Day Twenty one
Published Date : October 30, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
If you would like to download this for on the go, just click on the little “download” button on the top right of the soundcloud player. https://soundcloud.com/user-869323861/day-twenty-one
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Day Twenty
Published Date : September 11, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Twenty
I woke up early to pack and get some breakfast at the hotel. Today I was going to Craters of the Moon. The drive out there is about two hours. Today I really wanted to hike for some reason and I really wanted to film a lot and take pictures. Craters of the Moon was pretty dang cool and reminded me a lot of Iceland. Lava is a pretty cool thing and I would love to see flowing lava sometime in my lifetime. However, this place was dormant, none of it was active. They had a lot of crazy rock and ground formations, I walk the loop first and then walk two miles to hike these large volcano cones and craters. There was a bus of kids and a couple of them were fast,I wanted to be in front of them so I didn’t have to deal with them all in my shots. It was pretty funny listening to these kids talk about their petty drama, like: “Sam likes Jill but Jill is into Jake and Jake has to sit at the front of the bus because the chaperone caught him kissing Kayla even though Kayla is like totally into Adam and didn’t even like the kiss and now Jake is in two kinds of trouble, not only did he got caught making out on the bus but now Kayla is going to tell everyone that he is a bad kisser.” I was laughing consistently at these kids also giving them my two cents along the way; nothing like a homeless man’s two cents. Even though it was a short hike I felt a bit rushed. After the hike, I saw the splatter cones. Splatter cones are these very small volcano type cones, that are chunky. I took the path that lead me to the top so I could look down into them. The first one has snow in the bottom of it year round, and the second one is a lot bigger. I was pretty upset because at the bottom of these awesome formations were trash: Bottles, bags, wrappers and other junk. The only thing that I could understand being down there was a pair of glasses. You’ll probably hear my commentary on this subject when I make some videos of my trip. After that I hiked up the volcano called Inferno cone.
(On top of Inferno cone)
I sat up there for some time messing around with my camera and trying to get cellphone service. This was the tallest point in the park and now I can say that I have been on top of a volcano before. I don’t think many people can say that, and I think that’s pretty impressive. On my way back down I started to notice that some of the rocks were coated with gold and silver tones. I wasn’t supposed to collect rocks but I did anyways. When I hiked back down the cone, I realized that I had to hike back the way I came, or hike the main loop on the cement roads, or possibly hitch hike back. I chose to hike the loop, it was okay and was nice to see a different part of the park. Eventually, a nice couple gave me a short ride back to my bike. Once there I rode back up to the info center and got my caving permit and a refill on water, then I drove over to the caves. The caves were super cool, being alone they were kind of scary at times but I figured that this is a public place and getting some good traffic, I realized there isn’t anything to be scared of, so I just kept going. I’m super glad I did keep going, there were a lot of cool things to explore. I went through Indian tunnel first, it was pretty long with a lot of light. It was an old lava tube that had parts of the ceiling collapsed into itself. The reason it is called Indian tunnel is because outside of the entrance there are these stacked rocks in circles and formations that were supposedly put there by the natives of the Idaho area and they used the tunnel as a place to stay while hunting. Next I went to the Boy Scout cave, it’s a cave with a tiny little hole that you squeeze through to get in. It was pitch black in there and cold. There was ice all over the over and water dripping from the ceiling. I had my head lamp with and had it turn to full power. No matter how safe this place was in reality, I always had a looming feeling that something was in there with me, watching me from the shadows. My mind started to play tricks on me, in the cave the ice was everywhere and it had a cool silvery-gold sheen or reflection to it. My light would reflect off of the ice so much that it would look like there was light coming in from the outside further down the cave. If I shut my light off though, the light further down would disappear as well. When I got to the end of the cave I took some pictures of myself in it, still kind of spooked out by the unknown in the darkness. I tried to take pictures of the cool silvery-gold ice but my camera did a bad job of taking photos. When I came out of the cave (alive) it was about 3:00pm and I would take me two hours to get to the next hotel, so I left.
(Silver/Gold tones in Boy Scout cave, Above. Me in Indian Tunnel, Below)
When I got to Pocatello my motorcycle started to act funny. It kept dying on me, I would be in third gear and at about six thousand RPM’s and then the RPM’s would drop to zero and my motorcycle would shut off. If I was moving while in gear, I could start it right up again but if I was stopped at a light or something and had to go from neutral to first it would die on me. This was not good. I was able to make it to my hotel by figuring out the right amount of clutch to use in junction with the right amount of gas when the motorcycle started to bog down, I would feather the clutch and give it full throttle. When I got checked into the hotel and everything unpacked, I was worried at first but very shortly after I felt normal, I thought “this is part of the adventure and it was bound to happen.” I called my dad and some of my friends who know engines, to try and brainstorm if I would be able to fix it in the parking lot or if I would have to bring it in. The conclusion was that my head gasket went out causing loss of compression and coolant to leak out, I wouldn’t be able to fix that in the parking lot. I cooled my jets and started to focus on something else, food. I walked to the place called Arctic Circle for some food because it was the closest. Arctic Circle is this burger joint probably only found in ID, it had alright food and it hit the spot. I went back to my hotel and tried to formulate a new plan for tomorrow. I didn’t know how long I would have to stay in Pocatello and I knew that this motorcycle repair was going to be pretty spendy. I decided to download the couchsurfing app and see if anyone would take me in for a few days while my motorcycle was in the shop. One lady said that it would probably work out but she was unreliable for quick communication. I turned on HBO again and what do you know? There was another Vietnam movie on. I have no idea why I get sucked into these movies so much. I laid there awake all night just watching this dumb movie. In situations where you lack control, don’t give in or don’t give up, take a step back and see the bigger picture. If you can’t take control right then and there, just wait until you can. The problem isn’t going anywhere, so there isn’t anything to really stress about until you want to deal with it. Even then it doesn’t have to be stressful. It’s all part of the adventure! Stay Restless.
Day Nineteen
Published Date : September 10, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Nineteen My alarm went off at 5:00am, I got up and got a glass of water and I was ready for the day to begin! My motorcycle was already packed so I was able to just get on and go. I put my headphones on my seat while I backed the motorcycle out of Dave’s driveway. I wanted to bring it out to the street to let it warm up. While I was backing out my headphones plug got caught in the chain and went through the drive sprocket. It was totally wrecked. I had to go to walmart to get a new pair but they didn’t open until like 7:00am. That was okay though because I found a really awesome spot overlooking Boise where the mountains were to the east and the sun was about to rise. As I stood there eating a Clif bar and watching a glorious sunrise, I had Reilly on my mind so I took some video and sent her a good morning snapchat. After that I went to Walmart. I got some Sony’s for $20.00 bucks, more then I wanted to spend but I really needed them and I like good sound. Finally! I was on my way once again! Dave, the night before was showing me a map of Idaho and told me to go north up to Stanley and cut down to Craters of the Moon, ID and then keep going south to Twin Falls, ID. This plan added another three hours to my days ride but I’m really glad I did it. Idaho is beautiful! It has so many different things going on. Huge valleys, Winding rivers, Great National Forest, Cliff faces, Mountain Ranges. I would love to go back out there and explore more! Driving through it took forever but when I got to the Sawtooth mountains I really really wanted to stop and climb them. However, I didn’t because I needed to get to the hotel on time, I did stop though and take pictures. I’ll go back someday. Eventually, I made it down to COTM, I debated just driving past and going right to Twin Falls. I did stop though so that I could plan my trip there the next day. I also looked high and low for a freaking shot glass! I think the National Park system doesn’t really like “alcoholic” related things. It’s kind of hard to find them. However, right when I was going to give up, I noticed one in the corner, the last one. I snatched it and went to check out and get a map. COTM had caving permits that you could get and I’m always down for a good caving adventure so I got one of those too. After hanging around the info center for a bit. I thought I should go drive around and do the loop now so that I have more time hiking tomorrow. As I drove around the loops, I thought to myself “why is this place here? It’s so weird that we have Hawaii type lava ranges in Idaho.” COFM is a pretty small park, but there are some pretty cool hikes and caves to explore. When I was finished with the loop I continued my journey to Twin Falls about an hour away. Right when I was crossing the bridge into town, I looked over and there was this huge canyon with waterfalls in it. Looking back on it I should have stopped and took some pictures or at least explored the area better. When I got to the hotel I checked in and unpacked my motorcycle except for my saddle bags. I lugged everything up three flights of stairs with six layers on. I was sweating profusely, I probably got more dehydrated right then and there versus my entire day in the sun. I then did what everyone does when they get into a hotel, I flopped on the bed and just laid there for a few minutes. I couldn’t wait to sleep in a bed. My first bed in nineteen days. I was super hungry so I looked online for some close food I could walk to. Chick-fil-a was right around the corner and I rarely go there and chicken sounded pretty dang good at the time. I felt like walking there because the past few days I have just sat on a couch or a motorcycle seat for nearly twelve hours. I got a classic sandwich and a spicy one and of course waffle fries. I walked back to the hotel and ate there in the AC. I felt like a king. For the majority of the night I journaled about my time in CLNP. Around eight at night I went down to the spa to hang out in their hot tub. I was in there for way too long. I talked to a few people there on business, all of them could care less about me on my trip but that’s alright, I was in a city now so there were different types of people around. I think I sat in that hot tub for about two hours and by that time I was getting super pruney; time to go to bed. When I got back to my room I took a shower to regain my humanity and afterwards crawled into a huge bed all to myself. I turned on HBO and there was some sort of Vietnam movie on. I stayed up way way too late watching that. It wasn’t even that good but I couldn’t shut it off for some reason. When it was over I remember thinking to myself “why???? Did you just watch a three hour movie about nothing??” I chuckled about this later on my adventure. Overall though, I think I need to plan an Idaho trip. I really think there is a lot of things to do there and the state is underrated. Stay Restless.
Day Eighteen
Published Date : September 9, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Eighteen Last night I went to bed really early so that I could wake up super early today. I left CLNP by 5:00am and I was on my way to Boise ID. Why Boise? At the beginning of my trip, an old classmate of mine named Andrew got ahold of me and said If I’m headed through Boise to hit him up and I could stay at his house. Boise was about 500 miles away from where I was and I was without cell phone service once again. I got to my first gas station and surprisingly I did have some LTE so I uploaded every post I wrote in CLNP. In addition to that I messaged Andrew asking if his offer was still on the table. I sat at that gas station for about an hour uploading everything and waiting to see if Andrew would get back to me, while I was there I had several people walk up to me and ask if I needed help. I would chuckle and thank them for their concern and then I would tell them that I was just working. I usually turn my phone off while riding just to save battery incase I actually need it. This time was different though, I needed to keep it on just incase Andrew would text me back and I could check it more reliably at gas stops. I made it all the way to Boise without any contact from Andrew. I pulled over by the police station and started to consider my options. I decided to call Joe, Joe offered me a few hotels before I left and I was debating cashing in on that offer. I called him and we talked about it. He said he would call me back when he figured out what hotel I could go to. Surprisingly, Andrew messaged me back when I hung up. He said that he was in Canada and to call his roommate Jared. I was kind of surprised that Jared was his roommate. In Highschool I was really good friends with Jared. So I called him… a few times, no answer. Joe called me back to tell me that there wasn’t any hotels available in Boise but that he could book me a couple in different cities. I was headed for Craters of the Moon, ID, so he got me a hotel in Twin Falls and Pocatello ID. I thanked him and told him about how my trip was going so far and then I got a message from Jared. Jared was in California and wouldn’t be back for another day. Boise was a bust. I was just about to make the hour drive to the nearest NF when I met Dave. I asked Dave if I could crash on his couch for the night, I would be gone before 5:00am I told him. Dave agreed and told me how to get to his house. When I got there I left most of my stuff on my bike because I didn’t really need it for staying in a house. Dave asked if he could get me anything. I said all that I needed was water. I sat down on his couch and admired his paintings that were hanging everywhere on is walls. Dave is a composer , recording engineer, and a painter. We talked about my adventures and what kind of things he has been working on lately. He then showed me his studio. It was impressive. When we sat back down in the living room Dave said I could take a shower if I wanted to. I jumped on that idea! Oh man my first shower in eighteen days!! I was so excited! I stepped under the water and looked down at my feet. Dirt and grime was flowing from me. I could have stood under that shower head all night long. I didn’t want to overstay my welcome by taking a super long shower so I did my business and got out pretty quick. When I got out and dressed again, I felt like a real person again. I think that showers are the lifeblood of humanity. We stayed up until about 10:00pm before Dave said he had to be up early for a t-time. I fell asleep on the couch very comfortably. Stay Restless. Here is Daves Website if you need some music work done: http://www.daveearnestaudio.com/
Day Seventeen: Pinch me
Published Date : September 8, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Seventeen: Pinch me I had my alarm set for 6:50am, so that I could get my spot again for another day. In reality though, I wasn’t going anywhere. I laid there and just gazed into her eyes for a while and at this point, dirty or not, I was going to kiss her. She is too freaking cute not too! Let’s just say it was a great morning. We eventually got up and ready for the day. I still had to go to the registration hut and Reilly wanted some coffee. When we got up to the hut, Reilly asked if I could watch Lola while she ran inside. Of Course I agreed because Lola is such a good doggo! A little while later, Reilly came back out with a big bottle of beer and a postcard for me! I wanted to scream out loud “WHY ARE YOU SO FREAKING COOL!!!???” but we were in public so I didn’t. When we got back to the campsite we had breakfast, Reilly had some mega bagels and stolen jelly packs from like Perkins or someplace and I had some peanut butter! Needless to say it was a way better breakfast than what I was use to. I asked Reilly if she wanted a Motorcycle ride, she said “yeah huh!!” So I started to take everything off of my bike to make room for her. I didn’t have an extra helmet, so I told her to dress a little warmer than normal because when you are moving on a motorcycle the temperature is about 20 degrees cooler. I also told her to maybe do something with her hair because otherwise it would get tangled and messy, she put her hair into braids. I’m a sucker for braids. I showed her how to get on and how to sit and where she should put her feet. Then I told her not to compensate for my movements as the driver. Basically, just sit there and hold on! Reilly was actually one of the best passengers that I have ever had, even if she had to ride “butt head”. We road around the lake, she was smiling the whole time, sometimes trembling even. I’m still not sure if that was because of fear or excitement. Nevertheless we had fun. We got to the end of the road and pulled off. We found a spot overlooking the lake and sat down. We must have sat there for two or three hours, just talking about life. It was so peaceful and fun. If only I had a time machine to take me back. At last it was time to head back to the campsite. I could feel that our time was drawing to the end. So I drove a little slower. When we did arrive back, I was so tired because I didn’t get much good sleep the past two nights. I asked Reilly if she would like to nap. She was down to clown, so I laid down a tarp and got out all of my sleeping stuff to make a little nap nest. We laid down and cuddled until I fell asleep. Apparently, I snore. I think we laid there for an hour or two, unfortunately it was time for Reilly and Lola to leave Crater Lake. We both got up and started to pack up her things. It was weird, time started to slow down and I think we both felt it. We spoke very seldom. I had a very sucky feeling the whole time. When it was all done, her and I stood by her driver side door. We hugged and then a little goodbye kiss. She said goodbye to me when she got into her car. I said “Never goodbye, just see you later.” Reilly smiled and backed out of the campsite and drove away. I walked over to the picnic table and sat down as I watched her drive down the road. I was alone again. A big part of me was waiting for her to come back and say “well I guess, one more night couldn’t hurt!” but that never happened. I felt so strange, was that even real? Or have I been in a coma for years because of a motorcycle crash? Regardless, I broke out my Journal and started to write down everything! I never want to forget about Crater Lake. Stay Restless.
Day Sixteen: Romance
Published Date : September 7, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Sixteen: Romance CLNP is by far the coldest place on my trip. I woke up with my feet frozen. The night before I went to bed some time around 4:00am and I had to be up by 7:00am to re-register. Man, was it brisk out. It was so cold that I put on every layer I could find and I even had to break out my purple stocking hat. I moseyed on over to the registration hut to get my spot again and then moseyed back to my camp site. I should have slept more but I was so excited to see where my day would go! So, I killed the time waiting for Reilly to get up by lubing my motorcycle chain and journaling. For breakfast I had more Ramen noodles because again, I was so cold and that was the only thing hot I had to eat. I think Reilly got out of bed around 9:00am and came over to me to say good morning: she was pretty hungover. I laughed because she only had like three beers. She went back to her campsite to kind of get ready and eat breakfast and chill out for a bit. As the morning went on, I eventually got bored of journaling and decided to go over to her campsite to kind of hang out and talk. She wasn’t doing too hot, I offered her some of my E-mergency (it’s like a vitamin drink, it works great for me and hangovers). She didn’t seem to like it that much but she did continue to drink it. We discussed the night and it turns out that she had froze that night too. Luckily for us the sun was out in full force and it felt nice just to sit and bathe in the rays. Reilly needed coffee to get out of her slump, so we walked up to the gift center place so that she could get some. We walked back to her campsite again to just hang out some more. While she was sipping coffee, I asked her when she was planning on leaving. She said probably later today after our adventures. I thought about it for a moment, and then I asked her if she would like to stay for a few more nights. Reilly said that she would love to stay another night! I was super happy! I was planning on staying two more nights and it would be awesome to have some company to talk to, not to mention a pretty girl at that. Reilly’s energy was rising and now she was ready for the day to begin! We packed up our day packs and got in her car to head to Mt. Garfield for a nice hike. While in the car I was more interested in the scenery than anything else really. As we got closer and closer to the crater, I got more and more excited! Reilly said before we can do anything, you need to look at the water and see how blue it is. I agreed completely and we walked to the observing deck. The water was the deepest of blues, it was beautiful but because of all the people around it was a little overwhelming. The people made it so I couldn’t just sit and stare off in the blueness and ponder life. After taking a quick peek at the lake it was now time to hike Mt. Garfield. We stopped and talked to a ranger about the trail and its condition. The ranger said that there was snow blocking the trail so it was “closed” but no one would stop you if you tried to get past it. We then went back to her car. National parks have leash rules and also dogs can’t be on certain trails at all. Reilly knew that her dog Lola couldn’t come with us on this hike because it was a no dogs allowed trail. I thought that was dumb because Lola is pretty darn well behaved. Also she is a sweetheart and I couldn’t stand to leave her in the car. I think Reilly really wanted her to come along to but didn’t want to get in trouble. I said let’s just bring her until someone actually tells us we can’t. We put Lola on the leash and brought her along! I was happy, Reilly was happy, and Lola was super happy! What a good dog face!
During the hike I got to know Reilly more by asking her dumb questions like “what’s your favorite food?” and “french fries or onion rings?” It was kind of funny but we had a lot of the same answers. Honestly, I started to develop a crush on Reilly. Like seriously, I felt at times as if I was in a movie. When we got to the part of the trail that was blocked, we took a little break. Reilly sat down in the snow bank and made a snow ball. She flirtingly threw it at me, but I caught it and whipped it right back at her. After resting for a bit I was ready to keep going. No little amount of snow on the trail was going to keep me away from the top. I have been bitten by the hiking bug at this point, I love it! I started to make a patch through the snow. Kicking my feet into the snow to make foot holds for her. Lola had already made it across, however not without a few scary moments where she almost slipped and fell right down the mountain. I’m not going to lie, I was scared for Lola but she was a trooper. She caught her footing and had not trouble after that. When I made it across, I looked back and there was Reilly already on her way. I freaking had butterflies in my stomach! Any other girl that I know would hesitate or debate going across something risky. Reilly, even though she may have been unsure about crossing, still gave it a try! I value that in a person more than I can describe. The best part is all of us made it across and we continued our hike to the top! The trail didn’t get much better after that initial snow bank. There wasn’t anymore “hazardous” spots… just more of the trail was buried in snow. We found a path that wasn’t covered by snow and continued up to the top. Once we got up there, I felt like I was able to adore Crater lake. It was beautiful. I miss it. I miss being up there with Reilly. It’s one of those moments that you wish you could freeze for ever. I took some pictures and video and really just hung out. It was awesome. After hours of just chilling out up there, we hiked back down the mountain.
