#76 National Parks, Hikes, Vegas baby!! On the road cross country, goodbye to relatives, hello to bad ass Beth.

Camping with Sal, Aimslee, Bootie and my mom.

The US is a cool place. It's funny how much I like and know about Michigan from growing up there. I have generalizations about other states, but like myself and Michigan, people from the different states know the ins and outs and can show you things you never knew existed.
We got to go camping up in the mountains and spend half the day on a beautiful lake, with streams all around, blue skies looking over us and a great campsite that you don't even have to pay to camp at.
This is the crew tending to the fire, getting ready to make some smores (I've eaten a lot of these in the last few weeks) The orange tarp you see also serves as "the hangout", the dinner table, and my bed.

The day after our camping we went in search of hot springs. Instead we gave up the hunt and laid in the cold numbing water of a stream along the walk before heading back to Albuquerque.
After spending the rest of the week in town bonding with the Galanters and watching season one and two of the office, my mom, my cousin Tristan and I headed to the Grand Canyon and got a day of walking around the rim before my aunt Carol, uncle Rich, cousins Danny, Keara, and Christopher showed up.


One of the things I did on the first day was attempt to pee off the Grand Canyon. Remember that famous saying that goes "don't piss into the wind", well it's a good thing to remember, or for Tristans sake, don't stand downwind from someone peeing.


The day following Tristan and I decided to take a little hike. From the top of the grand canyon down the south kaibob trail to the river and then back up the Bright Angel trail to the top again in the same day.
I haven't worn shoes since January before doing this hike and wearing the new shoes I picked up. We started at about 6am and got down to the Colorado river at about 10 am, it was really starting to heat up at this point.
When we got down to the bottom we saw two ladies sitting down there who told us jokingly that they were are welcome committee. They told us we have to get the lemonade that was at one of the huts near the river. We dissapointed them because we didn't have our wallets. Upon hearing this they whipped out four bucks and insisted we get a few glasses. (it was the best lemonade I've ever had)
We got lunch at the bottom and found out that almost everyone camps at the bottom for a night or two before doing the other half of the hike.

When reaching the bottom I immediately went and soaked myself in the stream for a while. By noon it had reached 102 degrees.
Tristan and I grabbed lunch and then took a nap before heading back up. At this point I could feel the blisters and the bubbling up under the toenails. We did notice about 4 signs telling hikers not to attempt to go down and up in a day (there is definately a reason they put these signs up)
As we started back up I could here my body start talking to me. It said something like this:
"wait a minute, what the hell are we doing? I am done for the day, we just walked down 5,000 ft, if you think you're going to try to go back up, your making the trip alone" The first hour I could feel stiffness in my feet, knees, hips, shoulders, back and neck (from carrying the bag I had). Also, the sun was at it's peak and just scorching down on us. We took tons of stops making our way back which ended up taking about 7 hours.
This is when we had about 2 hours left in our hike and right before I took my shoes off and walked barefoot for the last 3 miles. I couldn't take the shoes anymore!!!!
We were both wiped out at this point. And yes, Tristan looks for like an old china man in this photo, than the strapping 19 year old he is.

We finally finished the hike of just over 17 miles and were very happy to have our family greet us at the top.

I could barely sleep that night even though I was soooo worn down because whichever part of my feet I had touching the ground I would have a throbbing pain.


We headed to Page, Arizona next to relax and visit my friend Kat who was working there. We went swimming in the pool, relaxed in the much needed hot tub, went on boat trip around the lake through the little canyons (this picture is just after the boat trip). Kat spoiled us during our night there and it was a great ending to our Arizona experience. (Thanks Kat!!!)

After saying farewell to the LLoyd family who we had a great time with my mom and I were back on the road on our way to Vegas, where my mom hadn't been since the strip has been there. We met up with Adam (aka:Borat who I traveled with in eastern europe) and the 3 of us stayed at the tropicana.

This is in front of New York, New York.

The first night we walked up and down the strip, letting it all soak in.

The second day in Vegas we spent the morning at our poolside before heading to Margaritaville for lunch. It is true that it's 5 o,clock somewhere. After our lunch we went to check out the different pools around town like Ceasars Palace and the Bellagio.
In the evening after more time at our pool we headed to old vegas get some dinner and check out the sites there. All and all good experience in Vegas but I can only take so much of Vegas.

From there my mom and I drove up through Nevada before crossing into California, only to drive through Yosemite National Park. ( Bellisima)
This was our first stop in the park. This was ice water, holy bajesus!!!!


This park truly is an amazing place. Fresh air, snow capped mountains, rivers and streams everywhere. We had to cruise through from the eastern side to the western side with an attempt to go to San Francisco the following day.

We spent our day in San Fran with Steve G and his girlfriend Megan. We had some great chats, went for a walk around Haight/Ashbury, through the univesity campus, got some Thai food and watched a great movie that has no words, but music by Philip Glass and pictures from around the world. (Thanks Steve!!)

We then went to Santa Rosas to watch Beth, my sister and the Scorchers dominate in a football game.
This is one of Beth's few runs in the game. This one was good for two extra points. Yes, she is wearing number 20, same as Barry Sanders.

After winning by over 50 points we got to meet and greet the players, Beth was kind enough to say hi to us. She wouldn't give me an autograph though.

The 3 of us then headed back to Yosemite for a few days of camping, relaxing, and small hikes.
Getting dinner ready at our first campsite. Of course followed by smores.

These are the roots of a sequoia tree that had fallen over 300 years ago. These aren't as tall as the redwoods, but thicker which brings us back to a question asked time and again. Length or girth? Really though, these are some impressive trees.

