September 26th, 2006
Wooohoooo! Just writing this brings back such a feeling of excitement.
I drove from Los Angeles to Orange County to spend my final night in California at my parents house. I was so excited about driving cross country that I slept all of 2hrs before 13hr road trip. Why 13 hours, well because I wanted to make the most of everything, I had my choice to spend the night anywhere I wanted … I chose Vail, CO!
Thank god for my mom and dad who stocked up a little cooler of snacks for me to eat on the first day of my road trip adventure. Getting out of California was one of the most challenging parts of the trip, I hit fog like I have never seen before. I was going about 5 miles per hour, couldn’t see the car in front of me or behind me, we are talking blinding bright white sunrise fog. Once out of Cali I thought my first stop would be at the Coffee Bean in Vegas or maybe Roberto’s, man I miss Roberto’s & Fausto’s. To my suprise by the time I got to Vegas it just seemed so incredibly smoggy, dusty, dirty and just yuck! I couldn’t bring myself to stop in Vegas, I actually drove through as fast as possible not even any nostalgia for the 10years I lived there.
I stopped in Mesquite and got a coffee and a gatorade, caffeine and electrolytes, I was already feeling extremely tired and was barely halfway through my day.
What I was nostalgic for was the drive that Babe and I use to take regularly to Zion National Park in Utah. I stopped in the Virgin River Gorge which is beautiful and spent way to much time stopping every couple of miles outside of Zion. Zion is one of my favorite places it was so hard to just drive by. [double shot of espresso and another gatorade] Now past Utah and into Colorado where I passed more smelly corporate repulsive cattle farms then I could even imagine existed. At one point I went through this incredibly long stretch with no rest areas, no gas stations or exits and all this flat tiny tree landscape … needless to say after lots of coffee, water and gatorade I really needed to diddle. There was NO PLACE to pull over to provide cover and sneak behind a tree … I remember driving very fast through this area knowing that if I got pulled over I would probably piss myself. After that I learned my lesson and stopped much more frequently at rest areas. Well, that and the fact that I was exhausted and now driving in the dark, or I mean pitch fucking black winding moutains in Colorado. [one more double shot of espresso]
So sad to drive into Vail, my scenic destination of choice and not be able to see a lick of it. I made it to my hotel, The Roost exhausted from 48hrs with 2hrs of sleep and 13 hours of driving and enough caffeine to give me that nice shaky sick cracked out feeling. A nice bath and good nights sleep and then I awoke to Vail ……. wow…. totally worth it …. fairy tale beautiful. My hotel was also great for the price, comfortable, affordable and very friendly staff. I took my sweet time taking pictures and driving out of Vail and down the mountain. When I left LA it was 80, I think it was about 30 in Vail that will wake your ass up!
September 3rd, 2006
So, the day after we decided to leave Los Angeles Babe immediately received a job offer from a company in Minneapolis. Minneapolis? Umm, ok, sure, why not? Neither of us had ever been there but it sounded pretty and it was far away from Los Angeles, not to mention the cost of living seemed like a dream. We flew out a few days later to go to what looked like a sure fire interview and look for a place to live. For some reason we had very little time for this and had maybe 2 days there. With a limited budget and the idea of move cross country on the horizon we thought a hostel was the way to go.
The Minneapolis International Hostel… well the photos looked nice [see below] and it sounded like a practical slightly adventurous route. Their pictures make it look historic and cozy, let’s just say someone did a real nice job taking those pictures. On their website there are no pictures of the rooms … let’s just say it had more of the ambiance of what I believe a halfway or crack house might look and feel like. The excitement of moving combined with the uncomfortable atmosphere of the hostel lead to NO SLEEP … maybe an hour.
