The Grand Canyon: North Rim

After leaving Carlsbad, NM at around 3:00 p.m., we started the drive up to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  The reason for choosing the North Rim was due to the fact that it was so much closer of a drive to the next destination, Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah.  Driving through the night, we decided to pull over in a random little rest area on the side of the road about two hours outside of the Grand Canyon.  Sleeping in the car for a few hours, we got up with the sun and the view was absolutely stunning!  Pulling in at night, we couldn’t see a damn thing around us, but when that sun came up it was beautiful.

Getting to the North Rim before any centers or the main campground opened, we took a stroll around the canyon.  No picture or description of a sight will ever do justice to this amazing landmark.  You HAVE to see it yourself.  When you are standing on the edge of that canyon, you have a new appreciation for life.  All of your problems, or so thought problems, begin to wash away and you are focused on the sheer size of the canyon that lies in front of you.  After a bit of exploring, we found some awesome lookout points that were pretty dangerous to get to, but no guts no story!

I visited the Grand Canyon when I was in middle school and it is a sight that you can never forget.  However, I only saw the South Rim.  The North Rim was completely different!  With greenery embedded into the rock siding, the North Rim has a lot more of a nature feel with trees and hiking trails surrounding the rim.  After setting up camp we made our way back to an awesome rock spot that Cory found while taking a little walk for the sunset over the canyon.  With a clear sky, it was impeccable.  It was a perfect ending to a great day at the canyon.  In the morning, we packed up camp and hit the road to the next stop: Zion National Park!  Check out all of the pictures from our time at the Grand Canyon on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico

The only thing worth seeing in New Mexico, after driving through the entire state, is most certainly the Carlsbad Caverns.  This was a request that my mom made to me while on the trip; to stop at the Carlsbad Caverns.  We got into Carlsbad, NM in the evening at a small RV camp that was $20 for the night to camp.   Nice and cheap, that’s what we like!  As we were checking in, we actually met Cody Ross’s (from the Red Sox) in-laws who ran the site.  Definitely a small world we live in.  The man running the desk told us to give him the money and leave ASAP for the bat flight.  Looking pretty puzzled, he explained that every night around 7:45 p.m. the bats of the Carlsbad Caverns leave the caves to hunt for the night.  Only about a 7 minute drive away from the caverns, we shot up there as fast as we could and got there at perfect timing.  No photography was allowed, so no pictures, but seeing 400,000 bats leave a cave is pretty insane.  Wave after wave of bats was mesmerizing, watching them fly off into the sunset.

We left shortly after as the sunset was falling over the hills of the open plains surrounding the caverns.  As you will see in the pictures, that sunset was one of the best I have seen in a very long time.  It will definitely be one for the books and one that will stay with me forever.  As for the rest of New Mexico, fly right through because there is nothing but borderlands and oil pumps for hundreds of miles.

The following day we got to the caverns first thing in the morning to do a self-guided tour of the caverns.  It was about 96 degrees out that day, so we were ready for some shade.  The caverns have a very stable climate, sitting right at 56 degrees.  The mouth of the cavern was definitely intimidating.  It looks as if you are going to walk into the opening of hell; a gaping hole probably 100 feet across welcoming you into the depths of the earth.  Once inside, the lighting is very poor which makes it tough for photography.  However, I turned off the flash mode and just let the aperture catch all of the natural lighting down there and some of the pictures came out great.  A place like the Carlsbad Caverns makes you truly appreciate how beautiful the works of mother nature can be.  75 foot columns of minerals formed over hundreds of millions of years surround you.  It is seriously other worldly down there and I would highly recommend it.  The entire time we were down there our heads were on a swivel, soaking in all of the unique sculptures made simply by dripping water.  After about 3 hours in the caverns, our time was up in Carlsbad and were ready for the next stop: the Grand Canyon!  Check out the rest of the pictures from the Carlsbad Caverns on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

San Antonio, Texas

After a rather short stay in Houston, we ended up heading over to San Antonio a bit earlier than expected and were able to hit both cities within the same day.  When we got to San Antonio we decided to set up our tent in a KOA camp about 10 minutes outside the city which was very convenient.  We had heard all of the warnings about flooding and kept a close eye on the weather.  When we got our camping spot it was right down near a river that ran through the rear of the KOA and boy was it high.  The wreckage was clearly visible all around the campground and the ground was still pretty dampened.  The electrical boxes that were supplied at each camping spot were completely fried.

When setting up the tent, we also encountered some unwanted visitors.  Fire ants littered the area where we were laying down our tent, EVERYWHERE.  With this, the decision was made to see how much it would be to upgrade to a small cabin on the site.  With it only being $10 more per person out of pocket, we moved into our new, much more comfortable, air conditioned cabin!  That night, Cory took the initiative to teach Sean and I the tactics and strategy behind blackjack so we can run every casino dry and make this a much more leisurely road trip.  The trip had  been moving along so fast, this was the first night we have gotten more than 3 hours of sleep which is inexpiable how good it felt to finally get some real sleep (not in a car or sketchy motel).

