To the ocean on a whim, Part I

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Most people have someone they think of as their first real love. A person that probably shaped you partly into your adult self, helped you over the bridge of your teen years into what you've become. To different people this means different things, but I think many can relate and picture that person in their mind.

Gobbler* was that person for me. This isn't a story of how we met, why we fell in love or why our relationship ultimately deteriorated. This is a story of how hopelessly romantic and irrational decisions leave you with a busted car on the side of the road with 2 dogs and, in the end, no money.

Gobbler and I decided one night while reading in bed that it would be a fabulous idea to go see the ocean. I should have prefaced this by saying that we were living in Colorado - so instantly, YOU probably see the irrationality with wanting to just get in the car to "see the ocean". Blinded by love - or at least what the movies have led this generation to believe love should be - we did not consider the potential problems we could, and ultimately did, encounter.


My logic was, "hey, we don't have to work for 3 days!" I am a number cruncher by nature** and so in my sing-song-I'm-in-love logic, 1200 miles divided by 80mph got us there in a mere 15hrs! Not bad! And then we would have to drive back, but we could easily swap drivers to make it work. By these calculations, we had enough time to see the beach, visit Gobbler's mom, eat at Wendys (Gobbler used to work there and wanted to visit. I can't think of any other reason why we would make PLANS to go to Wendys), and turn around and come back.


The fatal flaw of a number cruncher - and this is probably true no matter what profession they have - is that we typically fail to acknowledge or plan for nature. By nature I mean anything that could happen in the universe to alter the perfect miles-per-hour model I have outlined. Anything that could upset your numbers. And what's even more ridiculous is that typically, something ALWAYS upsets the numbers...and yet we never learn.


We hit the road for the Oregon coast at about 10pm - roughly 30min after the initial idea occurred to us. Enough time to grab a sleeping bag and a few CDs, but that's about all. We are doing okay, until we reach nothern Utah. Rather than taking the interstate, we decide to take a state highway that looks to be a far shorter distance than the interstate. We had already begun to realize that we were not moving through the windy, wintery mountains at 80mph, and therefore we were not on point to follow our beach/rents/wendy's schedule. So the short cut seemed like a good idea.


Note in hindsight: state highways are never faster. never. unless where you're going happens to be on that highway, and even then its probably not faster.



As a result of our little detour, we lose a LOT of time and are roughly 6-7hrs behind when we reach Kalamath Falls, OR. This seems very close to the coast on the map, and I guess it is. In fact, its a 2 lane road almost the whole rest of the way. What I still can't figure out is, even in a fierce blizzard where no one has plowed, how does one get lost on a single road?

Well, we managed. The end result is that our time was cut fatally short, and we had to turn around 30 miles from our destination, for fear of losing our jobs if we didn't show in 2 days.

to be continued....


*I know I said I would use Aliases, but to keep them straight I had to pick something noteworthy to me. I know this is a weird one, don't ask. Its not gross, I just don't plan on alluding to that person's true identity.....(ps thank you to sibling who uses footnotes in her blog, which frankly makes a whole lot of sense so I am copying)

**which I am sure will lead to some of you wondering why I end up broke so often....its hard to explain, but I know where every dollar went -even those that went to waste

Here's the rules

Many people have told me throughout the years that I should write a book about all the interesting things that I have done in my short life (so far). I am not a writer of novels, but user-friendly blog formats like this are something I can wrap my mind around. I have traveled a fair bit. More than most, but certainly less than the hardcore world trekkers that really manage to let go of all sense of stability and do as their heart desires. From these experiences, I have taken away new friends, good stories, some cool souvenirs and, thankfully, no diseases and not a single citation other than a speeding ticket or two.

This blog will consist of (relatively) short, true stories that have happened to me. I will change most of the names, because there are people who prefer annonymity and that's just the right thing to do I guess. I will attempt to use the same aliases from blog to blog