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.
Monday I cleaned up a little around the house, did all the laundry from snowboarding. Then I tried to get some keys made for mikes apartment. They were restricted keys so no one could make them. Mike wanted some extra keys to give to close friends, so he doesn’t have to go down and get them every time they come over. After that fail I started thinking about the end of my trip. Which is most likely st patties day in Chicago. So I need cloths for that. I hit up a good will and found some things that should work. I take my drinking holidays very seriously. Soon after mike came home. Last year we made some amazing chicken wings and it seemed like a good thing to repeat. So we ran to the store and picked some things up. We picked up a 24 pack of corona too. Too bad we accidently grabbed the 7 ounce bottles. It looks weird drinking a beer that small. We cooked up dinner and hit the hot tub.
Tuesday Brent and I hiked Camelback Mountain. I hikes this last year with mike and forgot my camera. It’s a great hike and a lot of fun. It’s a lot of boulder climbing. When we made it to the top I was actually able to take a picture to Mike and Brent’s apartment. We couldn’t tell on the camera but back home we found it. On the way down a girl fell on the rocks and hit her head pretty hard. We asked if she needed some help but her friend acted like a bitch and was really weird about it. Brent has had a few knee surgeries and heading down was pretty tough. After that we stopped at subway for some sandwiches. Right when we got home mike showed up. Tonight is mikes bowling league and he invited me to come with. I couldn’t bowl but I got to met some of the strange creepy old men he bowls with. They were a blast and pretty funny. One guy used to work with mike; he has also been to every state except 5. I asked if he could live anywhere where it would be. He said if money wasn’t a problem he would pick Del Mar, CA. it’s just north of San Diego and that’s where Adam and I were last year. After mikes tournament we actually got a play a game. My wrist was not liking it and it really sucked, I stuck with a good wrist. But I’m glad we got to play one game together. Mike doesn’t have a lot of free time so it was great to hang out together and chat about things. Once home I ate some food and hit the couch.
This day I woke up later than usual. I ran to the store and bought all the food for the road. I cooked up some of the food, spaghetti with ground turkey, and brown rice with 3 or 4 kinds of beans. Later that night mike had a some friend over for a poker night. I lost a few times and had to buy back in but I had a good time. People slowly came and went. Mike ended up winning the whole thing.
Mike was causing an avalanche in the freezer and I was up right when he was heading to work. I decided to hike camel back again for the fun of it. It was the first time I hiked it by myself and I timed myself. Every time I’m there I see people actually running up and down the trail. I was able to keep a quick hiking pace with one break. I took my time on the way down so I could take some pictures. Right when I got home from that Brent was heading to the gym. I decided to join. Brent and Brenden work out just about every day, usually in the gym. I haven’t done shit for the last month and a half other then walk around cities. We spent an hour just working on triceps, and then played some basketball. After the gym we headed home, made some great food, and got ready for the night. It was my last night in town and this time I really wasn’t sure they next time I’ll be out here. So it was really great to get a chance to go out with the bars with mike, Brent, and Brenden. All of us really done get a chance to go out together. We met Brenden, his sister, and roommate at a bar. It seemed kinda weak so we decided to head to mill. The sister and roommate headed home for the night. The rest of us went back to the apartment and had a few drinks before walking to mill. We went to several bars and enjoyed typical bar antics. As we were walking back into the apt complex Brent and I met some very strange people. He stayed up for awhile joking around before calling it a night.
I was up surprisingly early and had to pack everything up. My arms hurt incredibly badly. I think I actually did damage to my muscles. It was off to San Diego for me. Mike woke me up to say bye. Brent was still sleeping but it was great to be able to spend time there again. It’s always a little oasis for me. This was a rough drive. I was really exhausted and it was a 6 hour drive. It was an interesting drive. It went through some mountain areas, some sand dunes, and all the greenery of the San Diego area. I picked up Adam at 3:30 and we headed to the La Jolla and walked around on the beach. It’s a very hilly area and it seems like every house had an incredible view. It was a beautiful beach inside a cove. After that we drove into the city part of La Jolla. We were looking for a bar overlooking the water to grab a drink at. We ended up finding a really cool spot with a small beach surrounded by steeps rocks. There were also tons of bird’s and seals lying around. Really cool to see. We ended up finding a really nice roof top bar with an amazing Margareta. Next we headed to the hotel to check in. after a quick hot tub session we got a cab down to Gaslamp. It’s the main bar, restaurant, shopping area. We found a nice place to grab a burger and a few drinks. Last time Adam and I were out here we never actually made it to the bars. So we did some bar hopping and got a pretty good feel for the area. It was a ton of fun and I was glad we took a cab because we were throwing a few back. When we made it back to the hotel they let us go in the hot tub for a while before heading off to bed.
Saturday morning was a rough start. It’s always seems like a great idea to go in a hot tub after the bar, but it really dehydrates the shit out of you. So it makes the morning worse. But we found a place that had a good breakfast for $2.99. We walked around the old town area; it’s a really neat place in the middle of the city. After breakfast Adam and I drove to Torrey Pines for a day of hiking. We hiked it last time but we were pretty rushed. I was really glad to get to hike it again and take time with it. It’s such a beautiful place with tons of different plants and land features. After a few hours of that we grabbed a pizza and some beer at pizza pit. Last year that had the best beer I ever tasted in my life. It’s called the Hasselhoff. I was really sad they didn’t have it this time. The pizza was great and the beer was good, just not as good as last time. Adam and I debated on heading to the beach but it was defiantly nap time. We went back to the hotel and passed out for a few hours. When we got up we went to meet up with some of Adams friends from college. Erin and Karima. We went over to Erin's place and all hung out for awhile. They all had a ton of catching up to do. I always love hearing people swap stories. We all went out to eat at a pretty nice place. While we were out Karima got a pretty bad head ache and had to get dropped off after dinner. By then it was pretty late and we decided to just hang out at Erin's for a bit. We headed back to the hotel and called it a night
Today Adam and I packed up and started heading to the beach. When we were almost there we decided to have brunch with Erin and Karima. So we headed to the Gaslamp area and had a great meal. We were in a slight rush and had to take off right away after eating. We went to mission beach, where we signed up for surf lessons. After leaving the restaurant someone let us know that I had a flat tire. We were able to get to a gas station right up the street and fill it up. Thankfully it holds air pretty well. I will have to get it looked at before taking off. Then we were off for the lesson. Too bad parking was a bitch and took me about 20 more minutes. O well we still had a good time surfing. I was surprised to be able to get up on a wave a few times. The instructor helps out with the timing and it worked out really well with 2 people. There were dolphins swimming and jumping around not too far away, maybe 250-300 yards away. A really great experience. Right after the lessons Adam had to catch his flight. So we rushed over there and said out good byes. I’m so glad things worked out and we were both able to have fun out here again. After that I got a hold of Karima, she’s a yoga instructor and I have been interested in trying it out. She was teaching a class tonight and I was looking for something to do. So I typed up the first part of this and then headed to the class. It was a hot yoga class, and that shit is hard! I think I did ok but just getting all the positions correct is difficult, much less trying to work out in a sauna. I was glad I did it and if I go tomorrow I get a free class. I was really surprised how much energy you get after you’re done. I’ll see if I make it.
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