Into the wild I run...

The next week of my life was one of the best weeks I have ever had. I received some bad news about my uncle on the way into Mt. Zion National Park that made me question my beliefs and who I was as a person. But as the clouds parted and the sunset, I sat up on a hill overlooking the impressive range that makes up the park, sorting through my thoughts. I could not help but to become excited about what the next week had in store for me.

The Watchman

That night I sat and wrote in my journal for what must have been hours, sipping red wine out of a coffee mug and listening to the wind whip through the canyon. There is something special about being in the middle of the desert. You feel humbled as to how helpless you really are. My entire life I have been obsessed with what is next in life and where I go from here but for a brief second, sitting in that canyon, I decided to take a step back and think about what was behind me, instead of what was to come.

This school of thought followed me like a stray cat for the next week as I talked to almost no one…

Heading into the Grand Canyon from Zion, I had encountered the largest setback since my time in Sux Falls, SD. Knowing I was about to head into unfamiliar territory, I decided to hit up some outdoors stores in Vegas to see if I could gain some knowledge before heading out into the unknown. The advice I got would set me back 600 miles and 2 days…

QT @ the campsite

I was planning on leaving Vegas for the South Rim of the Grand Canyon before heading North into Zion and eventually Bryce Canyon but after talking with a guy I met at an outdoors store in Vegas, I decided to hit up Zion then the North rim because it was a shorter drive. Being the overly trusting person that I am, I took his word and set off only to discover that the North Rim of the Canyon didn’t open for another few months. Fuck me…

Jerks...

When you are that close to a place like the Grand Canyon, you can’t just skip it. Disgruntled, I decided to take my aggression out on the open road, I am pretty sure my speedometer only read in the triple digits the entire drive down to the South rim… I made it in just under 5 hours.

Storm's a brewing!

When I arrived, the park ranger warned me against staying due to a freak storm that was blowing in… naturally, I pitched my tent, grabbed my mandolin and hunkered down for the night.

Solo camping can get a little slow...

For a night in late March, I was surprised at how cold it got. As I listened to the pitter-patter of the rain against my tent turn into heavy thuds of snow, I played my mandolin until I couldn’t feel my fingers any more.

The next morning I woke to a few inches of snow on the ground. As I boiled some water for coffee, I was amazed how quickly the snow was melting in the desert heat. I decided to head towards the rim for a hike.

There are not many words to describe my time in the Canyon other than sometimes its good to just get away and embrace the solitude that hides in the darkest corners of your life. I am purposely going to keep the experiences of this week to myself for now, maybe one day I will publish them for the world to know.

After a few days of waking up in my snow pants and quickly striping down to my bathing suit I decided to head north towards Salt Lake City.

Vegas!

Leaving Los Angeles, it was about 9pm. I had house music blaring so that I wouldn’t get too tired at the wheel and fall asleep. FYI - Once you leave LA there is literally nothing until you hit Vegas, all you see is a line of lights snaking off into the distance until it eventually disappears. I pulled in around 1AM, checked into my bad ass hotel room at the V’dara and went right to sleep.

The V'Dara

 The next morning I woke up and called my friend Meghan who works in Vegas as a showgirl (j/k, she is an event planner). She said she would be done working around 6 so I decided to hit the strip and meet up with her later.

White Trash Wedding @ The Mirage (The father of the bride was wearing open toed sandals... Classy)

As I walked around I realized what a strange and confusing place Vegas is. Everyone talks about going to Vegas to get married, but I was absolutely blown away when I saw a different bride every 15 minuets.

Bier Garden??

Running around Vegas by yourself is not as much fun as in other citys so I was happy to meet up with Meghan when she got off work. We decided to head to a new Beer Garden that had just opened up near my hotel but as soon as we got there we realized it was just a night club that opens its doors early in an attempt to bring in more business. We had a drink before deciding it was too loud and we headed towards Margaritaville for a “Perfect Margarita”.

Great Picture taken by our inappropriately dressed waitress

As we walked around the strip I started to experience something that people talk about but I have never understood: there is no concept of time in Las Vegas. I swear it was 7 and the next thing I knew it was 11. I think it was more that Meghan as a great tour guide but either way it was weird.

