Drifty Shifty

Manifesting Sunshine

2008-12-01T13:32:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I've written and updated my situation. My season as a tour guide with TrekAmerica ended at the beginning of October. Since then, I flew back to Tulsa, moved out of my apartment and packed all my belongings in my car. I decided I hadn't had enough of traveling yet and wanted to continue on my own schedule, without the responsibility of passengers.

I took a road trip that lasted five weeks. My travels took me to Denver, Boulder, Salt Lake City, Boise, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and all down the coast of Oregon continuing through California until I hit San Diego, where I am now.

I hiked in the Boulder Mountains and the Red Woods. Had a great picnic in the vineyards of Napa Valley, sipping on a bottle of wine. Rode my bike to the famous Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake. Went spelunking in a lava cave developed by Mt. St. Helen. Did a nighttime hike through a canyon and slept on a rock slab next to sulphur hot springs. Went to see a few jam bands at local venues. Danced with some Burning Man advocates on Halloween. Drank beer at the Coors Brewery. And Bridgeport. And Deschutes. And, well enough to have the trip dubbed as the "Views and Brews" tour. I watched the seasons change all over the Western part of the country. My days were filled with bright colors, great people, and never ending sunshine.

I had a few friends join and couldn't have asked for better traveling buddies, specifically Sheena, who, when asked me at the end of the trip to name my rose and my thorn of our adventures, I hands down named her my rose. Everyday, all day, this girl exudes good vibes to anyone and anything she comes in contact with. She's the most enthusiastic, positive person I've had the pleasure of getting to know. Also, she has super powers, as you might expect of one named Sheena.

She introduced me to one of the best aspects of our trip: couch surfing. The idea behind couch surfing, taken from the website is: "Participate in creating a better world, one couch at a time. We make the world a better place by opening our homes, our hearts, and our lives. We open our minds and welcome the knowledge that cultural exchange makes available. We create deep and meaningful connections that cross oceans, continents and cultures. CouchSurfing wants to change not only the way we travel, but how we relate to the world!"

Basically we stayed with strangers we connected with over the internet. I was a little skeptical at first, thinking we might run into some dodgy people, but I was quickly proven wrong. Each of these strangers we met quickly became friends. They were very welcoming with open minds and big hearts. Some gave us spare keys to their home, some introduced us to their friends, took us square dancing, cooked us breakfast and dinner, and all offered local insight we wouldn't have likely found on our own. Meeting people so welcoming to strangers without any expectations or judgments gave me a renowned faith in humanity. There are a lot of people out there are who are inherently good, fun, interesting, and worth getting to know. And if we open our eyes and ears, we shall see them.

I had a lot of great experiences during the trip. I breathed in nature and watched the changing of the seasons. I said yes more than I said no. I was blessed with many moments of bliss. I truly fulfilled my mission: to gallivant. And for now, I'm still enjoying the sunshine.

Seminole Canyons

2008-10-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

"Nobody's sleeping in the van. That's my space," I sternly said to them. As Sarah's eyes began to fill with tears and she turned away, arms crossed, I realized that they actually were scared. We had been driving for eight hours across southern Texas, passing through small forgotten towns of the past. Long, slow roads with old abandoned buildings mixed in with the occasional church. These were the kinds of places that were so deserted that you would expect something bad to happen. A band of Mexicans making a run for their freedom. A mass murderer lurking in the fields. A bank robbery. None of it would have surprised me.

The sky had been dark gray all day, and it had been raining buckets. The flooded ditches that lined the single lane highway through Del Rio were threatening to pour over to the street, prohibiting advancement through the town. We were getting closer and closer to our campsite. Most of my passengers were sleeping, luckily, and were none the wiser of our less than ideal camping weather. I turned off the radio to be sure and rob them of any knowledge of thunderstorm warnings, flash floods, or any other inclement weather they were surely broadcasting. It was for their own good. And, who am I kidding, mine.

As we continued on our journey, we approached a rather unofficial road block with very official business. A number of suited officers along with a large German Shepherd stood next to a sign that read "Border Patrol." I slowed the van to a halt, which caused my passengers all to awake, full of questions. "Why are we stopping? Where are we? Did we cross the border? Will they ask for our passports? Are they going to search our stuff?" Although I didn't know what to expect, I assured them this was all routine and everything would be fine. I rolled down the window to greet the officer. If my passengers seemed apprehensive about our location, the officers disposition was the same. I guess a large van full of foreigners driving along the desolate Texas-Mexico border, heading for a campsite during a thunderstorm seemed rather out of the ordinary.

