Farewell San Miguel... We're heading south!!!

I am making a promise to myself and to anyone else that may be reading this blog that I will make AT LEAST one post a week from now on, assuming that I have internet access that is. If I no internet is available then I will at least write and save pieces on the comp. or in my journal to post later... promise   :)

Much has happened since my last post.

Lets start last Wednesday, the evening that the United Sates beat up on Mexico in futbol (soccer). John and I were invited by some of our classmates to come watch the game at a small hole in the wall bar called Casino. We arrived a bit early to have some drinks before the game started and watched people role in. As it turned out we were the only gringos in the bar and when I started yelling after the US scored the first goal I quickly realized this ratio and kept relatively quite for the rest of the time. Eventually the focus drifted from the game as the US took a 2-0 lead and drunken conversation became more appealing. I ended up talking, it seemed more like a lecture, to Robert and Barbara about environmental issues for over an hour until we decided to head to the central garden for some greasy food. (Side note: the US has not lost to Mexico for 11 straight years now and all the mexicans were a bit dispirited that evening.) We proceeded to wander the streets with a girl named amy and an older woman by the name of marina. When john drinks enough I think that it is a safe assumption to say that he is very friendly with older woman, thats all I'll say. Amy ended up drinking too much and we walked them both home. 

Thursday was greatly anticipated as we expected our parents to arrive sometime around three that afternoon. So, we went to class and did a quick hike and workout afterwards. Johns dad, stuart, flew them down in his little four seater plane, I think my mother was a bit nervous, but all went well and they arrived just a tad bit late. They stayed in a wonderful little bed and breakfast not far from the central garden, maybe a four minute walk. We helped them get their luggage settled in their rooms and decided that we need some mexican food, beers, and a sunset, so we went and found just that. This was our little pre-funk before we went and ate dinner at an argentine beef house. Unfortunately I can't recall what it is that makes argentine beef soooo special, but, it was pretty damn good. Coincidentally, our good friend from the hostel, Julian, was our waiter that evening. He did an excellent job and it was a pleasant surprise to get to see him again. After diner we were all tired and decided to call it a night. 

By the time friday rolled around john and i were both getting a bit tired of our spanish classes so we did what the typical college student does, we skipped. Instead of attending class we decided to study over coffee at cafe etc., perhaps one of my favorite places in san miguel. The warren hardy curriculum is much better and I think we learned more in one sitting than we did in one week at our school. Turns out that we ran into our parents on the way to the cafe, it's not a big city, and made plans to meet them at the Puebla Viejo to watch the sunset over drinks again. For the second night in a row the firmament was rather bland and we left hoping for a better experience with some Italian food. We walked around for quite some time looking for the place and as it turns out the place we wanted to eat at had closed quite some time ago. hmmm. We then took up the suggestion to go to a small little italian venue called Donavans. I hadn't had pizza in quite a while, so we all did, and it was amazing. No one could finish their pizza due to the fact that portions in mexico always seem to be larger then anyone expects. No complaints though, this just meant that john and I got to take home a lot of pizza for later. Mmmm. We said our goodnights to the parents and then went on a nice little hike around 10pm up into the botanical gardens to chill for a little bit. I slept very hard that night.

Saturday was all planned out. We ate a quick breakfast and then met our parents around 9:30 that morning to take them on one of the hikes that John and I have been doing for the past few weeks. The place we hiked to, on the backside of the botanical gardens, apparently was going to be a very nice subdivision/development project financed by two canadians and a texan. They spent millions of dollars getting the land ready and building the infrastructure for the area until they ran into water issues, couldn't sell enough lots, and one of the investors (I will assume it was a canadian) ran away with all of the money they hadn't yet squandered on the apparently hopeless project. So, that's why there are some beautiful abandoned house up there for us to go play around in. After the hike John studied, stuart and rebecca (john's parents) went to work out and my mother and i decided to go shopping for a little while. We found some cute little bags that my mother bought for her friends to use as re-usable grocery bags and what not. Going green, good job mother! My prize purchase that day, which I had wanted for weeks but didn't want to spend the money, was a thinly striped pastel scarf. I proceeded to wear this scarf everywhere for the next few days, i think that it makes me look more European. Which I think may be better than american down here. 