By midnight, we were having a blast but I needed to head towards the Hard Rock Hotel to see Tiesto. After trying to sneak Meghan into the show we parted ways.

Tiesto changed my life. He is the #1 DJ in the world and it was awesome. He went on at 12:15am and didn’t stop playing until 5:45 in the morning… it was amazing. I literally danced my face off until 3:45 when I decided that fajitas would be a good idea (Luckily there is a restaurant in the casino) then reentered the concert around 4:15 to catch the rest of the show.

Tiesto!

The next morning I woke only to realize that checkout was 4 hours earlier, when I called down to apologize they told me not to worry cause it happens all the time. I packed up my stuff and headed towards the Michael Jordan Celebrity Golf Tournament to meet up with Meghan. I made it in just enough time to see MJ finish out his round and then donate a huge wad of cash to charity – all in all it was pretty awesome!

MJ in his Carolina blue golf cart

The next day I went out to Red Rocks Canyon to do some hiking… I think I got lost back in the rocks for a little over 3 hours, but it was well worth it.

That night Meghan and I went to this fancy resturant that is one of her dads favorites and dined it up! After, we made it back to Meghans’ place to make some sangria and talk about Mary Kate & Ashley Olson.

SANGRIA!

I woke up the next morning, packed up my stuff and headed towards Mt. Zion National Park, but not before eating at Hash House a Go Go with Meghan. This place was on Man vs. Food so I had a few leftovers to take with me.

It was enough for 3!

As I drove towards Zion, I made a checklist in my head of all the things I might need over the next few days. I was going to be living out of a tent from here on out so I needed to stop and grab some supplies at the local Wal-mart in Colorado City. As I was shopping I realized where I was. I knew Colorado City rang a bell but I was not sure why, but then it clicked – Polygamists! I read an article in National Geographic a few years ago about the Polygamists communities in Southern Utah. The entire polygamist thing is strange but these people take the cake. There is like one man with 20 wives and 60 kids and 100 grandchildren. They all wear prairie dresses and wear their hair up in buns. Apparently since there are not enough women for all the men to have multiple wives, they kick out a majority of the guys (they are called the lost boys) who have to move away from the ranch and try and make it in the real world. These people are fundamental Polygamists and practice a very extreme form of Mormonism. I think its just plain weird.

When I got to Zion National park I set up camp, kicked my feet up and started to soak in what was one of the best parts about my trip… solitude.

A picture is worth 1000 words...

The next few days I spent hiking and camping, not only through Zion but also through the Grand Canyon. Note to self: go back to these places.

Los Angeles & San Diego

After the Champaign surprise, we had a few glasses and then headed to bed. I was blessed with the luxurious sectional and over the next few mornings Kristen would come in to find me passed out in some strange position with all the lights on and the TV blaring… so to preface this post, LA was fun!.

The next day the girls had tickets for Ellen so I set off towards a coffee shop to post a blog and then headed towards the beach. Erin and Kristen live about 8 blocks from the beach in Santa Monica so after a quick walk I arrived at the beach and then rented a bike to ride towards Venice.

Venice Beach is a cool place. Down the entire boardwalk, there are homeless people taking naps on the beach while creepy guys invite you inside a shop to “become legal, visit the 420 doctor today”.

I stopped at the skatepark for a while and took pictures.

That night we grabbed some dinner and then started drinking wine at the apartment, trying to decide if we wanted to go out or not. The second I found Kristen’s guitar… things changed. We ended up sitting around and singing songs for a while before heading to the grocery store for more Vino, guitar in tote.

Rockin!

The next morning, we woke up and started getting ready to go to the Getty Museum. If you live in LA and have never been to the Getty or are visiting and want a chill afternoon full of culture then I would recommend going. I hear the museum is full of great paintings, sculptures & photographs but we wouldn’t know considering we made it as far as the lawn before we started cracking open bottles of wine with a pocket knife cause we had forgotten the corkscrew. From there we started taking TONS of pictures, I think we took over 1,000 in that few hours alone.

This was the one picture we took inside the museum.

Man with a Hoe

Ashley and Erin had been asked to come back for another taping of the Ellen show so I headed towards Hollywood and Rodeo Dr. Pretty cool but nothing to get all excited about.

