Day 7, Crested Butte, CO to Ritchfield, UT

Taken last night, silhouette of Mount Crested Butte.


Last night, i got to sleep in a bed...thank god...I needed the appropriate rest.
Woke up a little later than planned, as usual...and slwoly got ready to go. Packed up our belongings and stuffed them inside my car + a snowboard and snowboarding boots...ugh...now we really can't see anything out the back window of the car...hopefully them Utah cops won't be too frazzled by that.
Time to go. Since the car had not moved in 2 days, we thought it would be a good idea to turn the car on and let it warm up a bit...since it had been sitting in the snow afterall.....so i put the key in the ignition, press the clutch down, turn the key..."rrahrrahrrahrrahrrah".............nothing....
.........hmmm...must be extra cold.....try again...."rrahrrahrarahrrahrrahrrahrrah"....nope.....no go.......what the F!?.....so we push the car out of the drive way onto level ground.......try again.....but it just does the same thing. damn it!...aaaaaand now we're behind. grr...

Ryan starts blabbing off to me all sorts of possibilities that may be the cause of my car not starting....and no disrespect to Ryan, because he understands this sh*t and I don't.....but i just had no idea what he was talking about. "Pop the hood" ryan says, and he pulls the dipstick out and examines the tip very carefuly........"figures!" he says, "your oil level is really low, there must be a sensor that doesnt allow your car to start when the oil level is too low".....................mmmmmk then, lets go get oil. We walked down to the corner gas station, and after much deliberation about which oil to buy, the one that isn't really made for my car, or the other one that isnt exactly made for my car ,we bought one that probably wasn't made for my car, but will work. and sure enough, it did. Ryan is a genius and so is my brother in law (i called him for advice on the oil).....

aaaaaand we were on our way, a little behind but we were finaly on our way. Drove through some pretty strange scenery on our way out of Colorado, frozen lakes in the middle of desert landscapes, the gorgeous Black Canyon of Gunnison....with huge snowy mountain tops in the background. Our destination, Arches National Park in Utah.



















After a few stops, and an incredible drive on scenic byway 128 through winding red rock Canyons along some rapids, right on the southern outer edge of Arches National Park, we finaly made it to the park by 6:45. No entry fee. WOOHOO.

We decided that we wanted to drive straight to delicate arch to try and get some sunset images of it...which left us with about 30 minutes to get to the trail head, a climb up to the arch, and not long enough to photograph it before we had to head back down to try and make it off the trail before it was completely dark. Mind you, we had about a quarter of a water bottle left, and no flashlights.....so we had to book it, and conserve the water.



We made it up in time, although the sunset never really came due to overcast-ness, we took pictures (i took nothing spectacular at allll), and made it back down as planned, drove to a hotel and passed out for the evening, it was a great day.

Day 6, Crested Butte (Part Deux)

Day 2 of snowboarding. Standing up from the couch after a poor night's sleep, I asked myself "wow, did i get hit by a truck last night and i don't remember?"
Everything in my body was sore, tight, and stiff. I guess the pain from the few tumbles I took was hidden on the slopes by the adrenaline, but MAN, this sucks. Stretched a bit and geared up...






We left Cody's place, which you see a picture of on the right here....and on the way out we stopped at a gas station/mom'n'pop breakfast sandwich shop to try the bacon, egg, cheese, and hashbrown sandwich Cody had been tellin us about. Yummmmmm....

I was feeling like sh*t. Shaky on my legs, headache, and just overall out of it....on top of being sore, but I have today to end the season and get one last day of snowboarding in...so screw it. Maybe I should've thought about H2O.
Apparently, water is a BIG deal at high altitudes, and i have a bad habit of not drinking enough water. The night before we drank a few beers and i drank one glass of water after wards, but that was the only water I had in 2 days...not good. I kept falling on every little impact and having a really hard time standing up. That combined with the soreness, it was a bad morning. Once i realized that water was the issue (Cody's roommate Matt mentioned it)....i drank two bottles of water, and was back on my feet.



We decided to shoot some action shots...I will put a few more soon......

