Coming Home to Fly Apart

Ohio had felt like it was nothing but rain-- aside from the two crowded hikes we went on-- but as soon as we crossed into Pennsylvania at around five o’clock in the evening the sun suddenly burst through and we were graced by the view of the beautiful rolling hills of Pennsylvania. It felt like seeing a good friend again after being apart for much too long. You see I lived in Pennsylvania for a year and it was fantastic! I remember that I loved the fall colors, the rolling hills, and the fact that it was all just small towns. Sure there are two big cities in Pennsylvania (Pittsburg and Philadelphia), but the rest of the place is covered in nothing but small towns and open space.

We drove straight into Allegheny National Forest that evening, and since it was late we didn’t put forth much effort finding a camping spot. In fact, we were probably just barely sixty feet from the road (that’s the minimum distance for camping on National Forest property). We also happened to be right next to an old oil pump. The bonus was that we were not on church property. Though since the campsite was a rushed choice both Eric and Tweedy began to feel trepidation towards the entire state of Pennsylvania, but it was okay, because it would quickly win them over the next day.

Come morning we drove to a nearby trailhead for Minister’s Creek and made a batch of oatmeal along with hot chocolate and some “rosehip tea”—I put it in quotations because really all we were doing was boiling spruce pine needles. Don’t knock it though, it tastes delicious and strong, not to mention it’s a great source of vitamin C. Eh? Not half bad right? 

Following the gourmet breakfast, we made our way along what we thought to be the Minister’s Creek Trail. It was a beautiful stretch of forest, but we seemed to keep losing track of the trail so we found an old abandoned oil piped that we started to follow along. At points we were balancing on top of the pipeline over stretches of muddy ground. There was even a short stretch where we had to balance on the pipe and support our weight with sticks in order to bend around and avoid the trunk of a tree. The sad part is we all managed to pull off that maneuver just to find out that the oil pipe ended suddenly ten feet later. At that point we decided it was time to find another landmark to follow. This brought us over to Minister’s Creek, which we waded across and followed along the opposite bank.

It was on the return crossing of the river that we discovered the entire creek was teeming with crayfish. This led to us catching crayfish for the next couple hours before we finally made our way back to the car along with our bag full of crayfish. It was official now, everyone was in love with the Pennsylvania woods, especially right there by the creek. Upon checking the map we found out that what we thought was the trailhead was actually the part of the forest where people could camp wherever they wanted. Next thing you know we had our backpacks on and we were hiking back to an island type thing where we made camp. Here, maybe you should just take a look for yourself.

That night we had a crayfish boil, and it was delicious! Unfortunately it was not enough food for three big dudes so I made some beans for dinner as well, and after dinner we got a roaring fire going and sat around chatting until the desire for sleep won over.

As soon as we woke up the next day we got back in Minister’s Creek and began an even more intense crayfish hunt then the two hour one from the day before. If I were to guess I would say that we were wading around in the creek for nearly four hours, and our haul of crayfish was stupendous! Still we had to supplement the meal (that's what happens when you're trying to feed three big dudes) before we broke camp and headed back to the cars. It was difficult saying goodbye to that campsite, but now we were on a press for time. Eric needed to get to New York City in two days so he could fly back to Colorado in order to be at his friend Isaac’s wedding, so onto the road it was. We booked it down to central Pennsylvania that night where we ate dinner at a Burger King before once again sleeping in State Games Land. Now we found out at a later point that it is actually against regulations to camp in state game lands in Pennsylvania, but no one ever seemed to mind while we were there, so I didn’t feel bad about it. In that particular state games land campsite yielded many wild discoveries that we made during a midnight hike up a creek bed. This included several species of salamander and ever a box turtle who was our companion during our short stay there.

The morning of October 5^th it was time to be back on the road again. We were planning on being in Philadelphia that night, so we needed to start heading south. Our options for what we could do that day were fairly slim. I told Eric about some things that were worth seeing in Pennsylvania and he chose Centralia. Just a little history as to the city of Centralia. Back in the day it was a booming coal mining town with somewhere around 5000 people living there. For those of you from real cities thinking that is hardly anything… well let’s just say as far as Pennsylvania towns go that would be in the top ten percentile. The town was doomed though. Eventually the coal mine that actually stretched underneath the homes of the workers there in town caught on fire due to a freak accident. At first the flames stayed away from the boundaries of the town, but in the 1970’s it started to cause sink holes right next to the border of town and there was a federal evacuation order of the town. A few people still remain (I think the technical population is three), but for the most part it is just a ghost town now, take a look for yourself.