We were all pretty dang tired, Lola was so tired that whenever she came to some shade she would try to lay down and rest. When we got back to the campground, Reilly really wanted some Mac-N-Cheese. So I boiled some water for her on my jet boiler. She had a cup of easy mac and added the water to the cup. Then like maybe a minute later, she added the cheese sauce. I sat at the picnic table watching her eat this shitty easy mac. I asked her if the noodles were even soft. Nope, still crunchy she said. Reilly was a little disappointed because she was looking forward to it. However, I did make fun of her a lot for screwing up easy mac. After Lunch, no one was around us, all of the campsites were vacant. So we went around to all the fire pits and collected burnt firewood. Now it was time for a swim to cool off. Like way off. We all jumped back into the car and drove to the other side of the lake to the trail that leads down to the water. This time we had to leave Lola in the car and she was pretty bummed she couldn’t come with us. We started to hike down this long switchback trail. Reilly didn’t bring a swimsuit so I let her use my board shorts while I could just swim in my boxers. When we got to the end of the trail there was a cliff with a bunch of people just kind of hanging around. There was a guy trying to get people to jump off the cliff. A man came over said he saw some people do it earlier and he was ready. We all waited and then this guy went for it. As soon as he jumped and before you could say “cannon ball,” I was already taking my pants and shirt off! I was next! I got to the edge and just jumped without hesitation. Next thing I know I’m coming back to the surface! The water was so cold! But somewhat enjoyable, there wasn’t any hurry to get out of the lake. After I jumped it seemed like everyone who was just sitting around striped down and started to jump off the cliff too! Reilly was second to last to jump. Without hesitation or debating or without anyone having to persuade her to jump… she just jumped. This was the second time I got butterflies for her; I probably could have drowned at that point and been happy. I swam over to her and gave her a high five! I asked her if we should do it again! Reilly basically gave me a “Duh” look. We climbed out and went back up and found someone to video tape us jumping off. My feet have been black from days without a shower, it was kind of the running joke with Reilly and I. When I jumped in the second time, I kind of scrubbed my feet as much as I could but it was useless without soap. When we were all done with swimming we started the hike back to the car. We got eaten alive from “mozzies” and we were too tired to run back up the hill to get away from them. When we got back to Reilly’s car Lola was so happy to see Reilly and I hope a little happy to see me too. Back at the campsite we started getting ready for a fire. I’m pretty good at making fires and this one was lava boiling hot! I couldn’t even stand it for most of the night. I had to keep backing away, Reilly on the other hand was enjoying herself basically in the fire. This night was a little different then the night before. I was more to myself and unusually quiet. The reason is because I wanted to tell her that I liked her. We started to talk about music and for some reason our emo highschool sides started to come out. I had a little radio that was on its last leg and Reilly had her Ipod from back in highschool with all the best songs! Fall out boy and Taking Back Sunday were a few of the bands we listened to. We sang together for a while to our favorite songs! When my battery finally failed, it was back to silence and my thoughts. Eventually, I brought up swing dancing, I asked her if she had ever swing danced before, and Reilly said that she never has and she would probably break my feet. I told her that she was missing out and that it was super easy, she would just have to follow my lead. I told her to try it sometime. Minutes passed again in silence, I was looking into the fire. Suddenly, “show me” she said. My heart melted, A girl who hikes, jumps off cliffs into frigid water, and now she actually wants me to show her how to swing?? How am I so lucky?? I grabbed her hand and we danced under the stars and to campfire light. This moment in my life was truly one of the most magical moments I have ever experienced. The fire was starting to die down and during our conversation, sharing a tent come up once. I asked her if she wanted to share a tent still: Reilly was on board. I walked over to my tent to see if we could fit. I unzipped my rain fly and there was this huge cricket looking thing. Lola was sleeping in Reilly’s tent and so the zipper was open, I thought for sure that these huge bugs would be everywhere in there. So I made the decision that we would use my tiny tent and just make it work. Reilly asked if she should bring her sleeping bag, I said, “Nope, it’s the crickets bag now baby.” I did say to bring a pillow though. We crawled in and laid down. It was pretty comical trying to get situated. I had a mummy bag that didn’t unzip all the way and I had a very light sleeping bag that was more of a blanket. We eventually got comfortable, I remember thinking that this would never happen to me again in my entire life. In all honesty I would have definitely tried to “make a move” at this point. However I was so disgusted with myself; Sixteen days without a shower, I have a nasty ass beard, dirt is probably leaking out of every crack of my body. For some reason though, she didn’t seem to mind any of that but I still abstained…unfortunately. Sleeping in a small tent, in a small sleeping bag with another person is just how you would think it would be. Reilly slept comfortably, while I didn’t sleep because she was stealing all of my body heat away from me and additionally every one of my limbs lost circulation… But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Stay Restless.
Day Fifteen
Published Date : September 6, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Fifteen 6:40am, I awoke not feeling the best… The wine from the night before gave me a bit of a headache. All I wanted to do was sleep, But I had to get up to go get my campsite. CLNP was the coldest place I’ve been to so far in the mornings, probably at night too. Gathering up every ounce of motivation, I finally managed to crawl out of my sleeping bag. There were no signs of Ed and Ev up yet, So I walked up to the registration desk. When I arrived there was one other person in line and you could see the lady in the hut through the cracks of the blinds. In my opinion, I got to the registration hut way too early with expectations that the whole world would be there. I thought to myself “I could have definitely just slept in for a few more hours and still get a spot.” Nevertheless, I stood there until they opened. Right at 7:00am the blinds lifted and the window opened. I asked the lady for the Ed and Ev’s spot after they leave this morning; so I wouldn’t have to move my camp. The lady said that if I wanted to stay there as a tent camper I would have to pay RV prices of $40.00 a day. I was not about that. Okay, I said. Where is the cheapest for a single tent camping. The lady said that I can stay anywhere in the brown section, however it’s first come first serve. I would have to wake up everyday by 7:00am to reclaim my spot. The price was only $20.00 a night which was more affordable for me. The lady gave me a slip of paper to hang on any brown post once I found a vacant spot. I said thank you and began to walk back to Ed and Ev’s campsite. When I got back, Ed was up taking care of business. Putting the chairs and awning away. He started to quiz me about where will I be staying next. I told him that I tried to get his current spot but it was to expensive, so I settled for a spot in the next loop over. I asked if he needed any help packing up anything. Most of their stuff was already packed by this time but I still thought it was the least I could do. Ed said that the only thing left to do was to put his BMW on his motorcycle carrier and then they would be on their way. I watched Ed put his bike on the back of his camper. It was pretty interesting, all there is a small ramp that the tires rest on and then you rachet strap the motorcycle down in four spots, then she’s ready for the next adventure! Not too shabby. I got on my motorcycle just to move it to my new spot as a placeholder in the meantime because it will take me a little time to move everything over. When I got back Ev was up and out of the camper with a note pad. Ed said that they were ready to leave and Ev said that she needed my info so that she could contact me someday and check up. When I was done writing down my address, I gave Ed a good handshake and Ev a big hug and I thanked them a million times. Ev did however come back out with two oranges so that I wouldn’t get scurvy on my trip. With a wave from the cab of the camper they were gone. As I watched them drive away, I stood there with a smile on. Just thinking about how fortunate I was the day before meeting Ron and Lorna, and now Ed and Ev. Both fantastic couples who were willing to help a young guy out. I hope that I can be as cool as these people some day. Well, first things first. I have to move my camp to my new spot. I packed up most of my stuff loosely in my backpack, clipping a lot of it to the outside. I trudged over to the new spot to drop it off. Next was my tent. I didn’t want to take it down so I just picked the whole thing up and carried it over there as well. On my way, I passed a man walking his doggo; some sort of poodle. The dog had no idea what to think of me carrying that “big” green object around. It got a little spooked. When I got to my new camp, I started to set everything back up again. During this time I noticed this girl doing the same thing as me. Moving her things one by one through the woods to the spot across the road from mine. When I was done setting up, I yelled to her, “Hey! Would you like any help?” It was like she was in a trance or deep in thought because she didn’t even notice me or acknowledged what I just said. It was kind of funny because I’m pretty sure that we were the only two people awake at this point. Eventually, she must have felt my eyes watching her because she stopped and said “Oh, you’re talking to me? No, I’m just about done moving. Thanks anyways.” Then she went back into the woods. I didn’t think much about it after that. My mind turned its attention more towards food. Since it was pretty chilly out, I opted for some hot Ramen noodles. I think when I was done eating it was somewhere around 9:00am and decided today was going to be a writing day. From 9:00am until 8:00pm I just kept my head down and wrote. Oh, yeah! I also ate a lot of food, probably due to boredom. Throughout the day that girl that I offered to help earlier would come and go. She had a doggo, and it seemed as if it was just the two of them. As the day went on and the more I saw them, I began to psych myself up to go talk to her later when I was done with my work. Like I said previously, I finished around 8:00pm. I walked over to the restroom to use the facilities, but also to see if she was busy so that I wouldn’t interrupt anything. It looked like she was just reading. I took a big gulp and walked into her campsite. “Hey there, would you like some company for the night?” I said. She looked up at me and said definitely. She seemed a little startled. I pulled up a stump and just started talking. She said that she had a little wood so we could start a fire. She began to build a fire… and I began to cringe… It was her wood and her campsite, so I didn’t want to just man handle the situation; eventually I did however take control and built a pretty kick ass fire (if I do say so myself). I was able to keep that thing going until four in the morning. I think we talked for about an hour before we even exchanged names. Her name was Reilly. She was born in CO, then her family moved to AK, and then she moved back to CO for college, and super recently, moved to OR. I remember asking her what she was running from just picking up and leaving everything behind to move to OR. I don’t think I got the full story at that point in time but nor was it needed. Reilly had a few beers that we split. That really opened me up to just talk and talk and talk. I wish I could have recorded our conversation because I really only remember pieces and fragments. At some point the lake got brought up. I said that I hadn’t even looked at it yet and I have been here for two days. She criticized me for not even getting up to go look at it! I told her that I had to write all day today and that’s why I didn’t have time yet, But tomorrow I was going to go hiking and jump in! Reilly then said super excitedly that she had plans to jump in tomorrow too! I asked if she wanted to go together. She agreed and the next day was planned. As the night continued, I remember not really looking at her much. I really only remember looking down at the fire. There was a point though, where I looked and laughed at a joke that she told me and was taken back. “Have I really been sitting here this whole time with this super cute girl?” I thought. Here I was, on this great adventure, in CLNP sharing a fire with this super cute girl I just happened to meet. What are the chances??? Slim to none in my experiences. As the fire began to dim and the beer bottles emptied it was time to call it a night. I said see you in the morning, and staggered over to my tent. On my walk back to my tent, I remember thinking about how quiet it was and then thinking about how loud we were, I bet all of our neighbors hated us. I settled into my sleeping bag with a smile and excitement for the next day! Stay Restless!
Day Fourteen
Published Date : September 5, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Fourteen First off, it chokes me to write this beginning, however, it is important because of Lorna’s passing. I woke up kind of early and I had everything packed up pretty fast. I was ready to take off, but I was waiting for Ron to get back from his rounds so that I could thank him and say goodbye. While I was waiting Lorna came out of the camper with a plate. She said, “You can’t leave us on an empty stomach.” She was holding a plate with a bagel covered in salmon from the night before and probably some sort of cream cheese. I took it with a grateful heart and sat down at the picnic table to eat my breakfast. Ron came back and sat down next to me with the same breakfast. He asked me, “So what’s next for you?” I told him that I was headed to Crater Lake National Park. Ron began to tell me about how they just got back from there last week and continued to tell me all the best motorcycle roads from here to CLNP. I took a picture of his map and finished my breakfast. Right before I left I got Ron’s address so that I could send him and Lorna a thank you letter. I was so thankful for them to help me out this much. I will never ever forget their generosity. I just wish I could have thanked Lorna once more. I got some hugs and then I was off once again. This time north east to CLNP, which was only a 3.5 hour ride. I stopped at a Walmart for some much needed chain lube. Gosh, my chain was brown with rust and dirt. Looking back at my trip, I’m so surprised that my chain didn’t explode and rip my leg off, and thankfully it didn’t and I still have my leg soooo yay! Ron told me to fill up at every gas station because eventually there will be nothing… I didn’t know my true range at this point, so I took his advice. I stopped at every gas station except for one. The last one… I remember going through the NF just watching my mileage and thinking to myself, “Will I make it to the park? Will I have to turn back?” I have been getting gas usually around 130 miles and I started to worry a little because I was already at 65 miles into the NF. I would either have to turn back now so that I wouldn’t get stranded on the side of the road or at the park without gas, or I would have to commit to continue to the park and see what happens. Whenever there was a decision to be made with consequences I always found myself saying, “You are here for adventure, now follow it.” After talking with myself like that, I always took the more risky option. I think I did that because I’m sick of the “safe bet.” I want to test myself and my abilities to adapt. Taking the more risky path isn’t easy. Still, I was grinding my teeth the whole time because I really didn’t know how many miles it was to CLNP and I was quickly approaching the comfortable range limit of 130 miles. However, There was no going back now, I was committed and not more than 10 miles down the road was the info center. I had made it and I had four days to figure out how to get back. I wasn’t going to worry, I was going to get a campsite and everything was going to be awesome. I went over to the registration hut, there was a queue and a sign on the window saying all campsites are full. I rolled my eyes. Every single time! Can a guy just ever show up and legitimately get a campsite? Nevertheless, I stood in line to asked the ranger what my best options were. When it was my turn I asked them if the park was really really full? The lady said “yes, but just out of the park a ways is national forest and you can stay at this spot for free for the night and get here at 7am tomorrow to get a spot in our park”. I said thanks and walked away, I was happy with the help that I got from this lady. The people from the Redwoods should take note of CLNP customer service. Anyways, I walked away and headed to my motorcycle. As I was looking at my GPS for this spot, some people stopped me and said that I shouldn’t go there. They said the spot that the lady told me about is literally a few parking spots and a vault toilet with no trees. I was thankful for the advice and decided to test my luck in the actual campground. Taking my “room for one more” sign out, I proceeded to ride around the loops looking for anyone to take me in for the night. I went to the farthest loop to the east and started there. For the most part this loop was filled with families and I wouldn’t feel comfortable rolling up to them looking all homeless and jazz and asking if I could stay with them. The next loop was filled with tents but all the people were gone, however, there was one spot with two dudes just hanging out. I considered stopping but they didn’t seem too interested, so I kept going. Usually I get more of a head turn when I have my sign out, so I looked down to see if it was still there… and what do you know, it was gone! I had to go through the loop again to get my sign back for the rest of the loops. I eventually found it and picked it up, I just held onto it this time because the loop was lacking people. Something was different however this time when I got to the end of the loop. The camper that was vacant before, now had a guy out front with a BMW. I stopped and yelled at him “ROOM FOR ONE MORE??” The man gave me a strange look, almost as if he was confused who I was or why I was talking to him. But after a second he processed what I had said to him and smiled and waved me into his campsite! He said his name was Ed and that he saw me on my way in, when I passed the BBQ joint. Ed was impressed by how I had so much stuff stacked and strapped to my Ninja. We got to talking a little more and I double checked with him if he was sure that it was alright for me to camp on his site. Ed said that I could on one condition, if he could have my roll of duct tape. I thought that was a small price to pay for a night at CLNP. I handed over the duct tape and began unpacking my motorcycle. Once I had my tent set up and everything in order, I went over to Ed, who was sitting under his awning swatting mosquitoes. I asked him if I could join him and he said definitely! So I sat down and started to chat with Ed. The main topic at first was his Bengal cat, Ben. For those who don’t know what a Bengal cat is I’ll explain. A Bengal cat is a really big house cat that is bred to look like a leopard or a “wild big cat.” Ben was pretty cool, he was outside on a leash and just doing weird cat stuff. I found it kind of funny, you don’t always think of cats on leashes. I usually think of dogs and dogs do a pretty good job about not getting tangled up too much. Ben on the other hand, would get completely tangled up on everything and when he finally couldn’t move anymore, he would just lay down and meow at you. Almost as if he was trying to say, “Hey guys! Look at me! I’m really cute! And I’m soooooo lazy and I can’t move anymore…HAAALLLLPPPPP.” Ed had to get up multiple times to rescue Ben from his self inflicted web. Ed asked me if I would like a beer. Of course I politely refused, however, Ed saw right through me. He went inside his camper and came back out with a few beers: A blue moon and some sort of IPA. He asked, “Which one would you like?” and I replied, “Whichever one you don’t want.” I ended up with the Blue Moon and that was the one I wanted anyways. Ed is a really cool guy. His personality is similar to a used cars salesman because he’s go go go all the time and high energy! I loved it! He was telling me about how he used to race BMW’s back in the day on the circuit; He would ride a BMW before he got picked up by the company but he would always cover up the logo with a sticker or something. BMW didn’t like that a lot because he was winning all the time, so they sent him an offer to ride for their team. I was in awe, what are the chances of meeting a retired pro motorcycle racer on my trip? I asked him what he did after the racing, and Ed said that he never really quit. Currently he races sailboats down in North Carolina and is super into it. I was a bit envious because it sounds like a ton of fun and adventurous; right up my ally. After a few more beers and thousands of dead mosquitoes, Ed’s wife Ev came out to join us. (Ed, Above. Ev didn’t want to be in the photo) Ev is a more reserved person compared to Ed: quiet and kind but not afraid of talking, possibly more interested in listening. Nevertheless, she was fantastic! Ev was born in Holland and lived and worked in Norway for a while before coming to MERICA. Because I’m in love with Norway we were able to bond because she has some history over there. Ed and Ev began to tell me stories about how they went to Holland recently with their good friends and relatives. They took these house boats up and down the canals. They all had a set schedule that people could take part in or they could do their own thing if they wished. They said it was a hoot and it wasn’t too expensive because so many people went. After that they told me about the wedding they just came from the day before. I think it was their niece was getting married to a guy who was in and out of her life for a while but then made a real push to be closer to her and bada bing bada boom they got hitched. The way Ev told the story was a lot more special. Maybe I can get in touch with them and have them write something about how they met and got married kind of as an add on to this story. Ed and Ev than began to tell me what they were up to. They were just out adventuring and living life on the road. They had a few plans that they had to make it to every once and awhile, but for the most part they lived day by day. It was inspirational actually, I thought about it a bit later thinking that I should plan a trip with a few destinations but for the most part don’t put a time-frame on it and just go with the flow. It was getting pretty late at this point and Ev went back into the camper to start cooking dinner. A while later she said that dinner was ready and they both invited me into the camper. I don’t remember eating anything that day except for that phenomenal bagel for breakfast. I don’t remember if I played the “Minnesota nice card,” but next thing I know I’m inside their camper. My traditional expectations of how campers look on the inside is pretty generic. However Ed and Ev’s camper was like a house, it had tons natural light, laminate gray flooring, house plants, pictures on the wall, a bookshelf. It was a place that I could literally live in for the rest of my life. On the table was the full spread: Pulled pork sandwiches, delicious salads, and wine! Lots of wine! It turns out when Ed and Ev were at that wedding, every table had a white and a red bottle of wine on the table uncorked. Apparently, everyone at the wedding thought they were centerpieces or something. Every bottle of wine that was on the table was left on the table. So Ed and Ev were lucky enough to leave the wedding with something like seven cases of uncorked wine. Needless to say, they wanted to get rid of it fast. First beer and now wine… by the end of the night I was feeling pretty darn comfortable. Ed and I sat out under the awning and finished another bottle of wine. All of a sudden he jumps up and climbs onto a stump and says “I wonder if the stars are out!” We both went out into the woods and just looked upwards to the sky. Crater Lake has some of the best starts I have ever seen. After that, Ed climbed down off of the stump and said that it was time for bed because Ev and him had to leave early the next morning. I too had to be up early to snag a camp spot, so I said goodnight, thanked him, and climbed into my little tent, drunkenly falling asleep. Stay Restless.
