The Road to NCCC

First of all, I’m SAFE, SOUND, and SETTLED at Colorado Heights University. My journey out here was a road trip for the books. I started off from Belmont and drove down the beautifully windy roads of Pennsylvania filled with hills of reds, orange and yellows until I made it to Morgantown, WV. There I stayed with my friend Justin and explored his college town. The mining history was very apparent in the scenery. Morgantown also introduced me to the incredibly addicting show called “storage wars” on A&E. Check it out. I’m a better person for watching 5 consecutive hours of it. Ha. Bright and early the next day I headed over to Harrogate, TN. This day was again filled with wonderfully hilly roads. As I got farther and farther from New England, the more the gas prices dropped. Very happy about that! I reached Harrogate in the late afternoon and picked up my friend Ben (who would be traveling all the way with me). Stretched my legs in Harrogate and then set off for another 6-hour drive. Before we set out we gassed up and stopped at McDonalds to begin our Monopoly craze. Almost every time we stopped for gas or to use a bathroom, we found a McDonalds and got a diet coke or large fries (which we usually didn’t eat) to earn pieces for our game board. It quickly became quite and obsession. We stayed in Jackson, TN (an hour outside of Memphis) for the night. I can’t express how enjoyable our little motel rooms were every night after driving for the entire day. Cable TV and a shower were very simple pleasures. The next day we stopped in Memphis. We parked and walked down Beal Street. The blazing heat and rock or blues music coming from each bar filled me up. We kept walking until we hit the Mississippi. What an experience! We made our way through the brush and got to the shore. Took our shoes off, put our feet in, and sank… Mississippi mud! It was amazing. It was cool and gross and the same time. One of my favorite experiences of the trip. With dirty feet we left Memphis and drove through Arkansas and settled in Oklahoma City for the night. During the drives we switched between music and listening to the Hunger Games. We would always begin a drive with music to match our excited mood for driving. Hunger Games happened most other times… except during sunsets. Sunsets were for music. What sunsets we saw! The best ones of the trip were in Tennessee, Oklahoma and Kansas, were the flat farm planes allowed full visibility. Sitting at IHOP in Oklahoma City we were trying to decide what touristy activity we should do there. Casino. It was great haha. There were tons of Casinos in the area so it was a cultural experience right? Ha. Ben and I both went in with 40 dollars. That was our limit. It was my first casino experience so I watched at first. When I was feeling good about it I went to the black jack table. It was so fun! It was a social and learning experience. The other guys on the table were so nice to me. They gave me tips and some conversation. I played a bunch of hands. At one point I went down to 20 dollars. But when I made it back to 40 I stopped. I walked out +2 dollars! Ben didn’t do so well… But we got a free lunch and sodas, so it was definitely worth our afternoon. At the casino we made a game time decision to skip Santa Fe and head up to Kansas and over to Denver. Beautiful sunset again. Actually one of the best I’ve ever seen. That night we crossed over to Colorado. It was perfect. When we saw the sign we pulled over. There was a crazy giddy reaction inside me. I really felt what I was about to do. Live in this state. It was late and the air was very cold. We howled and a cow replied. Incredible. After staying in such a cozy and cheap hotel in Limon, CO, we went for Denver. We spent the afternoon walking around Denver. The main street in downtown is called 16th street mall. It’s like a huge Church Street in Burlington VT. For the next few days we stayed in Boulder (which is only 30 mins from Denver!). Man I love Boulder! It also has a Burlington feel to it. The mountains are epic. One day we drove into the Rockies to check out Roundup River Ranch (a Hole in the Wall Camp). Going through the mountains felt like I was in a different country. I’ve never seen anything like them. Some were brown with trees, some were covered in snow, and some were red rock. Yes, we drove through areas with snow. The camp was legit Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It rested on a flat area surrounded on every side by giant mountain. The landscape seemed very southwestern. There was even a train going through the mountains that Butch and his gang definitely would have robbed. The camp was simple but southwestern and beautiful. The camp director was an incredibly nice man who took us all around and really appreciated our thoughts. The people all over Boulder were great. A lot of thoughtful and down to earth people. A LOT of hipsters also haha. Boulder rests on the foothills of a mountain range called the Flat Irons (part of the Rockies). On my birthday we climbed one of the Flat Irons. The hike was supposed to be pretty easy. However, I was gasping for breath most of the time. This was the first time I really felt the effects of the altitude. It was like I could never get a good breath. It was a strange feeling because my muscles weren’t tired, but I had to stop very frequently to catch my breath. But anyways, the hike was beautiful. Tons of views of Boulder. Lots of friendly people on the path.

Me and Ben’s road trip sadly had to come to an end. He helped move me into my dorm at Colorado Heights University (about 15-20 minutes outside Denver) on the 12th. My nerves were going crazy. I was excited and nervous for my next ten months and very sad to be saying goodbye to a great friend. All very natural feelings I think. I think it was perfect that I got to this ten-month commitment on the road. The love of the road will really fuel me through my AmeriCorps experience as it will be spent in part in a 15-passenger van, on the road, headed to different communities in the southwest. I’m ready to team up with my fellow Corps member and serve communities of America. Lets Go.