In the morning we rolled out pretty early to get into San Antonio to see the main attraction of the city: the Alamo.  Getting into the city at about 11:15 a.m., that was a bad choice.  The city was packed and the line to see the Alamo stretched blocks.  Only being able to grab a 30-minute parking spot, the line was way too overwhelming so we decided that seeing the outside was cool enough and we checked out the rest of the city.  After gallivanting for a while, we left San Antonio in the rear view and made the journey out to next stop on the trip: the Carlsbad Caverns!  Check out the rest of the pictures from San Antonio on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

Houston, Texas

We made it: Houston, Texas!  After a 2-hour nap break at a random Walmart parking lot just inside Texas, we led the trail into the city.  I learned one thing today: Houston is absolutely massive!  Prior to getting to the city, none of us had done any research on what was in the city, what the city was like and we were blown away by the sheer size.  As we rolled in on a 6-lane highway, we noticed that the city was an utter ghost-town.  Then we realized just where we were and that it was Sunday, so everyone was probably in church.  As we made our way around the city, we stopped by the Holocaust museum, but it didn’t open until noon time and we had moves to make.  The decision was made to get an oil change at a nearby Firestone because we were up to about 3,500 miles since the previous change.  At the Firestone we met a great young man by the name of Kennon who was super into our road trip and gave us plenty of tips about navigating the city and some hot spots as well.

With his insight, we swung over to Hermann Park which was where everyone and their mother hungout!  Parking was a mess, but finally we snagged a spot as someone was leaving.  With the thermometer topping 100 degrees and 3 hours of sleep to run on, we were feeling the Texas heat.  We grabbed a few hot dogs from a cart and were good as new.  With fountains everywhere, the scenery was unbelievable.  The waterfront views were amazing and the architecture was breathtaking.  After an hour or so of strolling around Hermann Park we decided it was time for us to hit the old dusty trail and start the journey to the next stop: San Antonio!

View the rest of the pictures from our time in Houston on the Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

New Orleans

Ah, New Orleans.  There really cannot be words to describe this city, it is truly something that you have to experience first hand to understand what it is like.  Pictures can do no justice when it comes to the people that you will see and the aromas that come from Bourbon Street.  After a great time in Nashville, New Orleans was kind of a buzz kill.  The main street that we took into downtown was Canal Street which was actually a pretty nice scene.

Bourbon Street was an experience to say the least.  As soon as you turn the corner onto the party center, the weirdness ensues, fast.  The one thing that I will never forget or be able to take back is the smell of Bourbon Street: raw sewage mixed with 3-day-old trash that’s been baking in the sun.  As far as the scene goes, call me lame but it totally is not for me.  I took note of three main demographics on Bourbon Street: older people (40-60), locals from New Orleans, and roughly 3-year post-college grads acting like they are back in college.  Seeing all of the homeless people that will literally do anything for a dollar made me just go all philosophical and took away from the actual crowd a bit.  However, it did make me realize just how fortunate I am to have every single little thing in my life that I do, even the problems that I face.  I’m worried about my next oil change while these people are worried about making it through another night.

After a stroll up and down Bourbon Street, we decided to head back to Canal Street and see what that other part of the city was like.  It smelt much nicer and was a lot more upscale.  The River Walk was pretty neat as well with little seafood restaurants everywhere.  A few minutes sufficed on the River Walk so we headed to Harrah’s Casino right in downtown to see if it was any good.  If you’ve been to Foxwoods or Mohegan Sun, no other casino will compare unless its in Vegas.  We only spent about a half hour in Harrah’s then decided our time had come to move onto the next one: Houston, Texas

Check out the rest of the photos from New Orleans on The Ultimate Road Trip Facebook page!

Nashville Nightlife

 

After spending a long day touring around the small city of Nashville, it was time we experienced the nightlife of this great city.  Once the sun drops the scene picks up into a booming city center along Broadway Street right downtown.  With live music in every single bar along the strip, there was no place you could go wrong by stopping in!  After having lunch at the Rock Bottom Restaurant, we had a friendly waiter tip us off about East Nashville and how a much younger crowd, about our age, hung around there a lot more often.  We initially started the night on the east side at Three Crows which was a small, college-town bar with a large crowd.  Naturally, we posted up at the Foosball table in the back corner and had us a few beers.  Amazing enough, we met someone who graduated from Merrimack College as well in 2008; small world we live in!  After visiting East Tennessee, a short 1-mile drive back to Broadway was where we spent a majority of the night.

We started at the infamous Tootsies bar.  Packed to max capacity with a line down the block, it was pretty quick turnover to get inside so we toughed out the line.  Once inside, you can the bottom floor to be absolutely crowded, no one being able to move.  We made our way to the upstairs section where we got a great seat in the house for the live band that was ripping it up all night.  Now, I am not a big country music fan by any means, but in Nashville, it makes you a fan.  Anyone can listen to the songs on the radio about beer and tractors and how nice your truck is, but once you are there, in the moment, soaking in the culture, its absolutely amazing.  I could feel the passion from everyone around and exactly what this city meant to all of them.

