Day Fourty-Four

I arrived in San Diego for the final leg of my trip. I met up with my friend Melanie and she took me down to the beach on Coronado island where we hung out and later ate dinner at a place called Miguel's which has bomb Mexican food. At this point of the trip I am beat tired and apparently am pretty worthless without a large dosage of caffeine. San Diego should be a very relaxing part of this trip full of beaching.




This is me asleep on a park bench.

Day Fourty-Three

After my usual scrumptrulescent breakfast of yogurt and granola bars Retta and I headed to the Salt River to do a five hour float. We heard rumor of the price to float and gathered the little cash we had and found out we were mistaken. In our best effort to be prepared, I think we walked back and forth from the car to the tube rental place like 5 times, had to drive 8 miles into town to find an ATM, and we're lucky we didn't lose her keys or for something else ridiculous to happen. On Saturdays, floating the Salt is the only thing to do because everyone in Phoenix was there, plus some guys from Oregon we met and some 'necks from 'Bama. The whole thing had a spring break feel to it... everything from drunks, to cliff jumpers, to drugs, to naked people, and I think that about covers it.

Day Fourty-Two

I enjoyed my hotel room until they kicked me out and I made my way towards Phoenix, AZ. I can tell I am getting closer to home because the Mexican food is getting better. My first stop was at a Men's Wearhouse where I think George Zimmer fitted me for a tux himself. This dude looked just like him. I eventually met up with my friend Retta from PLU who just moved back home to Phoenix post graduation and we did a self guided tour of the Totten Tubes Phoenix branch which I don't think I had ever seen. Her mom made dinner and later we walked around Arizona State University to find some nightlife at Border's bookstore followed by the worst margarita in the world ever at a place called "Margaritas". One would have higher expectation from a place named that.

Day Fourty-One

Today I left Los Cruces, NM and made my way over to Tucson, AZ. Monsoon season has made travel a little slower than I would prefer but arriving safely is worth it. I pretty much just made the drive and only stopped to refill on coffee. I made it to Tucson and got a motel room where I spent the rest of the day reading, writing, getting some work done, hot tubbing, and a Real World marathon. Pretty laid back in comparison to other days but restful.

Day Fourty

Yup, definitely went to Mexico today. I drove the 4 hours to El Paso from the spot in the middle of the desert where I camped last night. I walked across the border into Juarez where I ate lunch in a little restaurant. I was there for about 2 hours because the rain came out of no where and I didn’t think I would get too far if I went outside. I had some tacos, read some of my book, failed at speaking Spanish and then headed back to the border. The roads were so flooded from the rain it made getting back a little more damp in the shoe than I had expected, also unexpected was the large suburban that skidded to the stop in front of me and the dude that jumped out and yelled at me. This was the border patrol’s reaction to me leaving Mexico on the wrong side of the street and totally skipping the immigration checkpoint. Juarez should work on better signage. I eventually got out of the country and drove to Los Cruces, NM where I am staying with my 2nd cousin Nancy and her husband Ed. I had never met them before and it was fun getting to know them. Tomorrow morning I am off to Tucson, AZ.


Welcome to Mexico.


Here is my lunch.


Here I am stoked about my lunch.


Here are some flooded Juarez roads.

Day Thirty-Nine

Today I visited the Alamo in San Antonio with Lauren. Seeing the Alamo has been a lifelong dream since 2 years ago when my college house mates and I created a game called “Alamo” in the backyard. It all started in a hot tub conversation where we realized we were not utilizing our yard as much as we could, and needed to create some sort of game. We created a rulebook and glossary and opened Alamo season with the traditional firing of the projectile at the livewall towards the scout in effort to breach the opponent’s stronghold. Keith, Tyler, and Dan I hope you read all this. Visiting the real Alamo was cool too. After some considerable time in the gift shop searching for the perfect Alamo postcard, we made our way over to the famous River Walk in San Antonio where there were tons of restaurants and quirky shops all along the river; it’s a very cool area. I finally bought a Texas belt buckle, however Lauren talked me out of one that would make John Wayne jealous.



You can clearly see here that I am yelling "ALAMO!!!" Lauren is not yelling Alamo.


Davey Crockett's vest... pretty cool.


Texas was gorgeous so I had to pull over and take some pics.

Day Thirty-Eight

I was on the road at 7am and drove the 3 hours to Austin to meet my good buddy Mike from high school. Mike is in his final semester at the University of Texas and played on the football team the last few years. He gave me a tour of all the football facilities which was totally ridiculous... the locker room, position rooms, players lounge, the stadium, training rooms, nothing really seemed off limits. After lunch we parted ways until I see him again in Arcadia next month. I then drove south for about two hours and reached Boerne, Texas which is just a little north of San Antonio. I am staying with my friend Lauren and her family, whom I have not seen in roughly five years. They live in the "Texas Hill Country" which is pretty different from the Texas I have seen thus far, because it's like green and hilly and stuff. I am absolutely stuffed after my first home cooked meal since Minnesota and it should carry me through my visit to the Alamo tomorrow.

Lauren said to improve the blog I should include pirate jokes...
-Did you hear about the pirate who took up boxing?
-He had a killer left hook!


Mike and I at his apartment in Austin, TX


These kinda speak for themselves.


Mike trying to look tough.


My view in the stadium today at the University of Texas.