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