After a long session at Tootsies, we made our way across the street to the iconic Honky Tonk Central.  Standing at three stories tall, each floor had a live band playing with a balcony that overlooked the entire strip on Broadway Street.  We worked our way into the overly crowded first floor and snagged a few seats at the bar.   All of a sudden, “Sweet Caroline” began to play by the band and of course we went ballistic.  We met a great guy from Canada who bought us a round of beers just for being from the Boston area; talk about Southern hospitality, this place bleeds it.  Every encounter we had with anyone there was nothing but positive.  Not a single fight broke out the whole night.  People just go out in Nashville to truly enjoy themselves with no intention of causing problems which is what I loved about it.

As of right now, Nashville is my favorite city that I have ever been to.  A young crowd, amazing people, great bars and food, and the entire atmosphere has been unmatched by any experience in a major city.  Coming back as soon as possible is at the top of my priority list.  Next stop: New Orleans!

 

 

First Stop: Nashville, Tennessee

After driving 20 hours from Massachusetts, the boys successfully reached Nashville, Tennessee!!  Endless hours of driving through farms and open fields on a 2-lane highway, an opening in the landscape showed this amazing city.  Immediately, we were thrown into the southern comfort culture, surrounded by BBQ aroma and live music blaring from bars down the whole stretch of the famous Broadway Street.  Pulling over in the first spot open at a meter, we jumped out of the car, took a quick stretch and instantly starting dipping our toes in the country culture.  The first stop in the city was to the famous Tootsies bar right on Broadway, which at 10 a.m. was gladly serving beers at the bar with live country music up close and personal.

To me, this is exactly what a city should be like.  It was amazing to see how friendly and outgoing some of the people here really are.  When pulling in, we had no idea how big or small the city would be or what to really expect being Boston boys rolling into the country lifestyle.  Surprisingly, Nashville is extremely quaint; on the smaller side, but everything you need in a city with none of the business of Boston.  The streets were free of traffic and the buzz of a big city was absent, which was very nice.  The architecture of the city and the history that surrounds it is unbelievable.  I took many pictures of all of the main historical buildings and parks throughout the city, but no pictures will do this city justice.

We grabbed a $45 hotel room at the Knights Inn about 1 mile from downtown Nashville.  For the price you pay, you can’t go wrong!  It isn’t the best set up in the world, but it is a bathroom to use, a bed to sleep in and a roof over the head for a night.  We just got back to the room after spending a few hours at the Honky Tonk Central which was an absolutely awesome, three-story bar in the heart of Broadway Street.  The next move is to see what East Nashville has to offer and head back to Broadway later in the evening.  Bright and early, we will be taking off for New Orleans!

View the rest of the pictures taken from our day in Nashville on The Ultimate Road Trip Facebook Page!

Not Goodbye, See You Soon: The Next Chapter

This past Sunday, May 19th, I officially graduated college!  Walking into an arena packed with thousands of families and friends was a feeling that I will never forget for as long as I live.  Feeling proud, nervous, and excited among many other things, I made my way to my seat for the ceremony.  It was surely a day to be proud of and excited about, but I couldn’t help but think about the one person who I wish could see me graduate the most: my grandfather.  After passing away on my birthday on, August 19th, in 2007, it hasn’t been the same without him around.  My emotions were clouding my mind from truly enjoying the whole ceremony, but I eventually centered myself and knew that he was watching his grandson graduate from somewhere.

Playing soccer at Merrimack, I got the opportunity to become brothers with many guys over the years, some being international.  A majority of the international soccer players that came through Merrimack were in my graduating class.  Going through the ups and downs, laughing and crying, and all of the fighting and bickering, our time together had ended.  The family and brothers that I have grown over the past 4 years suddenly turned into a situation of not knowing the next time in life that I will see them.  However, with technology like Facebook, it is certainly not goodbye, but see you soon.  With all of these changes happening in such a short time frame, another huge change is about to unfold.  In less that 24 hours, I will be embarking on the journey of a lifetime.  The change has just begun, and for everyone oversees or here at home, it is not goodbye, but see you soon…

If Only Money Grew on Trees…

I am a bit late on updating this, but there have been some major additions to the Ultimate Road Trip campaign.  As of last week, I created a Facebook page to go along with this blog to help accompany with photo albums and video uploads.  It is also easier because the updates will come up on your newsfeed, if you “Like” the page on Facebook!  Also, as I have stated before, we are three broke college grads who are going on this trip.  We decided that it wouldn’t hurt to make an Indiegogo Ultimate Road Trip campaign as well.  Literally, any dollar will help us live out this dream a little more leisurely, so if you make a donation or have made a donation, thank you!  Whether you support us morally by commenting on posts, liking pictures on Facebook, or make a donation, it will help us immensely.  With graduation this Sunday and road trip commencing in just ONE WEEK, the excitement is growing by the day!  The links to the Facebook page and the Indiegogo campaign are as follows:

https://www.facebook.com/ultimateroadtrip

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-ultimate-road-trip

Thanks again and I’ll be posting again real soon!

Brian