After a rough summer semester of work, 9 credit hours' worth of online classes, and constantly babysitting my older nephew while my younger nephew was born, I was finally ready for an OAR-esque adventure. So, I decided to embark on a cross country road trip to the Grand Tetons in Wyoming with Mike and Logel for a mountaineering adventure. Mike was already out West for Geology Field Camp in New Mexico and Logel was in North Carolina, where he lived until about a month ago. Logel and I decided to meet in Chattanooga and drive to Colorado, where Mike would hitchhike to meet us. I drove up 7 hours by myself, stopping in Macon, GA for dinner and Starbucks with my cousin Courtney and her husband, Jeff. I spent a few hours with them before trekking on to Chattanooga. I met Logel at his brother's house, meeting even more Logels, including his nieces and nephew. We checked out his new mountaineering tent and set it up in the backyard. I also flipped through some of Logel's mountaineering books.
The next day, we headed to Guitar Center so Logel could sell some of his music equipment before the trip for fast cash and we also met up with JB, a random guy Logel found on Craig's List RideShare. He had been at Bonnaroo and lost all of his money somehow, so he was paying us $40 for a ride to Colorado. I was hesitant about picking up a complete stranger but he was really nice and he just slept in the back the entire ride. I drove the first shift, through Kentucky traffic that Logel's phone routed us around and St. Louis, where I accidentally missed an exit. We stopped off at a gas station in Missouri to meet up with Anna, who I had originally met at Logel's house over winter break. We also stopped near Fort Leonard-Wood, where Liana is stationed in the Army, to meet up with her for dinner. We went to this amazing authentic German restaurant. The food was delicious and the owner was extremely friendly. Soon after that, we took off for Kansas. Luckily for me, Logel drove through the misery that was Kansas. Not only was it boring, flat, and straight but it was also that absolute worst time of day. I slept for a few hours in the passenger seat and when I woke up, I talked Logel through some of the drive.
Around sunrise, we pulled over for gas in Kansas and I took another turn driving. I was somewhat delirious but the coffee helped. I drove us straight to Denver, where we dropped off JB at REI and spent some time at the flagship. By this point, I was beyond delirious. I passed out on one of the display cots at REI and made Logel drive the rest of the day. We went to Garden of the Gods while waiting for Mike, who we had been tracking via GPS on my phone. We finally got an address from him in Colorado Springs and met him at a Carl's Jr. He looked miserable. Apparently he had been hitchhiking from Texas and he had spent the night near the border of Texas and either New Mexico or Oklahoma. He slept in a ditch and was picked up by a trucker the next morning, who took him all the way to Colorado Springs. The three of us piled in the car and headed to Boulder, CO for the next leg of the trip.
Events occurred: June 19-21, 2013
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