Day Thirteen
Published Date : August 16, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Thirteen Today was the day I was going to see the tallest trees on earth. Learning from my past mistakes, I jumped out of my sleeping bag as soon as the alarm went off! I wasted no time packing up my tent and all of my sleeping gear. That morning tear down was absolutely the fastest that I have ever gone. Granted, I didn’t really take anything out of my packs other than the essentials for the night. I ripped out of the National Forest a little before 5 am. The morning was pretty foggy and wet, cool crisp air and dew on all the plants. The beginning of the ride was interesting. Yesterday I didn’t really notice the scenery much; probably because I in a hurry. There was a huge man made lake in the valley held back by a damn. As I went down stream, every road that crossed the river was a covered bridge. I thought that covered bridges were more of a Maine thing… but apparently, Oregon has a few too. The further south I rode the more the sun shined and the better the road became. High cliffs formed by the winding river in the valley and trees sticking out of every crack. When on a motorcycle and when the road follows a river, that means you are going to have a fun day. Twists and turns, ups and downs, in general, going too fast for my own good. When I was almost out of Oregon, I noticed a lot of camp grounds but I didn’t pay much attention to them because my goal was to stay in the Redwoods for a few days. I came down the 199 to California. I was listening to music at this point and I had earbuds in. On the border, there is a vehicle checkpoint. I haven’t encountered anything like this before, so I was a bit intimated by it. The guy looked like a cop kind of and I know riding with earbuds in is illegal. In order for me to hear what he was going to say to me, I would have had to stop, get off my bike, press pause on my phone and then remove my helmet and also my earbuds. I for sure thought that I was going to get in trouble. As I got closer and closer I needed to act fast, so in desperation I just yanked on the cords of my earbuds, ripping them from my ears and lodging them someplace around my cheeks and chin with my helmet still on. When I approached the man, he waved and said: “have a good ride”. I was relieved, that I didn’t have to waste my time at this checkpoint and I didn’t get caught with earbuds in. I made my way down Crescent City CA. Then stopped to get gas and to check up with civilization. Nothing too out of the ordinary was happening, so I switched gears to really find out where the hell I should go. The Redwood National and State Park is a goofy place. The main park is split into two chunks. North and the south, the north can be identified as a “state park” and the south as a “national park”. When I typed the redwoods into my GPS it brought up like 20 places to go and when planning this trip I didn’t look into where I should go. I just thought that the Redwoods where one place. I resorted to eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Then I clicked on a destination and set off once again. My route took me down the coast this time and it was kind of foggy at first. I must have only gone 10 miles when I ran into road construction. I was parked on a steep grade incline and this was when I noticed my motorcycle acting up. From a dead stop fully loaded, in first gear, letting the clutch out, my motorcycle was giving me a jerking feeling. Playing through some options in my head of what could be causing this, I thought that it was my clutch going out possibly. I was concerned a little, but being that the feeling really only happens at a dead stop and most of my trip is full throttle in 6th gear. I thought that I could probably deal with it when I get back home some day. When traffic finally started to move again, it was a lot of starts and quick stops. I had to stay in first and second gear for about 30 miles. I was gritting my teeth the whole time because I thought my clutch would go out at any moment. Traffic was still going up hill for most of the time and when we finally came over the top I remember saying “wow”. There was the ocean, with a huge rock close to shore. It was something you would see on a postcard. A few minutes later, I found myself a bit lost. My GPS was taking me closer and closer to the shore line. The road I was on was getting worse and worse. I remember thinking to my self “why would this park, that gets thousands of visitors a year, have such shitty roads”? Something had to be off, I continued listening to my GPS, when suddenly I took a right and there was a gate saying that the road was closed and was privet land. I didn’t have any cellphone service to look up information about where I was and how to get to where I really wanted to be. Turning around and heading back the way I came there was a little info board and luckily there was a map explaining the Redwood parks. I was right in the middle of both of the parks and I found the name of the park entrance. Typing the name into my GPS, I headed south again. I wasn’t too far away, just a few minutes. When I arrived, I went right to the camping area to try to get a campsite. It was late as far as registration was concerned. Lets just say they were not the nicest of people in the camping world. Pulling up to the gate, I asked one of the rangers working if all the campsites were full up. She replied with a nod and uncertainty in her face. I wanted to just pull through the campground and see if anyone would host me or let me stay with them for the night. But when I asked if that would be alright, the ranger looked at the other ranger in the booth and I heard a grumpy “Noooope” from inside. Being a little annoyed by her tone, I then asked “where should I go then”? Again the ranger in front of me just turned to the one I couldn’t see in the booth. She must have been squatting down or something because all of a sudden the most crotchety old lady pops up out of nowhere. This ranger as she fully stood up gave one of those grunty groans, If you ever had an overweight lady gym teacher, who just sits on a folding chair the whole time you’re playing dodge ball and suddenly gets up because Garry doesn’t want to participate anymore. Yeah, the noise that you can imagine is the same noise this ranger made. After almost dying from getting up, she then walks to the door, comes out and very rudely gives a sigh. Then she points to the door where there was a big list of campgrounds around the park. It was almost as if I was the dumbest person alive for asking such an obvious question. I wasn’t too happy, I looked at the list and took a picture for later reference. Then I got back on my motorcycle and drove away from those jerks. A little ways up the road was the info center, I thought I would just stop in the parking lot and have a snack because the reoccurring trend of this trip is that I haven’t eaten anything all day. The parking lot was big enough for 14 cars and I didn’t want to take up a space, so I parallel parked in the exit of the parking lot. I wasn’t taking up any space or blocking traffic. I jumped off and started eating a Clif Bar. While chewing, I got my phone out and started to look over the photo of the campgrounds around. There were a lot of them with prices and what they offered. I was debating between one that was 8 bucks or one that was 15 dollars but had showers. The showers came out the clear winner, something about a shower was calling to me, I think it was because I haven’t had one since day one. All of a sudden I hear someone yelling “HEY YOU! YOU ON THE MOTORCYCLE! YOU’RE IN A NO PARKING ZONE!” I looked down and sure enough I was. I didn’t notice that when I parked. Then I yelled back “the parking lot was full and I’m pretty small I thought this would be okay” The ranger then replied with “NOPE! YOU HAVE TO MOVE! YOU’RE BLOCKING TRAFFIC!” I said okay and that I would move but in my head I just kept thinking… “why are these people so power hungry and rude?” Feeling dishearten about the Redwoods, I just wanted to turn my back to it and keep going. I would find a spot for the night and continue my adventure to Crater Lake. Remember when I saw all the campgrounds on the way down? Yeah, those where all the ones on my list. So basically I spent the whole day driving to feel like a worm by the rangers and drive all the way back. WAH WAH! Oh well. Aggressively, I drove back to Oregon trying to get to a campground before dark. The one I really wanted to be at was called Panther Flats. When I arrived, I rode through the loop to see if they had anything available. Of course there wasn’t anything open, before resorting to my sign, I went to the campground host to see if they could help me out. Walking up to the camper door, I then stopped and knocked. There was a little movement coming from inside and then a man stepped out. He was tall and had a little pony tail, and he also had a hippie chill vibe going on. I said hello and that my name was Dan. I then explained that I just came from the Redwoods and rode directly here because the campground has showers. He listened to me and just kind of nodded his head and then said “wanna go for a ride?” as he pointed to his golf cart. We both hopped on and drove around the loops. He told me his name was Ron, and then he asked where I was from. When I said I was from Minnesota he stopped the cart and told me that his dad used to own a resort in Walker. I said “No Shit? What a small world” as we were almost back to his camper. We got off of the golf cart and then Ron started to think. He said “well, all the campsites sure are full…” I was getting the feeling that he was going to send me on my way. “… but you can put your tent up behind my camper for the night. We always try to help fellow bikers out!” I was so relieved and happy! I must have thanked Ron a hundred times! Then I immediately set up my camp and headed to the river to wash my clothes. When I returned from the river Ron had a big fire going, and he told me that I could cook anything I want on his fire, If I wanted to. I didn’t really have any food to cook over a fire with me, so I just told him that I would just hang out with him. He told me that he was in Vietnam and that he was a contractor for most of his life. About this time is when Lorna came out of the camper with a huge filet of salmon! She said “you must be Dan! Ron has been talk about you! Would you like a beer?” I told her that I didn’t really need one… but she gave it to me anyways! I drank it happily and continued to talk to them both. Lorna is from South Dakota, and she is a spitfire! She used to own a campground by Sturgis and I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why she is who she is today. Awesome! Seriously, I can’t say enough good things! Oh my gosh, as I’m writing this I’m just filled with joy because of these two people! Anyways, Lorna comes out with this huge salmon. I’m just over in the corner drooling. Ron is cooking with two planks of wood as he’s telling me about how he likes to SCUBA dive. When the salmon was ready Ron looks at me and says “you can come in and eat with us or not, I really don’t care what you want to do.” I said “Thank you, but I don’t want to intrude anymore that I have already”. Ron just shrugged and went inside the camper. Not a second later Lorna pops her head out and said “ come on Dan! I set a plate for you.” I looked at her and said “no it’s okay, I don’t want to be a pest. I’ll just make sure the fire doesn’t go out”. Lorna gave me a stern look and said “I set a plate for you Dan, I won’t tell you again”. Alright, alright! I got up and went inside of their camper. They had a nice little fresh salad, baked beans, and of course the salmon. I ate my fill, it was all so delicious. The boys in Glacier would be jealous of what I got in Panther Flats. After dinner, we went back out to the campfire, where I got another beer, and we swapped more stories. Ron was telling me about how he is a pilot too, on top of everything else that makes him a super interesting guy. Maybe an hour went by and then Lorna said “who wants pie”? I love pie. It’s a grate dessert, but the pie that she was offering was rhubarb pie. I have always stuck my nose up to rhubarb pie… and I really don’t even know why. However, since my trip was an adventure and I want to grow as a person… I think pie is a great place to start. I said that I would like some pie. When she came back out, she had a bowl for me, with a huge slice of pie. I was intimidated because if I didn’t like it, I would have to eat half a pie just to be polite. Pushing my fork in to my peace, I lifted it to my mouth and took a bite… RHUBARB PIE IS FREAKING DELICIOUS! Just poor this stuff into a feed sack and strap it to my face. It was that good. After a while Lorna went inside and Ron and I just kept on talking. I really could talk to him forever, He was wise and full of stories and adventures. I remember mid conversation, he perked up and said “wanna see my new toy I just got”? “Sure” I said, and he took me back inside and took out a military grade laptop. Then Ron went over every speck of the thing and asked for my opinions on who he should get internet through etcetera. It was pretty cool to see a 60-year-old dude get so fired up over a computer. I must have said thank you every other word to these two people. Their generosity will not go unnoticed. Just remember, when your day just seems to be getting worse and worse. Don’t focus on the bad in the day, because the day isn’t over yet and you may miss opportunities to make new friends and experience new things. Stay Restless. So, Unfortunately as of 5:30 pm on 08/16/17. I just learned that Lorna has past away due to a motorcycle accident in the Redwoods. My heart is throbbing right now. She is and will always be that spitfire woman who took me in and fed me and told me some great stories. It’s crazy how you meet someone and you think it will be a lifelong friendship, but you really never know how long life is. Stay Restless Lorna, Stay Restless. http://www.colonialterracefuneralhome.com/notices/Lorna-McKenzieGrinstead
Day Twelve
Published Date : August 8, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Twelve When riding by yourself, you really can’t do a lot. There are basically three things: Listen to music / Podcasts, Sit in silence, or Meditate on your inner soul. Which one you choose depends on the day and how you are feeling that day. Music is defiantly used when I am feeling excited or overly happy! When I really want to get pumped up about something. Additionally, it’s really cool when you listen to music and for some reason, it matches your atmosphere that you are riding in. For instance, Folky music when In heavily wooded areas, or fast metal when you are in congested cities. I have no idea how my playlists know what is going or if I have so much time on my hands that I can read into anything. Sitting in silence is rarer. It really only happens to me when I’m in a sad or dark mood. I find it interesting, looking back at the times that this has happened to me how strange it is. You literally just mindlessly drive… with no thoughts at all. Almost as if you are in a trance, just watching the center lines pass by, one by one. It happens though, and it’s defiantly not safe but you don’t think about safety in that state of mind. Now, meditation is where I find myself slipping into more often than not. Things such as, “Am I a good person?” “Do I have any dreams?” “What religion do I really belong to? (Maybe Stoicism?)” “If money was no concern, how would I really want to spend my time?” “What do I desire?” You know? The little questions in life. These questions are just a few that I find myself mulling over. Unfortunately, I don’t have them all answered fully yet but I’m working on it (maybe another trip is in order). Today though, today was a Podcast day. Stuff You Should Know is what I like to listen to. It’s about these two guys named Josh and Chuck who do in-depth research about an interesting topic. Then they talk about it for about an hour. I love it. I learn so much. For free. So if you like learning for free and want something interesting and funny while you drive for long hours check out their website: http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/podcasts As I was listening to SYSK, I started to reach Portland OR. I stuck to the main road, but I remember thinking that I would love to come back and check out the city life there. The city had a lot of energy to it. Consequently, it also had a lot of traffic. Like 2 hours of bumper to bumper traffic. No Bueno. It wasn’t really stressful, it was more like “why didn’t I leave when I said I was going to.” Also, Portland is a pretty big city and I thought I would never get out of it. It was something like 6 pm when traffic finally broke and I was free. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to be able to make it to the Redwoods before dark. So I pulled over and started to make alternative arrangements. I saw that the nearest national forest to Eugene OR was Willamette. I pulled off the Interstate and headed east. When I got there it was already dark so I put my headlamp on and set up my tent and tried to get some radio signal to check the weather. I didn’t want to set up everything for just one night (I have a rant about this). It wasn’t going to rain but there was going to be heavy fog in the morning, which is super helpful to know so that you can waterproof appropriately. I hung my food in a tree because there weren’t any bear boxes and then I called in bed and passed out pretty much right away. Rant: Speaking about one night, I really wish that camping spots were cheaper for late arrivals. In reality, it doesn’t make much sense but hear me out. If I show up around 10 pm and wake up at 4 am. That’s only 6 hours there and that’s primarily during sleeping hours anyway. Then they want me to spend full price to sleep on the ground. I’m glad the parks are there for me and I know they have to make money but I’m not hanging out there specifically for that park. I’m only there to sleep and move on. WAH WAH, BLAH BLAH BLAH, Pointless, Aimless rant over. Sorry, Stay Restless.
Hey there… It’s been a while
Published Date : July 30, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Hi Hi! soooooooooooo I have been so busy with my adventures, that I unfortunately haven’t had much time to type up some new posts. Don’t worry though! I am alive! I am healthy. I am currently in Minnesota. The next few days more posts will come. I’m super excited to share with you some stories that are wacky, crazy, adventurous and a smidgen of romance. I am super sorry about not being able to post as frequently as originally planned. Stay tuned and Stay Restless!
Day Eleven
Published Date : July 22, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Eleven The plan for today was to hike to the top of Mt. Olympic. I had my alarm set for 4:30 am because I had to drive 2 hours around the park to get to the Hoh Rainforest entrance where the trail head is to get to Mt. Olympic. Unfortunately, because I’m on my own schedule I convinced myself that I could sleep in until 8 am and still hike the 18-mile hike to the top. Yeah, I can be pretty dumb some times. But oh well, you live and you learn. I made my day pack and got on the bike and headed west. It was an interesting ride around a lot of smallish lakes, there was just too much traffic to really enjoy it. When I got to the other side there was construction. So there was a line to the fee station. It wasn’t moving too fast, I ended up shutting off my bike and dismounting. Every car length moved, I would just push my motorcycle until I was at the window. The Ranger told me that everything was under construction so I had to park in the campground. That wasn’t a big deal, but trying to find a place was difficult; even for a motorcycle. I found a spot and took off all my layers and went into the info center. The info center was pretty lame, the best part was a “know your mushrooms” diagram. I was in and out of that place. There really is only one trail head, so only one place you could go, to Mt. Olympic. I was talking to a Ranger the day before, and he said that most of it was flat and pretty easy. That was another reason why I thought I could hike it in 4 hours. Well, what was I waiting for? I better get going. Going into the rainforest was crazy. The tallest and biggest round trees I have ever seen, vines and moss growing everywhere. The entire ground was blanketed with ferns. I have never been in such a biosphere. When there weren’t any other hikers around me, I felt as if I was in Jurassic Park and Raptors were just going show up out of the ferns and devour me, or I would mistake a “long neck” foot as a tree trunk. It was pretty wild. I didn’t see any wild life, however. Being so far out and all alone, I was okay with not seeing any animals. Now I have seen a lot of waterfalls in my life, I seek them out. They are fun to watch for a while. But seeing a Waterfall in a rainforest is a totally different experience. I mean, at its core it’s still just a Waterfall. But something about all of the vegetation around it just gives it a different aura about it. Later on in the hike, I had to cross some dried up river beds and then I had to cross some actual rives and the bridge for the trail was a huge downed tree. I really didn’t know how to tell how far I have traveled or where I really was or if I was even on the right trail. I haven’t met any hikers for a few hours. I think a lot of them make it to the waterfalls and then turn back. I really wanted to make it to Mt Olympic it was really cool to climb to the top. Eventually, I met some older folks. They said that the old Ranger Station was about 3 miles away. At this point, it was about 3 pm and I only had about an hour left. The old Ranger Station was marked on the map so I kind of could Guage where I was. Unfortunately, I wasn’t going to make it to the mountain. But I did push my self hard to make it to at least the old Ranger Station. After what seemed to be forever, I finally made it to the station. When I got there I found out that I had walked 9.1 miles. I was pretty proud of myself regardless of not making it to Mt. Olympic, but there is always next time and I’ll be way more prepared for it too. Now, the hike back. For the most part, what ever you put into a hike, you will eventually double it. I have never hiked this far before and I think when reality set in that I would have to hike 9.1 miles back. My feet just started aching. But I stood up and turned around and went for it. There wasn’t any other choice. The sun was getting lower in the sky and now there really wasn’t anyone coming or going. I truly was alone out there. This was an insanity test, alone, not having any way to know where I was or if I would make it back to my motorcycle by 8 pm. Would I be able to get back to my campsite 2 hours away? So many questions and thoughts and on top of it, my feet were starting to feel wobbly. Despite all the things I was feeling or thinking when you just come to grips with the situation and realize that you have two options. Make it, or don’t. It was this realization that I came to, and when I did my mind became blank, calm, static. My feet still hurt, but it’s just a feeling, It would pass eventually. Every time I came to a maker that said the mile, I would try and calculate how fast I was going. I could be completely wrong but, I was walking somewhere around 3 miles per hour. When I made it out the rainforest I was happy. I couldn’t wait to sit on my motorcycle and ride 2 hours, just to give my feet a break. My ass was like “okay just this once feet”. I stopped a Ranger and asked what would happen if I got to my feet station when no one was there. They said just go on through. Everything was looking up. When I got back, I took my boots off and crawled into my sleeping bag. If I could pass anything along to you, it would be panic will bring you to insanity. Stay Restless.
