Back to Reality

So 6 days after it began, my vacation across the country has ended. I currently write from the Dallas-Fort Worth International airport while waiting for our plane to get fixed (starter flow valve something or other?). My time in Florida was amazing except for the heat/humidity and drowning my phone in Gumby’s pool. We went bowling (got a 141 on the first game in months) and decided I wanna join a league. Just because. A relaxing evening at Logan’s place gave way to an action packed Thursday. Kickball was first up bright and early at 9am, and it got quite intense really quick. Even though it was hot, I tweaked my hip flexor while sliding, and I almost destroyed another phone, everyone had a great time.

A trip to the pool was in store next, and this involved beaching ourselves on the “shore.” Good news for a guy who doesn’t really like water haha.

Things took a turn for the worst when the great people at that amazing community college in Fort Collins finally answered their phones and answered my questions. Turns out my loan for summer courses wasn’t received in time and I was dropped from the full summer course load I was actually looking forward to. This is all after leaving 4 messages and emails and calling about 20 times in the past 3 weeks in an effort to tell them what is/was going on. I’m waitlisted again with little hope that I will actually get in.

From there, I finally got to check out downtown West Palm Beach and, ultimately, the Atlantic Ocean. I’ll say this right now: The Atlantic is hundred times better than the Pacific. Unlike cloudy, chilly San Diego beaches, WPB beaches were perfectly sunny and like bath water. It was a great change of pace, not to mention we drove a sports car to get there.

We took one last spin the in U Haul truck we called home for 2300 miles while we moved some furniture, and then had some amazing home cooked gourmet style food before heading off to Karaoke night at Gypsy Horse where we shot pool and just had a great time. Heading back to Logan’s around 2am, Gumby and I devoured whatever chunk of meat was sitting on the stove. From there, I learned that birds (the same one that chewed the cabinets) can also roll over and play dead. It was an amazing thing haha.

I'm so much better than these two posers. lol

At 3AM, we realized it was probably a good idea to sleep, seeing how we had to be up in 3 hours. And now here I am sitting, waiting, for the plane to get fixed.

Vacationing across the country with the ultimate destination of South Florida may have been the best idea we ever had. While bittersweet, I am definitely glad everything happened the way it did, and I really do wanna head back Florida sometime soon. I swear, if it snows when I get back to Fort Collins in a few hours, I may move.

Goodbye Home, sweet home...

I guess that’s it for this trip. And with all the extra free time I may be having, I guess that makes for more adventure time that may give me something to write about; maybe another severed arm or marathon will have to suffice.

*Just landed in Denver after a 2 hour delay. Off to Foco and then work for the evening. Oh boy.

**Off work, done getting food. Time to veg’ out for the night. I can’t find my camera cable, so pictures will not be up for a while.

My running travels.

So I actually failed to mention that I never really road in the U-Haul... I ran the whole way.


I just kept running...
...and running...


...and running...

...and running...

...and running...


...and than I ran some more...

...and then I stopped.

The final stretch of driving

Well the tough part is done. 2300 miles later, we arrived in West Palm Beach,FL around 930 on Tuesday night. We had planned on leaving Tallahassee early Tuesday morning, but we could not pull ourselves away from the air conditioning and internet at Logan's friend Josh's place. We finally hit the road around 11am and made a shot almost straight to Orlando.

Florida seriously has cops every mile tucked away in forests... Luckily nobody ever expects a U haul to be speeding :)

I finally reached my aunt Linda on the phone, and we decided to make a pit stop to see her. I hadn't seen her in quite some time (4 years?) so it was a nice surprise. The only downfall to this was A) the toll roads that charge 75 cents every couple miles and B) the traffic and C) the fact that it was about 15 miles backtracking. Overall though, it was quite worth it and it was great to finally see her again.


We learned here that no matter what people say, a U haul truck can pull a U-turn just as well as anything.

Now the fun part began. We got directions for how to make it the rest of the way, but before we could continue, we had to get gas. CHASE bank had something else in mind, though. They completely shut off the credit card because, apparently, purchases in Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida all within 4 days is suspicious? Go figure. After a nice conversation and a verbal SAT to get the card back working, we were on our way again, only a few hours behind schedule.

