Let's Roll

May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view.

May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.

Edward Abbey

I am sitting in a laundromat in Santa Rosa, CA thinking back on the last month and completely enjoying the reality of my life right now. With all this positive energy surging through my mind and body I think that it is about time to send some of it out into the world. So as I explore the physical landscape of the U.S., babysit vacationing Europeans, and put the petal to the metal in a 15-passenger van, I would love to take you all along for the ride.

I am spending my summer working as a tour guide for Intrepid-Suntrek, an amazing tour company that is actually paying me to camp in National Parks and party in Vegas. When I am not on the road I live in Occidental, a town on the "Bohemian Highway" and work out of Santa Rosa. In Occidental we live in beautifully rustic cabins which provide us with the quaint atmosphere of no cell phone service and group showers. The general goal of the summer is to spend as little time in either of these towns as possible, thus maximizing my time on the road and getting paid.

My first paid job was unfortunately not a guiding trip, but instead a 3,200 mile convoy to Colorado and back to drop off a couple of vans. We spent the first 18 hours driving straight to the town of Montrose in a 5-van convoy averaging about 90 mph and stopping only to fill up. I felt an affinity with truckers that I didn't know I could feel and I hope to never feel again. As soon as we arrived in Montrose we dropped our vans off at the designated dealership and were picked up by another Suntrek van to head home. The trip lasted only three days, during which I slept a total of three hours and drove a total of twenty-three. I am happy to have survived and I am seriously looking forward to never doing that again!

So I am now preparing for my first guiding trip, a quick one weeker that goes from L.A. to San Francisco. I will spend this week cleaning my equipment and van and then leave Friday to head the hotel in L.A. where I pick up my passengers on Sunday. My excitement and nerves are building as I begin to anticipate my passengers and hope to at least not get lost!