Day Ten
Published Date : July 21, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Ten The plan for today was to get groceries. I jumped on my bike and drove into Port Angles. Google said they had a lot of different grocery stores, the one with the most reviews said to go to Safeway. Where I am from, I have never been to one. So I wasn’t too sure what I was going to get into. I pulled into a Safeway and went inside. So get this, picture a grocery store and what that look likes on the inside. Yep, that’s it, nothing too special. I immediately went to the granola bar section, in search of Cliff Bars. When I was in Glacier, Christian and Josh gave me some Cliff Bars and I was hooked. They are pretty dang good, but unfortunately Safeway didn’t have any. That was a big blow because that was what I was kind of craving. Then I went over to the deli to get a sandwich because I love sandwiches and I haven’t had one for a while and I thought it would be a good base for a full day of hiking. Then I went over to the ramen noodle area. I have never eaten ramen before but after talking to Paul, it looked pretty good, lightweight, cheap and easy to cook. So I bought a few packs to try out. Next I went and got some bread and peanut butter, again I thought it would be good to bring some filler for hiking later. As I was running around the store, I randomly came across a wing stack of Cliff Bars! I was so happy and they were on sale! 5 for a dollar. I bought 5 different flavors just to try and find out which one would be my favorite. After a full basket I went to the cashier, he asked me if I had a Safeway card, I said “no, I’m not from around here.” Then he said “oh well then, where are you from?” I said “Minnesota” and it was like a record scratched. Everyone was looking at me and wanting to ask me questions. It was strange, just stuff like, where are you going? how did you get here? why are you so far away from home? I don’t know if it’s because I have a baby face or if these people don’t get many outsiders. I would assume so since Olympic attracts people from all over the world. I then asked the cashier if he could break a $100 into $20’s. He said yeah and cashed out. That was great because I needed cash for my campsite. I finally left and got back on my bike and got some gas and went back to my campsite. Once back at the campsite I broke into my long awaited sandwich. It was honey ham, Swiss, lettuce, mayo and mustard on some sort of rye bread or pumpernickel. I didn’t really care for the bread that much. But calories are calories and other than that It was pretty good. After lunch, I made my day pack up with 5 peanut butter sandwiches and 3 Cliff Bars and a lot of water. My hike for the day was going to be the switchback trail. The trail basically goes straight up back and forth along the side of Mt. Angle about 6000 feet in elevation. It was a pretty strenuous hike but I think it was worth it. It starts out with all of these little streams running through the trail. Then you get into this forest of trees that started growing sideways and then straightened out over time. They had a lot of weird bends in all of the trees, and it seemed like a lot of them had some sort of form of cancer. Cancer on trees are like these big growths, kind of like a big ball around a tree. After the tree line you break into a meadow with an unreal amount of wild flowers, it was super pretty and peaceful. So peaceful in fact that there was a whole Hurd of black tail deer just grazing. It’s really cool how these deer just don’t care about people they walk right past you and just keep on grazing. When you keep trekking up the hill you get to a more rugged terrain just before you hit the ridge. When you get to the top you get to another spectacular view. Snow topped mountain everywhere behind you and Port Angles in front of you. In the valleys there are clouds and mist. I took a 360 photo at the top and posted it on Facebook if you care to look at it. I would recommend it. I got to the top pretty quick, something like an hour and half or so. I wasn’t tired at all so I just kept going. The trail brought me a little higher, just before the trail started to flatten out again, I looked up and saw it. Just around the bushes was a big male mountain goat. It didn’t even know I was there. I slowly got my phone out to take a snap chat for my mom; mountain goats are her favorite animal. I got the goat into frame and snapped a picture. My phone made the classic shutter noise and I got a pretty cool picture of the goat looking back at me. After the pictures I was kind of intimidated by it. It’s similar in size to a great Dane, and it was pretty much right in my path. I constipated turning back and just going back to camp. But then I was like, “it’s just a goat, if it charges me I’ll just grab it by the horns and seismic-toss its ass right off the mountain”. I proceeded with caution, staring it right in its little dumb eyes and took one step at time slowly just make sure I was ready if tried anything. Pretty soon I was far enough away that it just started to graze again. Then I was home free, I turned away from the goat and noticed that I was walking on a huge glacier! slipping all over it, haha. I followed a goat path through the glacier and met some other hikers. I told them that there is a big male on the trail ahead and to be careful, but not to worry too much because I gave it the eyes, so he knows his place. They were foreign, so I don’t think the understood much what I said; their loss. After I passed the hikers, I came to another awesome spot with an even better view of Port Angles. I stopped and had some sandwiches and a Cliff Bar and just kind of hung out for a bit and who do you think decided to show up and rain on my parade? That freaking mountain goat again, just looking for trouble! I stood up and just gave him the eyes again. He didn’t once look at me, he just kept on walking. “Yeahhh” I said “keep walking” even though we had our differences, I still can appreciate him. Pretty damn handsome goat. I think we were both over each other so at this point I started to hike back, it was around 5pm. On my way back, right before the trail leading back down the mountain to the parking lot. 3 more mountain goats show up, and they had a little baby kid with them too! The kid was so freaking cute! I just wanted to pick it up and bring it home with me. It’s little baaaaahhh’s where melting my ice cold heart. All 4 of them passed right in front of me, no more than 10 feet away. I have some video of them. It was amazing! After they passed me, I basically followed them down the trail for most of it until they started to rock climb away from me towards the rest of the Hurd on the other side. When I got back to my camp ground I had my first camp fire of my adventure using Marty’s techniques about gathering firewood. I had a fire all night. Go Hiking! Stay Restless.
Day Nine
Published Date : July 20, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Nine I woke up early, but I stayed in my sleeping bag. I was so comfortable, that I didn’t want to get up. I did finally crawl out at around 6am. Packed everything up and set off once again. Wenatchee National Forest is a really beautiful place. Tall trees, mountains, raging rivers, it also has a pretty good twisty road running through it and at 6am, there isn’t a single soul on it. I leaned forward and let it rip. The canyon echoed with my exhaust. It was a cooler morning so that gave me a little more horsepower. Gosh, it was fun. I pulled into a gas station, I was running on empty. I filled up and got my GPS out to try and figure out my next course. My GPS gave me the perfect route to bypass Seattle and most of the surrounding suburbs. I started riding again and my GPS kept trying to get me to go west… And I know I chose a route that had me go south for like 100 miles. For some reason it kept trying to bring me on the shortest route, and consecutively it kept trying to pull me through Seattle. I would stop and try to reroute it and eventually I was so far south it just gave into what I actually wanted and brought me where I really wanted to go. I did have to go through the suburbs thought. I thought it would be a lot worse, but traffic seemed to be moving pretty quickly. I haven’t really eaten anything big for a while and I was hankering for Wendy’s for a baconator. I did have cell phone service at this point so I pulled up directions to Wendy’s. Then something weird happened, I just drove to where Google told me to go, but there wasn’t a Wendy’s. There was a freaking McDonald’s and I was getting pretty sick of McDonald’s. But time was of the essence. It was like 10 am so they were still serving breakfast, definitely not what I wanted but I still got an egg Mc something or other. Worked on some social media stuff and then got right back to it. Onward to Olympic!! Gas stations were getting far and in between and I was really close to Port Angles. I did find a really nice chevron on a reservation. Now my motorcycle is really meant for short rides around town and stuff, I’m really pushing it to its limits. When I started to fill up my tank, something started leaking out the bottom of my motorcycle. If I was anywhere else in my life I would be panicking. On my adventure I have learned to roll with the punches. I took my glove off and touched the liquid, trying to find some sort of smell or viscosity. It was very liquidy and green. It didn’t have much of a smell to it, however there still was one. It was faint but I know I have smelled it before. I didn’t want to start my motorcycle just in case I could worsen the problem. So I wheeled it off to the side of the gas station. Looking everything over I decided that it was coolant. I really didn’t want to take all of my gear off the back just to get into my seat compartment to get my tool kit. If I did get it out all I would do is take my fairings off and look around more clearly. I was eventually able to read my coolant level without taking my fairings off. Everything was okay, and nothing was continuing to leak out. I got on and turned the key and cranked it over and crossed my fingers. Nothing happened, no leaks, idle was fine, no extra lights were on. Everything was fine for some reason, again maybe luck was on my side again. After thinking about it for a few days, the only thing that I can come up with is that I think there is a pressure release valve or something and because of the altitude change, maybe there was just too much pressure that it just had to release some. I don’t know, I’m not a mechanic, I’m just a kid on an adventure. The rest of that day I didn’t have any other problems. I finally made it to Olympic National Park. I rolled in and found a campground right away. Besides TRNP this was the only other easy park I have been to, as far as camping goes. I set everything up and started to look at the map. Olympic is kind of a weird park because there isn’t like a loop you can just drive around in the park. It’s a really really big place, but you have to drive on the outskirts of the park for miles to make it to the other entrances. I chose to stay at the Heart O’ Hills campground closest the city of Port Angles. I’m really glad I did too, because the Hoh Rain Forest side of the park was under a lot of construction and I bet I probably wouldn’t be able to camp there because they only had one loop of the campground open. Anyway, I took a ride up to Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center. On my way up I saw a hiking trail with river running down the side of Mt. Angles 6454 feet in altitude. When I made it to the top of the road, there was low clouds and mist everywhere. It was kind of eerie, as you moved shadows in front of you would slowly transform into animals and trees. Like I said before, I collect shot glasses and now was my time to get one for ONP. I went into the Visitor center and down the stairs into the gift shop. They had a lot of the typical stuff, shirts, mugs, books, but it was kind of hard to find a shot glass. I found a couple, but they were more novelty items, kind of big and showy. Where I prefer just a simple glass with a cool design or something. I couldn’t find anything else so I settled for the showy ones. My luck has been pretty good for most things so far on this adventure, but definitely not shot glasses. As soon as I bought the one that I have now, I turned away to leave when I noticed the right sized one in the corner, kind of out sight. Ugg, I didn’t want to waste more time anymore so I just left. I really wanted to explore the misty mountains. I grabbed my camera off of my motorcycle and started to hike. There were only a few miles of trails up there all of them pretty flat, but they were really interesting. The mist really gave it an identity of the unknown. As I walked I came across meadows with so many different kind of wild flowers of all shapes and colors. My favorite was a flower called “Magenta’s paintbrush”. It has a pinky and purple mixed color and it resembles a paintbrush, it was rad. As I was admiring these flowers a black tail deer came out of nowhere and just started grazing right next to me. I just put everything down and sat on the ground and just watched this deer for a while. It was within 10 feet of me and it wasn’t afraid of me. It was magical. Once the deer faded off into the mist, I got up and started moving some more. I started to hike upward to an over look. When I got to the top the clouds were everywhere. So there wasn’t much to see up there. On the hike down the mist started to disappear and reviled one of the prettiest mountain ranges I have ever seen. All snow capped, and perfect. It was spectacular, and stopped me in my tracks. I took lots of pictures and video. For the rest of the day I just kind of sat up there and gazed off into the distance. Once the sun started to set and the clouds started to roll back in. I headed back to my camp site. When I pulled in I saw that there was a new guy there on a dual sport bike. I told him as I drove by that I would stop by for a bit and chat him up. A little while I went up the hill to introduce myself to him. His name is Marty and he told me that he was from the Republic. I was a little confused and asked him “Republic” and he said “yeah! the Republic of California” I was like Ohhh okay, got ya. Marty was headed basically to the arctic circle, and he had a lot of fun stories to share. One that I found particularly interesting was a trip he took in his sail boat to Hawaii, and due to some poor planning or maybe that they couldn’t predict the weather. They headed right into a huge storm. He said it was pretty gnarly, if I’m not mistaken he said the storm lasted for 4 days. I couldn’t even imagine. After a few stories Marty showed me a really awesome trick to save some money at the camp grounds. As soon as you pull in, don’t set up anything. Just walk around the campground and go to all the vacant sites and look in the fire pits. Most of the time you can find a pretty decent sized chunk of wood. Sometimes burnt or even sometimes brand new. I thought that this was genius! So we walked around for a bit and found a ton of firewood. Enough for a fire the whole night! It was great, we just talked and talked and gazed into the flames. Marty eventually looked at his watch and said he had to catch a fairy at 7am so he had to go to bed. We said good night and probably goodbye. I walked down to my tent and crawled into my sleeping bag and drifted away. Stay Restless.
Day Eight
Published Date : July 19, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Eight I decided to wake up on time today and get a early start on the day. The day before I reorganized all of my bags so they were pretty much ready to rock. So tear down was way easier. The people across from me really wanted my spot for some reason, I didn’t think it was any better than what they had but I was leaving, so it didn’t matter what I thought. I got on the road next going west. I thought Montana was really fun for motorcycling, lots of twist and turns and tons of scenery. It a was a fantastic drive. Towards the end of Montana, I had to stop for some gas. I couldn’t believe it, cell phone service! Yes! Finally I could upload my blog post and check in on people. I think I spent an hour and a half in this gas station parking lot, just getting lots of work done. Once I finished up, it was time to hit the ol’ dusty trail again. I came to a mountain pass on the border of Idaho and Montana. It was crazy fun on a motorcycle. I just bombed this whole pass because I basically started towards the top. I kept just going faster and faster, banking around corners, my knee was almost touching the ground around the turns. It was great! I kind of wanted to turn around and drive back up it, just to do it again. Oh man! Northern Idaho was pretty cool lots of mines and little towns. It had some cool character to it. How ever, Idaho is very small in the northern part. So next thing I know I’m in Washington State. I don’t know about you but, if you have never driven through east Washington, make sure to have 1. Air conditioning and 2. Lots of entertainment. It’s very similar to North Dakota, flat, hot and boring. The coolest thing I saw was a couple dust twisters off in the distance. Luckily for me, I had some awesome podcasts with me. I love podcasts for traveling. The one that I like the most is “Stuff you should know”. It’s about these two guys Josh and Chuck and they do a lot of research on a topic and just kind of chat about it. I love it! It is easy to follow along with and it keeps your brain active and you might learn a little something. Halfway through Washington I was starting to feel fatigued, probably from dehydration. It was getting pretty close to my next gas stop thankfully. I don’t like to buy water, but it was all that I wanted and all of mine was lava boiling hot. I chugged it. If you saw me from another perspective, it would probably look like a homeless man just came out of the desert and was getting his first drink in days. But I don’t care, it was exactly what I needed. Besides the water I needed a little longer break from riding. So I found a nice shady spot and called my mom. She asked me to check in with her from time to time and this was the first time in a while that I had cell phone service and some free time. We had a pretty nice little chat. Just kind of talked about where I was and what I was up to, and where I was going next. It was pretty cool to talk with her. After talking with my mom, I had to make a game plan because it was around 4 pm and I still had another 6 hours to drive if I wanted to make it to Olympic National Park. I started to look at the map. Wenatchee National Forest was only about 2 hours away. I thought to myself “what’s the rush anyway?” I plugged in my address and started to drive out there. At this point Washington was beginning to become not boring to drive through. It’s hard to describe, but I’ll try my best. The ground was a red sandy maybe clay and desert. There were a lot of orchards or maybe Vineyards. But then it was as if the the world just dropped off in front of me, a mega canyon. It had amazing rock formations, steep cliffs, and a nice flowing river. I wish I would have stopped just to take some pictures. Some time down the road there was a very big Hydro electric dam creating this ridiculous man made lake. I thought “this would be a really cool place to live” but I couldn’t figure out where the work was. It must have only been from these plantations. When I finally made it to Wenatchee it was getting pretty late. This was my first time going off my schedule and my first time attempting to stay in a national forest. I eventually got to a campground. There was a big sign that said “closed”. I got a little scared as far as where I would spend the night. I turned in any way just to check it out. There was a pack of other bikers back there. I stopped and started talking to them. They were local guys just out for a day trip. I told them that I was from Minnesota and all of their Jaws just dropped. “you rode all the way here on that thing??” I told them yeah, and it wasn’t a big deal and continued to ask them if they knew of any more campgrounds around here. They said yeah there is just one up the road, so I thanked them and set off again. I got to the campground that they were talking about but unfortunately, they were full. I got my “room for one more?” sign out and began to drive around. A lot of people just looked at me and looked away. Shucks, it was worth a shot. I drove over to the host and asked him if there was any overflow or anything? He just pointed to a spot right across from his rig and said someone just left that spot. It’s all yours. Awesome, that’s my luck again coming through for me! The only bad thing about this place was that it was 23 dollars a night and I got there at like 8 at night and I was leaving at 4 am… so I would only be there sleeping for like 8 hours. What ever, I paid them and set up camp. It was a pretty neat place, I would have stayed longer just to explore a bit. I did take a walk over to the river area. On my way over there, I noticed a campsite with like 10 attractive girls. I thought to my self “hmm alright, maybe I’ll move to Washington…” I walked by and gave them a wave, but they all could care less. I walked it off, no big deal… The river at least “waved” back. It was getting a little late for me so I headed back and started to journal and fall asleep. I usually stick to my schedule just because it is a safe bet. I know what is coming next. However, I think it was time to try and live on the edge a little more. Take the path that I wouldn’t take normally. It almost didn’t work out, but in life, you will always find a way. Stay Restless.
Day Seven
Published Date : July 18, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day Seven. Today was the day that Christian and Josh were going to leave glacier. I was really bummed out because of this. They are super awesome guys and it was tough to see them leave. I wake up most days at around dawn. So they told me to wake them up at 6 am so that we could go for one last hike in Glacier. I woke them up to their wishes, but it never fails for everyone to change their minds about hiking in the morning. We all agreed that a nice drive up to Logan pass would probably be for the best. We all jumped in the car and really didn’t say too much. Just drove. Just remember the good times. Soaking in all the scenery. Like I have told you in past posts, it’s a long drive to get to Logan Pass visitor center. Eventually Christian turned on the glacier theme song for our crew and previously just the two of them. Entirety forever. Once the jams were on, then the conversation started to brew. We all started to reminisce about hardcore bands that we liked back in the day, such as Under Oath, Silverstein along with others. Then it transformed into Taking back Sunday, Fall out boy. Then we switched the music to Taking Back Sundays “make damn sure”. One of my favorites and it made me think that I was going to miss these guys even more. We finally got to Logan Pass visitor center. We got out of the car and looked around, there was already a ton of people there! We really didn’t have anything to do that the visitor center so we all used the rest rooms and got back into the car. The boys wanted to be out of glacier by 10:30 am and it was only like 8:40 am so we crept going on the pass to try and get to the other side. It truly is a big place because we ended up just turning back about 20 miles past Logan pass visitor center because we probably wouldn’t get back to Apgar on time otherwise. Once we got back the boys started to tear down their part of the camp ground. They got it all down right on time and then we said our goodbyes and told each other to keep in touch. Then they left. Insert cry face here. For the rest of the day, I just tried for focus on writing. I got a lot done, but eventually, I got a little tired of writing and it was getting hotter and hotter out. It was something like 102 degrees out and the glacier feed lake was calling my name. I also had a lot of socks that needed to be washed. So I wandered to the lake. You would think that it would be really cold, but it felt like bath water. It was wonderful! I was able to freshen up all of my socks along with myself because I got really stinky. Throughout my time at glacier, I usually got a faint signal for my cell phone so after bathing, I thought I would try to upload to my website. For what ever reason it didn’t feel like connecting, I had zero bars that whole day. There is a little town thing in the park where you can rent kayaks and boats and stuff. So I thought if I walked over there maybe I could get signal. Again, nothing was there. Wah wah. I noticed the clouds moving in and I left the top of my tent. It was time to go back to the campground. Once back, I started to resituate my bags because I would be leaving for Olympic national park the next day. A while later, around 6 pm, I kind of ran out of things to do. I found a nice stick of pine and started to widdle. People that know me, I assume know that I have my ears pierced. They are also gauged, to the size of 8. I used to have just regular earnings but I thought I was allergic to them and I really liked the look and idea of wooden earrings. Anyways, I made myself some new earrings from wood at Glacier Park. I’m pretty happy with them too. Pretty much as soon as I was done making them it started to sprinkle, so I retired to my tent. I ended up just reflecting on myself and just chilling out. Eventually I just kind of drifted off to sleep. Stay Restless.