Florida roads are labeled horribly in an effort to get people lost and put them in Disneyworld. Seriously! How can a road go east and south, but not southeast?! We got lost on a tollway, which is not an easy feat.

We eventually found ourselves and were even more behind schedule, taking the scenic route through Orlando. Then an interesting thing happened...

I was writing and Logan was driving. We were both preoccupied and just wanting to get to West Palm. Logan said something along the lines of "that sign is wrong...Miami isn't one mile away." I looked and laughed and we kept going...



As we entered Cape Canaveral Air force base, we just wanted to make sure we were on the right road, but as it turns out, we were on an island. We crossed 2 bridges, but neither of us thought that we were going the wrong way; about 30 miles total.

We finally got things going the right way and were still 2 hours outside of West Palm. It had taken about 4 hours to go 40 miles, but the rest of the drive was quick (U hauls have speed chips btw).

We finally go to his house after picking up Kevin (Gumby) in our stylin' ride and relaxed to a delicious Italian dinner. From there we went to a friends house for a few hours and watched a very hyper dog (try to) play with a puppy that can't walk on hardwood floors. Quite the site to see.

The evening went on, we got back to Logan's, and settled in for a night's sleep.

Logan's Umbrella Cockatoo (bird) got a case of restless leg syndrome in the morning and decided it would be a great idea to chow down on some hardwood cabinets. The day opened with a huge breakfast and a trip to home depot for wood putty.



From there, we ventured to Gumby's (play) house, which is fully equipped with a lake, wave runner, pool table, pool, and rock band. Wave runner was great until we flipped and Logan's glasses decided to take their own vacation. Thunder was rolling, so we got off the jetski and went in the pool...but before that happened I thought it would be a great idea to put my stuff back in my pockets, including my phone. Not the best idea.




Just another reason I hate water lol.

All and all, the past couple days have been great. everything is going phenomenally well, even though I did break my phone, may have lost my spot for summer classes, and am constantly sweating.

Dallas, New Orleans, and Tallahassee

So I guess the best place to pick up is right where we left off…waking up on a heated sleep number bed in an upscale hotel in downtown Dallas provided to us by our good friend, Alex.

To start with, walking outside into the furnace that bakes the South was a huge shocker. Now it was only the mid 80s, but remember, it SNOWED 4 days before up in the Fort. Quite the change. Ricco took us to a Mexican restaurant that rivaled some of those from SoCal I was accustomed to. After a delicious meal Alex, myself, and a very happy Logan parted ways with Catherine and proceeded to Owen’s “Man Cave.”

The plan had been to play tennis, but that did not happen. Rather, after a Super Smash Brawl, Alex, Logan, and I went to his grandparents’ penthouse on the 22^nd floor and had a view of the entire city of Dallas. As we sat on the balcony discussing who knows what, Logan put forth the proposition of going out to a legit Texas steakhouse in celebration of an ending school year among other things. After talking to his awesome grandparents about anything and everything, we continued on to Texas Land and Cattle Steakhouse. Porterhouse steak done right.

Texans sure do know their steaks.

We then made the journey back to the U haul, said our goodbyes, and prepared for the daunting night long journey that was in front of us. But Alex had one more trick up his sleeve. As we were getting ready, he showed up, and we walked to the Track within the walled community of Highland Park (there are castles at this place!!). There are few things better than an empty track at 9PM in the South, and we all just chilled on the pole vault mats for an hour. Of course, I went running…a mile barefoot just because haha.

Going back to the U haul and saying our goodbyes (again) we were preparing (again) for the trip…only we were both exhausted. Ricco showed up again20 mins later, and he offered to put us up at the Radisson Hotel again. Those Sleep Number beds were calling, but we decided it was best to hit the road. After getting slightly lost in the ghetto of Dallas, we were on highway 20 heading to Shreveport, LA.

U Haul trucks are loud, and this makes sleeping difficult

Exiting Dallas at 11PM, we were in it for the long haul. And Mother Nature decided to spice things up a bit by putting on a spectacular light show in the distance…and then it was on top of us. I slept while Logan powered through the impressive storm and woke up just in time to see the biggest, brightest lightning bolt of my life. It hit right in front of us a few miles up, and we could see the sparks coming off of whatever it hit. I was awake then….