This is funny. So john was sitting in cafe etc., studying, when he overheard a man discussing something that caused him interject. They ended up talking for quite a while and john told him about many of the adventures we've had and places we intend to go (starting tomorrow!!). The man was so excited for us that he told john, "Now, don't be offended, but... uhum. I want to give you five hundred pesos to make sure that you have plenty of money to do these things."

Sure, this is really only about 35 dollars US but hey, it's free money. Turns out the guy was gay and told john that he was welcome at his place in new mexico anytime. Strictly platonic I was told by John.

John and I reconvened to prepare for our last diner with the parents and then head out to a party at our classmate Robert's house. We arrived a little late and most people were already pretty drunk and of course, old. Again we were the youngest people there by at least 20 years, but we still had fun. Apparently I was conversing with the mayor of the white people in San Miguel, sounds kinda racist I know. He was six foot five, two hundred fifty plus pounds of pure drunkenness. Very funny to talk to nonetheless. I was very happy to find that Robert had purchased a bottle of Jack Daniels, which I had not had in a while, and I had a healthy dose before we left a bit later for a karaoke bar called longhorns. The place was a dive and I became bored quickly, especially since singing karaoke would have proven a bit difficult. Took a cab home late and woke up early to meet the parents for breakfast. That was a bit tough but I was happy to see them off. Love you mother and stuart and rebecca! It was fun!

After the sendoff we needed to work off the hangover, so we went for a hike to our favorite abandoned house. Upon arrival and trying to think of something new and fun to do I decided that we should create a sculpture for all to see and appreciate. We stacked up thirteen cinder blocks and then spiraled them around counterclockwise until the structure could stand firmly on it's own. We then decorated our cinderblock spiral with bright reddish-orange tiles of some sort. I thought that it was beautiful, although mother nature may have felt otherwise as the wind blow our creation down at some point during the night. 

So monday came and went, school is blah... but tuesday day and night were wonderful. I skipped school again and went on a nice hike around the lake by the gardens. Found some decaying structures overgrown by vegetation and then posted up for some stretching and studying. Wonderful weather, it was like one of those perfect days in summer. I met up with john to study more and we decided that we should probably have some margaritas before we headed home for lunch. Well those margaritas were so good, the weather was so nice and the view so relaxing that we had to go back. One thing led to another and we ended up going to the most american bar in san miguel named harry's. I suppose that it was a pretty cool place, again we're the youngest by a long-shot. The next morning we decided that all the old women looked like iguanas, they had scary long fingernails, crazy botox or collagen, always re-applied bright red lipstick and just seemed scaly. Thus they are iguanas. John and I believe that we have found a new name for a specific age bracket of old single women. We all now what a cougar is and they are typically considered good finds. But there is another category perhaps not experienced by all. We call them lizards, and they are not good finds. They can be many different kinds of lizards, but they are lizards nonetheless. They are scaly, old long-nailed single women who hang out in bars and will greedily pray on whatever they think they can handle, just like a lizard. When I say old I mean that they have to have kids that are well older than you are. ewww. 

After that night we decided that we were done going out to the bars in san miguel. In fact it has started to feel as though we have definitely stayed a bit longer in this place than we should have. We are both getting extremely anxious to get on the road, couch surf, beach bum it and stick our thumbs out to get to wherever we damn well please. So we have decided to leave one day early, on friday instead of saturday. Plus, if we leave tomorrow then we can spend some time in mexico city, zihuatanejo, and make it to Acapulco for fat tuesday!!! Seeing all the amazing pictures that are tagged on google earth was about to make us crazy. We will be there, all in due time. So our bus leaves tomorrow at 10am and we should arrive in Mexico city aorund 2pm. I will miss san miguel, but I am enthusiastic about the road to nicaragua.

sooner than later next time 

caleb

Relaxed, so relaxed...

Again I have waited a bit too long to post, but then again life has slowed down quite a bit since the last post. I am certainly happy with the slower pace john and I have recently embraced as we have gradually been able to establish a bit of a daily routine during the week. 

Daily Schedule and other stuff...