Day 6 has been update
Published Date : July 13, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day 6 has been updated with actual content now… I’m not sure how that slipped passed me. Here is a link http://www.restlessdan.com/blog/day-6
Day
Published Date : July 13, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day 6, The lazy day I woke up probably from the best night sleep I have had my entire trip so far. I slept so good in fact, that I slept through a 5.8 earthquake. I’m a little upset that I didn’t fully get to experience the earthquake. I have never been in one and I it would be interesting to feel it. Christian and Josh must have been pretty wiped out from the hike too because they didn’t wake up for a few hours after me. When they did finally manage to crawl out of their tent, they basically just hopped right into their hammocks and do you know what? I don’t blame them. If anything it was a little victory lap. I on the hand had work to do. I started typing about a lot of my journal into blog posts so that when I got cell phone service again I could just upload what I had so far. After about 3 papers I was started getting tired of writing. It was time for a motorcycle ride! I was going to ride glacier in style too, I converted my makeshift Enduro back to my sporty crotch rocket! Vroom! I really only had one mission today and that was to get my collectible shot glass. Unfortunately, I forgot to get one at TRNP but that is alright because it’s so close to home that I wouldn’t mind going back very very soon. Anyway, I left Apgar campground and headed to the Apgar visitor center. This place was absolutely packed. Every mom dad brother and sister and their dog were there! there are positive things and negative things about traveling on a motorcycle. Parking way up front in motorcycle parking is just one of the positives. I hopped off the bike and ran into the info center. The Apgar visitor center is really just a glorified bathroom. Lots and lots of people everywhere… But I couldn’t figure out why. There wasn’t much of a gift shop and there was only one ranger on duty. Instead of waste my time fighting the crowd I decided to leave in search someplace else. The Apgar visitor center is right next to the park entrance and west glacier. I really needed some gas, so I went out from the park to get some. West Glacier is a pretty groovy town but their gas prices are like $3.50 a gallon, unfortunately. I saw a gift shop in town but I really like to get my shot glasses in the parks just to support them more. At this point, I had to go to the Logan visitor center in glacier. It’s about half way through on the going-to-the-sun-road. Going-to-the-sun-road is one of the most beautiful roads I have ever been on. Tall trees, long glacier fed lakes, rushing rivers, beautiful waterfalls, Majestic mountains, gaping valleys and glaciers to top it all. It truly is spectacular and special. I remember thinking to myself “wow, no wonder all the grizzlies live here… I mean I would!” The only thing to note about the drive is that it can be a very long one. Especially when there is construction. I set off, motorcycle in top gear! cruising! Then… construction. What a buzz kill. I was the third vehicle in line so once I could pass I would. But every time there was a good place to pass, there was always another car coming and for some reason, the car behind me was being a real A-hole. Every time we would all be going about 40 mph, this guy would just blare his horn. Like that makes any one go faster. The speed limit was 35 mph. He was just a big prick. All of a sudden, open road. I stepped it down into low gear and wound up the RMP’s. Blinker. Check behind me… Then… BBBBWWWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!! I let the ponies loose! passing everyone in one shot. Awe freedom, open throttle. Oh, wait… another car… More construction. Dang, it. About an hour later I made it to Logan visitor center. Again, this place was packed too! I don’t blame this one thought. Being in the middle of the park, it’s just where everyone ends up eventually. Back to the mission. I walk up the stairs and open the doors. This time there is a pretty decent gift shop. Every shirt and canteen you can imagine. Unfortunately for me though, there wasn’t a single shot glass in the whole place. Defeated once again. If you have been following along with me so far you probably have noticed that I haven’t been posting a lot of pictures. The reasons behind this are many, but the main reason is I have all of my photos scattered between my phone, my digital camera, my YI, and my hard-drive. Anyways, on the way back to Apgar it was my time to finally stop and smell the flowers. I took so many pictures of really anything and everything. I promise I will post them when I get everything in order. When I got close to Apgar I noticed that I already put on 70 miles! holy moly! I knew that I wouldn’t take my bike out again until it was time to leave, so I went to get more gas from west glacier. After filling my tank again with super expensive gas. I stopped over at the gift shop and got my shot glass. It’s a kind of metallic purple and has a Grizzly and Glacier National Park on it. It’s rad. When I finally got back to Apgar, Christian, and Josh were gone off doing something. Not having a lot to do at this point, I decided to up load everything that I captured today onto my hard drive. Half way through my upload, Christian and Josh came back for playing Frisbee on the beach. I think it was about 7 or 8 at night so they started discussing what they should do with all of their food. It was their last night at glacier and tomorrow they would be heading back to their homes. So they came to the conclusion that we would all have a feast! They cooked everything they had! Eggs, turkey burgers, and chicken. All of it delicious, and once again all of it was forced on me. These two guys are simply the best! Just shoveling food into some random hobos throat! gosh, I’m going to miss these guys. We sat up pretty late around the fire because we had to burn all the wood they brought. It was a fantastic ending to a lazy day. Stay Restless.
Day five
Published Date : July 12, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day 5, Climbing a mountain. I woke up early. The sun was up but not yet over the mountains. Christian and Josh were still asleep in their hammocks but there was a great peace to the morning. The night before we made a half ass plan to hike together, so I really didn’t know what to expect. Eventually, the boys woke up and got out of their hammocks and started cooking breakfast. I had already gotten my 4 pounds of trail mix out and was chomping down on it. These guys were living large, they brought so much food, it was unreal. For breakfast, they were cooking eggs and chicken. I was impressed, I was also filled with mix emotions because these guys were too freaking nice to me. First, they invite me into their campsite. Next, they, without even asking me, just made me a plate of food. And continued to do so for the next 2 days. Of course being from Minnesota, I’m too polite to accept anything from anyone, but on the other hand, it could be taken as rude if I didn’t eat what they have plated for me. So I ate and it was delicious. Way better than trail mix and ravioli. After breakfast, we started packing for the day. Christian started making sandwiches for the day, Josh was still cleaning up the dishes from breakfast. I started over preparing. I got my red Jansport out and started filling it with the way to much shit. All of my camera gear, a .45 pistol, bear spray, rain gear, coat, radio, ravioli, Camelbak, duck tape, first aid kit. My pack probably weighs around 30 pounds. We got in the car and drove up to the parking spot for the loop trailhead. Once we got there Josh started feeling kind of sick from the night before because he was making mixed drinks, but he continued on the trail with us. We had to make several stops along the way and I’m super glad we did. I couldn’t believe how out of shape I am. I probably didn’t walk more than 100 feet and my heart was pounding and I was breathing like a mad man. Every time Josh had to stop he always had to cover up how sick he really was with jokes. It seemed like every stop he said “go on without me” but Christian and I were just like “ dude, we have all day, we can rest whenever you need”. Eventually, we made it to the chalet 6500 feet up the mountain side. Josh was a huge trooper and I’m really glad he made it up to see the sights. Once we were up there we just rested and chilled out for a bit and just drank the sights in. I’m always staggered by just how big these mountains are. You look off into the distance and see all the trees and think to yourself “I could probably just walk up the side of that mountain, it doesn’t look that big. But then you realize that each one of those trees is 100 feet tall. Then everything kind of falls into perspective. After walking 4 miles uphill and Josh being sick but slightly feeling better now. He had to decide, walk back down or walk up to the scenic overlook, which was another 6 miles. Like I said earlier Josh was feeling a little better now so we took the first steps to the scenic overlook. It was brutal. The whole trail was these little flat rocks that could slip out from underneath you at any moment. Every 5 or 8 steps we all had to stop and catch out breaths because the air was thinning a bit, more than we were all use to. Josh didn’t have hiking shoes on, but instead a pair of Nike. No grip, and they were barely strapped to his feet. We were about 3 miles into the hike when he was very very serious about us leaving him behind because his ankles were really killing him. On top of the ankles he was out of the water and it was really really hot out. We convinced him that it was worth it to keep going mainly because he made it this far. Also, there was a glacier up ahead and was the highest water source around. We made it to the glacier and took a really nice break and refilled our water containers with cold glacier runoff. We all could see that it was flattening up ahead so we were getting super close! All of a sudden I had a burst of energy because I knew that it couldn’t be much longer. Then right around the corner was a huge glacier! It was a great sight to see! I was so hot that laying in the snow felt great! After I had some time to relax and “chill” out, I wanted to see how high up we were. So I took out my phone and open up snap chat. It said we were 7558 feet in elevation. I remember just thinking to myself “wow I just climbed a freaking mountain” I’ll chalk that up as a first but definitely not the last. Something that is kind of funny in my opinion was that way up on the top of a mountain was the only place I have had cell phone service in all of Montana. A strange thing happened up there, this weird badger type animal started coming down from a higher part of the mountain and it wasn’t scared of us or anything. I actually was getting a bit scared of it. That thing had some pretty broad shoulders on it and could probably beat me up. I would take a few steps back and then it would take a few steps forward. Finally, I was just like “alright, I’m out of here” and walked off the glacier. When I did that, the badger thing started to run right for the glacier and jumped and spread eagle belly flopped right onto it. It was really really funny. The little bugger was just super hot and just wanted to chill out on his glacier. Walking back took no time at all. It was all downhill and was things that we have already done. The only thing different was that it worked for a whole different muscle group. Mainly in the knees. We eventually made it back to Christians car and we were all so happy. We all flopped down into the car and gave a big sigh of relief. Climbing a mountain makes a guy tired. We were all really sweaty and gross, especially me. Then we went to the lake to take a dip and clean off a bit. The lake is so beautiful. Cristal clear, mountains all around, cold as hell! All of the glaciers run off runs right to this huge lake. The bottom is filled with glacier-rounded stones, they are a little hard to walk on but once you dive right in you basically just go into shock and nothing really matters anymore because you can’t feel your limbs anymore. Supper was Turkey Burgers with an egg on top, again Christian and Josh forced me to eat their food. Again, super tasty and I’m so thankful. We were all so tired from the hike that we hit the hay pretty early. We were so tired in fact that there just so happened to be an earthquake that night. I just slept right through it, it was a 5 point Something. To be fully honest, I really don’t think I would have climbed a mountain if I didn’t meet Christian and Josh. However, I am so freaking glad I did! We all met at a campsite, became friends, climbed a mountain. It was like we have been doing these things for years.
Remember, There are no strangers in this life, just friends we haven’t met yet. Stay Restless.I
Day four
Published Date : July 11, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day 4, Happy Independence day! This one will probably not be too exciting, unfortunately. I woke up and got out of my tent about 6 am and I had everything packed up about 7 am. Luckily I was able to find a ranger to let me check out from backcountry camping. After that, I needed some gas. Medora only has one gas station and it has really old pumps. You first have to go in and tell them what pump that you’re on, give them your credit card. Go out and pump the gas. Then come back in and tell them again what pump you are on. The lady in the C-store must have been very new to English speaking countries because I told her that I was on pump 3 and she just kept saying “3.27?” and I really didn’t know what she was talking about but she just kept repeating it and so I was just like yeah…. Whatever just use that visa card and let me go. It turns out she was talking about the dollar amount. Looking back on it now it was kind of a duh moment. I set off west to Montana on Highway 2 basically the whole way to glacier national park. Besides gas stops, I stopped once for food at a DQ. I really don’t have any perception of time because I don’t have any cell phone service in Western North Dakota and most of Montana. I think I made it to GNP around 8 pm. Coming up to the mountains made me extremely happy! After a long day of what seemed to be endless flat grasslands. The mountains were a great change of scenery. When I pulled up to GNP Saint marries visitor center, all of the signs said that all of the campgrounds were full, the visitor center was closed so I couldn’t get a backcountry camping permit. I asked the lady at the gate if there was any hope of finding a campsite this late… and she mentioned some sort of bike in spots in Apgar campground. So I kind of put all of my chips in one basket and started off through the mountain pass. I learned from my friend Paul that people are pretty nice in the camping community and a lot of times people will welcome you into campsites. So on my way to Apgar, I stopped at every campground just to see if there were any spots open or if anyone would try and stop me and invite me in. No dice, unfortunately. I was getting pretty discouraged, but then I got to Apgar. The campground sign again said full, but I still drove through really really hoping for a spot. The sign wants lying, it was truly full especially since it was the fourth of July. I made a few loops and then someone gave me different kind of head nod, it wasn’t a “hey” nodd. It was a “we have room for you if you want” nodd. I had one more loop to make to check if there were any spots left and if there wasn’t, I would go back and talk to the guy. Of course, it was full too. I turned back and went back to the nodder. The nodder had a friend now, and as I approached them the friend came out to the road to tell me that they had more than enough room if I wanted to camp with them. I was so happy with humanity! I pulled off and just kept thanking them for their hospitality. I found out that their names were Christian and Josh. Both from Atlanta Georgia. Christian, however, is in the Navy and is stationed in San Diego California. Both of them had some time off work and planned a road trip to Crater Lake nation park and GNP before Josh has to fly back to Georgia. Now I really don’t think I have every met nicer people. Seriously! they welcomed me in from the road, fed me for four days, gave me rides around GNP and let me hike with them 7500 feet on a mountain. They are both funny and have gracious souls. Fate is funny sometimes, but I’m glad it was on my side this time. We all stayed up until 3 am swapping stories and we took a walk to the lakefront. What a great way to end a day. New friends and great sights. Stay Restless.
Day three
Published Date : July 10, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day 3 I woke up after the storm to my surprise alive. It was a super sunny morning, no clouds in the sky. It was so peaceful, so my game plan was to hang out, slowly tear down camp and journal and blog. So I wandered over to the place on my hill where I got cell phone service. More focused on my phone then my surroundings it took some time until I noticed that all of the Bisons have started to move towards my campsite. They were coming from the East and currently in the little Missouri River. Somewhere even closer and would very shortly start climbing the hill that I have Been camping on. I was starting to feel a little panicked. It was like the one thing that I really didn’t want to happen was happening. Thankfully I was awake and had time to react. I ran back to my campsite and started to quickly tear down everything. I felt like I only had a half a hour to really get everything in my two bags. I wasn’t to concerned with how orderly everything was, I was more concerned with not meeting any of the bison on my way back to my motorcycle. By the time I had one bag packed; my bigger blue hiking bag. They were at the top about a semis-truck length away. Gazing at me, not really sure what to think of me. They cough me in the middle of shaking out my 10×12 tarp, so maybe they thought I was bigger than them or something but they started to come north-west away from me. What a relief, but I wasn’t going to stick around for them to change their mind. I knew that they took the same path I took to get to the top, so I had to find another way down. Now as I started to look for a new path, I noticed a bull bison lagging behind. He was bigger than all the rest of them. As I stood there just watching the huge lumbering animal slowly trudge up the hillside, It made me thankful that I had enough command sense not to take the same path down that I have before. Meeting that animal head on, on a tiny footpath probably wouldn’t end up with me making a new friend. Once I couldn’t see him anymore I continued my hike down the mound. I wasn’t wearing my hiking boots because I was in a rush and they take a bit of time to lace up. So I was wearing my relaxing videos, basically they are a really cool version of a crock, but they look like a regular shoe. Anyways because of them I slipped and fell and started to slide down the mound side. I didn’t get hurt or anything, just a few scrapes; I wasn’t bleeding or anything. I got up and brushed myself off to realize that my path was again blocked by bison. Fantastic! So that forced me to take a hiking trail back to the campground, it is called the Maah Daah Hey trail. Taking this trail means I have to hike mostly uphill with 100 pounds of gear in the unforgiving sun with just one liter of water. Unfortunately, it was my only choice. I took my first step and I was off. The trail was really cool, I had to cross a really gross Creek and hike to some really scenic viewpoints of the area that I have been staying in. I finally made it over the biggest hills around me and I could see that I was beating the other Hurd of bison following the little Missouri River. I could also see the cottonwood campground where my motorcycle was parked. So I took a break for a very needed long drink of water. Staying out in the badlands you come to realize very quickly that water is life. There really isn’t any potable water in the whole place besides cottonwood. You could however drink from the little Missouri River but at the info center they didn’t advise it. Now at this point I was pretty close to the campground. It was pretty much all downhill from here and I made quick work of it. Once I was in Cottonwood, I walked past site 10. I walked in to tell Larry (the guy that gave me a ride the day before) that I was alive and made it through the nutso storm. We chatted for a bit but I still had on all of my gear and I was concerned about my motorcycle and how it fared through the storm. I told Larry that I would probably be back in a few hours to talk to him some more. Once at the motorcycle I started to rehydrate and refill all of my containers. Around this time the campground hosts came around and I stopped them to ask if there was any more site available for my last night. Luckily there were, so I went and got one. My original plan for this trip was to backcountry camp the whole time, but I was getting kind of board of TRNP and this was going to be my last night here. I thought it was a good move to get a campsite and regroup and repack and just chill out before the 12 hour drive the next day. I’m really happy I made this decision because otherwise I would never have met Paul. Paul is a fellow motorcyclist, who is from Iowa and is headed up through Canada to the Pacific Ocean. He runs a really cool website called Dirt Orcas, it’s all about people who ride adventure action motorcycles. It’s really neat, check him out and read some cool articles about people do amazing things. It was great to have some human interaction again. We talked about blogging and motorcycles, life and business, swapped stories of our adventures. It was a great experience. Stay Restless.
Day two
Published Date : July 9, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day two, I woke up with a big bull bison name Leroy in my sleep bag with me. Just kidding, but I did wake up to the Majestic badlands just a step out of my tent. I woke up with a headache probably because of dehydration and not eating the day before. I knew I had to get some food today. That was priority number one. So I hiked down from my mound to where I parked my motorcycle in Cottonwood campground. Once I got there all I did was sit by a tree next to a water spout and drank drank drank. I know from my brother that getting dehydrated will land you in the hospital and I didn’t want to go there. After about and hour or so I set off in search of a grocery store. In Medora, all they have is a C-store. I got a sandwich drank some more water. They didn’t really have any groceries there so I had to make a trip to Dickenson about 35 miles away. While I was there I got 2 cans of ravioli and a box of spaghetti. Oh also a big Mac, and here is how out of it I was, I ordered a whopper, and the guy behind the counter said: “ahh ahh we don’t sell whoppers”. I laughed a lot and said “you know what I mean” it was pretty funny the whole kitchen was cracking up. I got back to TRNP and hung out again drinking more water. I wasn’t really feeling too good. So I read the map. It inspired me to go on the 36-mile scenic loop. I’m really glad that I did. I saw lots of awesome ground formations. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. Every bend and twist gave me something new and different to look at. My favorite part has to be Buck Hill. Buck Hill, you have to go about a mile off the main loop, pretty much going straight up. When you get to the parking lot, there is a short walk at a 60-degree incline. So many people were huffing and puffing just to make it up to the top. I was in that category, unfortunately. Once at the top you can see forever! It is spectacular! I could have sat up there all day and just gazed. Every hill and valley, every river and tree. I would recommend if you can listen to the weather radio and find out when the sunset is, go there and watch it. I’m sure it won’t let you down. When I was up there. I noticed a gnarly storm coming in from the west. I heard on the radio it was coming but of course it never says when. Anyways I decided to get back to Cottonwood as soon as possible. I must have gone 10 miles when there was a back up on the road. Wild horses, around 30 of them just grazing on the hills. They were really close to the road. Unfortunately, I didn’t stop because of the storm but I did have my gimbal and yi on and got some quick video. 5 miles down the road there was a herd of 60 + bison. They were super close to the road as well and of course, people have to stop and take pictures. It made me a little uneasy being so close on my motorcycle blocked by traffic, luckily nothing happened but it was awesome to see them hanging out like that. I got a few photos of the herd. I finally got back to Cottonwood and the storm was getting closer and there was a lot of lightning. At this point, I think it was around 6 pm and I had another 7 miles to hike back to my tent. Fortunately, I met a man named Larry. Larry is a fantastic guy from Pennsylvania who had to retire at 45 due to health issues. He told me that back in the day he would ride all over the US. Slept in lots of weird places. He had a lot of fun stories to tell me. As I was hiking back to my tent Larry stopped and asked if I needed a ride. His car was full of stuff, so I said yes but only if he didn’t have to move anything. He said he did, but he insisted on helping me. Insisted! So I crammed myself into his car and he took me 3 miles to peaceful valley ranch and demanded to give me his address in case if I was ever in Pennsylvania. I accepted and thanked him. Larry kept wanting to give me food and whatever. I’m sure he would give me the shirt off his back if I needed one. What a great guy! The storm was a pond me now so I had to force a goodbye and another thank you. I once again was exposed to the elements. I had another 4 miles to hike up a hill during a lightning storm… Not the smartest of ideas. It was like something out of a movie. Lighttight striking all around me. Static in the air. I thought for sure I was going to be frozen in time as a “dentate”. I remember talking to the earth and sky, asking them to please let me pass unharmed. They must have heard me because once I got into my tent. It started to rain and thunder and lightning! It was so bright from the flashes of lightning and the volume of the thunder was increasing every second. I felt so small. The powers around me seemed as if they were commanding time itself. It was a very powerful experience. I read a bit of my book and journal a bit. And forced me to sleep. Stay Restless.
Day one
Published Date : July 8, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Day one of the trip was long, I didn’t eat anything but what my mom and dad gave me for breakfast. I left the house somewhere around 9 am and drove 300 miles west to Theodore Roosevelt national park. I arrived somewhere around 5 pm. I got my back country camping pass and headed out to Cottonwood campground as my staging ground. I parked my bike loaded up my two backpacks probably around 100 pounds. Then I hiked about 3 miles to peace full valley ranch where my trail head starts. Before I set off, I refilled my water containers but I forgot my trail mix at the facet. Thankfully some very nice people picked it up and brought it back to me. Once I made it to peaceful valley ranch I hiked another 4 miles down the Ekblom trail. Oh man, Oh man am I out of shape… I must have hiked 500 feet when I realized that I was so tired of hiking. But this is an adventure and I had to continue. I came across a river, The Little Missouri River. It’s not a raging river or anything but I had to cross it. What a perfect time to test out my Waterproofing on my boots. I probably put a whole tube of shoe goo on them. They held up pretty well, just a little leaking around the more worn out parts. Next, I had to hike past a few Prairie dog towns; they are pretty dang cute, but they are really annoying. All they do is squeak and wag their little tails and then run into their holes. At this point, I needed to decide, keep hiking or climb the nearest hill/mound and camp at the top. I said Yolo and started climbing. I only had to stop and rest about 3 times. As I was climbing I noticed a lot of foot prints, I really hoped that they were horses. But the more that I climbed the more I realized that they were bison prints… and that was a little uncomfortable, but I made it that far so I had to continue. At the top of the mound, there was another Prarie dog town and that really pissed me off because I really wanted to have untouched land up there… but I was wrong. I also noticed lots and lots of bison chips. So that means that the bison can definitely get to the top. I hiked on and found a nice little spot out of sight and out of mind. I set up camp and went to the edge of the mound to watch the sunset. It was really really beautiful! All the pinks and oranges and reds beaming off the rest of the badlands. I went to bed without dinner because I’m really dumb and didn’t pack any. I didn’t get much sleep because I was paranoid of bison coming up and crawling into my sleeping bag with me. It was an interesting first day. Remember I have camping experience and some backcountry camping experience… but really I have no idea what I’m doing and I don’t think I would take it any other way. The excitement of not knowing and adapting on the fly is a great skill to have. Until tomorrow. Stay Restless.
