I'll spare you the minute by minute details of my spring break adventures, and I'll hit on some of my favorite moments.
The road trip was conjured up about one week before spring break when three of my roommates and I decided to do something different than the same 'ol Destin beach houes thing that approximately 99.8% of Baylor students do. Not that there is anything wrong with "SPRRRING BREAAK 2012 DESSSTINNN WOOOOO!!!," but we wanted more than a tan and the same mediocre pictures of us on the beach that overload facebook the following week. We wanted spontaneity, adventure, and opportunities to grow in our already deep, brother-like bonds with each other. Rumspringa was born.
So, after Baylor finished beating Kansas in the Big 12 tournament (sic 'em) we lazily packed up Sweet Cam (Kevin's Toyota Camry) and left Capitol Hill at 10 pm, driving 16 hours straight to Phoenix to meet up at our dear friend Katelyn Carlo's house. We listened to folk tunes, Nelly's country grammar, Rivers and Roads like 20 times, Macklemore, and Barney Stinson's get psyched playlist (all rise). God bless Spotify premium. On one sketchy, rainy, west Texas backroad, Kevin avoided a deer by about 5 inches and saved all our lives. We arrived an hour before Baylor played Missouri in the Big 12 championship. Perfect. Mr. Carlo builds houses for a living, so that night we got to hang out at one he is trying to sell; a 3 million dollar house on top of a mountain overlooking the city of Phoenix. We sat in the hot tub, drank seasonal springtime ale, Smitty did a bellyflop, and we hung out around the outdoor fireplaces next to the infinity pool. Mooching is the key to college road trips.
The next day we drove to Vegas. Tim got naked at a scenic overlook next to the highway, and we stopped at the hoover dam, where Tim kept his clothes on.
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| road life. |
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| the overlook where Tim pranced around nude |
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| dam |
I threw a quarter over the edge of the dam just in time for a huge gust of wind. The quarter dropped 10 ft, spun in the air floating for about 3 seconds and flew up over our heads and over the other side of the dam. It was nuts. If you ever go there, try it.
Vegas was filled with fun, madness, losing money, bright lights, and new friends. One of these new friends is a 60 plus year old man who calls himself, "Jimmy don't care." And Jimmy truly didn't care. Especially when it came to spending money at the craps table. Craps, by the way, is an absolute blast. You know those movie scenes where someone is rolling the dice and is really hot and everyone is around the table screaming (think Rush Hour 2?). We got to be in one of those movie scenes. Even though a win really only meant five dollars, it didn't stop us from yelling things like "SEVENS! "LET IT RIDE!" and my personal favorite "WE ARE BACK!" If you ever go to a Casino in Vegas, which is every building in Vegas, play craps. You won't regret it.
On a side note, we played roulette with Pauly D. Yup,
the Pauly D. The one from that horrible, crude, plotless reality show. Nobody really cared. Except Vesta, who will tell that story until he dies.
Our last night in Las Vegas we went down to Fremont street, also known as Old Vegas. I felt very blessed the night before to hang out with my summer bunkmate from camp, Chris "Rambo" Rihm, and his fiance/my old programs partner Sarah Horsch, who is like a sister to me. Rambo told me Fremont street would be like being in a weird dream. He could not have described it better. Just go. You'll see. Here's a pic of us on it, one of my absolute favorite pictures from the trip for a reason I could not tell you:
Wednesday included a 5 hour drive through the desert to the Grand Canyon. That night I saw down the canyon for the firs time. It was Majesty. Pictures don't do it justice, words don't describe it well. When we got our first view of it, we were all silent for about five minutes, just staring. I turned to my friend Tim, who had already been twice, and said "dude, I'm about to cry." Pure majesty. To think the beautiful canyon is merely a shadow compared to how wonderful our God is.
We camped that night, and tried to get an early start on the morning...but hit the trail around 10:30 am. With only our fearless leader, Tim Davis, as our tour guide, we ran down South Kaibab trail in 2.5 hours leaving only the 7.5 mile hike back up a different trail. It took us 4.5 hours, a lot of water, and a lot of rest to get back up. Along the way we passed signs like this, which we were quick to ignore:
Here are some other pics from the canyon. I seriously could not stop taking pictures.
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| old school |
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| The crew post 16 miles |
Oh, by the way. The canyon turns your shoes red. It's pretty tight.
18 hours back to Waco and on to the next wild adventure.