We wake up slow every morning around 8am. I usually have to prod john a little bit to get him moving but we always make it to breakfast on time at 8:30. We make the short trip upstairs to the kitchen where breakfast and coffee are always waiting for us. Breakfast is simple, usually just cereal, fruit, eggs etc... and of course very strong coffee that john brought all the way from the states. I'm pretty sure that we wouldn't survive our early classes without our favorite caffeinated substance by our sides. Classes start at 9am every morning with maestra Sucuro. She is a wonderful old mexican woman who has been teaching gringos spanish for over 15 years. Probably one of the most animated and comical teachers I have ever encountered, but also very good. I have enjoyed my my class very much thus far, there are only 10 students and all of us laugh a lot and get along very well. Some individuals in the class didn't know any spanish prior to this and they have definitely slowed us down a bit, but it is also very funny listening to them try and talk. The style of the class is very different than any other I took in grade school due to it being an immersion course, the emphasis is not so much on vocabulary and grammar but more so on just speaking and understanding the language, kinda picking things up as we move along. There no tests that I know of yet and we usually have very little homework. Very nice. John and I were initially in the same class but he opted to move up to the next level as he speaks a bit more spanish than I do. I considered moving up, I'm certain I'd do fine, it's just that the teacher is a giant douche bag who just picks on the students the entire time. In fact, john got so fed up with the guy today that they got into an argument about his teaching style and he almost walked out. The dude is also flamboyantly gay, not that I would normally care, but its just that he is soooo flamboyant that it distracts you from the task at hand. So, I'll gladly stay in my class with Sucuro. We are in school until 1pm everyday and get a twenty minute break around 11, during which time John and I walk up the block to this wonderful little pastry shop where I always buy a rather large cinnamon roll for about 20 cents and then purchase some coffee at a different shop on the way back to school. Lunch is served everyday at 2pm at the host family house and is always very delicious. My appetite has grown considerably since arriving here. :) The food is sooooo good and cheap. After eating we hike up into the botanical gardens (I mentioned this place in an earlier post) to get a little exercise and do a nice little workout on the roof of this giant abandoned concrete structure. Not to mention work on our already excellent tans. I'm gonna look like a mexican with long bleach blonde hair. We usually stay around the mountain for a quite a while, just exploring, talking and studying for several hours. We are very lucky to have found this place, it is so very tranquil, always drenched in warm sunlight with a soft, fresh wind from the west, and expansive views of the city and surrounding landscape. There is never anyone else up there, it's crazy! Today I brought my watch with me, which has an altimeter, and the elevation is close to 6500 feet above sea level, just bit higher than the city of Denver to give you an idea. The mid-day temperature on the mountain is right around 80 degrees, it's perfect. We walk down and usually find something random to do around the house or in the city as we wait for dinner time to roll around at 8pm in the evening. Dinner is by far my favorite meal as the table is always crowded and we typically spend more time talking and laughing than we do actually eating. Most nights john and I make another trip up the mountain or just walk around the city in an aimless fashion. Going to bed usually involves watching some crazy bootlegged movie that we buy from the guy who runs the coffee shop. I think that he makes more on dvd sales then he does with his coffee. So... this is my monday through friday in a nutshell, not too exciting i know, but very nice.

I have to tell about the people that john and I are staying with because they are quite the unique crowd. The couple that owns the house, Maria and Alejandro, have been hosting people like us for about 15  years and they do a very good job at it. I would guess that they are perhaps in their late 50's. Maria is a hilarious woman who says "ooohhhhh chicos!" all the time. Very personable and motherly. Alejandro... I would describe as a mexican badass. He works on their family ranch most of the day and has hands that look as though they could choke bull. I am certain that they both like john and i very much, first of all because we are very personable/amiable/friendly individuals who aren't afraid to try and communicate despite our lacking of spanish. Secondly, because I think that they very rarely get to host people that are as young as we are. It turns out that both maria and alejandro's families own ranches just outside of town right next to one another, so I am assuming that they have known each other for a good portion of their lives. We told them that we wanted to visit their ranches and last sunday we were given the opportunity. So, we followed alejandro out of town into a area that was dominated by agriculture and cattle. Very pretty in a mexico sort of way. When we arrived at maria's ranch we could not believe what we found, four giant swimming pools that they fill and drain every weekend with water from natural hot springs that are located on there land. It was incredible to see such large pools fill up so rapidly, and with very warm water too. Of course it was a beautiful day so we couldn't resist the offer to stay and swim and lounge by the pools most of the day. 

