11 states in one month, a drivers diary

It began when my last course of the Texas season ended. As we know, most ends result in some type of beginning. Near April 7th. This was Zach Burn's birthday. We celebrated at a small bar outside of the metropolis of Presidio, la escondita (the hidden). We were celebrating many things; Zach's birth, the NCAA championship basketball game, and the finale of a 28-day OB course that Zach, me, and this wonderful woman Kat Ketter had worked. It was all going quite nicely. We must have had a tailwind as we traveled the 5-hour drive from El Paso to Presidio in our 15 passenger Ford Econoline Van.

The three of us and our course director, Chris Brown, arrive at la escondita to the joy of my girlfriend, who I hadn't seen for more than 12 hours in the last 28 days. Also there were some really great friends and the promises of more to show. The table had been decorated as well as the walls and the dog. We were going to party!

Our friends trickle in and sure enough the management at la escondita can't keep up with our burgeoning requests for beer and food. There was only two of them and they are on desert antiquity time, i don't blame them. So our good friend Clancy gets behind the bar and starts un-capping dos equis after dos equis much to our merriment. The night is just warming up when the game starts. Blue vs. White. Who really cares, I can't remember who won even all I know is there was a sick three-point shot at the buzzer sending the game into overtime, in which the team who made the buzzer beater of course came out victorious. You can ride a energizing wave like that for quite some time. there was no stopping them.

Then the phone rings, Dallas area code. It was a parent who had read her child's course journal. That was her first mistake. Apparently her child had been fornicating with another student for the duration of the course. Oh my god. At this point all the beer drained from my body and sunk into my feet which were abnormally heavy and groggy. I had to sit down and think. Could this have really happened? Did I have any feeling that this was true what-so-ever? The answer kept coming back no. no. no. I put myself into up most humility zone and said, well, this happened, now what?

What happened next is no less shocking and unsettling than the original news. Turned out that the student had lied about having sex with the student in her journal to sound "bad-ass". The student said that she commonly lies to seem tough and cool. Essentially a fantasy world of lies and negative behaviors. Sadly, this is what life is like for so many of the world teenage women. I feel for them.

With a calmed heart about the whole scenario I began the daunting task of ending the Texas season. This was the point in my life that I realized how deeply the desert had reached in me. To the core. Living in SW Texas on the border of MX has had such a profound impact on my life. I would say that I know what true beauty is now.

Packing up and leaving was a huge challenge. Jayne left earlier than me and did a large part of the packing up. I intended on packing up both of our cars and towing one with the other. A Jeep liberty towing a Deawoo nubira, both stuffed to the gills with Jayne and my life. Don't forget the little Dulce. She was of course, in tow.



We started in Texas and then it went like this:

Oklahoma

Kansas

Missouri

Iowa

Minnesota ( great hotel in Albert Lea is none other than the Albert Lea INN, stop by tell them I said Hi)

I embarked upon this trip with what is commonly referred to as the "Long Haul." A few staff members sign up to drive three fully loaded and trailered 15 passenger vans from Texas to Minnesota. They are carrying all the gear that makes Texas an Outward Bound base. This would include but not be limited to: tarps, stoves, kayaks, canoes, backpacks and paperwork. The four of us would get a hotel room each night and chill out with some fast food and TV. Dulce would freak out and commandeer the comfy spot at the foot of my bed.

As soon as the Alumni service trip was done, Jayne and I left for Elmira NY, my home town. On our route we traveled through:

Minnesota

Wisconsin

Indiana

Illinois

Ohio

Pennsylvania

and

New York

What the worse thing that could happen when driving? An accident. sure. So we hit a deer about and hour outside my town. Luckily the deer died on impact and Jayne had some great AAA coverage. We rode in the tow truck with Dulce on my lap and arrived in typical Liz fashion; at two o'clock in the morning in a tow truck with a broken car. Long story short, the insurance company called my car a total loss and are settling with me for 2, 000 dollars. That's 2x as much as I paid for the car about 5 years ago and four trips across the US. I got some well needed couch time at moms and rented a car to get back to Ely.

Now I'm here. The sun is shining and the bugs aren't out yet. I am filling out my paper-work to go to Italy and Dulce is covered in mud every chance she gets.