Road Trip 2007

Road trip – California (Hidden Valley) to Montana

May 2007

Day 1


It's 2am and after many many little sips from the wine bottle, my cells start to wobble in front of my eyes. I really need to sleep it off if we're going to start out at 8am.


Morning arrives too soon, thanking God that I had the sense in packing the other night, vowing to never drink again to the insisting pounding in my head. My brother 
Hani, his friend Steve and I get in the truck on our way to meet up with another friend Shawn in another town. With two cars zooming on the highway, we get off to a more scenic road. Me being the keeper of the map, I got to dictate the best routes to reach our destination.




By mid afternoon, our first stop was Oregon. We reached a rural road to search for some famous obsidian rock, which my brother and his friends were in need to share with their class. Yes folks I was joining my brother to attend a workshop on surviving in the wilderness.


After being bitten by mosquitos, I vote to stay in the car while the boys go dig up their little hearts out. 
Night starts to fall, in which my brother "decides", of course including us with the voting, to stay the night and camp out in the middle of nowhere. Now I had my reservations, it's been ages since I’ve camped out. What am I going to do with the bathroom situation! I mean I was young and in the scouts when I did these things and I still had bathroom issues, which haven't completely dissipated. 
Hey I’m cool, I’m an adventurous person, why not it's a road trip anything can happen on a road trip.

I help gather some wood for the fire, while I search for an insect and animal free tree to do my business. Shivering from the cold, but happy to be walking away insect free, I go to the car to gather some warm cloths. Now remember I was in Arizona, desert Arizona, Hot and Dry Arizona. Can you guess what I forgot to bring with me...yep, warm cloths. My attire consisted of cargo pants on top of sweat pants, multiple shirts and sweatshirts. Oh yeah, I was a walking grizzly bear with no fashion sense. Oh well at least they have the fire going and...wait! Does my nose deceive me, do I actually smell something that will take all the insect bites and scary wolves calling to the moon in the distance seem like a dream? 
I think I’m going to cry.

Around that glorious fire they're passing my favorite doobie...oh yeah baby, come to mama!