The others... an older couple, Robert and Barbara, also stay here and attend the same school as john and I. Barbara is in my class and a bit shy. Both of them appear to be in their 50's and are very sweet. Also, a very old woman named Dee, who is approaching 200 years of age and is only half alive also makes an appearance every now and then. I have know idea what she does all day. The last person, also the funniest, is a Japanese women who goes by the name Nana, which today we learned is short for Naomi, and she is absolutely hilarious. I think that she laughs more than she talks, although she does speak very good spanish. Today she showed john and I how flexible she was while we were having coffee in the kitchen. No, we did not ask for this nor did we expect it, she just decided to do it. This isn't sexual either, although I think that she was giving john a little look, saying, "look what I can do." Ahhhh! not cool Nana.  Nonetheless, the people we live with are great and very diverse. 

We have also become pretty good friends with an Author form New Orleans by the name of Robert Smallwood.  He wrote the first book about hurricane katrina (The five people you meet in hell) and it received pretty good reviews. I read the first few pages on Amazon.com and think I would enjoy reading the whole thing. I should probably just ask Robert for a book and have him sign it. He's a pretty crazy guy with lots of crazy ideas and stories, always inviting us to these odd social gatherings with people that are our parents age. He swears that we would be cougar-bait, although I'm not sure I want that unless are willing to fund my adventures. Apparently the ratio of women to men here is close to 10 to 1, but then again this is Robert talking. 

The sunsets here are spectacular. Last night john and I sat at one of the highest rooftop bars in san miguel enjoying 2 for 1 margaritas watching the beauty transpire. The picture at the top of the page is from last night. We also had a two beers while we were up there and for some reason they only charged us for the beers. Sweet deal! We bolted before they realized their mistake. Also, john and I are seriously considering starting a business down here. I am not yet willing to share our awesome idea because I don't want anyone to beat us to it, but as we progress I may share more info on said endeavor. 

Anyways, I am tired and John says that I have to watch a movie by the name of "WIllow". Apparently it is a colt classic and I have been missing out. We'll see. 

I'll keep living this rough life and perhaps post again within the next week if something eventful occurs.

Buenas Noches.

Crazy Crazy Crazy Stuff

Ok, so it has taken me quite a while to get back to the blog primarily because things have been pretty crazy over the course of the past five days. I will do my best to recall the details of said craziness, although i am am certain that I will forget something. Oh well, I just shouldn't go so long without posting next time. 

Let's start on friday, january 30

Friday day was pretty low key, slept in a bit and then cooked up a nice little breakfast. Then I went to Starbucks to blog a little bit. In my last post I failed to mention that I met a wonderful american women by the name of Stephanie who has lived in San Miguel for quite some time. I believe that her and her husband run some sort of rental business or what not. She also had an adorable baby with her that didn't want to keep quiet :) Anyhow, we talked for a long time and exchanged some info about a bunch of different stuff. Later on that evening I received an email from her inviting john and i out to her house in the country for some good ole' american bbq this weekend. Probably this sunday. 

John and I basically slept away the rest of the day in preparation for a big night with a crazy group of individuals from Gaudalajara that John had met on the ferry crossing over from the Baja Peninsula. Around 8ish we decided it was time to head to the central garden and wait for the night to unfold. Upon arrival we ran into one of the cute mexican girls from starbucks who was going out for the evening with two of her friends. They convinced us to follow them to a small local bar by the name of Catorce Real where we sat around talking in broken spanish and english over buckets of beer. About an hour later we decided to wander the streets a while with our new friends, this is when we randomly ran into the Gaudalajara crew outside of a crazy huge and overbearingly loud bar called Mama Mia. They were already very drunk and I was torn over whether or not to go with John and his friends our stay with the mexican chica, Aura, who was flirting with me as best she knew how. I wasn't really in the mood to deal the 13 crazy mexicans that I had never met, so John and I parted ways and I stayed with the Aura. I think that she took this as a sign that i was into her and I couldn't keep her off of me. It got to the point where it was almost embarrassing being with her because all she wanted to do was kiss me no matter where we were or who was around. Oh Aura, you just need to slow down a bit... turns out she still lives with her parents and she had to go home before she got in trouble, which was kind of a relief. One thing that was funny is that they all thought that John was gay, and, so was one of Aura's friends we were with and the girls wanted to hook them up. The next morning I told John and he didn't think that this was so funny. I have certainly not let him hear the end of this. Anyways, I was now all by my lonesome wandering the streets of San Miguel not looking for anything in particular. I sat and talked with some locals and a guy from dallas while drinking free beer when I suddenly had to pee really really bad. A local told me to just pee over by this large planter in the garden, so I took him up on the suggestion. To try and make this look as non-suspicious as possible I tried to walk around the planter while peeing at the same time. I had executed this procedure perfectly the night before but... this time i think that the zipper flap was a little bit in the way and I proceeded to urinated all over my right leg!!! Uuugggghhhh. 

