Road Trip - Oregon Trail

I am in Pittsburgh, PA right now, and I am awkwardly continuing this story. Last you heard, the four of us were in Minnesota. I say this to you now: open your ears.
After arriving in Minneapolis, we filmed our last interview. His name was Joel and he had just opened a coffee shop called The Beat. The shop serves as a forum for the artists of Minneapolis, providing a stage for theater, wallspace for 2-d art, and both open-mic and scheduled concerts on the weekends. It also serves as a forum for Joel’s church, though he was sure to mention that his shop was NOT a christian coffee shop. He wanted to make sure that everyone felt welcome to his coffee. And it was good coffee, too.
At the Beat, all of the coffee is brewed with a french press. In fact, one of the items on the menu is a french press, which can be shared between 2-4 people. All things considered, I found Joel to be a man making a serious attempt to reach the cultural center of Minneapolis. And if he recruited a few new members for his church, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.

After the interview, Anna left us to go to work for the rest of the week (she’s from Minnesota, you know) and we headed north to Esther’s dad’s house in Brainerd, MN. Here are the three of us near Esther’s house:

In Brainerd we were dined (but not wined) and we heard real live loons! Also, we saw Paul Bunyan Land, and we learned all there is to learn about mining for gold in these here present days (Esther’s brother is doing it in Alaska as I type). And I picked up a few chords on the old banjo, which I’ve been meaning to learn.
On our last day in the North Country, Anna came up to see us off. It was Saturday and we filmed our final reflections on our two weeks together. And then it was time to go, and Anna gave us hugs goodbye, and it hadn’t really sunk in that this was the end. The three of us had at least another day together, but this was the last time all four of us would be together on this trip. And then Anna left and we three set off for the east–Wisconsin first, and then Illinois and Indiana, those skinny twins.
Even the drive home was a race, though. We knew these Eastern states too well, and so we spent all of our time in the west and midwest. As a result, though, we left Minneapolis at around 6PM on Saturday and drove straight through the night until we were all in our homes. This was necessary because Jesse and I both started work on that Monday. Yesterday. But it all worked out because Jesse made it home sometime around 10 PM and probably slept immediately in order to wake up in time for the morning shift. But hey, I think we would all consider our time well spent.

So now I’m here, writing to you from the house I grew up in, and everything is the same as it is every summer, and I have to keep looking at pictures to remind myself that I just saw more of the country than most Americans will ever see. Which is what you can do too. Just go to the webshots page and you can see all of our trip photos.

Thanks for reading. Now it’s back to our old blogs, and our old lives. If you have any comments or want some advice for a future road trip, please feel free to leave a comment.

And now, here at the end of it all, I can only wish that we were still out there, enjoying the west like those Grads without Borders. But we are not grads. We still have borders, and can only work within them and work to bend them. And oh we will try to bend them.

Okay, so a lot has happened since the last update. After leaving the oregon extension, we headed to Crater Lake. You know, the really deep, pure blue lake in central Oregon. We went there and had snow ball fights. We were still sweaty from the heat of the Oregon morning, but a quick drive up to the rim of the crater and boy was the temperature a lot colder! When I wasn’t looking Anna tackled me and pushed my face in the snow. This, after doing the same to Jesse on the Oregon beach. Sometimes I think she is inhabited by demons….
Just kidding.
So after crater lake it was getting dark, but we have deadlines you know so we just kept driving–i kept driving–because i was wide awake and in a great state and i knew we needed to be in boise, idaho in time to eat breakfast with one of jesse’s friends. her name is sidney and they met in russia. so we are depending on caffeine to make it in time. that and my lifeforce. it is raw and powerful. it is untouched. i am a powerhouse. i am the olympics.
you don’t know it, but i stole that line from dave eggers. dave eggers is one person we wanted to interview on our trip, but he was in england when we were in san francisco. we talked to one of his friends, though. his name is eli and he is the managing editor of mcsweeney’s (the publishing house/internet site/quarterly) and he also runs a magazine called the believer. he was fun to talk to, and probably the youngest of our interviewees, and is my favorite, not only because he sent us away with tons of free stuff (including novels not yet released to the public by mcsweeneys) but also because he said that he could spend a lot of his life barbecuing. i could also see myself barbecuing for a good portion of my life.
anyway, back to the action. i’m steering us through the unforgiving northern rockies, hoping desperately to make it to boise in time for breakfast, and then yes, we do make it. and we meet sidney. and we eat breakfast. and then we’re off again, east, and we are putting miles on the car, hundreds at a time, and we are headed to the grand tetons and yellowstone, and no one has slept, and no one will sleep, because this is our chance. because this is our one chance to see these things, and we will see as many of them as possible, even if not for long, or not savoring many of them, because it is important to see many things at this age, and it is important to realize that this age will not last forever.
so we scream into the tetons, and they are massive. they are massive and foreboding and grey and cragging their way through the land. jenny lake is not the calm, still lake we have all seen postcards of. it is raging and slapping the rocks at our feet and we are screaming our faces red and we are throwing rocks as hard as we can into the wind and the center of the lake. the dark clouds are pouring over the mountains–through the gaps between the peaks–and we are not afraid until the ice cold drops start falling.
we are running to the car, disobeying the oversized moosetracks painted on the sidewalk and leading toward the lake. we are running against the grain, and we pass two middle-aged men who know that “the snow is on its way,” and that “it’ll be a bad night.”
so we barely make it out of jenny lake alive, and then we are headed north to yellowstone. it is 7PM and the sun is going down, and it is again a race against time to old faithful. we must see it. we must see it go off before we can be on our way to south dakota–the state of roadside attractions and gimmicks. so we speed through deer and bison-infested roads toward the old geyser and esther keeps telling all the baby-wildlife that she “loves them, mwah mwah mwah,” and jesse keeps a cool head while weaving through deer as they dart on or off of the road as they please.
it is dusk as we slip into the park. we are out of the rain, but something still feels wrong. old faithful is deserted. as we pace a circle around the geyser, a more complete darkness falls. the camera will not pick up the eruption. it will not pick up my face four feet away. soon, though, we are joined by more and more people–people who knew the anticipated time of eruption and had been waiting inside until it got close–and we figure it’s about time. so, huddled on a bench, this is how the four of us came to see the grey steam pour into the night sky. it was a moment.
we are in south dakota on memorial day–a mistake. it is, like i said, the state of gimmicks and tourist traps. we see mount rushmore and wall drug and the corn palace, all the while telling ourselves that the myriad other attractions are probably stupid, even if it is the home of the national presidential wax museum, or the Mysteries of the Cosmos.
after these things, we are in watertown, visiting esther and anna’s friend jacob. we eat in a restaurant, which is nice, even if i feel like im cheating the whole time. and then it was a four hour drive through the night (escaping the allure of the world’s biggest ball of twine) to get to Minnesota.
and now we are here. we haven’t slept since oregon. we havent bathed since oregon. we haven’t cared. we are good friends, i have learned. this trip has proven that to me. and these last few days i am happy to spend as much time awake with these friends as possible. the summer is uncertain, and i can’t be sure when i will see these friends again.
these last few days i find myself hoping that it will be sooner than later.