Yet, another jumping picture, although it may look more like we are both trying out for Michael Jackson's "smooth criminal" video.
As you can see though, clear, crisp water which we spent a fair amount of time in during our few days in the park.


From the top of one of the high domes where we had a 360 degree view of the park. That is the famous half dome in the background.
We had a great time in the park!!!
I was then dropped off in San Fran to stay with Pete and see some friends for a few days.

After being in the parks and wide open areas for a few weeks, it was back to city life.


Along with cities, comes cars.

Cars are the 10th killer in the world as far as numbers that die each year.



“Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong.” AlphaMale George Carlin

#75 Drive to New Mexico, Family, Santa Fe, Mountains, and Chaos.

On our long drive across Texas we stopped for a break,

and yes, my mom is a cowgirl as it says.

My mom and I left Houston bright and early for a 14 hour day that took us clear across Texas into Albuquerque, New Mexico where we tried to set up a ploy to scare my aunt and cousin; it didn't work to well in the end, but was worth the try; thanks aimslee. During our drive west we saw little traffic, had a speed limit of 80mph and beautiful weather and touraine.

In Albuquerque we had time to catch up with family; Aunt Sal, Uncle Abe, cousins Aimslee and Adam (aka-bootie). Also in Albuquerque are Aunt Carol, Uncle Rich, cousins Tristin, Bob, Dan, Keara, and Christopher. We had outings around town, lots of meals, and plenty of storytelling and joke telling.

Up in the mountains with Carol, Rich, Keara, Christopher,

Aimslee, and my mom chilling out on the deck; ah the fresh

mountain air.

My mom, Aimslee, Abe and myself took a ride for a day to Santa Fe to tour around the city.

We stopped and saw the oldest church in the US followed by the oldest house in the US which has been updated along with a giftshop and a ATM inside (it just isn't right). All the buildings and houses around town are in the adobe style which is quite unique.

Our crew standing in front of the oldest church in the USA.

I don't really know what else to write. It's been a lot of fun being somewhere with family, not planning much and enjoying each other. To be honest, I am the oldest cousin and mostly just harrass and pick on my younger cousins; the good part about this is not all the enjoyment I get doing this, but the fact that they enjoy getting picked on as well.

This is a fun game Adam and I played, we haven't thought of

a name, but we were thinking "catch the pollen in your face" or

"I try to blow as many flowers as I can at you trying to get it in

your eyes or mouth" Adam wasn't a big fan of this game.

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don't over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.

Author: Leo Buscaglia

#74 Road trip baby, let the ride continue.

This is the sweet onion and peanut butter sandwich.

This is Uncle Lou being very happy that he's about to

eat one.

So I ate the peanut butter and sweet onion sandwich. How was it you ask? If you like sweet onion and you like peanut butter, you will probably like it, because it tastes like sweet onion mixed with peanut butter on bread.

Since I left off, we headed to San Antonio where we spent a day and did the river walk and wandered around the downtown of San Antonio. We then headed to a small town called Bracketville (I thought this place only existed during March madness) to vist friends that I haven't seen for almost 10 years; JoAnn and Bob. They live on an old fort in southern Texas, about a half hour away from Mexico. We walked around the complex and spent some time learning about the area and the history. One day we headed into Mexico to get some lunch and give it a go with the authentic margaritas. This is what caused the long naps for everyone on the arrival home.

This is our crew with Bob and JoAnn at their home

in southern Texas. This is taken just after we saw a huge

snake, which is why a few in the picture may look a little tense.

From here we headed back to San Antonio where we wandered around with nothing to exciting to comment on, except that in the few days up to this point I had bought connect four with plans on mastering the game at some degree. I don't know if I beat my parents and uncle Lou so many times because I am better or for the fact that they realize they will be in a car with me and don't want to have to deal with me if I lost.

The folks, Uncle Lou and I on a bridge over the

river walk in San Antonio; I hate the spurs!!!

From San Antonio we drove up to Austin where I ate at my first ever Souper Salad. This little episode put me into a digestive coma and I managed to sleep most of this day away, before we headed to sixth street to watch the pistons and play some bar shuffle board.
The following day we headed to go floating down the Guadalupe river where we met up with Angeline and Andy. Those two, my mom, Uncle Lou and myself were the only ones on the river that day, it was overcast and the water was FREEZING. Since we were the only ones however there were hundreds of turtles along all the banks of the river and every log the protruded out of the river. We had a bunch of Gin and Tonics with us on the river to help warm the blood. It ended up being loads of fun and very memorable.

Our last day we headed back to Houston where I said goodbye to my dad and Uncle Lou who were flying back to Michigan and I jumped in the car with Andy, Angeline, Juan, and Kevin and we headed to New Orleans.

The first night in New Orleans I managed to break my sandal and pull my hamstring dancing. We had a great night at a piano bar and then live bands in multiple bars and I got to meet up with my old boss who had gotten married while I was gone.

Juan who was with us is now engaged, so we made this his first bachelor party.

Our second day after walking around the city we went out to the garden district where it is the old beautiful houses along with Tulane and Loyola. We went to a sports bar to watch the pistons before heading back into town to go to a more relaxed piano bar.

The crew in New Orleans at the park in the Garden District

On our drive to New Orleans we stopped for a bathroom break and on the wall of the men's bathroom was a box to sell condoms. They were selling glow in the dark ones. How much fun would it be to play "guess where I am" with those.

Juan and I on Bourbon street. Me pointing out some local

entertainment possibilities to Juan.

From there we drove back and I met up with my mom again to prepare for our next month or two on the road.

This all happened some weeks ago which is why the details are vague. I will catch up and try to be better in the weeks to come.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. ~Lao Tzu