Thus, I was reasonably sober, without John or my senorita and covered in my own urine. 

Very impressive huh? I walked home alone in my dejected state to shower and crawl into to bed. John's night turned out to be very crazy, he never made it home, and was out until at least 5 in the AM observing his friends drink bottle after bottle and eventually get into a massive bar fight involving 30+ individuals. For more about all this just visit lifeofjohn.net, it's a pretty good story. 

John ended up walking home around ten the next morning, we ate and then went to meet up with the group he was with the night before. I have to describe them for you: Imagine the people on The OC, but all as very rich mexicans. One of the girls dads was even a high ranking person in one of the largest cartels in Mexico. kinda scary, but also kinda cool. There were only 6 guys, including John and I, and 9 very beautiful girls. We bought supplies at the MEGA (mexican wal-mart) and proceeded to a very nice house that they had rented for the weekend in order to party in San Miguel for one of the girls birthdays. The first tequila shot happened around 12 that day and we didn't stop until 5 the next morning. In between was filled with crazy dancing at the house and club, a quick swim, great mexican cuisine, musical chairs, mariachi bands and much much more... for all of this I didn't pay a single peso. Incredible time. The guys also thought that the people that they fought the night before were waiting for them outside the bar, thankfully they weren't and it was time for bed.

We slept in and took it very easy all morning until we decided that it was time to go for a hike on the edge of town. We stumbled across a small little lake/pond located in a valley between two mountains. The lake was held in check by a beautiful stone dam that arched across the valley, easily over 100 meters in length and at times 40+ meters high. On the west side of the valley there were dozens of massive houses painted the most vibrant colors I think that I have ever seen houses painted within such close proximity. Many of which were placed on the extremities of a massive cliff face. Crossing the dam was exciting because at several instances we were walking across a ledge maybe a meter in width with perilous vertical drops to our left. Also, there were two rather large gaps in the dam where John and I had to get a running start and leap across. We really didn't know where we were going until we noticed a massive abandoned house magnificently placed to overlook the entire city of san miguel. We made it to the house and chilled on the roof for a long while just soaking up the sun and enjoying the stunning view. 

Later that night the hostel was completely packed due to it being a holiday weekend. Interestingly enough it was nearly all chicas who were staying there that evening. We ended up going out for a few drinks with three very nice and fun girls, two from the states, one from Monterry. We came home to talk and play drinking games before growing weary and hitting the sack. 

On Monday, the holiday, we heard there was a giant flower festival/garden going on and made our way there. I don't think that I have ever seen so many flowers for sale in one place or that many varieties either. We also watched a crazy native dance preformed by scantly clad natives. We just walked around most of the day and I bought a sweet cowboy hat. Also, john got a flat tire on his bike so we had to get that fixed as well. We again went to the abandoned house on the hill to watch the sun set and just relax a bit after all that had occurred over the past few days. Went back to the hostel, hung out with a crazy lady named Cally and made mexican summer beer. One batch on MSB consists of (at least ours anyways) 10 light beers, 20+ ounces of vodka, pineapple juice and several squeezed lemons. We were able purchase all of this for less than three US dollars a person. Oh Mexico!!! Went to bed late that night due to a funny and long conversation with an old doctor and his son. 