Anna is singing a sting song right now and it is devolving into scat. the song is I Hung My Head.

over and out.
colin

Hello again everybody. We’re in Oregon now, after 4 nights and 2 interviews in CA. Last night we slept in Brookings, at the Oregon coast, amid piles of harsh rocks and an angry fog. Now, in south-central oregon, we are relaxing at my old stomping grounds, The Oregon Extension.
Yes, the Oregon Extension, where the horses are eager to lick, and the chickens have just had baby chicks. Where the cabins are full gente of girls contemplating their places in this world. Where I plan to sleep tonight closer to the stars than I will be for a long time.
All the best from us to you,
TOT

hello all. it’s been a while since the last post. since then, we’ve made our way through 5 states. after leaving colorado, we drove north to laramie

then we headed west to the land of mormons–UTAH. that night, we had trouble finding a place to stay and ended up waking up in a small parking lot with stiff necks and grumpy faces. then we drove south from salt lake city to zion national park, but not before stopping at big rock candy mountain. after leaving zion (which is beautiful canyon country, just about the grand canyon), we stopped at an historic lodge to pose with our oregon-bound forefathers.

then we headed southwest, through las vegas (not stopping, though (we’re christians)) and into the mojave desert. the pavement on the highway ended, and all manner of longhorned steer and jackrabbits kept darting in front of us. we spent the night in a place called Hole in the Wall and tented under some of the brightest stars we’ve seen so far.



then we woke up early to make it to LA for our first interview. we talked to Blake Mycoskie (aka one take blake) about how he founded TOMS shoes–a company bent on donating one pair of shoes to argentinian children for every pair bought in america. see www.tomsshoes.com.
that first interview is over now, and we are in bakersfield california with our friend jared penrose, who is LOADED! but now it is the morning and we are headed north to interview an Amazonian Wycliffe translator (who may or may not be wearing a snakeskin bigger than himself). then we’ll sleep in Yosemite National Park. we’ll try to get back to the internet in san francisco.
until then,
colin.

we crossed Nebraska in the night, the last of the flat states, and now we’re in Fort Collins, Colorado bound for Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, the tall states. the ones that earn their mountain time zones. hopefully tonight we’ll becamping in the mountains, the last two nights of wearing away the darkest, coldest hours of the night keeping the old conestoga between the lines have taken their toll. we’re tired. our limbs are cramped. the sky and the mountains are huge, and we’re ready to spread ourselves out all over them.

yeah!

-jesse

We are in Minnesota, about to depart. We are at our friend Anna’s house near the Twin Cities, picking her up for the remainder of the trip! We got to relax a little today, after steady driving since we left Pennsylvania. We rested in the grass by Long Lake, and even waded a little, and dipped our feet in off the edge of the dock. Minnesota is the land of over 10,000 lakes you know! And it is also my homeland! It’s nice to be back here, even though it’s so brief. We finalized an interview with Tom’s Shoes in Los Angeles, but it means we have very little time to cover very many miles! Jesse just finished repacking the trunk, so I think we are ready to depart… We have some books on tape to keep us awake after the sun goes down down down . . .
-esther

it’s 5:45 pm and jesse and esther just arrived at my house. we’ll eat a quick meal and hit the road right away, because we can’t sleep tonight until we’re in minneapolis with our fourth.
i’d fill you in on all of our future stops now, but then where would the suspense be?
we stick our heads out of the windows for you.
just keep thinking of us.
-colin

well folks, i just forded my last final, and despite the fire in my conestoga last night, i only lost 400 bullets, 2 oxen, and one paragraph of my final paper. i’ll be headed home to pittsburgh in a few hours to drop off school things and hug brothers and sisters and stop by an aviary to say hello, but it’s only one day, and then jesse and esther will be there to pick me up.
in the mean time, though, thank you all for your thoughts and presents. thank you in advance for your homecoming gifts. it will be nice to see all of your smiling faces upon returning to the east. and the boxes of money. those will feel nice passing from your hands to ours.
be well, friends. especially senior friends. i regret not being able to spend more time with you.
off we go!
-colin

Come back soon to find out about the road trip this summer…