Final Thoughts

I am sitting in my office on an uncharacteristically slow Monday afternoon, so I thought I should finally finish this journal of my summer (as it is now September with October slowly approaching - where did this month go?).

It is hard to now start summarizing my thoughts about my trip, because it ended about 7 weeks ago (with those weeks being inundated with all things Res Life) and has been mainly pushed from my everyday thoughts.

Even now, it is hard to summarize what the summer meant to me. When school was starting here again and students came back, their first question often was "How was your roadtrip?" And while I mostly answered that question with an "awesome" or "fun", I really found that words couldn't accurately describe everything I did or felt.

I made this dumb looking collage with a map that Vil (my friend in New Orleans) gave me. I tried to add some postcards and other pictures to it, but it just ended up looking cheesy! And I am not sure if I will hang it up. Despite the lack of pictures that I took, I am perfectly fine with the small amounts of material items that I got from the trip.

What I do have are collective memories and experiences. My Aunt Terry described it best to me - she said that "[she] doesn't have a memory of certain places because [she] has never been there, and now [I] have the ability to connect with people on a different level". I didn't realize it when she told me this in the summertime, but this idea is so true. I have already had countless experiences of being able to connect with people because I have eaten shaved ice in New Orleans, spent the night in Gallup, New Mexico, been amazed at Big Horn National Forest, been to the Loyola Maryland campus, etc. And it's only been about 2 months! It is a great way to connect with people and share common experiences.

So, the trip started as a way to fill my 8 week vacation from work, grew into an opportunity to see old friends and new areas of the country, and ended as a personal growth experience that I don't think I could accurately articulate.

Thanks for reading this (I mean you, Mom, Dad, Aunt Terry, Uncle Dave, and random friends who I mentioned and thus had to check and see what I said about them). This blog started as a way to keep in contact with my parents and became a really fun way to share with others what I had been up to.

So, here's to the end of summer 2010, and who knows what 2011 will bring!

Joey

Photos

And now some of the sparse and random photos taken throughout my journey that I have neglected to share until now. Be warned, they are out of order and not of high quality!

In Milwaukee, Adrienne forced me to pose with the "Bronze Fonz" statue downtown. I bedrugingly agreed.

A picture from the Grand Canyon that really doesn't do it justice!

Another Grand Canyon shot. I tried to purposefully include some of the trees and brush to give some perspective to how massive the canyon is.

Mt. Rushmore. If you remember (which you probably don't), I was surprised by how small it was in reality. I was also a bit underwhelmed! Nevertheless, I had to take a picture.



Big Horn National Forest, which was one of the greatest surprises of my trip. This was just as I entered the forest on the west side before going through the snow-filled pass.

The Field of Dreams! Still looks the same (but of course I came too early in the summer for there to be corn in the outfield).

Another shot of the cavern I came into in Big Horn.

Falls in Yellowstone. I forget the name of them!




Final reflections to come later when I also want to procrastinate from work on my desk.

Day 59: San Bruno, CA to Spokane, WA

Hello? Is anyone out there?

If you are still reading this after two months of inactivity, I commend you. And question the amount of time on your hands. In any case, I feel that I should actually go ahead and complete this for the sake of tieing up all loose ends.

So, on July 28th (almost one year exactly since I made the exact trip), I left San Bruno (where I rgew up) and drove up to Spokane (my current home). This trip was a little different, as I had less crap crammed in my car, knew where I was going, and was going to tackle the 16 hour drive in one day.

I woke up at 5am, both by my alarm and also my dad alarm clock - thanks pop! I said goodbye to my groggy parents, loaded the last few things in my car, and set off on the road. The first few hours were pretty nice on the road, as there were relatively few cars around and I missed any sort of Bay Area traffic. It was also spent trying to figure out how to work the new CD player that my dad had installed in my car. After 16 hours I (sort of) figured it out.

Anyway, I drove up through the East Bay and into inland California on I-80. I then got onto I-5 and shot up California. This part of the drive is super boring, as you are just coasting along in a valley, going by some small towns (Zamora, Williams) and not much else. I finally made it to some beautiful scenery courtesy of Mount Shasta and Lake Shasta. The lake was formed in a large crater that was left by Shasta's last eruption, and so there are all these pockets and weird waterways that you can see driving by (and plenty you can't, I'm sure).

After Shasta, I quickly made my way into Oregon. I stopped at a rest stop in southern Oregon, got out of the car, and heard...absolutely nothing. It was pretty awesome! I was taking the eastern Oregon route, which means I was not going on the main roads, but still, pretty cool. I also had to remember to contain my excitment about seeing cars with Washington license plates, as we were now a state away.

I made it to Bend by around 1pm. Bend is this smaller town (but big for eastern Oregon) that is surrounded by national forests (and is only 2.5 hours from Crater Lake). Very pretty place and about a half way point for me. I stopped and got lunch here (I think - I am fuzzy on the details). I also loaded up on caffeine. I am not much of a caffeine drinker in real life, but that day was certainly an exception.

One quick side note about Oregon - every gas station there is full service. Meaning that self-serve gas is against the law. It is a little weird to get used to, especially when the people helping you are in their 70's and are clearly tired from the long day of pumping gas. And it is also against the law for those people to accept tips! Crazy.

After Bend, I made my way through Eastern Oregon. More smaller towns, more boring stuff that I quickly erased from my memory. I finally made it to The Dalles and the Columbia River, which I got to travel eastbound next to for a couple hours - so freakin' beautiful. This was also the trail that Lewis and Clark took out west.

Due to this being a rather unpopulated area, and due to me drinking lots of caffeine, I arrived at the Tri-Cities in southeastern Washington at around 6:30pm having to pee as badly as I can ever remember. I'm sure you wanted to know that! I gased up here again, caffeinated myself, and got back on the road!

The last part of this drive from the Tri-Cities (Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland) to Spokane is no doubt some of the most boring country to drive through. I think what made it even more unbearable was that I was tired and so close to getting back home. And I thought about calling someone to pass the time, but my phone was on one bar and I had lost my car charger! Whoops. So I was pretty crabby at this point - good thing no one was there to see me.

Finally made it back around 9pm into Spokane. Such a glorious sight! I love driving on 90 east into the city of Spokane. You see all the lights and buildings along with evergreens everywhere and it just looks awesome! I got off the freeway exit that I had gotten onto 59 days ago and headed east from there- crazy to think about! Anyway, went and got my keys from Nicola, stayed and chatted for awhile, then went back to my apt and passed out!

I will post some of the few pictures I took on my trip later (and ones people gave me). Then some final reflections and that's it!