Grand Tetons Part Seven: The Drive Home

The drive home was long and exhausting. We drove straight from Boulder to Missouri, with plans to stay at Liana's house near Fort Leonard Wood. She had no idea that Mike was with us so we decided to keep it a secret and surprise her. We convinced our other friend, Anna, to also come surprise Liana and met up with her just outside of Liana's neighborhood. Mike hopped in her car and they followed us. Logel and I emerged first and then a few minutes later, Mike and Anna pulled up. She was so excited that she jumped and screamed, leaping toward us eagerly. Soon thereafter, the five of us piled in Liana's car and went to buy some fireworks. We headed to an empty field to set them off. I am not much of a fireworks person. I like them in theory and I like them from a safe distance but setting them off freaks me out. Rather, I ran around with sparklers and danced in the darkness.

The next morning when we woke up, Anna had already returned home and Liana had already headed to base. We started another lengthy drive to Chattanooga. Logel drove most of the way while I was sprawled out in the back seat, wrapped in my fuzzy purple blanket. Mike commandeered it at one point so he could work on his computer without the harsh glare from the sun. When we arrived in Chattanooga, we dropped Logel off at his brother's and headed down to Sandy Springs, GA, just north of Atlanta. We stayed with Mike's aunt and uncle, who were very hospitable and generous. We were greeted with food, showers, and warm beds to sleep in. We woke up early the next morning and sped home. I made it back to Jacksonville with an hour to spare until my doctor appointment. The drive was mostly uneventful, hours of music peppered with random conversations. I was just glad to be home to start the healing process.

Events occurred: July 1-2, 2013

Grand Teton Adventure Part One: The Drive

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

Toronto/Boston Road Trip Part One: Red River Gorge

When Michael approached me about road tripping to Boston, he knew me well enough to know that I would be a guaranteed "yes." The semester was over and I didn't have any finals left other than some papers I needed to turn in. I took a chance and figured I could write them on the road, which luckily didn't completely backfire. The deal was that Michael's younger sister Sarah goes to MIT and she wanted her car for the summer. So, we were driving up to Boston to deliver it and then flying home whenever. Michael and his girlfriend Carolanne had already booked their flights for Saturday, May 4th, but I decided to wait. Greek Orthodox Easter was on May 5th this past year and my family always has a huge celebration in New York that I have never been able to attend. I figured that I ought to go, since I would already be in the Northeast and I had become accustom to riding the bus between Boston and New York City. 

The day after our last day of classes for the semester, I met Michael at his apartment in Gainesville. We packed my stuff into his car and headed across town to pick up our fourth. Her name was Rhea and I had never met her before. I had some reservations about Rhea because I had never met her before and we were going to be traveling together for over a week. As soon as I met her, however, all my concerns disappeared. Her cheerful disposition and her ukelele both won me over instantaneously. Carolanne also joined us and we headed for Panama City. The plan for the entire trip was to go to Panama City, where Michael's parents live, to trade his car for his sister's, and then drive to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky to meet up with another OAR trip for some climbing. We went to the beach in Panama City and it was beautiful. The sand was pure white and the waves were lapping the shore gently. Rhea immediately collapsed in the sand, soaking up the sun and taking a nap. Michael and Carolanne explored the shoreline and I wandered aimlessly in circles before joining Rhea on the sand. Soon thereafter, we ventured to Michael's parents house, where we were welcomed with an incredible dinner and generous hospitality. We enjoyed our time their so much we ended up staying until close to 10 PM. We piled into the Corolla and headed toward Kentucky. 

One important note about this road trip is that Sarah's car is a stick shift. Michael was a competent manual driver and he had taught Carolanne how to drive stick over a year before. Unfortunately, she hadn't had the opportunity to practice since then. Rhea could also somewhat drive stick shift but she struggled with getting the car into first gear. To quote her, she either "peels out or stalls out," which was fun to experience at 3 AM. I can also drive manual cars but I had only learned a few months before, when Mike took an afternoon to teach me. I had been driving my mom's car around Gainesville for a few months for practice but it was the only car I had any experience with. We also picked up an Auburn student in Georgia who had sent out an email to OAR, wanting to join the Red River Gorge trip and needing a one way ride to Kentucky. He had the most stick experience, learning to drive stick shift as a valet. Commence road trip.



The drive to Kentucky was a nightmare, merely because it is about a 12 hour drive or so and we started after 10 PM. I took one of the first turns driving and I was grateful for the opportunity to sleep during the worst shift of all: 3 AM to 7 AM. Luckily, the rest of the world doesn't tend to drive around at these hours, so our lack of manual driving skills were mostly unnoticed. We arrived in Kentucky at 11 AM and met up with the rest of the OAR group. We headed off to climb shortly thereafter. By the time we made it to the wall, however, I was exhausted. I curled up under a tree and passed out. I never actually climbed anything at the Red, which is a shame because the climbing there is famous and fun. That night, we returned to the camp ground at Miguel's Pizza and I split a weird pizza with Nina. It had potatoes and a bunch of other odd ingredients on it but it was still delicious. I also connected to the wifi and attempted to work on the 20 page research design that I had to finish by the following Monday. I had done very little for it and was trying to find some decent pdfs to download so I could work on it sans wifi. 

The next day, unfortunately, it was raining. We decided to forgo climbing and go for a hike instead. We discovered some interesting trails nearby and happened upon a natural bridge as well. I was still tired and thus began my cycle of sleeping and consuming coffee that dominated the trip. Carolanne joked that I was like a puppy because I would run around for a few hours and then tucker out, bouncing between high energy and no energy with little in between. We then headed north again, toward Cincinnati and Buffalo. 

Events occurred: April 25-27, 2013