Through the hills I walk. #Restlessdan #motorcycle #roadtrip
Published Date : July 2, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
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Day one of the trip #Restlessdan #motorcycle #roadtrip #wishmeluck #nationalpark #hopeidontdie
Published Date : July 1, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
via Instagram http://ift.tt/2uvezPE
Back on the rocks
Published Date : June 30, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in7c5JllLwg Awwwww, Back to Blue Mounds State Park MN. I have been rocking climbing here for as long has I can remember. My family and I go there pretty often and seem like we go more consistent now than ever before. It’s super awesome when we get friends to come along with us and show them the “ropes”. This year a lot of my friends showed up! It was great! Camping, drinking, eating, rock climbing whats not to love! We had awesome weather and awesome attitudes. Everyone who came gave it a shot and they all made it to the top. Gosh, darn does it make me happy when people say they can’t do something and totally overcome their fears. If you would be interested in coming with us, shoot me an email at restless.dan1@gmail.com or leave a comment. I may not get back to you right away about a new trip but I will once we make new plans for next year. Check out these photos from the weekend. [Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”4″ gal_title=”Rock Climbing 2017″]
I start my motorcycle trip this Saturday. When I am on my trip I won’t be able to mail out and RDstickers. Feel free to still support me by purchasing one or five, but just be aware that they probably won’t ship out until August. Also, when I am on my trip I still plan to post as much as possible, so I’m sorry if you feel like I’m a bit spammy. But I may not have service all the time so that may spare your notification tab. If you would like to see pictures and video probably at a faster rate. Then add me on SnapChat. Here is my Snap code.
STAY RESTLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shaky Turd
Published Date : June 16, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
It’s not a secret, I’m moving away from Fargo ND soon. The destination is still unclear, but plans are defiantly in the making. The Shaky Turd is but only one turd in the toilet of my plans, and for good reason. About a month ago I had to make a decision, do I want to put my whole life’s belongings in a rented storage unit? Or do I want to own something that can store my belongings in for a one-time payment? I thought long and hard about this decision and after some math and discussions, I decided that buying a 6X12 trailer would be the most logical choice. Although you can argue that renting a storage unit for 5 months and a U-haul for a week would be cheaper. I would argue that I would rather have my money work for me in the long run, rather than just hand it over to someone for a service in the short term. What I mean by this is for a little more money I can store all of my belongings for as long as I like for free and because everything is already in a trailer, I can literally just hook up and leave at any moment already packed; It’s like killing two birds with one slightly bigger stone. Furthermore, there is one more point I would like to make. I would own the trailer for as long as I want to keep it and trailers are just so dang useful. I can haul most things and I can camp in it, just to name a couple of things. By now, you are probably sitting there wondering “But Dan, what does any of this have to do with a “Shaky Turd”?” That’s a great question. Although the trailer thing is a good idea in theory. I own a motorcycle and a Ford Focus… both of which can’t pull a 6X12 2K pound axle enclosed trailer (loaded). So, my friends, this is where the Shaky Turd comes into play. The Shaky Turd is a 1997 Chevy Blazer with 235k miles on it and a whole hell of a lot of body rust. I bought is from a weird guy who lives in Wadena MN. I met him through a Craigslist ad, mainly because my budget for a vehicle was $500.00 or less and his Blazer fit the bill. So one weekend I asked Guy (my dad) if he would be willing to drive me out to Wadena to look at this guy’s Blazer. Guy said “sure” and then we headed out. The directions lead us to a building that resembled a place where prostitutes would normally get murdered at… Basically, this was a two story classic motel style building. Also, with a bar that you are bound to get shanked at. This place is also complete with “Grody homeless looking man wearing nothing but boxers and a bathrobe” and “27 Latino people living in one 600 square foot apartment” and “Creepy tattooed biker man with a weird accent”. The Blazer was parked in the parking lot and so I proceeded to start looking at it while I waited for the owner to show up. My first impressions were that it had a lot of body rust and why the hell is there a whole engine in the trunk? Seriously, I thought this guy just happened not to mention that the engine was not connected. I was a little alarmed by the situation but then the owner showed up.
He gave me the keys and the blazer started right up. The engine had a lot of bounce in it, as in cylinder 3 was missing during idle. Also, there was a very loud and annoying squeaking sound. We next set off on a test drive. My main goal was to see how the shaky turd handle at around 70 miles per hour. It did manage to get going that fast, which was awesome and the misfire from cylinder 3 seemed to smooth out after higher RPMs. All and all the Blazer ran straight and true with minimal problems. So we turned around and headed back to the cesspool. The owner was waiting and asked us “how’d she run?” I said, “it ran pretty good or at least as good as I needed it to”. After that awkward exchange of words, I had to seriously consider this option for my future trailer. I mulled it over in my head, finally, I asked if he would take $500.00 for it? He was pretty hesitant, so I leaned over and crawled under the blazer and found a bunch of different things dripping. This was an important thing to look for because I asked the owner several times via text messages if the blazer had anything leaking; He always replied: “everything is sound underneath.” I crawled back out from under the blazer and showed him my hands. On one, I had engine oil and on the other a red transmission fluid. The owner was shocked, almost stunned! He told me that it wasn’t doing that yesterday… For this reason, I told him that I wouldn’t go above $500.00 for it. The owner agreed with the one condition that we would help get the 350 small block out of the back. I agreed not actually knowing how heavy an engine is. I have always known that you needed some sort of lift or small crane to remove them, but the owner said that he single handed lifted the engine and put it into the back of the Blazer. We then backed the Blazer to what I think was his patio of his apartment and prepared for the drop. Remember the “Creepy tattooed biker man with a weird accent” that I mentioned earlier? Yeah… he was the main muscle for the whole operation. We all gathered around the back of the Blazer and grabbed the engine anywhere that we could get a good grasp on it. “3, 2, 1, LIFT!!!!” This part just kind of flashed before my eyes. I’m going to be really honest here, I didn’t put any effort into moving that engine; I just rested one hand on the engine and let “Creepy tattooed biker man with a weird accent” do all the heavy lifting. I had 2 main reasons for acting like this. First, “Creepy tattooed biker man with a weird accent” had his sleeves cut off and in my opinion, if you have your sleeves cut off, you better be able to lift a 350 small block.
Secondly, I can barely lift a spoon to my mouth hole. As you can kind of predict where this is going, we basically just pulled the engine out of the Blazer and let it drop to the ground. “Creepy tattooed biker man with a weird accent” was trying to support it with all of his might but compared to the collective who decided it was better to just let it drop, it was a bad idea for him to try and show off. So from now on, I’m going to refer to him as “Creepy tattooed biker man with a weird accent and a broken arm”. He was too much of tough guy to admit it but I’m pretty sure that he broke his wrist from the angle and the way his hand kind of got stuck in a crack of the engine. Anyways, we signed the title over to me, paid the owner $500.00 bucks and got in my brand new, pretty rusty Shaky Turd and drove back to Fergus Falls where I have been working on it ever since.
If you are interested in becoming a supporter, please consider buying a sticker on the shop page. Stay Restless!
The Art Of Solo
Published Date : June 2, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-a1WExytkZc The Art Of Solo is a Youtube video that I have watched recently and it’s super. It has stunning visuals, great videography, and is really inspiring! Matt Bush is a world known solo rock climber. He climbs what seems to be impossible hight’s with no hand or feet holds; almost like he floats up the face of the rock. Nonetheless, he does this all totally unsupported; meaning no ropes, no anchors, no belayer! It truly is impressive! His attitude towards making mistakes is what makes him so strong in his sport. Failing time and time again to work on moving past a difficult part of the line, only to fall again and redo everything. When Matt does make it to the top, it looks like he takes a second to soak it all in, or maybe just to catch his breath. I could only imagine the feeling of accomplishing something this. It would be incredible. As I ponder about all of this, it makes me think “Why don’t I work harder at things?” “Why don’t I strive for the same feelings of accomplishment?” It’s hard for me to answer these questions, but I really need to start facing them. I only hope I’m not the only one.
Trips and adventures are still on their way. I’m still working on moving which is taking up a lot of time. I am also working on my motorcycle trip post and info. Along with some other fun stuff! But that is for another day. If you are interested in becoming a supporter, please consider buying a sticker on the shop page. Stay Restless!
Beautiful day for the yaks #Restlessdan
Published Date : May 27, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
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I got some new trading cards!
Published Date : May 26, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized I got the logo, then the stickers, now the business cards. I’m pretty excited about these and they turned out awesome! I choose “Adventure Cultivator” because I think those two words describe what I do pretty well. Adventure: an unusual and exciting, typically hazardous, experience or activity. Cultivator: try to acquire or develop (a quality, sentiment, or skill) or apply oneself to improving or developing (one’s mind or manners). Budget Consulting I have been doing for some time now; although kind of privately with my friends. I also feel like I could help a lot of people with this skill that I have. The two of these titles working together I hope to improve people’s lives financially or adventurously; possibly at the same time!
Stay Restless!
Vox
Published Date : May 19, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Happy Friday! Today I wanted to share something that I truly enjoy, and that is Vox. On their website they have an “about us” page and in that page they describe them selfs like this; “Vox explains the news. We live in a world of too much information and too little context. Too much noise and too little insight. And so Vox’s journalists candidly shepherd audiences through politics and policy, business and pop culture, food, science, and everything else that matters. You can find our work wherever you live on the internet — Facebook, YouTube, email, iTunes, Snapchat, Instagram, and more.” As far as news goes I’m not really into it that much. CNN, Fox New they bore me, they also are very negative; they only seem to focus on the bad stuff or things to distract us from more important topics. This brings me to Vox. Vox, in my opinion is pretty unbiased for a news outlet. They seem to show both sides of the coin and then leave you wondering, or at least trying to find out more. They also handle a wide verity of topics. Like the quote above explains “politics and policy, business and pop culture, food, science, and everything else that matters”. Info like that is important to me; It’s positive when their journalists report on great things and it boarders negative vibes when they report on things that get me worked up. Only to wonder why my fellow humans are so cruel or rude or stupid towards one another. Where they truly shine tough is while it is news, you learn during the article. For example take the Vox video “Israeli settlements, explained | Settlements Part I“. During this article you learn about the history of Israel and why it is important now along and with also in the future. They do a really good job of breaking everything down. Conventional news may only focus on bombings or maybe Israels walls or immigration. But Vox on the other hand will start with a broad overview and narrow that down into a fine point topic. It’s really is fantastic. Another great article is “Kanye, deconstructed: The human voice as the ultimate instrument” this one is also on Vox Youtube. It’s kind of funny to me because I don’t really care for Kanye, but I like Vox so I watched it anyways. Vox can take a subject like Kanye and educate me on how he changed the game and I can walk away from it with a little appreciation for the guy. They must be doing something right. And I like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmceh9nIbBY Above is Thursdays Vox video article about how Donnie T makes it harder for the US to fight terrorists… Basically I hope you watch it because there are some really cool things in here I bet you didn’t know and will wonder “WTF”. All in all I think Vox is really great! Their journalists do an awesome job on what they report. I just wanted to show some love towards them. Stay Restless!
Supporters Page is live!
Published Date : May 10, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Hey friends! I just want everyone to know that the Supporters page is now live! This is because the first Restless Dan stickers have been shipped! I again want to thank my supporters! The supporters page is found in the main menu bar of the Restless Dan site. If you would like your name on that page, then all you have to do is buy a sticker.
I am sorry for the lack of content lately. This is because of two main reasons. The first is that I’m preparing to move from North Dakota to somewhere else… I really don’t know where yet. This has been consuming most of my time. I have to plan so much out. I just bought a really really old chevy blazer (I really need to write a story on this alone). I have also been packing a lot! All of this isn’t a nightmare yet… but it has been slowing down my trips places. Secondly, because I am slowly but surely planning and writing my month long motorcycle trip. The page does have some on it so far… but a lot of it is hidden because it’s a working progress when I can find the time. Thank you all for your patience! Stay Restless!
What the deck?
Published Date : May 7, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
The past three weeks I have been going home to my parents house to help my dad build a new deck. It has been an interesting adventure… A big majority of my time is moving rocks around or standing around drinking beer… But maybe that’s just how one builds a deck. I think it should be done today. Here is a photo of the progress.
Stay Restless!
It’s Here!!
Published Date : May 3, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
EVERYBODY EVERYBODY!!!! I’m super excited to present to you! The Restless Dan Shop!! The Restless Dan Shop is now up and running!!! Surprise! !!!! Currently for sale is my Restless Dan badge logo sticker! All of the money goes to producing content; such as trips and videos. Also, the money will support web development! Now your support is never expected, and I truly; TRULY honor my readers support. Being that said, I want to enshrine anyone that buys anything from Restless Dan.com into the website itself. How will I make sure this happens? Once the first order is placed, I will create a page called “Supporters”. I want to make a page that anyone can go to and scroll through the names of said supporters, states, recent date of purchase and how many times. I also respect confidentiality, if you don’t want your name on the page that’s fine. I will just put “Anonymous” as your name but still give you credit on everything else. I just think that you all are great! No matter what! And if you want a little peace of this… I want you to be able to get it! So share with your friends! Spread the word! If you do get one! I would love to see it! Take a picture and post it to where ever with the hashtag #restlessdansticker
On a different topic I want to discuss participation. I would love for you guys to start commenting on the bogs or pages them self! I want feed back! Good or bad. I want to learn and grow and make better content! SO please please leave comments! If you are just reading the blog in a list from… and want to leave a comment. Just click on the post you want to comment on and towards the bottom of the page there will be a “Leave A Reply” box! Leave your comment in there and I will reply!!! AAAANNNNDDDDDD Remember!!! Stay Restless!
A little bump
Published Date : May 1, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
So it looks like my surprise will have to wait until Tuesday unfortunately. 😦 I’m a little bummed out. But thaaaaaaaatttt’ssss the way the news goes. Stay tuned for Tuesday! Stay Restless!
Exciting Things!
Published Date : April 26, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
There hasn’t been a lot of crazy things happening lately. I am also really late on stories and videos. I just wanted to let everyone know that I actually have been working on some promotional things, and a big surprise! It should be rolling out by the end of the weekend; if not before. So keep your eyes open! Stay Restless!
New Logo
Published Date : April 17, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized Here is my brand spanking new logo! I’m going to make stickers soon!
The Birrenkott Brothers
Published Date : April 15, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
I would like to tell a little story about The Birrenkott Brothers. Earlier this year one of my roommates were having some car problems. Basically his tires kept deflating. The tires are super super old. Instead of just getting new ones he would always just pump them up with an air compressor. This time he wanted to move is car into the our garage. Mind you that the air compressor is easily moveable. But still the plan was to bring the car into the garage. In front of the door was a snow drift and Chris thought he could just drive right through it. Unfortunately he did get suck in the drift. My other roommate Joe came out to help push him out. They couldn’t unstick the car with just Joe pushing on the back. Chris was in the car giving it gas while Joe was pushing. But then he got out… Left the car in drive and helped push. Whalp… That did it. They got it unstuck and it drove right into the back of the garage and broke a big whole in the wall.
It’s still there.
Yesterday I got home from work and I was pretty tired because the other Birrenkott brother, Josh with the help of his friends kept me up until about 3am… (works at 4am) so I decided to take a nap. About a half hour later I woke up to a zappy crashy noise. I originally thought that it was my indoor garden light, so I didn’t mind it much attention. The rest of my house went to investigate because apparently the power was out. It turns out that Josh backed into our house and ripped off the main cable supplying our house with power. We were without power for five hours.
Conclusion, The Birrenkott Brothers are really good at running into things with their cars.
We are taking on water!
Published Date : April 7, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
So today at work we are putting new beams in a bay and there is a sprinkler system that actually runs through the entire aisle and we had to put the beam exactly where the sprinkler system was and usually it’s not a big problem because there’s brackets on every single upright that holds the sprinkler system in place. But we were missing them this time and when we remove the brackets that are holding the sprinkler system up and it actually fell to the ground and there’s an elbow area towards one side of the aisle that basically supplies this line with water and it cracked and basically we flooded the entire Home Depot and it was really gross and it was really stressful and it was crazy and I don’t really know how to think about it. Coming up I’m going to make a page about going to Carbondale visiting my friend John. It was a pretty cool trip. I can’t wait to get it done.
Gosh Damn TV!
Published Date : March 27, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
So here is a little update! I’m going to keep it nice and short.
- I have fallen victim to TV. The show “Black Sails” specifically. That is why I haven’t done any new content for a long time.
- I AM STILL DOING STUFF!!!! Don’t you worry about that.
- The most recent things I have done are as follows
- I went and visited my friend “Snow” down in the cities about two weeks ago.
- I took a road trip to Naples Florida with some friends. This was last week.
- I became an uncle.
Going forward I am going to try and keep the blog to short little updates and blurps. Kind of like Facebook’s “status”. So you can expect to see things like where I am in the world, current thoughts, probably some photos and stuff. Now where my bigger “stories” will go will be on individual pages. If you subscribe with your email it will tell you if there has been a new blog post or Story post. I’m going to try really really really really hard to crank out a lot of new pages. I keep saying that in past blog post that I will make a page on this or that and I never do it. But damn it I’m going to really try! Tomorrow I leave for Kirksville MO and then to Carbondale IL to visit my awesome long time friend Johnny. Stay Restless!
