so he was a little rusty, but did fine. We got a few good hours in and had a good time. It was about 49 degrees out and I was worried about it being slushy, but the snow was great. It’s a really fun mountain with a lot of options for riding. Mike had pretty big blow to his shoulder and he was sore for a few days. The ride home was great, the sun was going down and it illuminated the reddish stone everywhere. When we made it back I made some food and watched some TV before calling it a night.
I will up load this now and hopefully finish typing tonight
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