…But then I slept again, woke up at daybreak in Louisiana (bearded guy sitting outside gas station talking to everyone, haze making it almost difficult to breathe) and I took over the wheel. Logan tried to sleep, but before we knew it we were in Baton Rouge passing over the Mississippi River. We had the bright idea to park in a random neighborhood, walk to the river and go in…only it was the most disgusting part of the river right past “Cancer Alley.” After stepping in, we left on the road again and soon were in New Orleans.

The plan had been to sleep for a few hours when we got there and then check out the town. After driving through downtown in a 20+ foot truck, we were definitely ready to sleep, but the lady at the tourist center preferred that we suffer. After almost taking out her tree and her car, (she had it coming) we parked near the Mississippi Levies right outside the French District. I claimed the cab and Logan hopped in the back and we tried to sleep… but New Orleans apparently gets hot in summer (who knew, right?) so our luxurious nap transformed into a sweaty rest outside an apartment building. People saw me and I heard them saying something along the lines of “truck, tourist, sleep” but I didn’t care and eventually slept a couple hrs.

We walked to the French corridor, had lunch at Magnolia’s Grill, and toured the deserted Bourbon Street. It was hot, empty, and frankly, kinda boring so we decided to ship off to Tallahassee, FL.

Shrimp Po Boy from Magnolia's in the French Quarter:

A trip through Mississippi and Alabama was in store, and nothing happened in either of those states except another display by Mother Nature in the form of a blinding rainstorm.

After finally reaching Tallahassee, FL we were met with couches and friends and Pita Pit and were settled in for the evening. After a solid night’s sleep, we are now getting ready to make the final stretch of the trip to Wellington, FL.

What a day 1!

So of all the things you can possibly learn while in a huge U-haul truck for 15 straight hours... we learned that 15 hours is a RIDICULOUSLY long time to be in a U-haul truck!






We took off at 7AM from good ole' Fort Collins, took a trip back in time in Kit Carson, CO at 11 AM, at which point it was clear the gas guzzling home on wheels would be our less than luxury home for the next 3 days. We had lunch at a small diner in Kit Carson, talked to a couple locals, and took our artery clogged bodies (double bacon cheeseburger...legit!) back to the truck and straight through to Oklahoma.






Logan fed cows..almost. Scared cows. and honked at cows...Oklahoma cows apparently are not as friendly as happy California cows?





Upon crossing into Texas and traveling almost 400 miles nonstop, it was time to switch drivers. We were both feeling great all of a sudden with renewed energy in the form of Nutrigrain and Nature Valley bars... until we started hitting a ton of stupid little run down towns. Okay, maybe stupid is a bit harsh but SERIOUSLY! there is no need to have a 35 MPH speed limit through a town that has one hick and a cow!





200 miles and another half tank of gas in, we stopped in Childress (yea...child-ress, not like the kid). We thought we were getting close, or at least were hoping, till the gas station peeps said 4 more hours. We were both getting restless to the max at this point, at which point we learned another valuable piece of life information: if you are driving a U-haul truck and getting passed, you aren't a professional U-haul driver like we are. Haha all within the realms of safety!

The sun set on day one, but we were still hightailing it to Dallas.

Every sign seemed to all of a sudden give us both a second wind and before we knew it, we were off a nice freeway and on a narrow 2 lane road. Speedracer had turned into grandma within 2 minutes. Seriously freaking out at this point, I just wanted to park the beast and relax but Dallas must have been picked up and moved cuz it seemed we weren't getting any closer.

Construction zones + concrete barriers + wide truck+ stupid people = one of the most stressful times ever!

Finally arrived at Alex's house in Dallas, and, relieved, he took over the driving. Logan and high had both driven 400 miles each nonstop and, 15 hours after we left, we had arrived in the much hyped Dallas TX.

The great Alex Ricco was in charge now, and he treated us to dinner at Cafe Brazil, a sight out by the private airport, and a tour of a remarkable town that he lives in.

Drained, we finally got to the hotel he was putting us up in for the night, jumped on the Sleepnumber beds, and completely died for 8 hours.

The never ending day had finally come to an end. Time to start off on Day 2 which will take us to New Orleans...eventually.