After the inquisitors were satisfied with our story and passports, they let us on our way. The land became even more scanty as we progressed past Del Rio. Miles from civilization, I spotted the turn-off to the dirt road that led us up to our campsite. It was after 5:00 when we pulled up, and the small, one man office had closed for the day. The entire campsite was deserted. As we stepped out of the van and got a good look at our surroundings, the reviews were mixed. We were in the middle of a long stretch of land that extended as far as the eye could see. The only signs of human life were the occasional lonely headlights from the very distant highway. And this would bring us to the point where the tears began.

While the majority of the group thought the beauty of the terrain was intensified by the absence of civilization, a few of the girls did not concur. Uneasy with being so alone (nevermind the fact there were 14 of us) they felt certain this night would be their last. Surely they would get attacked by a lethal spider, or pillaged by a psychotic sociopath. Sarah lifted her hand and called out, "I'm sleeping in the van." Several "me too's" followed. Thinking they were completely irrational, I vetoed their requests.

As the tears began to pour, I took a deep breath and reluctantly followed Sarah and the other frightened few. I rationalized with them until they felt comfortable enough to stay the night, having to give in and agree they could sleep in the van. To prove a point of my assurance of our safety, I stated I would be sleeping outside, under the stars. And so they took my spot in the van, I layed atop the picnic table, closed my eyes which brought an end to an eventful night in the Seminole Canyons.

It's my Birthday!

2008-10-02T11:15:00.001-07:00

Well, it was my birthday. I turned 2(?) during my last trip, and my group made it really special for me. I was excited to be able to spend it in San Diego, a city I absolutely love.

We arrived in San Diego the day before my birthday, and we camped at a popular campsite on the beach. There were several other TrekAmerica groups staying at the camp that night, so we pulled them together and challenged them to Trek Olympics. Our competitions included a sock-wrestling match, an egg toss, and an obstacle course to name a few. Each challenge was sure to get everyone wet, dirty and sweaty, which was our idea of fun.

The second night we moved to a hostel in downtown San Diego. This worked out ideally because I didn't have to drive, which I really was hoping to avoid on my birthday. We went out for dinner at the Yard House, a cool pub in the Gaslamp district with a great selection of beer. My group surprised me with a cake, got me a Padres shirt which they all signed, and a really nice card. Then we went to a Padres game, which they all really enjoyed. They had never been to a baseball game and were really excited to see an American sports game. They showed up to the game decked out in Padres gear, which I found quite amusing since they didn't know much about the Padres or baseball. One of them was pulling for the Padres to win the Superbowl. Hee hee! I loved their spirit and enthusiasm. This group could have fun doing anything anywhere. They were a really great group, my best one of the season.

I got a pocket full of sunshine

2008-09-16T19:39:00.000-07:00

Currently, I'm on my third day of a Westerner 2. New group of people; 14 days long. Today we're in San Francisco. It's been sunny all day. Last night we went on a sunset sailboat cruise followed by dinner at a restaurant in Chinatown. The restaurant was called Sam Wo's, notorious for an odd atmosphere and rude service. Everyone loved it. Today I wandered around, visiting different parts of the city. San Francisco is a great place. Tomorrow we leave for Yosemite where we will hike up Half Dome, a 17-mile round trip hike, gaining 4,800 feet in elevation. I told my group it's extremely hard, scary, dangerous, and ridicoulous, and they were all in. I like these guys.

Somewhere in Texas

2008-09-16T19:35:00.000-07:00

Getting tired of driving across the country, I thought we could give hitchhiking a go.

Southern Sun

2008-08-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm on my second tour, called the Southern Sun. It started in New York, and ends three weeks later in Los Angeles. It's AWESOME!!!! I have thirteen passengers again; all but two are from the U.K.; the others are from New Zealand. They are a great group of people. They all participated in an organization called "Camp America" where they came over to the states for ten weeks prior to coming on this trip and worked as camp counselors. They're all really easy going and fun to be around.

So far the highlights have been Washington D.C., white water rafting on the Ocoee River in Tennesee, and today we have arrived in New Orleans, after barley dodging a tornado in Alabama. We've been camping, and will be for the majority, but we have a hotel here in New Orleans. When I went to check in, the office guy gave me a tour and showed me their rooms. I came back to the group and said they were "BAD ASS!!!" and they were like, "Is that good or bad?" Ha! Apparently that's an American term.

We have two days in New Orleans, then we do a swamp tour west of here and camp the night around Lake Charles, Louisiana. It's hot and muggy here, but we've been lucky enough to avoid any rain (and tornadoes). I'm really excited about this trip overall. There's a lot of cool places and things to do on our itinerary. I'm starting to get the hang of things better now, so this trip seems easier than my last one. When I checked into my hotel, got a suite all to myself, and was presented a bottle of wine at the front desk, I just thought, " I can't believe I'm getting paid for this."

