#72 Drive More Than One State West of the Mississippi

What I meant to say is to drive west of Iowa. I've been west of the Mississippi, driven even, but just to Iowa.

Really, I've always wanted to drive to California, to drive through the Rocky Mountains and see the western part of the country. I just didn't think that would happen, so I left it as more than one state west of the Mississippi.

This happened pretty spontaneously and quickly. When I was fishing at Dave Merrill's with Nader Elmasri, Edric Cruz, Edmund Cruz, and Norris Narsa, Nader mentioned that his friend's brother was moving to San Diego and he and his friend were going to drive his car out there for him. We talked a bit about San Diego and how I'd always wanted to do that drive, and then somehow the conversation turned to us making the drive. We tried to get Norris, Edric, and pretty much any acceptable person we ran into at work for the next week to go wtih us but to no avail. (You all are suckers.)

So I finished up with class at 1pm on Thursday, June 2, drove to the AAA office to get some maps, and then picked Nader up around 2:30pm. There's not much to say about Western Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, or even eastern Colorado. They're all pretty flat and windy. Leaving at 2:30pm got us to Denver at 4:00am, which was a bit too early to call my friend Dan, who was kindly hosting us there. After cruising downtown Denver and see some interesting characters, like the guy rollerblading at 4:30am, we wandered the 16th Street Mall - a long pedestrian mall - in downtown Denver and around 5:00am I sent Dan a text, which he actually returned. Dan very kindly let us in around 6:30am, and we napped until 11:30am or so. (Thank you, thank you, thank you, Dan for accomodating us.) Dan had to work, so we took an afternoon drive to Boulder, which as some lovely mountain views. We had some trouble finding the campus but found a nice park where we played some game Nader claimed was from Winnie the Pooh but no one else seems to know, and then found some wannabe hippies were slacklining. They had just moved there from Battle Creek, Michigan, just the night before. They still had some hair to grow and clothes to dirty, but they had the right idea: moving to a hippy town with no jobs, places to live, or plan. The newbie hippies invited Nader to slackline. (Sidenote: slacklining is a hippy pasttime where a nylon rope is tied low to 2 trees and hippies do a type of tight-rope balancing act across it. Adventurous hippies might tie the rope to higher locations or inanimate objects. Silly hippies. Yes, being from Ann Arbor and working in recreation, I already knew what slacklining was and had seen many list serv discussions on the merits and dangers. My job rocks.) That was fun until the bike cops showed up and kindly told us that it was illegal to tie things to tress in parks in Boulder. Dan then led us out for a dinner and then up and down 16th Street, which is much more lively at 9pm on a Friday than at 4am. Nader & I agreed we had never seen such an ecclectic group of individuals though. They also had pianos stationed around the city for people to sit and play as they pleased. I attempted Pachebel but being out of practice and the brightly-painted piano out of tune, I failed. I managed a quick, quiet version of "Hail to the Victors" though. And then we slept. I snored.

We managed to get up and going around 8am on Saturday and headed to Vegas. Western Colorado was picturesque. Utah was impressive. Arizona sucked. Then we hit Vegas just in time to park at Mandalay Bay, walk to the Bellagio as the sun was setting, and see the fountains. I told Nader that New York New York looks just like New York City and it would now be unneccessary for him to go there and he told me that Luxor is missing some details from actual Egypt. It would have been perfect if the song had not been "One" from "A Chorus Line." That was a strange choice, Bellagio fountain people. We walked back to Mandalay Bay, stopping at Fat Burger, where there were lots of dudes. There, we saw a limo driver rapping to the cashier and a drunk guy attempt a pole dance but then fight with the workers over which song was most appropriate to do so. After that quick experience, we headed to San Diego. Nader switched on some Coldplay for me at about 1:30am and then promptly fell asleep. Thanks, Nader. We got to Dino's around 3am and passed out until around 11am the next day.

I got to see Dino & Karen briefly Sunday morning as they were headed out because Dino had to work. We got ourselves up and headed to PB (Pacific Beach) for some sun. The ocean was cold. Everything else was perfect. I got burned. It was worth it. Then we drove up to the cove in La Jolla to see the sea lions. I almost saw a shark and had another thing crossed off my list but instead they were dolphins. Whatever. We should have snorkeled. That night we ordered pizza with Dino & K Rob, which worked out perfectly, Nader asking if they could get banana peppers, and that's the only kind of pizza Dino & K Rob would ever let me eat in college. (Bell's, of course.) K Rob topped off the night with what we call a big cookie here in Chicago, but I guess they call Bazoodles or something: a soft Nutella and almond cookie with homemade banana ice cream. Sooooooo good.

The next day we got up around 8am and Dino took us for a Jeep cruise to Del Mar, where we hiked, right next to Torry Pines Golf Course. Beautiful. After that, Dino took us to see some guys gliding off cliffs. I would so do that if I lived there. For sure. It was crazy. When we got back, Dino took us for fish tacos in Ocean Beach as well as the best dish ever created: cheese fries with carne asada, guac, and sour cream. We then managed to squeeze in some surfing when Dino headed to work.

K Rob gave us a Groupon so we could get some dinner at the happily named Fleetwood Diner with Karen, and then we were off to the Padres game with the tickets Dino got us. Seriously, I have amazing friends. Particularly in San Diego. I don't know why I don't live there. Seriously. We hung out for a bit later, and Smokey B - now known as Brian - managed to meet us for a beer, and Nader kept K Rob entertained by playing basketball as they had a little court IN the bar.

It seems like our cross-country stories would end there, but we got up the next morning at 8am and drove to the Grand Canyon. It added a little more time to the trip than anticipated but it was worth it. Beautiful. And comical. I had no idea how many funny people would be there. On the way out of the park, I saw an elk and a deer. And a hitchhiker. The next day I saw a jack rabbit. We also saw signs for deer crossing, elk crossing, people crossing, cow crossing, and wild horse crossing. Some of those were new. Nader was a trooper and drove 4 or 5 hours through the middle of the night to Western Colorado, and I was awake enough to take us back to Denver. We got there at about 9am and took a break to run around and be out of breath to spite Norris. Then back in the car and we drove the rest of the way, getting back to Chicago around 2:30am Wednesday night / Thursday morning. So pretty much exactly 6 and a half days to San Diego and back. The next day was a little rough leading a meeting at 9am but the $1 Jimmy John's and driving range that evening made up for it.

I am now peeling and I like Drake.

So far this is by far the best thing I've done on my list! I totally recommend that drive!