That night we went out to dinner and then went out to some bar in Venice. I have heard about LA before but now I understand when people say that everyone in LA is beautiful. The entire time I was there all I wanted to do was go outside and run around.

I did notice something very interesting while I was there, though. In Atlanta, if you are out at a bar and meet someone and you tell them that you wait tables or are a bartender, some people will automatically discount you due to the fact that you don’t have a “real job”. I was out right before I left Atlanta and met a few people who when they asked what I did and I told them that I didn’t do anything (because I had recently quit my job) they started going on and on about how the economy is tough right now and how hard grad school was and bla bla bla… before backing out of the conversation because they were board with sharing their accomplishments with someone whom they barely knew. Gotta love surface level relationships!

The next morning I woke up and drove down to San Diego to visit my buddy Copeland who had just graduated from the Navy Seal Program. I had been told before that the drive was a quick one, but in all actuality that’s a lie. The drive is not bad at all but it was a little longer than the 45 minuets that I had been told.

Once I got down to San Diego, I headed straight for the base to meet up with Copeland. I got to see all the guys running around training and also got to see his bunker where he has been living for the past year. I don’t know how much you all know about the Navy Seals but it is nothing that I would ever want to do. These guys are badasses and hearing the stories about their training was awesome! I went with a few of his friends to get some dinner in Coronado before heading towards La Jolla to meet up with my friend Kelsey.

Kelsey and Peanut

Kelsey just moved to La Jolla from Nashville and loves it! She works for LocalEats which is an online social platform where locals can go in and rate restaurants in their area. It was awesome catching up with her and getting to play with Peanut (her dog). The next morning we walked to breakfast down by the beach before she had to head to an appointment. I went back to her place to hang out with Peanut and get some stuff done. At noon I get this phone call from my friend Malcom telling me that he was in San Diego with our other friend Melanie. Since Copeland had some things he had to wrap up at the base, we went and grabbed lunch before meeting up with him.

The Dudes

It was awesome getting to hang with Malcom and Melanie for a while, I basically regurgitated the tour that Copeland had given be the day before and then we headed to check out the place that Copeland and his Seal buddy’s were going to be living for the next year.

Melanie & Malcom

Their place is completely bad ass, right next to the University of San Diego and on top of this huge hill with amazing views of Sea World and the ocean. Melanie wanted a picture with the Seals (naturally) so after a little photo shoot I took Melanie and Malcom back to their hotel so they could get ready for their function that night.

Melanie with the Seals

I headed back to grab Copeland and take him to the airport for his 1 week leave and then drove back up to LA to go clubbin! My friends Chad and Drew both live in LA and one of Chad’s jobs is promoting clubs. He had gotten me on the list so I went straight there. I wish I had taken more pictures while I was there because he threw one hell of a party. At one point the Cookie Monster came out and got on the bar and was pouring Tequila into everyone’s mouths. I got to go down to the V.I.P. room which was pretty cool before heading back to Drew’s place to spend the night.

The next morning I woke up early to get my oil changed in my car (which took all day) before heading to the beach with Chad and our friend Bethany that also lives in LA. That night I went over to Drew’s to grill out before making the drive to Vegas. LA ROCKED!

Freedom Fries on the Coast

Racing towards San Francisco, we started talking about what all we wanted to see while we were in the area.  Alcatraz was #1 on the list but as we crossed the Golden Gate bridge it occurred to us that it was a Saturday and chances of getting tickets were slim.

As expected, tickets were sold out until the next day. Instead we headed to a part of the Fisherman’s Warf that I didn’t get a chance to go to earlier in the week. After parking, the first order of business was to get some claim chowder and a few beers. While walking down the pier, we saw a kid with a huge basket of freedom fries (that’s right, I am bringing that one back). Out of no where, a seagull swooped in front of his face and the fries went flying. There was no 5 second rule here, a flock of seagulls attacked the fries and they were gone within seconds. Everyone around died laughing but I do feel bad for the kid… I think he was a little upset.

I had forgotten to upload all my pictures from Napa so I was in need of another memory card ASAP. Just incase you were wondering, when you walk into a camera store with a nice camera, you are an instant target for salesmen. I literally had salesmen begging to show me lenses and cases, polarized filters and video cameras.