This is not my beautiful wife

2008-08-13T23:28:00.000-07:00

Right now I'm midway through my first tour. It's incredible, just like everything else that's happened since I started this job. I feel like I've crammed a lifetime of lessons, new experiences, and memories into one very long, yet also short, month.

The tour that I'm on right now is called the Western Wonder, and the route covers San Francisco, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, and Los Angeles. I have 13 passengers: Anika and Kolja from Germany, Jennifer and Choi from Korea, Kate and Lindsay from Scotland, Rikke and Therese from Denmark, Angelica from Colombia, Ben and Bec from Australia, and Adam and Paul from England, age ranging from 21 to 28. Not only did I get lucky enough to have such a great group of people; it's also a budget lodging tour, which means hotels and hostels rather than camping.

This has been the hardest I've ever worked at anything in my whole life. I'm constantly "on."Being responsible for 13 people is no easy task. My role as the leader is to essentially organize every detail of their vacation. I have to figure out how to grocery shop for 14 people, tell them what time to wake up, decide where and what time they eat, show them on the map where we're going, how long it will take, what the distance is (in miles and kilometers), what they should wear, the weather report (in Fahrenheit and Celsius), check them into their rooms, find out prices of activities, times of events, safety warnings (ie. what to do if encounter a bear) let them know what kind of food may be served at any/all of our hostels...the list is never-ending. It's overwhelming, exhausting, stressful. But the rewards are so indescribably wonderful. Getting to know these people, hearing their excitement, visiting incredible places...it's a dream.

This tour ends on Saturday, when we will leave the Grand Canyon, drive to Los Angeles, and say our goodbyes. I just found out I fly out on Sunday to New York, and will start my next tour on Wednesday, which is a three week long tour called Southern Sun. It starts in New York, driving across the country ending in Los Angeles. I have two days to plan out my trip. Eek! I'm super excited (and stressed)!

This picture was taken last night in Vegas. This was our stop in downtown, where we were let off our party bus limo to catch the light show, then returned to cruise down the strip and get dropped off in front of the Bellagio to catch the water and sound show.

"And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself-well...how did I get here?"

-Once in a Lifetime, Talking Heads.

The tie rod has no play

2008-07-31T20:03:00.000-07:00

I never would have guessed these words would become part of my vocabulary. I spouted out this phrase, along with others like, "The drive train is not bent or cracked. The U joints are not missing and connected properly," to an employee of the California Department of Motor Vehicles as part of my test to obtain a Commercial Drivers License.
To say I passed the three part test with flying colors would be the more than an exaggeration; it would be a straight up lie. It took me two attempts, and not because of my lack of studying and training, but more so because the employees at this government agency were trained by Hitler. These are people who have been given way too much power, and they use it with a wreckless abandonment. Clipboard and pen in hand, they relished every moment of marking poor scores for me, knowing full well that my future lie in their hands. After my exam, my instructor took what seemed like an hour talking to me about my results, leading me to believe I had failed for the second time, when I actually passed. I don't know how long this license is valid for, but I pray it's for the rest of my life so I never have to step foot in that building again.

Pictured here is my vehicle. It's 35 feet long with the trailer. Luckily, I got to use the van sans trailer to pass the test. What already was a considerably difficult task would have been damn near impossible if I had to parallel park the whole lot. I'm sure the DMV employees would have had a heyday with that one.

Angels Landing

2008-07-29T01:08:00.000-07:00

This is a picture of my training group, sitting on top of Angel's Landing in Zion. From left to right: Becca, Jenny, me, Monica, Sheena, Jared. We returned from our training trip late this evening. It was amazing. These people are amazing. Hopefully I'll get a chance to go into more detail later, but for now, I'm exhausted.

Calling All Arborists

2008-07-20T22:11:00.000-07:00

Okay so, throughout our training, our boss keeps throwing out all these miscellaneous questions regarding anything and everything that tourists may ask us. If we don't know the answer, which is usually the case, we're told to find out and get back to him. Look it up, ask around, do what we have to do. So, I'm asking around: anyone know what kind of tree this is?

Training

2008-07-18T19:58:00.000-07:00

After completing a week in the office reading training manuals and getting familiar with some of the equipment...I realize how challenging this job really is. We have covered so much material in the past few days, and my brain hurts. Tomorrow we leave for our training trip at 7am. I got the agenda today, and it sounds pretty amazing.