Day 5, Crested Butte, CO

Well, let me tell you that the drive up to Monarch Mountain, where we met Cody on friday to do some snowboarding, is absolutely spectacular. There is it is in front of you, The Great Continental Divide. We drove down into this incredibly vast basin with a front row seat on the mountain chain that you see above. The Rockies are really quite something, and I feel like I cannot really talk about it much yet, because i know so little....but I plan on instructing myself very well on this region, what a fantastic playground. =)

We did quite a bit of stopping in these parts to just take in the view and snap a few photos here and there...although we did try not to take too long since we were trying to get a half day of snowboarding in at Monarch, which is the closest resort to Crested Butte that is still open and has snow. So we would drive at a good pace, pass a car or two, pull over, take pictures, those few cars would pass us again....and the cycle continued all the way to Monarch.





Cody was already at Monarch when we got there, he had just been there for a few minutes. We threw on the boots, and the rest of the gear, grabbed the boards, and headed up. It isn't the biggest resort, and the snow wasn't all that fantastic...but it definitely was a lot of fun and we got a great day of snowboarding on day 5.

In the middle of the afternoon it got to be about 50degrees, we kept shedding layers and feeling more comfortable as the day went on....




We rode until 4pm, when the slopes closed, and headed to Crested Butte, finally.....
Ryan did great, Cody's snowboarding was rather impressive, and I was just getting back in the groove...taking a few too many chances and eating a lot of sh*t........and snow.....and I rode my first black diamond...........which was a little bit of a surprise as i didn't really know it was a black diamond until i was on it.


Back at Cody's place in Crested Butte, we spent the first part of our evening digging his car out of the snow, as you can see above. Which we completely documented in video....Coming soon....
Once the car was dug out and ready for the next day of riding, the night's festivities could begin....All sorts of different Colorado brews and some great Mexican food. We all basicaly went into a food coma right around 10:30pm. A glorious end to a good day. Day 6 Coming Soon...

Day 4, Salina, KS to Colorado Springs, CO

Day 4, Salina, KS to Colorado Springs, CO

Woke up in our hotel room in which we arrived late the night before, not sure what to expect of our surroundings....and but it being dead center of Kansas, it was exactly what you would expect....green pastures, sprouting wheat fields, cows, windmills, and oil wells. Not extremely interesting, but very aesthetically pleasing.

Ryan read about a place called "Monument Rocks" which is located, again, somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The GPS was telling us to get off the highway, take a small side road for about 8 miles, and as we approached a dirt road....the GPS told us to turn left on it.....hmmmm.....i can't see a person or car for as far as the eye can see, we're in a small wolkswagon overloaded with my life....and this thing is telling us to drive 7 miles on this dirt road to something called "monument rocks"......in the middle of FLATNESS.......

.....not sure about this Ryan.

But we decided to hop on the road anyways and see where it could take us....and sure enough....there it was.....as we came over a slight hill, in the distance, we saw a group of light colored rocks sticking out of the ground....almost like the rocks at Easter Island, but erosion based and made of chalk. COOL

We hung out there for a little while taking pictures, and then just decided to get on the road, we still had another 9 hrs of driving to do to get to our original destination, which was Crested Butte, CO.

We had a very nice drive out of Kansas and into Colorado. A lot of the same scenery until you get closer to Colorado Springs where the mountains start to take over the scenery.

We arrived in Colorado Springs around 6pm with a little time to spare and a meet up with Ryan's Cousin before we had to head to Crested Butte, which was another 4 and a half hours of drive.








We headed over to the Garden of the Gods, in Colorado Springs to meet up with Riley, Ryan's cousin, and see the Garden of the Gods, which was pretty impressive. Sharp Jagged red rocks sticking out of the ground, beautiful trails and a very vivid colorful sunset. After hanging out in this place for a few hours, we came to the conclusion that driving 4 and half hours into the mountains sounded a lot safer and interesting with sunrise light, than in the night time...which I can tell you now, was a very wise choice.












I will post day 5 and day 6 together since we are staying here in Crested Butte 2 full days.

Day 3, Nashville, TN to Salina, KS

Got a late start to the day today, we had a few too many beers in downtown Nashville and I had an agitated, sweaty sleep. I wonder if its the nerves, although i doubt it because life, really is AWESOME these days.

shortly after waking up on this rainy, windy, dreary day, we slowly made our way to Las Palmas, a mexican restaurant in Nashville with quite possibly the most incredible queso i've ever had. Not fromage, but queso.