The next morning (today) was a rough one as we had not packed up our stuff at the hostel and we had class at nine. We were a bit late to class. The school we are attending is very good, at least it seems so thus far, as the classes can only have a maximum of ten people and we have two different instructors. John and I are easily the youngest attendees as everyone else is at least 40 and potentially up to 80 years of age. We also moved in with our host family today. It is a very nice place and the woman that owns it is extremely nice and a marvelous cook. Not sure what we will do tonight, probably just study a bit and call it an early night, at least I hope so, but that way things have been going thus far who knows. 

I wouldn't have thought that I would be this excited about getting back into school again but I am. Spanish is a beautiful language and I can not get enough of it. 

John just tried to look out a window not realizing that there was glass there and smashed his face. Mi amigo es estupido.

I'm tired and hungry. Hasta Luego!!!!

Readers, friends, if you turn these pages
Put your prejudice aside,
For, really, there's nothing here that's outrageous,
Nothing sick, or bad — or contagious.
Not that I sit here glowing with pride
For my work: all you'll find is laughter:
That's all the glory my heart is after,
Seeing how sorrow eats you, defeats you.
I'd rather write about laughing than crying,
For laughter makes men human, and courageous.

BE HAPPY!

I don’t know who wrote this but I thought that it would be a fitting header for the blog. 

Alas, I have finally arrived in Mexico, San Miguel de Allende specifically and thus far it has been quite enjoyable. The prospects within and around the city are many and I will certainly try and exhaust every last one of them. It is my second mexican morning, 30 de enero, and I awoke with a bit of a hangover from running around the night before. Fortunately John and I purchased a lot of food yesterday and I was able to conjure up a nice little breakfast and make some of the strongest coffee I think that I have ever had. I’m still a bit jittery from it but the hangover is long gone!

From Tejas to Now

So, I flew out of Austin at 7:25 and arrived in Leon, Mexico by 11:30 am. No problems whatsoever. Upon arrival I took a taxi from Leon to San Miguel for roughly 90 dollars US. Too expensive, but I was ready to get there and I didn’t really want to wait around for the bus. It took about an hour and a half to get there. I had the driver just drop me off  in the middle of the city and I started walking from there. Eventually I found the hostel, very quaint little place that really doesn’t feel like a hostel, more like a hotel with plenty of amenities. I was suppose to meet John there at three o’clock but he was nowhere to be found due to a few mishaps he had on the motorcycle. I just left a note on the door for him and then ventured off into the city to get my bearings straight and figure out the layout of the city. After about two hours of aimless wandering I luckily spotted John on his bike riding in my direction. I yelled and flailed around to catch his attention and then helped him get situated in our room. John brought way too much stuff and is a bit disorganized, but I think that it is funny and like to watch him rummage around trying to find different things. I think that we will prove to be quite a team as we both hold few inhibitions and are about as amiable as anyone could be. 

San Miguel is a beautiful little town that has a nice ethnic mix to it.The smells in the city are magnificent and constantly changing depending on your locale. The morning air snaps me awake and I have felt instantly invigorated upon rising each morning. There are quite a few americans and canadians here, mostly old people that have retired and are running from the cold. I kind of feel like I am doing the same thing! The weather has been perfect for us thus far, 80 degrees has been the high and it drops down into the 40’s in the evenings. Es perfecto! My spanish is very rusty, but I have picked up quite a bit in only 48 hours and anticipate a quick acclimation. John speaks spanish much better than I do, although I have done well in understanding everything. I just have to ask them to speak slower and I’m fine. Mas despacio, por favor!

I am writing this in Starbucks because it is one of the few places that has wireless for free. Plus there are several cute mexican chicas here that enjoy our company and think that we are funny. I stick out like a sore thumb here with my long blonde hair, but i think that this is a good thing because everyone is curious to know what John and I are up to and it provides excellent opportunities to mingle with the locals and and foreigners alike. 

The hostel is in a pretty good location, about a 4 block walk to the main plaza where all the main shops and bars are located. The exchange rate right now is excellent, roughly 14 pesos to 1 US dollar. My first purchase in mexico was a liter of tequila and six pack of Tecate because John and I of course had to celebrate our reunion/arrival. I think that this cost about ten dollars total or 140 pesos. Great deal! 