For day one, we'll drive up the pacific coast and stay around Big Sur (unless it's on fire). Second day spent in San Francisco, where we'll get to go sailing. Days three and four: Yosemite!! Day five: Vegas, baby. Day six: hiking at Zion, followed by horseback riding around Lake Powell on day seven. Day eight we'll experience the Navajo culture at Monument Valley. Day nine we hit the Grand Canyon and get a helicopter tour. Then back to L.A.

It's going to be very intense, with a lot of information being thrown at us the entire time. Our trainers are intentionally going to create difficult and stressful situations, to see how well we handle ourselves. And we'll be getting very little sleep; to bed at midnight and up at 5am. I can imagine all the sympathetic vibes coming my way as you're reading this. Life is so rough....

2008-07-16T23:13:00.000-07:00

Depart: TUL Arrive: LAX

2008-07-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

I flew into LA last night. The flight went fairly smoothly, with the only mishap being my inability to travel lightly. My 60 pound baggage almost cost me an extra $100, but luckily I found a way around it. Why I thought it might be a good idea to bring not one, but six books along was a good idea is beyond me.

This morning I met my new coworkers in the lobby of our hotel, which, by the way, is much nicer than I expected. I met the guy who hired me, and the other five members in my training group. So far everyone seems really cool and excited to be here. My training group consists of five girls and one "lucky" guy. We're going to be spending a lot of time together over the next couple weeks. I kinda feel like I'm having a "Real World" experience, and will soon see what happens when people stop being nice...and start being real.

We spent the first part of the day taking our medical exams and written tests for the commercial drivers license. Lots of time spent in line at the DMV. Someone brought up the statistic of how much time one spends waiting in line, something like 12 years in a lifetime. We concluded that now would be a good time to begin cutting.

After our work was done, we took a walk down to the beach, about a mile from our hotel. Don't get me wrong, I love the beach, but this one, the El Segundo beach, had a shoreline that consisted of the city's power and water plant. A bit of an eyesore. But hey, a beach is a beach.

Tomorrow is our free day. The group plans on hanging out together, but no solid plans have been made yet. There's been talk of visiting Santa Monica, Venice Beach (rumored to be a partially nude beach), DisneyLand and Hollywood. Whatever we decide, I'm sure we will not be disappointed.

Trek: A long arduous journey

2008-07-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Three more nights in Tulsa. Then I'm off to start my new job with TrekAmerica, where I'll be traveling constantly over the next few months. I'll be a vagabond, a nomad, a drifter, so to speak. I'm feeling ecstatic, miserable, apathetic, anxious; a mishmash of emotions.

It's pouring outside, which stirs vivid flashbacks of my last day in Ireland. I remember sitting inside the Dublin airport, watching the raindrops splash on the surface of the window and slide down the length of the glass, dropping off where I could no longer see them. It gave me a wistful feeling as I waited in transition. I was leaving one epoch in my journey and starting a new one. My heart ached as I played back my previous few months: how I would miss the music in the streets, drinks at The Bailey, IV Dame Lane, my job at Gogartys, my flat on Aston Place, the hustle and bustle of Grafton Street, the River Liffey. I thought about the people I met, the people I would never see again. I had built a life there, and I wasn't ready to let it go. I didn't have to cry; nature was doing it for me. Plip plop, plip plop.

How I would miss it so, and yet, how I couldn't wait to leave. I was headed to Spain, then to traverse my way around Europe. The feeling was bittersweet. Following four months of dreary skies, umbrellas and jackets, I was headed for sunshine, palm trees, some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I couldn't wait to get there.

And here I am again, four years later, about to embark on another "trek." I feel the same force, one pulling me to go, and the other tugging me to stay. But unlike Ireland, I've spent enough time here to feel okay about leaving. Also Tulsa is my home, and know I'll be back. But still, I have built a life here that is hard to leave, even temporarily. I'm leaving behind some people I love very much. People who don't want me to go. I sprung this on them almost as quickly as I did it to myself.

I have a lot to do in the next couple days. Part of me doesn't even know what I've gotten myself into. I don't know where I will be going, and I don't know how long I'll be gone. Which makes it hard to figure out how to pack. There's a lot I don't know about the job; stuff I couldn't possibly know until I'm there doing it. But here's what I do know. I'm going to lead tours of adventure excursions for international passengers. It's going to be a lot of work, and a lot of responsibility. I'll be navigating my way around different parts of the U.S. in a 16 passenger van hauling a trailer. I'll be researching cities, making reservations, organizing activities, teaching camping skills, responsible for accounting matters, and so on. In addition to all the responsibility and work, it's going to be a blast. It's an opportunity I couldn't pass up.

I love traveling. These upcoming months I'm going to get to experience more than I can possibly imagine. National Parks, beaches, mountains, small towns and big cities all await me.

I wish it would stop raining.