Colorado
Published Date : February 23, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiQIc7fG9pA This song is stuck in my head. His glasses and my glasses are a coincidence. This past week / weekend was an eye opening experience for me. I did a lot of firsts for me. I am fortunate enough to have an awesome boss where I work. Where he basically lets me rearrange my work week to have any days off I need. For example, I can work eleven hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Then on Thursday work my normal eight hours and then I can have Friday off. This is huge for me. This allows me to travel on weekends. I am forever great full. So I have a rule with this blog and basically it’s to be very honest about me. So I’m sorry Jordan if you read this and get upset. Back in January my cousin Jordan invited me to spend the weekend with him in Colorado. He has asked several times in the past and every time I have turned him down. This is because growing up I didn’t always see eye to eye with my cousin. He was always kind of a douche or rude. This time though I was just about to turn him down again when I thought to my self “why don’t you just go? what’s the worst that could happen?” So I texted Jordan back with just some dates that would work for me and he agreed that they would work for him as well. You guys, I am so glad that I gave my cousin another chance. He has done a full one eighty. He is nice and kind. He is generous and his willingness to help is like no one I have ever met. He is a hard worker and a deep thinker. I honestly can say I fully enjoyed every minute I spent with him and his friends. I cannot wait to see him again. In my mind there is only two ways to get to Colorado. The first is via car and the second is via plane. The formula for witch to choose goes like this. Time X money X %LOC (if you travel by plane your %LOC will always be 1). You are probably wondering what %LOC is? It stands for “percent love of country.” what this means is if you drive how much do you want to see the world from that prospective? Here is my actual math. Car: 26 hours X $120 for gas total X 80%. This equals 2496. This number alone doesn’t really mean much… really anything (haha) but when you compare it to something else like the same math but for a plane for instance. Plane: 10 hours X $337 X 1 (%LOC). This equals 3707. Basically you should take the trip via the transportation with the lowest outcome. In my case it was via car. I know, I know this is a pretty convoluted and sometimes a quick plane ticket to where you are going is really the easiest way. But on the other hand I really think it is important to at least way your options. You really miss a lot of experiences when you are in a plane. My dates and plans were set and on the sixteenth right after work I set off on my thirteen hour drive to Colorado. My first impressions were: excitement, energized, relaxed, happy, and rushed. I have never driven for so many hours at once alone before, so that was first for me. I wasn’t scared to drive this long… I was more worried about gas in Nebraska. Other than that it was smooth sailing. I downloaded “best of Amazon prime” playlist along with some others. I also had some audio books that I brought from the Fargo library. The audio books where the best decision I had made in along time as far as traveling goes. It was really nice to listen to something that I could really think about or reflect upon while I was driving. I highly recommend it for any distance traveling. It allows you to escape from your car and pass the time a little quicker. A drive is a drive no matter how you slice it so I’m just going to skip ahead. I made it to Jordan’s house around one thirty am. My cousin came out helped me with my bags, showed me to my room, and then I went to bed not even knowing how fantastic the next couple of days would be. The next Jordan woke me up wondering if I wanted to go get coffee with him and his girlfriend. I am not a coffee drinker so I respectfully declined and got a few more hours of needed sleep. I actually got out of bed around nine a.m. took a shower and got ready for the day. What a beautiful day it was. It was super shiny sunny day about seventy degrees. The sky was a sort of fluorescent light blue with not a cloud in the sky. Jordan had to work a little later then expected on Friday so his girlfriend and I sat outside around a patio table and basked in the sun rays. Ellen is absolutely one of the most pleasant people I have ever met. She is warm and welcoming and a good conversationalist. Jordan is very lucky to have her in his life. After a beer, Jordan was finally finished with work and we started packing the 4runner. Our plan for the day was to go up to the mountains and go off-roading, go to Boulder beer company, and go hiking. We all jumped in the car and off we were. Colorado’s mountains are spectacular! When I first saw them all I did was take picture after picture after picture. I was just in awe of them. After a bit I realized that most of my pictures were all kind of the same so I started to hold back from snapping but my gaze was still fixed on them. We ended up at the off-road trail and waited for Jordan to expect it. Jordan thought it was to icy and there for to dangerous to go an farther so we turned around and went to Nederland. Now Nederland is this little village type place up in the mountains set next to this man made lake. To be honest there isn’t much going on in this little town… OH WAIT they have FROZEN DEAD GUY DAYS. Now we were not there when the festival was taking place but concept struck me as crazy fun. Basically in this town a while back this old man died. His daughter and his grand son froze his body so that some day in the future when the technology is here, it could bring him back to life. Pretty crazy right? Because of this weird event it sparked an even weirder one. Frozen dead guy days. This festival hosts thirty plus bands, a lot of beer, and some pretty weird games. Games include “costumed polar plunge”, “coffin races”, and “ice turkey bowling” to name a few. We ate some pizza and had a beer. Then we headed back down the mountain to Boulder. Once back, we went to Boulder Beer Company. This brewery has one of my all time favorite porters. Chocolate shake porter. This beer tastes exactly like chocolate milk. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that they had shake with nitro and literally in a milk shake! I would have hands down had the milk shake! Next on the list was hiking! I was feeling pretty buzzed at this point from all of the beers I have had that day. Hiking really just was a bad idea all together and just really showed me how out of shape I am. But none the less it was a killer hike! Once at the top of the mountain you could see forever and ever. I could see all of Boulder and way of in the distance I could see just the tipsy top of Denver. It was a beautiful view. Later that night we met up with Jordan and Ellen’s friends. Alli and Nish. Alli is this cute, exciting, no fucks given kind of girl that gives off an electrifying vibe. Nish is an Indian man right off the boat. He likes to disciple him self as a “cute small brown puppy” but he is a kind giving soul that likes to have a good time with shots. We all went out to a place called “Pearl street”. This street is the down town of Boulder and is pretty damn cool. I can only imagine how crazy it would be would be after a college football game or something. We went to three bars that night. The first one was in the basement. With low ceiling and kind of raw feel to it. It was pretty crowded but not uncomfortable. We got a pitcher of beer and hung out by the pool table. Next we went to this video themed bar. This place smelt like ass hole and B.O. Every step I took down there my foot would stick to the ground. It was a pit. We left pretty quick. The last bar that we went to was this tequila bar. It was a pretty cool little place. It had good vibes and a nice layout. I got a few coronas and started to people watch. Nish insisted on shots. I have to be very very in the mood to take shots and I declined him several times… but he is a persistent little brown man. So I had a vodka shot at a tequila bar. haha. Interestingly when you take shots of any liquor… you get pretty drunk. Apparently when I get drunk and my favorite songs come on, my white boy dance moves come out. I’m not proud of them, in fact I’m thankful for not being able to remember them. I had a great night with great people. We all crashed at Alli’s house, minus Nish who went home. The next day would have to be up at four a.m. Well, as some of you may have guessed… I woke up with a hangover. Fantastic! I also woke up to Jordan screaming “ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII GET YOUR ASS UPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!”. It was funny but my head really hurt. We all got up and ready for the day… the day of skiing!! I have been waiting all trip to go skiing on some real mountains and I was super excited! We first went to a grocery store called “king supers”. Jordan needed to get some supplies for the day. While Ellen, Alli, and I went to this bagel shop for breakfast. I’m not going to lie here, they had fantastic food and service! The only thing I didn’t like was that I got a green machine as a drink. This drink would normally cost me about three dollars. But at this bagel shop it cost about seven… way way to inflated. Oh well, I wanted it. After breakfast we were on our way to the snow capped mountains! The drive was very scenic and pretty! When we got to our destination, I was speechless. I’m just going to leave some pictures here to show you.
After we parked our car. In my head I thought “Alright! We are here! Time for a full day of crazy skiing! Okay! I’ll suit up and grab my skis” Little did I know how Party mountain really worked. The gang instantly started setting up a beer pong table right in the parking lot. My jaw dropped and my head ached. But when you are there for an experience. You have to buck up and play pong! I’m not going to lie it was super fun and different. A nice little surprise. We didn’t bring any water.. but we did have a box of wine so that is what we used in place of our beer. Looking back on that day we never actually finished the game. So I’m just going to chalk the win to Jordan and I. After getting made fun of for wearing jeans under my snow pants, we finally went skiing. We were all feeling pretty lit. My roommate Ross let me use his skis and poles and boots for the weekend, it was very nice of him to do so. All I needed now was a lift ticket. Jordan was very generous and purchase me one and I am very thankful for that. I remember getting my skis on and moving to the chair lift line and looking up at the mountain and being a little intimidated. I have only skied on little hills in Minnesota. Every run at those places are like a thirty seconds long. In Colorado their runs are six minuets long at there minimum. Even though the mountain was intimidating I was still confident in my skiing ability. On my first run there was a little learning curve. I am use to bombing most hills. But on the mountain I was getting way to much speed and cutting off lots of people. I finally fell and tumbled onto my back and slid down have the run. It was a humble experience. Jordan gave me some pointers and some rules to the mountain. For instance, the skier in front of you always have the right away. On my second run it was a bit different. I went down with a more focus mind and also aware of my surroundings. This time we wend down the back side of of the mountain. There was less people and I had more control. I was fallowing Alli down and towards the middle of the run there was this little bump. Next thing I know I see Alli just go flying! It was a ten footer! Unfortunately she didn’t land it. Instead, she landed on her ass and her skies went flying. I busted out laughing after realizing that she wasn’t hurt. Alli has balls… or she was to lit. Probably both. All and all it was pretty damn cool! After a few more beers on the chair lift and a few more runs we had to head back to Denver. But not before going to Black Hawk. Black Hawk is kind of similar to Deadwood North Dakota. It’s a gambling town and that’s about it. I have never really been a gambler and I wasn’t really feeling very well at this point anyways. Jordan is really really good at craps so I decided to stand by them and just watch the game unfold. After a while I got kind of board of watching so I found an ATM and pulled out a sixty… aaaannnndddd it’s gone… I lost my sixty dollars in the slots in about five minutes. Not my proudest moment but that’s life and so skulked back to the craps table to continue watching the game. Jordan won one hundred and fifty dollars. Next time I’m going to take him up on him teaching me how to play. We made it home about six at night. It was finally nap time! I was feeling so dehydrated and the pressure behind my eyes was really annoying. I fell into a very very deep sleep. Then I got a phone call! I thought that I was dreaming! I thought that I over slept into the next week and I missed work! I jumped out of bed and fell on the floor scrambling to find my phone! HEEEELLOOOOOO ???????? It was my cousin. “Are you ready for Denver night life?” I said that I didn’t really feel like drinking any more today. So instead we went to this little burger place down town. It had a fun atmosphere, but the service was the worst that I have ever experienced in my life. It was so bad that we went out to our car and got our own water. I’m just going to rap this up now. We went home. We went to bed. I woke up. I packed my car. I drove home. The world is full of surprises, Let it surprise you. Stay Restless
Little update
Published Date : February 21, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
I’m currently working on a new post with a correlating video of my Colorado trip. If the video takes longer than I expect I’ll post it later. Hopefully a full post in Sunday. Stay Restless.
RKSRKSRKSRKSRKSRKSRKSRKS
Published Date : February 12, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdVubZ6fZaU Last week. Oh man what a week! First off it was my birthday on Monday. So I’m officially a quarter of a century old now. Applause applause! Had a weird relationship revision thingy thing happen… life went on haha. Now on to some more fun stuff! This past week / weekend was jammed packed with stuff! Lets start off with Thursday. Thursday was the day that RKS came to Minneapolis! RKS has been a band that I have been following for some time now. They are a fairly newer band with their first album dropping in 2013. I started following them in 2015 when their new self titled album came out. I love them. I noticed something about myself because of this concert. I had plans to go to this concert with a friend and we mutually decided not to go with each other. A year ago I would have just said “well, looks like I just wasted thirty bucks. I’ll hit up the next one.” This time however, I really really really wanted to go. PERIOD. So I started to text everyone I knew. Hold up… I’m going to go into a little side story real quick. I found it very strange how most people I would ask to attend this concert with me would have all of their decisions based on one question. “What band is it?” In my mind, it doesn’t matter “what band is it?” I’m offering you a free ticket, a free ride, a free hotel, basically a free adventure. And because you don’t know the band or the music it turns you off to a potential experiences. If I would have had the same offer and nothing going on, you be I would jump on the chance. But I digress… So for a while there I couldn’t find anyone to go with me to this concert. But damn it, I was going to go regardless of if I had someone to go with or not. This is very irregular of me too. Like I said before I probably wouldn’t have gone. But then I had a crazy idea to text my old friend Vinny! Vinny is an aspiring musician and he is damn good at what he does. Him and I go way back to high school where we were in a little fun band called “The Clowns of War“. Lucky for me he texted back with a “sure, why not?” So we agreed to meet up at Pizza Lucé and catch up over some pizza and beer. It made me really miss that kid. I really hope we go to more shows in the cities together. You all should check out his band Lavender Daughter! Support SUPPORT! Vinny and I went to 7th Street for the show. The first band was called Caamp. They were pretty groovy, a cool little banjo, guitar, raspy voice duo. But RKS was the real show stopper! They were so good!! I really like it when bands sound exactly like there album. I think it really shows how great of musicians they are. The only thing I didn’t like about their show was their encore. It’s like as soon as they left the stage they did a bunch of LSD and was like “sssshhhiiitittttt guuysss HHeeerrrreee goesssssssssssss na-na-na-nothing.” It was pretty bad. I’d still throw my money at them though. ^-^
Because it was pretty dark in the venue. My camera took longer exposure pictures. That’s why these are so blurry. I think they are kind of cool though. Later on that night I dropped Vinny off at his car and drove to my hotel. That night in the lobby I saw that there was a chiropractor reunion taking place there the same weekend. I thought to myself “that could be interesting to crash”. The next day I pretty much just sat in my room and watched TV. This was pretty lame in my eyes. But because I’m unfamiliar with the cities and because I don’t go there that often, I was content. Around eight at night the banquet began. I had some decent dress clothes with me so I put them on and when downstairs to mingle. I think the hotel was catering the food, but with out a doubt it was delicious. As the night progressed so did my background story. I was Dr. Anderson from class of 92. My practice was named Happy hands chiropractic located in Fargo. I met a lot of cool people! And I don’t know if they thought I was cool or interesting, funny, or if they saw right through my disguise. Maybe it was all three. None the less I had a great evening with my new doctor friends and made a lot of new memories. Saturday was skiing day. My sister wanted to take me out because it was my birthday that week. I do enjoy skiing quite a bit, and I wish that I would get out and do it more. There was a great mix of people there. My good friends Joe and Jared. My brothers friends and my sisters. The night air was brisk and the nar was fresh. Minnesota isn’t really known for “Skiing mountains” we have more of “hills”. Detroit Mountain is the closest hill to Fargo and after six it’s pretty cheap too. We have been going here for the past three years and it’s always been a pretty good time. There is this skiing trail through the woods with like bridges and walls and jumps and things. It’s actually pretty dangerous because it’s dark out and trees are everywhere. BUT IT’S SO FUN! I don’t know call me weird but the unexpected crash regardless of getting hurt is pretty fun in my eyes. I was going through this trail and it seems like every time I would go through it I would take a different path. Towards the end of the trail it drops straight down and I couldn’t really pizza that well because of all the trees. At the end end of the trial it meets up with the real trail that we were suppose to be on. Where the two meet there is basically a wall and this wall really is a jump from my prospective. I hit that thing going way to fast and landed right on my ass! Oh man did that hurt, but I was laughing so hard! Then I hear ” no no no no LOOK OUT!!!” as I turn and look. I see my brother in the same predicament as me. He hits the jump and slams right into me! we both couldn’t stop laughing. About a minuet later I thought to myself “wait, where is Joe?” I look over Joe bombing the same trail yelling ” LOOK OUT! LOOK OUT! NO BREAKS!!!!” Boom! JUMP! crashes right into Pete and I. Again the laughter spewed out of all of us and only go worse as we all tried to unpretzel our selves and try to get back up on our skis.
After skiing Joe and Jared wanted to go out to this shitty little bar in West Fargo. There is a pretty fun nineties cover band that I like to watch called “Save me CJ”. In the past, they have absolutely crushed every single song they have played. This time, however, they got a new singer and drummer and I don’t know… they just weren’t the same. It was a pretty fun night out regardless though. As the weekend came to a close Sunday was a wild card for me. The old me was trying to get out of his chains and take control again. Normally I would have probably sat on my computer and watched Youtube all day. But I quickly tightened the chains and found the alternative. The trivia hostess from the Fargo Brewing Company, Amanda invited me to go to Buffalo river state park along with some others for a hike! It was a brilliant day. Lots of sun but it was on the chilly side. We hiked for about three hours. The hike was fun, relaxing, and pretty. I really hope I get invited to more excursions.
After the hike it was THE SUPERBOWL…. aaaannnndddd I don’t care. Regardless of my opinion on the event, it was still fun. My buddy Jared came over and then later his fiancé. It’s always great to have company over. Some team won, and then I went to sleep. The end. Some last thoughts. Life gave me some awesome opportunities this past week and I took them. Guess what? Nothing bad came of it. So If anyone actually reads this far, I challenge you to step out of your confront at least once this upcoming week. It could be small like looking into some passerby-ers eyes longer than usual; or something big like sky diving. But you owe it to your inner explorer and it could lead you to something that you love. For me, I will be driving to Colorado to visit my cousin. I have nothing planned once I get there, but I’m sure it will be a blast.
There are no strangers in this world, just friends you haven’t met yet
Published Date : January 24, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsyjS_vJfkw This song has been on repeat the past couple of days. I have been in this relationship for the past few months, and I have been really enjoying it up until now. It’s difficult when you try so hard, but the other person just thinks you’re annoying or clingy. When in reality, you care for them and they make your day. I am who I am, and they are who they are at the end of the day and I don’t wish to change people. We are all unique. In my last post I talked about I need some things to shoot for in 2017. To be honest I haven’t put any thought into this. So I’m going to just speak from the heart.
- Be more humble
- Make new friends
- Love my family more
- Make and follow goals
Humble: having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. I love the idea of being humble and would like to incorporate this into my life. If someone asked me to volunteer somewhere. I would probably turn them down, thinking I have more important things to do. But after the fact I really don’t and it will bug me for days that I didn’t do the right thing. Friends: a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection. Friends are important to me and it seems like my friend group is dwindling. People are moving away or getting married. Don’t get me wrong I am still friends with all of these people, it’s just hard to be a social animal when you are alone. So I would like to find more like minded people and get to know them. I think I can accomplish this by thinking of things I would like to do, go alone and just talk to people. For starters I am planning on going to The Fargo Brewing Company: Yoga on tap this month. Possibly fencing. Love: an intense feeling of deep affection. My family has always been there for me and will probably will be forever. But I haven’t always been there for them. So this year I am going to make sure that they can count on me for anything. Period. Goals: the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result. This one will definitely will be the hardest for me, but will be the thing I desperately need to improve upon. I don’t set goals and I don’t follow goals. To me they are just an object in my way and it’s much easier to just ignore them. This is BAD and I’m starting to realize that now. Goals make you a better more interesting person and that’s exactly who I want to become. So with these four things I am going to add a few more to really really work on. Looking good anytime I go anywhere (really this means putting nice clothes, making sure to be shaven and well groomed). I really just need things to accomplish, start small and work up. In addition to everything above I’m going to say that my definition of “Adventure” was that I needed to go someplace, see new things far away. But now I think I need to define it as: Doing something scary to me or taking me out of my comfort zone, here in town or far away. Going someplace and seeing new things and meeting new people. SOOOOOOOOOOOO I went to New Mexico last weekend… It was a spur of the moment kind of trip to get my mind of things. I am sure glad that I went. Dylan and I left North Dakota at 3pm on 1/13/17 and drove all day and all night to White Sands National Monument. We made it there around noon, then we got registered to camp in the back country. This place is another world. We got our hiking backpacks on and began to hike about two miles out into the white desert. I was unreal. Coming from the great white north your mind starts to play tricks on you… You see people sledding down the dunes and you start to think that it’s snow. 65 degrees, bear feet and snow. It’s nuts! It’s so pretty! I wish we had more time there. I’m going to try to make a page about what happened during the trip. Next we went to Carlsbad Caverns. Carlsbad Caverns in the Chihuahuan Desert are one of the world’s deepest, biggest and most decorated caverns ever found. It was breath taking. to be 750 feet down and seeing stalagmites 70 feet tall. This place was huge. Here are pictures. White sands panoramic. (< click me)
What will the new year bring us? 365 opportunities
Published Date : January 3, 2017
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
For your listening pleasure. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaokDriS144 So 2016 is over, and now we are on to 2017. I’m currently not in the best mood, but I’ll get over it. Its ruff trying to look back and remember the good things of 2016 because it always seems like there are way more bad things that had happen. Luckily I have a cool blog to help me remember. I got a new job, I met a lot of new people, I went to Norway, I got a kayak, a ton of adventures including the Apostle islands. Heck, I even paid off my student loans and that’s no small feat. I didn’t get everything checked off my list this past year. Mainly Havasu falls, but we were so close to going this past year that in 2017 I think it should work out. I have yet to sit down and really think about how I want 2017 to go… I guess that will be the next post. Now how about some fun stuff!!!!! That’s right ladies and gentlemen. Dylan and I went sledding in our kayaks! This was really a test run or a concept to see if it was possible. We also got some pretty cool video, so we will probably make a promo out of that. We were thinking it would be cool to go to a ski place and see if they would let us run their hills for more video footage. I think that would be pretty dang cool if it works out.
You are the captain of your own ship (no matter how small it is)
It’s been a while
Published Date : December 11, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Here is some easy listening while you read. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyiKkBtLwLw Oh my gosh it’s been was May since I last did a blog post. I’m sorry for that. I just kind of fell out of it. A lot of things have happen since May. The biggest most exciting of witch was my trip to Norway. I will be creating a page for this trip because there is just so much to talk about. My friend Dyland and I took a fast pace trip to Canada. We also went to the Apostle Islands with our friend Doug Grub. Here are a few pictures from those adventures.
So as you can see it’s not like I have been just sitting around doing nothing. I just haven’t been documenting about it. Havasu Falls may be around the corner so stay tuned. Also I will probably put up a new little blog post when I create a new page. Sorry that this blog posts content is a little lacking. I just really wanted to get something out there and start again.