I am pretty sure Ashley got a good idea of what parenthood is like as I tried to go into every attraction in the area. I am still pissed that she didn’t want to do the mirror maze at Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

Next we found a bakery where we bought about $10 dollars worth of cookies and a huge loaf of sourdough bread. They also made little alligators and turtles out of bread.

We then headed over to see the sea lions off of Pier 39. I didn’t get a chance to see them earlier in the week due to the heavy storm that blew through while I was getting my water massage.

We knew it was about time to head out of town so we started towards the car. Of course, when you set two extremely ADD people on a task, the chances of getting sidetracked are pretty high. We skipped the car so we could head towards Ghirardelli Chocolate factory where we managed to consume at least 1,000 calories in less than 5 minuets. On the way back we passed a 75 year old homeless man that was asking people for money by saying “Can I have a dollar so I can go buy some Pussy?” I try to keep the blog PG, but we literally laughed about this guy for a few hours, impersonating him and wishing that we had gotten it on video.

Once we made it back to the car we drove to the nearest Cheese shop for more stinky cheese (we went with this stuff called the Stinky Bishop, it was really good) and a few beers to go with it. We made it down Lombard Street before we finally left San Francisco and headed towards LA.

Lombard Street (Thats me!)

We drove down highway 101 until just before dark. Our goal was to make it to Monterrey for the night but after shopping around on Hotwire.com we realized that we could stay about 20 miles north and save about $100 bucks. We ended up booking a room at the Comfort Inn or something like that and headed straight out to the beach to catch the last light of the day and eat our Stinky Bishop.

The hot tub was our next stop. We made a lap around the pool area to see if there was anyone out there that we could become friends with. After ordering a pizza to be delivered to the hot tub we headed out for a soak. The next 30 minuets was easily the most awkward 30 minuets of the entire trip. In the hot tub were two 15 year old girls who had about as much personality as a bundle of sticks. They sat there and stared at us and whispered to themselves as we waited for the pizza and talked about what all we wanted to see the next day. It’s hard to describe what it was like but think about sitting in a hot tub with those freaky twins from The Shining. The pizza finally arrived and we got the hell outta there.

The next morning we woke up and drove through Monterrey and into Pebble Beach. Pebble Beach was amazing, everything about it was amazing.

View from Clubhouse

Pebble Beach

For lunch we stopped in Carmel, which is probably one of the coolest little towns I have ever visited. Everything had so much character and the weather is perfect all the time.

Where we got lunch in Carmel

My new hat

From Carmel we drove towards LA by way of Highway 1. About 30 minuets south of Carmel we were stopped due to a washout on the road. We were a little bummed cause we wanted to stop in Big Sur and watch people surf. After back tracking, we cut through the mountains and over to 101 and down to Santa Barbra where we grabbed dinner on the Pier.

View from the restaurant in Santa Barbra

At one point, we decided to stop and check out the pier in some random town about an hour north of Santa Barbra. Sitting at the mouth of the pier was an old man sitting with his legs crossed on his rascal, singing into a microphone with the echo turned all the way up. Kinda had to be there but was hilarious!

We ended up getting a huge crab pot to split but not before shoving all the bread that was brought to the table in Ashley’s purse so we would have something to eat with the rest of the Stinky Bishop. We laughed the entire time because the server was defiantly onto our shenanigans plus taking bread from the table is against everything that our parents have ever taught us. We didn’t care though cause we needed some bread!

The last stop before making it into LA was the liquor store where Ashley wanted to get some Champaign to pop as we knocked and were greeted at Erin and Kristen’s (Ashley’s two best friends from college) place in Santa Monica.

This was the only photo I got of the welcome party

As a side note, we impersonated a scene from Borat where he goes through the cheese section of a local grocery asking what is cheese and what isn’t ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liRSXULdJw4 ) from the time we left Napa until this very moment. With that being said, we arrived in Santa Monica at just the right time because Ashley’s personality and mine are enough alike that 4 days with each other is enough to put anyone in an asylum! We were pumped to have Erin and Kristen there to help saturate the insanity.