The first night we met a cute girl from Denver who has been traveling for a long time. She was very interesting and has been all over the world working on private yachts. We sat around at the hostel for a bit drinking and talking and then we headed out for the evening. We walked around taking a few pictures until John found a hot dog stand and somehow consumed four of ‘em covered with just about everything that you could put on a hot dog. Then bedtime. 

The next night we hung around the hostel for a bit talking in espanol and sipping beers with some tequila with two fellows named Julian and Luis. Julian works at a local restaurant and knows just about everything there is to know about the city. Luis is just looking for work, i think.

Adios.

Thus far...

SO. It's been a while since I left the great green state of Oregon with the little bro Cade and quite a bit has occurred since then. Here's a quick little run through of the past month or so.

FunRiver 3.0 happened, it was marvelous and we will do it again. Upon returning to Eugene the tedious packing and storage process began and I quickly realized how much crap I had accumulated over the years. All of which I needed :)

Packing up the 419 pad was a bit sad and I was constantly remembering all the wonderful debauchery that took place over the years, but I was ready to get out of there and hit the road. Closing the door for the last time sent an erie feeling through me and I knew that one part of my life was ending and something much different and greatly anticipated was about unfold. 

We slept at a friends pad that night and left for The Bay on December 18th around 6am. Usually this would be an uneventful drive that takes around 9 hours but... We were driving my '93 Jeep Wrangler (pronounced HEEP) packed to the limit with Cade and I, camping gear, random stuff and of course the Sadie Bear.  Don't forget that this thing has a soft top, no power steering and the NorthWest was getting hit by one of the hardest storms we had seen in a while. Sounds Great!!! To avoid going over the mountain passes on I-5 we decided that it would be best to take the scenic Hwy. 101. The driving conditions were nothing short of horrific and required way too much concentration for my liking as we drove down one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world. If you haven't done it then you are missing out b/c it is gorgeous, just do it whenever there isn't a huge storm. If you go this way be sure to stop and take in the views from Port Orford and explore the Redwood National Forest. Awesome! Sadie found a dead sea lion on the beach there. Good Bear. Basically it never quit raining and I think that it took us close to 14 hours to finally make it to Alex's parents house in MIll Valley where we would spend the next two nights. We had a great time in the Bay, thanks Al! 

We again left in the wee hours of the morning order to make it to Yosemite National Park for a little sightseeing. We made it there pretty quickly, drove around a while and did a little rock climbing to get a better view of halfdome. The original plan was to camp there but there was just too much snow and site camping wasn't allowed. So, we jumped in the jeep and headed south for Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks where we optimistically hoped for less snow and a camp site. We arrived well after dark and thankfully found a campsite... that was covered by two feet of snow! We were exhausted and needed rest so there we stayed. Temperatures that night dropped to about 10 degrees! brrrrr!!! I've decided that these places are best visited during the warmer months, but were still quite unique to see whilst covered in snow. 

Waking was tough but I had to cook breakfast and get things going or else Cade would have hibernated until spring. Our next stop was the mysterious Joshua Tree. Very cool place. The only thing was that to get there we had to go through LA traffic in the early afternoon and that was scary as hell, especially considering the jeep can maybe reach 65 mph (going downhill) and the average speed on the 405 must have been 80+. Not cool. We eventually made it out to the desert and into Joshua Tree where we found, of course, more snow! Turns out that the place rarely gets more than a light dusting, but, just for us it seemed, they had a record snowfall of about 1 foot the night before. No matter, I was fine with it b/c we had a sweet campsite nestled back in a massive rock alcove surrounded by, of course, joshua trees and snow. We had finally arrived someplace early enough where it felt like we had some time to relax, and we did just that, building a huge fire, eating and drinking a lot and sleeping well. That is until about 5:30 the next morning when 40+ mph winds decided to roar across the open plain. Normally I would think this is kinda of soothing inside a nice cozy tent but I had let Cade pitch the tent that night and he somehow managed to not hook the rain-fly on properly, which was easily ripped off by one large wind gust, thus exposing us to the elements. Great way to wake up, thanks Cade.  :) Earlier on that night we also had a strange encounter with a young man who claimed to be a lawyer and was out doing some rock-climbing, the only thing was that he was clearly on some kind of hallucinogenic or what not and was really weirded out by EVERYTHING! He made me nervous and I kept thinking he was gonna pop up outta nowhere wearing warpaint and wielding a large stick. He never came back.