We spent some time hiking around the town that is now nothing more than a barren tourist attraction and set of four-wheeling trails. Four wheelers would not fit in our cars though, so we were just hiking through the four-wheeling trails. Most of the town has transformed into something of a trash dump, but if you go far enough in on the roads it’s still possible to find young woods that have reclaimed the plot of land from the people who abandoned it. It was on these deeper trails (right around sunset) while we were just hiking around, when Tweedy (he was in front of all of us) started growling and backing up past Eric and I. Apparently he had caught sight of a black bear, and once Eric and I had calmed him down we went up to the place where he had seen it in hopes of snapping a picture, unfortunately he had already disappeared so I don’t have a picture to show you. We did search for a while longer though, but we couldn’t stick around forever. There was a plane to catch the next day in NYC and we had our first couch surfing appointment to show up for. For those of you who don’t know, couch surfer is actually a website/app that pairs you with locals in an area who are willing to offer a floor or couch to crash on to travelers coming through. It’s a great way to meet people both while traveling and as a host.

That night in Philadelphia we stayed with a super nice girl who was going to school at the nearby medical university. Helaina was super sweet to us and got a place for us to sleep in the basement of the small little apartment that she lived in. It wasn’t a finished basement, but why would we care about anything like that? A place to lay our pad inside is more than anyone of us could ever ask for after a week of camping in random locations across the state.

The next day we drove straight to New York City. Now I know all of those Los Angeles types will always say their traffic is the worst, but that’s only because most people in Los Angeles haven’t tried to drive through New York City. We dropped off Eric’s car in a suburb in New Jersey and then all of our lives rested in my hands as I drove us into the city area. The good thing about that is I don’t think I was ever traveling fast enough for a wreck to cause any damage to the car, let alone the occupants. Still I thought it best not to test that hypothesis and got us to a park to cook some beans for lunch without a scratch. I think the fact that we cooked on a camping stove in a park in New York City is a fairly unique experience, and the beans were fantastic, not to mention hot as could be thanks to those peppers we got from the girl in Kafe Kerouac.

After eating it was time to say goodbye for a short time to one of the three parts of our traveling unit, so we got back on the road and I managed to maneuver us safely to the airport terminal. And so three became two. And let me tell you, the adventures did not even slow down, but more on that next time.

Kansas... Yeah

I decided that the way to handle the road trip across the nation would be to give at least one blog post for each state. And our first stop was Kansas.

The day was September 2, 2016. I got up early and packed up my car then picked up David Tweedy and then met up with Eric Tedesco at his place in Parker. We said goodbye to our families in turn and snapped a photo to commemorate the beginning of the trip.

First stop was the great state of Kansas.

Now I spent a while considering just what I should say about Kansas since there is just so much in this state. I mean it’s Kansas.

So, Kansas… Yeah. It’s flat.

That’s all I’ve got for you as far as Kansas goes.

Next stop, Nebraska

Cliff Hangers

Now I don’t know how many people have ever woken up inside of a national park, but I would recommend putting it on the bucket list. Up in the mountains it had been a bit too chilly for me. Out there on the edge of the canyon I woke in weather that I felt comfortable going around in a t-shirt with. (That’s really saying something for a guy who needs four layers to go out in 32° weather.) It was a beautiful sight to see and hear in the morning as well: the crashing of the river several hundred feet below with great dark rock rising out of it.

I took the first hour of the day to admire the highly underappreciated canyon before heading on to complete my collection of the four National Parks in Colorado. This meant driving for another four and a half hours down to Mesa Verde National Park. This drive included a winding road that was one of the best drives I have ever taken. If my memory serves me correctly (which, quite honestly, is a long shot—I hardly ever trust my memory myself, so I would encourage you to approach it with the same trepidation) it was Colorado Highway 92. The curves were beautiful hairpins with hills ascending and descending. I got to really slam through all of the gears in my little Honda CR-V. This is a rarity because I am already up into fifth gear by 35 miles per hour. Honestly, there is hardly any horsepower in that little engine. Still love it though.

After the 4.5 hours of driving I managed to pull into the park around 3:30, but I had no idea how huge the park was. It was a 30 mile drive in to get to the hike that I wanted to go on. That was about an hour of driving just to get to the trailhead. Not to mention that I was only 40 miles from hitting 400 miles on my tank, which is much further than I’ve gone on a single take before, but I was not about to turn around and go back five miles down the road to fill up my tank. That would take even more time, and all the sky around the park was already looking dark and ominous. In I drove, taking advantage of every downhill—riding it with my foot on the clutch—which made my approach to some of the hair pin turns a bit faster than they should have been in an SUV. Still, I made it alive and that is all that matters.