Norway is on the horizon
Published Date : May 3, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Lets start out with some music! This has been on repeat for like two weeks! It’s great! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JMosZlTZr4 Man Oh Man where to start! How about on Thursday! So a few weeks ago I went on kind of a disaster rafting trip. It was still fun and all but what I learned was I need a kayak. I shopped around for a while and found one for a fair price I thought (or at least more feathers). My buddy Dylan agreed to road trip it up to East Grand Forks to pick it up. I really can’t wait for some real adventure with this thing! Next was Friday! It was a special day, my mothers birthday! I drove down to Fergus to join the fam at Don Pablos. I got there very early and I tell you man, that moped was calling my name something fierce! So I tore Fergus UP! It was super fun and nostalgic. Although it’s not the most powerful,
it makes me feel so happy!!! After I had my fill of just cruising around. I stopped by FFHS to watch my brother at track practice. He is a pretty quick kid, but you can only watch someone run for so long so I resorted to reading a book. After practice I picked him up on the moped and he rode bitch. It was pretty comical. About that time we all needed to be at Don Poblos. Nothing to fancy went down there other than great food and family time. After that I got super duper drunk at The Spot off of like two beers! I was there for like a “save the water” fund raiser held by my sisters salon. Yada Yada Yada I didn’t win anything and the damn card was rigged. But I really didn’t mind to much because I was pretty fuzzy at that point. I just remember yelling “COLLUSION” a lot. Oh yeah and it was kind of a weird crowd because like when O 69 came up I was the only one who was all like WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! And I got weird looks… Bee’s ! I got Bee’s ! They should be here some time in May. But more on that latter! Once I got back up to Fargo it was time to start my first day at my second job for Fargo Parks renting bikes to people. I can’t talk to much about the park. But my job is super chill and it’s pretty fun. I think with my down time there I am going to make a “people of the park” page… because people are really weird there. ON TO THE PARTY BUSS! My friends Dylan and Lexi had a combo bachelor / bacheloret party that night. I wish I could talk about it, but I can’t remember to much of it. I got pretty sloppy like right away because i didn’t eat much that whole day other than a handful of trail mix. I do remember getting a buy one get one free card for some bar. So I ask the bar keep “what is the most expensive drink you have here” and he replied “Black Label”. I got two of them and downed them like shots … the bar keep just gave me a really strange look like he just saw his mom naked. Looking back on this situation I really should have just sipped the whisky. Also I was at the top of a grain elevator peeing off of it. Probably babbling something about collusion. After that I woke up on an arm chair at who knows whose house. A lady was doing the dishes at seven am, and I just found my shoes and put them on and was trying to subtly figure out where the hell I was! Then this lady asked me if I just wanted a ride. Lets pause here. I don’t know if any of you have ever had a black out situation… but it can be a pretty scary thing. And when the person who you think could be a serial killer asks you if you want to leave their trap. Damn it you jump on that shit and tell them the wrong address and RUN ! RUN as fast as your little drunk legs can carry you! Trust me! Anyways she dropped me off like two blocks down from my house, and I walked home and slept for the whole day.
Turns out that lady was Lexis mom. Geocaching! Do it. You owe it to yourself! You go places in your local area. And treasure hunt! Today I went to a windmill farm. It was very cool and peaceful.
Lastly is Norway! I leave on the seventh. I don’t know when I’ll be able to post again. Stayed tuned!
where the river goes
Published Date : April 24, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Thursday, I took a day trip to Fergus Falls for two reasons. One to get an adjustment from my dad Dr. Anderson. Two to get a hair cut from my sister. My sister Jessica is an interesting gal. She knows all and sees all. So don’t get on her bad side. She has a light bubbly personalty, dash of humor and she is pretty good at hair cuts. Since I was in town and haven’t eaten anything yet. We decided to to go to a Mexican restaurant in town for lunch. It was a quite little place, new and surprisingly clean. Our waiter came up and asked us what we like for our drinks. Jessica got a dackery and I got a classic margarita on the rocks. My sister gave the waiter her ID and he said in funny English “we know you here”. It turns out that the waiters here besides being a little stalker-esk, never forget a pretty face. If you are under 21 and you are with my sister chances are they will serve you there. We ate, we drank, we laughed. After lunch we took a little detour to the Kaddatz art gallery. Art has been a weird topic for me. I have never understood why someone would spend money on art. Maybe it has always been in my head as reserved for the rich and I am no where near that status. Or maybe I am uncultured and sheltered. What ever the case maybe I have never wanted to actively seek out an art gallery… until after my first. When I went into the Kaddatz I wasn’t sure what was in there. Maybe a couple paper mache balls or maybe a painting of a walleye. My expectations where low. Now I don’t want to talk this up too much because I’ll be very honest. A lot of what was on display was… well boring. But there was two pieces that spoke to me. I wanted them. I would have bought them. But the rational person in me could think of 30 different things spend the 1600 dollars on. So sadly I didn’t get anything. Friday, remember a few weeks ago how I was writing about going on a rafting expedition up the Red river to Grand Forks? Well it didn’t happen. This is for a number of reasons. First lack of commitment. One of my group kind of didn’t want to go up the full river and take 3 days doing it. I would have love every moment of it. Good or bad. So to compromise for this we opted to go from West Fargo to Harwood on the Sheyenne River. The day was one of the best we have had in 2016. Sunny, hot, and a slight breeze. Everything was perfect or so I thought. My buddies had kayaks and I had an inflatable raft and I must have been on drugs or something to think that I could keep up with them. They were like a water beetles, gracefully gliding up the river effortlessly. While I on the had was more like a drowning squirrel… on fire. Literally ten minuets into our voyage and I’m not exaggeration here. I called the SOS. I needed a tow. At this point I felt bad, kind of defeated in a way. I also felt like an anchor to the other guys fun because they had to pull me down the river. But life is like a lava lamp… it’s filled with ups and downs. Instead of being a negative Nancy about it, I decided to take up some of the slack… so I became the DJ, the bar tenderer, and the documenter. Although the weather was nice. The water was still cold so this made getting in and out the boats kind of difficult because we didn’t want to get too wet or lose our supplies. I quickly learned however that you really don’t have any control how dirty or wet you become on the river… The launch site was filled with mud witch in turn caked everything that it touched. My raft seemed to be taking on water but what really turned out to be a lot of spilled beer. Four different times I pulled on of the plugs on my raft resulting in pressure loss and becoming dangerously close to really sinking. The river was peaceful and pretty. The sun was getting lower in the sky and gave everything a happy summer feel. Gosh it just felt great to be out doing something for a change. I think I’m going to buy a kayak. I feel like there are plenty of more adventure in one of those verses a raft.
Here is a little video of what turned out to be a good time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0FCDWiudqk
Boredom
Published Date : April 18, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Boredom. Boredom eats away at me when I am alone. Trying to fill that void is one of the things that I struggle at the most. This is especially true in the winter months. Recently I find myself sitting on the couch staring out the window waiting for spring to come, and bring me weather that is 60 or above. Why do I sit and wait? What am I waiting for? Well apart of me thinks that if it’s warmer out that I will be more productive, but the more rational part of me knows that I will just do the same thing I’m doing now … but just outside. It’s tough. The only thing that seems to really help is surrounding myself with fun people! But they are getting more rare it seems. With a big portion of my friends getting older and moving away, or starting family’s, or getting great jobs and a little piece of me feels left behind. This isn’t their faults, it’s mine. And don’t get me wrong here I’m happy for all of them, I’m just jealous I don’t get to see them as much. I’m not a very ambitious man, I seem to settle for what I have and that’s good enough. Power, Money these things don’t really interest me to much although I’ll gladly take them. What I do seem to be attracted to is Film, Travel, Adventure, Food, and Friends not in that order. This past week was a great week! I anticipated call from my very good friend for several years now… and I don’t know if it’s just that I don’t have any gear, or if it’s that I’m not truly into the sport, or if they don’t want my company. But it seems like I’m never invited and I just get to hear about the fun that was had. What ever the case may be I finally got the call and was asked to go fishing. It was pretty cool. The plan was to go to Devils lake ND on Wednesday and fish the whole day. So I drove up there with my case of beer and got in their truck for the adventure. Now in my experience there are two types of fisherman. First, there is the fisherman that fishes for relaxation. After the hard day of work they get their rod and reel and few beers and find a quiet little spot and watch the sun set. If they catch something great! BONUS! If they don’t, no problem. There is always another day. The second type is more oriented to the sport of fishing. They have one motive… to catch the fish. To prove that they caught the fish. To brag to their other fisher friends about how big it was! They cast their line three or four times and if they don’t get anything. They pack up and move to the next spot. They will be out their all night until they catch something. Personally I am the first type, and I’m okay with that. So there is a saying in my group of friends “Joe Budke Plan”. Basically Joe is all about making the plan for the group. And I’ll be the first to give him props for at least trying. But more times than not there is always something that goes wrong. This plan was no different. I knew I would need an out of state fishing license and being someone who doesn’t fish often. I turned to Joe for his experiences and asked him how much that would cost me. He said “about seven dollars for a one day”. I was like “awesome”. Anyways we get to a gas station so I could buy one. Forty five minuets latter still no fishing license. Terrie was my special helper that day and besides growing up in the prehistoric age and finger pecking the laptop keyboard with my info twelve times. I’m sure he was a fine guy. The manager finally stepped in and got the work done and gave me the license for free. A thirty six dollar value. Joe Budke Plan. But this one wasn’t all that bad. I got drunk. Joe caught a fish. I had fun.
On Thursday it was beautiful out! I couldn’t stand siting inside all day! So I decided to go on an urban day hike around Fargo. I packed up my JanSport with a book a blanket and some water and headed out without any direction. I just started walking. It’s an interesting thing walking. It connects to to the Earth. You feel your body. You see things you wouldn’t have driving.
That day I waked for twelve miles. And it was very peaceful. Something that was a lot less peaceful however was the wedding I went to this weekend!
This was lot of fun. I want to congratulate Andy and Katie Yaggie and wish them the time of their lives. You know, usually people will say “life is too sort” and to them I say “but it’s the longest thing we have”
The Voyage
Published Date : April 9, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Well, I have been longing for some adventure lately. I can’t wait. Currently I am working with a few guys on a new excursion. In my opinion, its going to be pretty kick ass because its not like a vacation… it’s more of a challenge (with beer). So far the plan is in three weeks (04/22) we will be launching from Fargo ND into the Red River. The destination will be Grand Forks ND. My fellow crew members will be in kayaks while I’ll be in this sexy beast!
The Sevylor Caravelle Boat (raft). With an Air tight system, double lock fast valve, NMMA certified, Holds up to 360 LBS, 6ft. 4in. X 4ft, and guess what ladies… shes built for two. I bought two of these for summer time when we float down the Otter Tail River tubing. One for me and one for all of my coolers/beer. In this situation my secondary will serve as the supply raft (beer raft). When night falls we will be camping out on the side of the riverbanks. It should be pretty cold still, so this is why its more of a challenge. I’m super excited to go do this and I will be taking video and pictures of most of it and making a dedicated page on the site of this adventure. More news! Devils Tower! Some time in June my Dad and I will be near Wyoming. Last year he asked me if I was interested in climbing it. I was reluctant at first because I have never lead climbed before, but now I’m all about it! I think it would be crazy! And awesome! My Dad when he was a kid climbed it and at the top there is this clipboard book thingy where you sign your name. I really want to prove to myself that I can climb it too and put my name in that book and see my Dads. Nothing is official yet. But I am going to push for it.
Image credit John Lockridge, Longmont, Colorado.
Last note… got a Jansport. It’s some good swag.
Up twohundie
Published Date : March 29, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Hello Hello! Before we get going to far I need you to click this you tube video for the music ambiance. Then just keep reading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw-_Ew5bVxs This one is going to be a double header spanning the last two weeksish… So lets jump in! Last week Friday 03/18/16 I quit my job at Wells Fargo and got a new job at The Home Depot as a MET rep. Basically I get up at 5am Monday through Friday and hang out with a group of people and put together a few displays and scan some stuff. It is super part time, 20 some hours a week and since I am debt free as of last month its great having so much extra time. Although give it a month or so and I will be board as hell. Currently I get home at 10am and stare out the window like an old man. It’s like I’m testing my retirement sanity at age 24. Lets move on to movies. A couple weeks ago at trivia at the Fargo brewing company we had the delight of hosting the famous “wood chipper” from the movie Fargo. It was pretty cool to see it. Later on that weekend I went with a few friends to Dempseys down town Fargo to see Timmy Williams. You may know him from Whitest kids you know. They are a skit comedy group. But Timmy was just doing stand up and he is a very funny man. Also all the money they raised went to charity. Very Very cool guy.
Latter that night we watched F1, It was a pretty exciting race! There were a lot of of over taking and a huge crash. It was pretty awesome! Nico Rosberg won, and I think that is pretty cool because Lewis Hamilton usually wins so its nice to see that is teammate won for once fare and square. Jumping forward a week to the current one. Last Thursday was my buddy Doug’s birthday and that Friday he wanted to go to the casino and he invited me. I have been more and more daring lately and casinos are scary to me because I work hard for my money and I don’t just want to give it away. But I went and it was pretty fun! I brought a $20.00 dollar bill and put it into a penny slot machine aaaannndddd lost most of it. When I was around the $2.86 mark about ten minuets into actually gambling my buddy Dylan came over to inform us that he was already up $150.00… so I asked him what his strategy was? He just said to pay a bit low and work your way up to max bet. So I proceeded to just hit max bet… because you know… I only had one play left anyways. ALL THE LIGHTS WHERE FLASHING! I just sat there laughing at how dumb my luck was. I won $200.00 on that spin and it was a good feeling. So I bought my group beer.
As a lot of you may know already this past weekend was EATster. If you are unfamiliar with this holiday its basically where you surround yourself with your family and stuff your face with any and all things edible within and not within reach, and let me tell you… IT WAS GREAT! mmm food. I got to hangout with all my really rad cousins and uncles and aunts and grand parents! After eating a baby elephant most people will lay down in front of the TV and fall asleep. Not the Anderson’s. We get our pirate pants on and go sailing… or rowing, what ever, it’s not important. Some where down the line we thought it would be a good idea to see how many of us we could fit into a little dingy. The answer is a lot, like all of us. There wasn’t a lot of room for me though so I had to stand for most of the voyage. It was very peaceful out on the lake… until we showed up and started screaming Pomp and Circumstance at the top of our lungs. Don’t ask me why, it wasn’t my first choice.
It was a great EATster.
A new direction
Published Date : March 21, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Hello everyone! Sorry for not sending out a new post for a while. I have been pretty busy because I have been looking for a new job recently and it has been taking up a lot of my time. So for the last three year I have been working at Wells Fargo Banker Connection and for the most part it has been pretty good. But recently they have been going through changes and I have been feeling very unappreciated there. Also back in February I paid off my student loans! (w00t debt free) so those two things put together made me think of moving on to something new. Money in my life right now isn’t top priority. I would say working on myself and traveling are my top two. In order to accomplish these goals I got a part time job at the Home Depot. It’s a pretty cool gig. I basically just scan stuff and I’m happy with that. On another noteI have slowly been curating camping gear for the motorcycle trip. I think I got roughly 90% of it. Mainly waiting on a tent. Now that I will have a lot more free time I’ll be posting every week!
Ted and Sally
Published Date : February 28, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Life gets tough sometimes and the things you should be doing, are the exact things you don’t want to do. Anyways! Ted and Sally! This past weekend my best friend Joe invited me to a Ted talk in Grand Forks! Gosh was it cool and inspiring! The theme was “Roots and Wings” witch really means agriculture and aerospace. There was a bunch of speakers all of them great! Kim and Dave Adams talked about adoption. Mitzi Bolanos talked about Pit Bulls and how they are not horrible scary animals (I owned one once and I agree with her 100%). Gabe Brown talked about sustainable farming, things like no tilling and crop diversity. Mic Jordan is a Hip-Hop artist and speaks to youth about issues such as alcoholism, suicide, and negative effects of native mascots. Heidi Mihelich Demars talked about mainly getting out there and making a difference and how anyone can do it. John Nowatzki talked about using drones in agriculture. Brian James Schill talked about libraries are known for being quiet places, but we should really be reinventing libraries to be a social place to host events and share ideas. Ken Streater talked about fear. Katie Wallace talked about how businesses should try to be a positive force in the world. Mic Jordan also preformed this song. I like it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwghurELZ0k After the Ted talk we went out to Shotgun Sally’s bar. To start things off, I don’t like this place that much. There is always a cover (this time 7 bucks), the drinks are always weak, and the music is really loud, and its always packed. The whole thing was pretty much a mega buzz kill to the day if it wouldn’t have been for my friend Jared who invited me to go play pool with him. We played about three games and moved on to to Big Buck Hunter. Gosh am I good at that game. So if you like the bar scene, you may like Shotguns but I would say don’t waste your time.
This post goes out to my boy Space Captain Winston III
R.I.P
Yet another trap
Published Date : February 14, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
This weekend has been interesting to say the least. It started out with a wonderful evening out with some lovely ladies from work. The venue of choice was Texas road house, fun place. I am generally a bottomless pit when comes to eating food, but recently I just ended a month long diet challenge. So I was pretty disappointed that I couldn’t finish my whole meal, but I brought most of it home for lunch. Overall ace Friday night with great food and company! That night my mother called me and asked if I wanted to join my brother and her on a trip to my grandparents. I accepted. My mom is really really good at telling me one time for things and then change it later and never tell me. This time was no exception. She told me we would leave at noon on Saturday. I got out of bed at 8 to get ready for the day and to Fergus Falls by noon. Turns out she changed the time to 2…but what ever, I didn’t have much else planned. I readied my self for a two day trip, 3 hours both ways. It’s a long and boring trek. Mostly straight and flat with forest. If you are really lucky you may see a Amish family in their horse and buggies. (nice people, they always wave) I will say that this trip was a little bit more interesting because my brother is in driving training. He doesn’t have much experience, so let’s just say there were some close calls. We arrived to my grandma’s house and had a great dinner with her. Hung out and talked for a bit and then fell asleep to the TV show cops. When I travel I rarely get a bed, so I bring my Backpacking blow up air mattress. It is super handy and light weight and comfortable. I highly recommend it. Anyways I went to church for the first time in like 5 years, And I am excited to report that I didn’t ignite into flames when I walked through the threshold. After church we went to the Farm Market Cafe for a little brunch. It’s a down to earth little place. The crazy thing is that literally every is organic. I had the grilled cheese sandwich. Fresh baked oatmeal molasses bread, some sort of Colby cheese. I also had fresh hash browns, and home made chicken noodle soup. Every thing tasted pretty good, but it all was just a little too “Meh”. I would say go check it out if you are in the Onamia and you are into the whole organic thing. It probably won’t disappoint you. The highlight of this weekend is seeing my grandpa Anderson. That man is so funny, he makes me poop my pants. As an example of the kind of things he will say is “don’t come in here, this is where I keep my canned pickles and Marijuana plants HAHAHAHA”. He is 87. Aaaannnndddd that’s about it. I’m on the ride home right now. Maybe I’ll take a nap. ♥
Almost done with the home page
Published Date : February 10, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Well, I’m still not done with the home page. I’m getting there but progress is slow. I still don’t know how to change the photos in the slider but I think I need to get over it for now and start working on content. The home page is lacking currently. Once I figure out what I want it to say I think my home page will be done for now. I will then have to start on content for the others. I think I will start with my plans for my motorcycle trip! Stayed tune!
Looking pretty good!
Published Date : February 8, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Hey guys! So still working hard on the new website! It’s a bit of a learning curve from the last one. I’m using WordPress and it’s actually pretty slick. But on my home page in the slider there are some problems with how the images get stretched and pixely. If any of you know how to correct this using themes or css code? Let me know in the comments! My “The Plan” page is looking pretty good so far. I just need to put the info for the plans on paper haha. I hope to keep you all more up to date!
It’s a working progress!
Published Date : February 7, 2016
Author : videosniper
Categories : Uncategorized
Hello everyone! This is my shiny new blog. It’s just me working on it on my free time soooo… it’s a bit lacking currently. I plan for this blog to be an adventurous and inspiring place for people try something new. So stay tuned!
Restless Dan 