After getting some gas, we got on the road around 12:30pm. Waaayy too late, but we managed.
It was stormy and cold all the way through Tennessee, Illinois and part of Misouri. We finaly made it to St. Louis, MISSOURI by 6:00 and decided to quickly hop on a scenic country route that Ryan drove for the entire hour and half.




The drive was beautiful. It was STATE RD 94 which runs along the Missouri River.

Day 2, Macon, GA to Nashville, TN

Our hotel in MACON, GA










Leaving Macon yesterday, we noticed a yellow layer of dust covering EVERYTHING. Cars, Tables, Chairs, Grass, Trees, the Tarmac, everything was covered with a thick, bright, yellow layer of pollen. WOW. I mean we were driving down the highway, and clouds of pollen would just shake off the trees, as if mother nature was releasing some sort of poison to kill us all in revenge for what we have done to her...The Happening...

We drove to Chattanooga for lunch. After driving through some pretty gnarly neighborhoods right off the highway, we found our way to downtown and to the campus of "University of Tennessee at Chattanooga" .
What an incredible little area. It was truly a gorgeous campus and a very pleasant afternoon to discover it. Blue skies, a few wispy white clouds, cool strong-ish breeze and students everywhere. We then found the Yellow Deli...and aside from incredible food, i'll let the pictures do the story telling once i get them on here....

Porch of the home we are staying in.



















After lunch, we made our way to Nashville and pulled in right for the start of golden light, and knowing we are both photographers, Ryan's wonderful friends, Brent and his wife, took us to Centenial Park.Flowers blooming, birds chirping, kids running around, bees buzzing by, all the sounds you would expect to hear on a typical spring day. I couldn't stop smiling.

We all then went downtown for a stroll in the streets, a micro-brewery, and a beautiful overlooks of the old town. Thanks guys, it was a great tour.


Now, moving on to somewhere in the middle of Kansas. update soon.

Day 1, Miami, FL to Macon, GA.

Rough start yesterday, but "you gotta have a little bit of a story" they say...

Up at 5:30am to finish packing the car and head to the DMV to get a duplicate of my license...(some police officer "accidentaly" kept it after bothering me a few weeks ago and of course i wait till the last second to get it done)
get to the DMV at 7:15, or 7:30, aproximately 40 people waiting already...ugh....
But i'm there, so i get in line, make sure i have all my paperwork...and wait. Few minutes later, an older gentleman, red faced, round, and sporting a half grin walks and and projects "Folks, our computer system is down STATE-WIDE, it may be be an hour, it may be all day"

CRAP!

peal out of the parking lot, go back home to get a few more things, and head south to pick up my friend KARA who needed a ride to orlando. We jump through a bunch of hoops to get her U-Haul back to a drop-off location, try to get the guy to not charge her for the 2 gallons of gas missing which they are claiming will cost her $30....and by the time we leave, it is now 11. WOW, so much for leaving early and having a new license, which i can't leave the state of florida without.

Boca, we pull off to get gas, and i say "its so nice that because i have diesel i don't have to go to the crowded side of the gas station, i can pull in to the truck side...hehehe.....
Put my card in, grab the nozle, pull, and the damned hose breaks in HALF!!!

WTF?!!?? caused a little spillage but seems there's a choke inside the machine preventing it from hosing fuel everywhere

Kissimee, FL....we decide to get off and try out a DMV that is in the area....there CAN'T be that many people here in KISSIMEE, surely we won't have to wait much.....
2, to 2 and half hour wait and I DON'T have that kind of time. We head over to a tax collector's office and go see inside, 1 hour 45 minute wait....slightly better......I NEED my drivers license before leaving, so screw it, this is the last try.

turns out it took us about 45 minutes to get my license VICTORY!!!!....

Another 30 minutes to get to downtown to drop off Kara, then 30 to get to Ryan's house, and then an hour to finally be on the highway out of Orlando. Ryan drove the rest of the way and we and an incredible sunset in North Florida.



oof!




Wasn't sure i'd make it out of Florida yesterday....now we're in MACON, GA...Heading to NASHVILLE immediately. looking forward to the drive.


This was not proofread...i'm in a hurry