It is not everyday you have someone in
your life you can spend every good, bad and cranky moment of 12 days
together, and still think they are awesome at the end. Alysha and I
did and we are better for it. I learned a whole other kind of
patience, with myself and I have grown an even deeper appreciation
for Alysha and her ability to take things as they come and to be
happy with little. I admire that about her, so if you are reading,
thank you for being awesome and making the trek out west what it was,
a none stop (except Kansas and Oklahoma) adventure full to the brim
with stories :) Now I have Caleb, how lucky am I to have two friends
willing to do this sort of thing with me? From this point on our
destinations change on a daily basis but we started in San Diego. The
night before Alysha departed, we went out to SD's historical Gaslamp
district, full of restaurants, bars and breweries. We met up with
Lily, my roommate from my first AC year, who came all the way from
Orange County to reunite with us. We hopped around from the Local to
Rock Bottom Brewery. Both were good, but rendered Lily's car
unfindable. After a sleepover with us at Jamie's house we ventured to
a Trader Joe's to get local fruits for Alysha to take home and a
coffee for the ride as well. Sadly, the time came and we had to drop
off both Alysha and Lily at their respective places where they'd be
going home and Jamie and Caleb and I, well we drove around a bit but
then Jamie, inevitably had to go to work. Caleb and I head east
again, to Tucson, AZ. We had an old AC friend with beers and laughs
waiting for us by the name of Rob Delong. We showed up after eating
some Del Taco (way better then T- Bell btdubs) and hit the town and the neighborhood gay bar for some spastic interpretive dance off, with ourselves.
Tucson is a quirky little city. It has big city elements like a
downtown and a homeless population but it had a small town feel and
by that I mean it's almost all bikeable. There were a couple schools
nearby which made it a younger city, an artsy skinny tire driving,
hipster town. Still the murals, giant 13 foot monkey statue, and
copper art sculptures made it a neat place to drive around. The next
day we had bagels for breakfast and an oil change for brunch. Rob
took us out west to hike Tucson's highest peak for lunch.
Unfortunately I can not read a map and Rob is about as good at making
decisions as me, so him and I didn't make it all the way up, but
Caleb did on his run. As if I didn't feel out of shape enough here
comes Caleb showing me up. Rob had work later so we reconvened and
dropped him off at home. Cottonwood, AZ was in our sights, after a
stop at Del Taco, seriously you can eat so much for like $2. Caleb's
grandparents were kind enough to put us up indefinitely at their
place in Cottonwood. We checked out Prescott College, Caleb's school
of choice and poked around the area sightseeing and spending quality
time with family. It was a good place to rest before we headed north,
into the cold, into the unknown. Prescott College, a genius campus
with a lot to offer the outdoorsy soul. Students are barely at campus
because so much of their education is real life practicum, so for
class they go skiing in Idaho studying avalanche movement... or rock
climbing to learn about geology... it was ridiculous how awesome this
school was, not to mention how the earthy crunchy vibe presented
itself in a green campus. Arizona it self, is beautiful, the sky is a
magnificent shade of blue, the terrain of red rock country, high
desert, snow-capped mountains, canyons, and ruins of native Americans
on canyon cliff side are all here, also mountain towns with Haunted
Hamburgers are here. I was adopted for all intents and purposes for a
day when we ventured out to Montezuma Castle and the well, both
National Monuments. We headed towards home a drove straight through
Sedona in red rock country and caught a gorgeous sunset with dinner.
In Sedona, we also stopped to get Prickly Pear icecream, not as
prickly but way more delicious then it probably sounds. We stayed for
a couple days and I see now it wasn't just my grandparents who tried
to fatten me up :)
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