Usually Mesa Verde is one of the more crowded parks, so I was expecting a huge crowd of people, but instead there was hardly anyone there when I arrived. One of the park rangers told me that things die down during August for some bizarre reason. Because apparently it all picks back up again in September when a whole bunch of tourist groups start coming by in bus loads. But in August things are slow. So I got two National Parks almost all too myself, at least there were no other people on the trail with me so I got to take my time reading the signs and learning about the different parts of the architecture. Most people think of the cliff dwellings when they hear about Mesa Verde National Park, but before the natives ever lived on the face of the cliffs they just lived on the top of the mesas. Which is what I saw first. The best part are the Kivas.

I can’t help but imagine Native Americans tripping out on something while holding religious rituals inside of these earthen pits. The interesting thing is that they were most common during the older generations and later generations just filled them in, sometimes even using them to dump trash in. There’s one way to really rebel against the faith of your fathers.

After touring the ruins on top of the mesa I went to check out the cliff dwellings, and honestly that is where the real excitement lies.

Look at those places! Who gets it in their head that just living on top of flat ground doesn’t sound exciting anymore. They were probably all sitting in the Kiva passing the peace pipe and one guy just said, “Ever see those holes in the cliffs around here?”

“Yeah man, those look pretty cool.”

“Wouldn’t it be awesome to put one of these Kivas in one of those holes?”

“Dude, that would be sweet! It would be like underground, but also above ground, and then there would be this epic drop right outside of the door. And then only cool people who can climb like bosses could get in there.”

“Totally! We should definitely do that man. Then we wouldn’t have to have around all the old and sick people and the women and children while we were hanging out and smoking the peace pipe.”

And then they made the kiva and then the women, children, and sick people started just busting up the party and then they just decided, “Heck, if everyone is going to keep on coming down here to bug us we might as well build the entire town into the cliff.” There, that is my story of how and why the cliff dwellings came to be. There were no wars or anything like that, just a few guys trying to get some guy time, failing, and then everyone moving in because they all thought it was pretty cool.

Personally I would not have been one of the cool people who would be capable of making it to the Kiva. Good ol’ Darwin would have snatched me out of that gene pool in a second. I preferred snapping pictures from afar. And after my pictures I managed to get my car back out of the park and to the gas pump without the fuel light coming on. Then I continued driving until I got into Durango and pulled my car over into a Walmart parking lot where I slept the night after spoiling myself and buying some doughnuts, a sandwich, and a Lunchable. That is getting spoiled when compared to just eating packets of salmon or tuna along with a can of beans occasionally.

Next morning I woke up with a text from my Mom telling me that my little sister needed to see me update my blog, so I went and spent the morning getting a blog post written and pictures uploaded at the public library (the Durango library is a bumpin' place) before going and taking a ten-mile hike. This hike started at a random pull off on the side of the road. I saw a sign that said trailhead, and the way I am with constantly craving a hike I decided to pull over and give it a look. Turned out it was supposed to be a mountain biking trail, but I went hiking on it any way. Something tells me that mountain bikers hate having people just hiking on the trails—just an extra obstacle you have to watch out for and all. Still, I didn’t much care, it was a beautiful day that was just begging me to go hiking during it. And so I wandered around for about 4 hours. Found some good lookout points too.

It was a huge system of trails, which made the sign at the foot of the trail a liar, because it claimed that it was just a single loop, but the map up the trail a ways said quite differently. The red is the route I ended up taking.

After the hike it was back to more driving. Right as the sun was setting I ended up just pulling up a random road that claimed to be National Forest access. I found a nice overlook where I could watch the sunset and then I kicked back and smoked a very nice cigar while the sun fell behind the mountains. It was the perfect end to the evening, and almost an end to all of my adventures by myself. The next day I would just end up driving home, but not before waking up and finding giant elk hoof prints going around my car. Apparently something about my car got it’s attention, or maybe I was just snoring way too loud and it showed up to see if it could shut me up. Whatever the case, those were definitely some giant hoof prints.

And so my lonesome wanderings came to an end. Stay tuned for the post going up tomorrow about the beginning of the wanderings of the 3 Men on the Bummel.

The Car and the Challenge

Welcome to 3 Men on the Bummel (I completely stole this name from a book written by a little known English humorist who lived at the turn of the century) in which I will share the tales—both majestic and questionable—of the road trip that I and two of my closest friends will be taking over the next year across the 48 contiguous United States.