Before flying out we tried to map out a good chunk of houses to look at while there. However once arriving in MN almost every single house fell through. People either couldn’t meet with us or the house was already rented. Babe got the job so this was a serious hicup we NEEDED TO FIND A PLACE to live. This is pre-lap top & smart phone for us so we speant most of our sleepless night on the laptop looking on craigslist for a house to meet with and hopefully rent the next day. We drove all over looking at all areas half awake while trying to figure out the Minneapolis roads on a map….Hah! We did fill out an application for one house that we thought was going to be great! Minneapolis was beautiful and green and looked heavenly compaired to LA.
We did all that we could and we were back on our way to the airport. At this point it had been about 3 days with almost no sleep, I’d say we slightly resembled traveling zombies in the airport. While waiting for the plane we both stretched out across those oh so comfortable not meant to be slept on airport seats and rested. I think we both slept on the plane back as well.
Upon return we found out we didn’t get the house, but we were moving to Minnesota in about 3 weeks. So no place to move to, needed to get all the aderesses and bills changed to somewhere and yah know, PACK up an entire house! We were back on craigslist and found what looked to be fantastic 4 bedroom house, we were able to do the application and everything online and it seemed like everything was going to be great 
What a shame there are no images available from this trip, lost with my hard drive, my hard drive that is sitting next to my desk waiting for those few precious images to be rescued. Although the only image I really remember taking is of Babe sleeping in the airport.
July 3rd, 2006
LAX to LGA
The School of Dance and Music’s school year just ended and I helped put on a Dance and Music Recital for my first time and it was so much fun. The owners offered to fly me to New York City with them for a business seminar on Dance and Music Schools. Since the majority of my family lives in upstate New York I flew in a few days early to spend time with family before meeting them in the city.
Well timing was a little precarious, my travel arrangements put me in New York the same time the rivers overflowed.
I flew into LaGuardia airport for the first time and it was awful I’ve never been to such an icky airport. From LaGuardia I took a bus to Port Authority bus terminal to catch a Grey Hound bus to upstate New York. Ick, Ick and double fucking ick! If you ever have to go to the Port Authority which I hope you don’t leave LOTS of time. The place is a maze it took me forever to find my bus terminal, I went up stairs and down escalators and down hallways and up more stairs, the place is huge and signs are like misguided jokes. This place is open 24hrs and has homeless people living in it. The bathroom near my bus waiting line was overflowing which added to it’s ambiance. After a few ‘fun’ hours in the middle of the night waiting in line for the bus I actually ended up sitting next to a very nice young lady who was getting ready to go intern with the World Health Organization and was going home from college to visit family. She was a blessing and a rarity on this bus trip.
Once I got ‘home’ upstate the views of the rivers overflowing were amazing. I spent 4th of July there and then headed back to the city for the Seminar. As part of the seminar we got to go on a chartered dinner cruise around the city harbor and stopped in front of the Statue of Liberty at Sunset. The food was amazing, it was the first time I was served hors d’oeuvres, that’s fun! Being on the water with the sun setting over New York city was a treat. We stayed at the Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge which is where I had my first solo bar visit. I went down and sat at the bar all by myself, at the age of 24 this was a first for me and what a fine bar it was. Kinda like the ones you would imagine in the movies, very business executive dark loungey with a New York twist, bartenders that looked like they had been there from the 40′s. I had an amazing Mojito and flat bread pizza. Dan and Liliana then came down from the room and joined me and split an ice cream sunday at the bar.
Anyways, I was so tired from the traveling I don’t even remember my flight back and the biggest memory is how amazingly happy I was on the water at sunset. Dan and Liliana were talking to some people on the deck and I had only known them for a few months. I was on the deck of this amazing boat and business of all things had brought me there. My business choice to leave corporate America and do something I love had paid for me to travel cross country and take a dinner cruise. I was doing something I loved with incredible people. It was one of those moments where you feel your life shifting under your feet so fast that you can hardly catch your breath.
So, for such a memorable trip I took almost no photos and on top of it I lost my hard drive shortly after loosing most of the ones I did take.
Little Italy in New York City. The day of the World Cup in Germany where Italy won over France.
Statue of Liberty at Sunset New York City Harbor.
New York City
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