Did an early morning rock climb to watch the sunrise, cooked breakfast, and rolled out. When we left that morning our initial plan was to camp at Sonoran National Park in AZ or at White Sands Park in NM. It turned out that we did neither as I stubbornly decided to make the push all the way back to central Texas. In total, I drove about 1,300 miles that day and we arrived in Marble Falls, Tx around 6:30 the next morning. Home sweet home! By the time we pulled up Cade and I both were delirious and seeing things that surely didn't exists. Like those oak trees that kept sprouting up in middle of the road or little animals that weren't there. Uuugggghhhh!!! Did I mention that I drove the entire 2,400 mile trip because Cade doesn't know how to drive a manual and I didn't really trust him either. Talk about a driving endurance test! It probably would've been best to stop and sleep somewhere but once we got on I-10, where the speed limit is 80 mph, I just got motivated to go all the way. 

Christmas was very nice, got to hang out with the family and play lots of golf with the brothers and friends in gorgeous 70 degree weather. 

Made a trip to Houston to kick it with Blaine Hoogenboom, his family, and Christina Nunez. We played golf and drink a lot. We then all came back to Austin for a Sunday night on Sixth Street. Christina got sick b/c she consumed about one million grams of caffeine and Blaine seemed tired. Weird combo. We ate sushi and went to a few bars until Whitney, the girl we stayed with, got too drunk and took a cab home without telling us. Sneaky Whitney! Fun times nonetheless. 

I took it easy for the next few days and prepared for a weekend camping trip to Big Bend National Park with some friends. Absolutely wonderful place, some of the best star gazing in the continental US because of the lack of artificial light and massive open plains. Basically this just means we where in the middle of nowhere. The first day there we hiked to "the window" to watch the sunset and then proceeded to consume a lot of whiskey and such. We laughed a lot that night. The next day I cooked a wonderful breakfast for all and proceeded to climb Emory Peak, the highest point in the Chisos Mountain range at 7,825 feet. Apparently there are swarms of lady bugs that live up there, strange stuff. That night we all went to these magnificent hot springs located along the Rio Grande River to relax ourselves a bit. I could throw rocks at Mexico, and I did :) 

I again decided that sleeping indoors was not as satisfying as camping so decided to make a solo trip to enchanted rock state park to camp in the primitive area. CLOSED!!! man was i pissed off, I just had to find another place to camp and ended up at the Pedernales Falls State Park. I slept on top of some large bluffs that overlooked the Pedernales River. My night consisted of whiskey, reading and light night guitar sessions. The next morning was frigid and I was ready to get on the park loop trail and get my blood flowing again. Very pretty part of the hill country and I would gladly go there again, especially to swim in those appealing clear green waters of the Pedernales River under some ancient cypress trees. 

I had been home for a few days and was getting bored of golfing alone so... I decided to drive to Colorado and hang out for a bit with my aunt and uncle. I was planning on going at it alone until the last minute when was able to convince my ex-girlfriend, Whitney, to come along for the ride. So, I was back on I-10 for the 4th time in as many weeks. For those of you who have never driven in west texas it's about as eventful as driving in circles around a vacant parking lot in the middle of a desert. Blah! Regardless, we made it from my house to Durango, CO in about 13 hours, which is pretty darn fast to travel 900+ miles. Thank You adherral. 

Durango is a marvelous city with much to offer during any time of the year. Great downtown scene, including the best Red Hot Chilli Peppers cover guy I've ever seen, we went snowshoeing, snowboarding, visited some ancient native american cliff dwellings and hit up some more hot springs. I go at a pretty fast past and Whitney kept up for the most part, I was impressed. Way to be a trooper Whit and thanks for coming along with me! Originally I had intended to make it up to denver to see B-rad Snyder but we ran short on time and Whitney had to make it back for school. Ugh! what's that. 

Pretty long post huh?! and I could've written so much more too. Oh well, this is just a quick jaunt through my travels thus far and I will certainly post some more stuff, such as photos and other interesting details I may have forgotten while writing this post. 

Caleb