We're not in Kansas anymore.

NH – I leave bright and early on the 5th, learn Obama is the new president elect while listening to the radio on the drive over to pick up Jan. We tetris-style pack my car, and head for the wilds of Vermont.

VT – Pretty hills and mountains, a few cows. (State line #1!)

NY- First stop for supplies… somewhere on some back country highway. Pay lots of tolls on 90. Very close to Niagra Falls, but no time to stop, we’ve still got a long way to go today. (State line #2!)

PA- don’t really remember that much… how long have we been driving now? (State line #3!)

OH- Yes! We’ve made it to the destination state. No! we’ve got to get all the way to Cincinnati. (State line #4!) I spend two nights hanging out with family, Jan visits a cousin in the city. Somehow I have become a cavalry horse in a game of keep away with a cousin. (Note: it’s much easier to run without a child on your back.) I depart at the break of dawn on the 7th, only become slightly lost getting Jan in the city, and we make haste to the Midwest. (First of many realizations on this trip that driving in/ around Boston pretty much prepares you for anything.)

IN- yeah… we crossed it, I just don’t remember. (State line #5!)

IL- similar to above. (Sorry to my readers from IL… State line #6!)

MO- Traffic going through St. Louis around lunch time. (State line #7!)



KA- Flat. Well, almost… you can see the crest of the next hill about 10 miles distant (straight ahead.) (State line #8!) We drive into the dark, finally pulling off somewhere in the middle of the state, spend a very windy night on a man made lake in Wilson State Park. First night on the trip in the tent. Fill up the gas tank the next morning at a station in the middle of nowhere with a clerk who is about the friendliest person we will encounter on the road… with about half of his teeth in his mouth.

CO- Yay! We’re making it to the west now. Oh wait. We’ve got hours of flatness before we hit the Rockies… how much longer? (State line #9!) This is it! The slugmobile chugs up the Rockies for the second time in 6 months on route 70 West. The little car that could. We top out at above 11,000 feet (driving through a tunnel). Pop out the other side and, IT’S SNOWING! Light flakes are falling all around. The spires of rock that hang above us are dusted. The summits of the mountains are hidden by the top of the windshield. We duck down low to peer up at the peaks which look like they’ve been dusted with confectionary sugar. We pass a ski resort which is open. People are skiing, making nice S’s down the nearest trail. I claw at the glass of the driver’s window and moan about not bringing skis. (Where they would have fit in the car, I don’t know.) We pass exits for Steamboat and envy Kirsten. We descend from the mountains, regain our composure, buy groceries in Grand Junction, find a place to crash, and drive into the night…

UT- It’s dark. And the desert landscape is very strange in the spare light from the stars. No wonder so many science fiction movies about outer space have been filmed in the Utah desert. This place really is alien. (State line #10!) We arrive in St. George around 11 pm. Crash on the couch of a friend. Awake on the morning of the 9th with grand plans to climb a fairly simple multi-pitch sport climb just outside town at the Prophesy Wall. It’s raining when we arrive. Re-group. Can’t climb on wet sandstone. (Unless you want to be hated by climbers forevermore for destroying holds.) Visit some old co-workers of Jan’s in town, head out. Red Rocks or bust!

NV- More desert. (State line #11!) But this time it’s a bit more familiar. (Not quite sagebrush though.)



We arrive in Vegas in the early afternoon. We avoid the strip. Go to the climbing shop instead. Get a few supplies, chat up the locals, claim a campsite, and head to the crag to get a climb in before dark. I lead a 5.8. (Highest rating outside leading yet.) Find out later it was a 5.8+. No wonder it felt a little sketchy there for a bit. Jan is glad I led. Cook dinner, crash. Wake up, we think late, but learn it’s only 7:30. Start of first full day in Nevada. Silly trad climbers getting up at the break of dawn to climb 10 pitches. Eat breakfast. We’re at the “Panty Wall” by 9:00, and climbing.




Phone climbing gym friend and gloat. Complete 7 climbs in the day. Led all except one 5.7, and a TR on a slabby 10b. Gawk at the rescue helicopter hovering and ambulances in the parking lot. Hope parents are not paying attention to NV news and that if it is indeed an injured climber they come out ok. Resolve to call parents as soon as dead cell is charged again. Finish out the day on a very bouldery 5.9. Drive the 13 mile “scenic loop” around Red Rocks Park in the dark. See the lights of Vegas from the wilds of the desert. (Very weird how the city just stops. No suburbs. Just blocks and blocks of people… then desert. I prefer the desert.) Cook artichoke and garlic chicken sausages on sticks over the camp fire. Crash. Wake up, again, we think late. Still only 7:30. Into the desert again. Get a random hiker to take our picture.



Head to “The Magic Bus” wall for a half day of climbing. Head into town to find internet and connect with civilization again. (A bit of a let down, really.) Last night in Red rocks. We wake up, bright and early, pack up the Slugmobile, and head for California. Pass such illustrious places of business as “The Shady Lady Ranch” and others with similarly suggestive titles.

CA- Last state crossing! (#12) This is it. We arrive in Bishop around lunch. Eat in a city park with very friendly (and gluttonous) ducks. Jan yells at them. Chat up the locals in a gear shop. Claim a tent site at “The Pit” and head to the Happy Boulders. Climb around a bit on a traverse on the Totty Boulder.



Hike out as the sun is setting over the Sierra Nevada. Spy a Black Diamond truck in the parking lot and guess what hidden goodies are on the inside. (Jan wants tele skis. I want lots and lots of climbing gear.) Night (who knows what at this point) in my tent. Wake up on the morning of the 12th, head to the Owens River Gorge for some sport climbing. Manage to not die hiking down the steep scree trail to the Warm Up Wall, and later, the Great Wall of China.



Highlights include me leading my first 5.9, and Such awesome routes as “China Doll.” (This is somebody else on China Doll, taken as we hiked in.)



Scrambled back up the “gully” to get out of the Central Gorge. Dinner in the parking lot of Wild Willy’s Hot Springs. Post climbing soak in our birthday suits under the light of the full moon reflecting off the snow covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains looming above us. Extract ourselves (reluctantly) from the warm water, head back to The Pit. Sleep soundly. Wake up the next morning and re-pack all our gear strategically to get Jan into the airport most efficiently.



Re-tetris the slugmobile. Begin the final drive. Make a brief stop to check out Mono Lake.



Extract ourselves from the “moon” mud, part the brine flies, and chug over the Sierra Nevada. The Devil Duck, Toejam, and Leroy rejoice.



One lane highways on windy roads with sheer cliffs enclosing you on either side are fun… I’m glad I have a manual. We drive through the Central Valley, through Sacramento, hit traffic (for the first time since St. Louis.) I break out the Boston area driver skills again that have been lying dormant for a few days. Arrive at the Oakland Airport just in time. Jan and I exchange our goodbyes… I drive out, back into the insane Bay Area Traffic. I’m not so sure I’m glad I have a manual anymore… but just briefly. I re-evaluate this when driving North on 1. I feel like I’m driving a rally car on the winding road. Up and down hills, around hairpin turns, all with an amazing view of the sun setting over the Pacific. Pass through Stinson Beach, arrive at Palo in the dark. Stumble into the kitchen of my new home for the next 5 months and meet my fellow interns. The road trip is over, the new adventure begins…