First and foremost: no, none of us are millionaires, independently wealthy, living off of trust funds, or being funded by parents or others in any way. I just have to get that out there because everyone seems to be jealous of my decision to just live on the road and usually their first excuse for not doing the same is because they are way too poor. I worked as a mover for the past three and a half years and had an income well below the poverty line—it hasn’t stopped me. Just saying. All it takes is a little will power to consistently save some money and some guts to be willing to give up the normal life, live out of a car, sleep in tents, eat foraged and hunted food combined with cheap canned beans and vegetables, and a desire for something new and different in life.

Now there are some certain tools that can make the prospect of a yearlong road trip without money for hotels a bit more appeasing, and one of those is the car you choose to take.

Forewarning: I am about to go on a rant as to how I believe my car is just about the most perfect road trip vehicle in existence. Despite this being the case I am in no way sponsored by Honda (but I feel like they should at least give me a little bit after what follows… Honda? You out there?) and in fact did not even have the vehicle gifted to me, I just love it.

Just look at it! Doesn’t it just look like a little puppy that is all ready to see you with its CB antenna sticking up into the air like a happy little tail? Okay, that was taking it too far. Sorry, I get a bit excited over it, but enough about the way it looks, that really means nothing as far as it being a perfect road trip tool goes. What does matter is the fact that it has All-Wheel Drive, which any Subaru owner will tell you is just about the best thing for driving around a car in the snowy mountains. But those Subaru’s never have a full-size spare tire on the back, and, well… I do! Haha you Subaru suckers! I’ve blown enough tires or had them punctured by stray pieces of metal or nails to know that sometimes that tiny little doughnut spare is just not going to do for getting me to the nearest tire shop. If you have a full size spare along then you don’t even have to pause the adventures. You can get the tire fixed whenever you run into the next town that has a Discount Tire.

While we’re on the subject of spare tires might as well throw in this little addendum. Through all of my tire havoc I have always fortunately had tires from Discount Tire (once again, no sponsorship, though I think they might want to consider it too). Sure they cost a bit more, but then you get free rotations, air-checks, repairs, balancing, and (if you get the certificate) replacements from any of their several shops across the country. There is some pretty cool fine print to that certificate as well, if they do not have a tire shop conveniently close they will reimburse you whatever you end up having to spend on the replacement tire, and if it doesn’t match the set they’ll remount the originally purchased type of tire for completely free! Sorry, just geek-ing out about that a little. Anyone who has had as rough a time with tires as I have will get it.

So full size spares, not only are they incredible useful, but they also give one the opportunity for a little self-expression.

The artwork is entirely credited to my little sisters, and for those Sherlock Holmes fans out there, yes I know it should be 221 B Baker Street, just haven’t had the chance to add the 1.

Another great thing about the CR-V is the space that you get. Most all-wheel drive vehicles are sedans or hatchbacks, which can give a person space for luggage but there is no extra space for sleeping or for additional passengers. In the CR-V I can load everything I need to survive for a year and still be able to load in 2-3 passengers—and that’s with seat belts on. Not to mention the seats can all be folded completely flat, leaving space for a nice little sleeping area. Once again I had to add some personal touches.

Gotta love that Colorado Pride! The dragon on the left is perching on the Welsh flag, which is the country where about a quarter of my heritage comes from. When you’re an American mutt you pretty much get to open a catalogue of heritage and pick out the top three contenders to throw in with.

Having all of this space is usually equated with a drop in gas mileage, not at all the case with the CR-V. The engine is the same 2.2 liter straight 4 cylinder that you find in the EX and LX Honda Accords, which means that you get great gas mileage and have all of the horse power you need to pull you up the side of a mountain. For those of you that just fell asleep, that means cheaper to travel and you’re also not going to end up cruising on the side of the highway with the hazards flashing while everyone else races by.

Despite all of the amenities that come stock with a 2000 Honda CR-V there were a couple things that needed to be added, such as an am/fm radio receiver with Bluetooth and a CB radio. A CB radio is a radio that you can receive and broadcast on that is used by semi-drivers on a day to day basis. The CB stands for citizen band, because it runs on the radio wavelengths specifically reserved for the use of the public. That is what that big ol’ white antenna is attached to, and this is what the receiver looks like:

So I’ve got the most essential tool of all primed and ready to go along with a few thousand dollars saved up in the bank. Now all that remains is to listen to the wisdom of  Yoda:

I hit the road tomorrow for my own short little road trip before being joined by the other two guys come the first of September. The next post should be up within the next three days. I’m looking forward to having you all along for the ride.