So if you haven’t noticed I deleted my previous blog site after some anxiety about what people thought about me when they read my stories. I’m going to try again. Since I have nowhere to go and nothing to do I’ll write about some of my previous trips. 🙂
Unfortunately when I deleted the old blog it looks like I permanently deleted original pictures. So that means I don’t have them anymore and they are gone forever. I tried to dredge up all the ones I could find though. Here are my favorite moments of the last year (and 2 months of the year before)!
In 2017 I had to go home to help take care of my dad. He had ALS. It’s a ~enter strings of creative swears and mean things~ of a disease and it was brutal to watch the progression. Anyways, in November I got to go to a Celtics game with him. It was a challenge to move around, but we made it work. 
^^I’m not really sure how to proceed here. I can’t leave this out, but to clarify: THIS IS NOT A HIGHLIGHT. Over the next few months I had to get over unimaginable hurtles. You think everything is fine and then out of nowhere there is a sudden change. That’s what happened in April and we took him to the hospital. Saying goodbye was really painful.
At the end of April I had no time to stop to think about things. I needed to start driving to Philmont for my summer job. My mom accompanied me and we set off a week later. We drove through Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana the first day. I was all for a Boston to Chicago one day drive, but my mom said that was too long so we stopped near the border of Illinois in a super small highway town. The second day we arrived in Chicago. I got to see my friends Andrew and Matt. It was super exciting. 
The next thing we did was drive to the middle of nowhere Nebraska. We drove through the rest of Illinois, cut through the boring expanses of Iowa, and all the way to Alliance, NE. If you don’t know, that’s waaaaay at the other end of the state next to Wyoming. 
After a night of rest we got up early and made it to Mesa Verde. That’s basically at the southwest corner of the Colorado. Trees galore. 
The next destination was the Grand Canyon. On the way there we stopped briefly at the sort of underwhelming Four Corners National Monument and at the slightly more interesting Navajo Ruins National Monument before we arrived at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. 
Aaaand the very next week I went on my first road trip of the summer. 
I wasted no time planning my next adventure and a week later I booked Skydiving. I’m a very impulsive person so I just thought about it for a few minutes, threw down $300, and 2 days later I drove 180 mi to the Royal Gorge in CO. 
On May 23 I went to Bandolier NM. It was a lot like Mesa Verde, but smaller and you could give a self guided tour. It was way in the canyons near Española, NM. I made a mistake here because I accidentally left my National Park passport in my car! I’m such an idiot. I ended up getting the stamp on a little piece of paper. About a week later the devastating Ute Park fire started. I stopped road tripping for a while after this.
Around June 20 I started up again and this time I brought my little bb8 lego along for company. I usually go on trips alone so it’s nice to have at least something with me. 
A couple days later I drove all the way to Dallas, TX with another friend to go to Six Flags. So far the current Six Flags record was Philmont to St. Louis, MO in one day, but this drive was pretty grueling as well. We left at 12:30am in order to get to the park at opening time. It was also about 100°F out so we put on SPF 100 sun screen on. I got a sunburn on my ears I think, but that’s it! The plan was to drive back the same day except my aunt shut that down real quick. So we stayed in Dallas a night. It was a truly epic adventure.
The following week a few friends and I went to Albuquerque to go do an escape room and see the top of Sandia Peak. It’s the mountain next to Albuquerque. 
At this point most people’s summers were drawing to an end. Except mine! July 11th I drove to Oklahoma city with my friend Ethan. We stopped along the way at Washita BNHS. 
The week after, my Boy Scout troop was in the neighboring state of Colorado so I drove up to visit. I drove up with my friend Ethan and we went to Red Rocks amphitheater first. This was the first busy public place I brought bb8 to this summer. 
The next week I got to peer over the side of the Rio Grande gorge bridge near Taos, NM. It is 565 ft high! Every time a car went over the whole bridge shook. Reminder: I’m not afraid of heights so I thought it was exciting. That’s literally just about the whole trip.
A few weeks later I got asked to drive someone to the airport. See the thing is I was one of the only seasonal employees at ptc dining hall that had a car and was willing to drive people. The other is the airports are FAR. Anyways, I went up to Denver airport. It was a fun 4.5 hour drive to the airport. On the way back I decided to try to hit up the Florissant Fossil Beds NM. I barely made it! There were some super ancient petrified tree/tree stumps there and lots of history. Another stamp for the book!
On August 22 I drove from the top of New Mexico to the bottom. One day my friend Fish (his last name is Fish) asked me if I could drive him home to get his Xbox and see his family. I said yes. It turns out ‘home’ is in Las Cruces. It’s beautiful there, but oh boy is it far away. After a nice 9 hours of traveling we got there. I wanted to see the National Solar Observatory so that’s where we went to first. I drove up a 10 mile (16.09km); 7% grade dirt road to get there. I honestly thought I would bottom out or get a flat tire. There were a bunch of telescopes there and we got to go inside of the biggest observatory. It was pretty wild. The next place we went to was the Worlds Largest Pistachio. Bet you haven’t been there. 
A couple days later I went back to Taos with another friend and on the way back we went though an intense hail storm and I saw my first ever tornado! 
At this point my summer was about at an end and I basically didn’t do anything exciting for a few weeks. The first week of September I went home for a mini break from Philmont. On September 5th I drove about 280 miles to see my brother Philip. 
A week later I was back in New Mexico to continue work. On September 20th I got super bored so I decided today was the day to visit the desolate barren wastelands of south east Colorado. I drove up to Bents Old Fort NHS. It is a reconstructed fort in the middle of nowhere. I got to walk through every room and see pretty sweet views. Next I drove to Sand Creek Massacre NHS. That was arguably one of the most remote spots I’ve been alone at ever… 
On October 13th I went to the Albuquerque International Balloon Festival with my Aunt and Uncle. 
At this point I had to slow down my driving because I needed to replace the belt on my car. 
On November 9th I drove to lubbock to see the Texas Tech vs University of Texas game. It was pretty exciting!! Thank you for the tickets Jack! I thought it would be awesome to go see a college football game and Texas Tech isn’t too far (350mi) and always a fun game. 
On November 29th I went to Farmington, NM with my friend Graham. We stopped by the Navajo Dam first and a took a few pictures with bb8. 
On December 15th I decided I needed to get out one more time before 2019 so Graham and I went on another adventure. This time we went to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks NM. It is a bunch of rocks shaped like tents. After a short hike to the top of the Mesa we got a great view of the rocks and snowy mountains in the distance. 
December 18th was my last day at Philmont for 2018 and after work I drove to my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Albuquerque. The next day I flew to London for the family vacation. My mom had put the idea forth a couple months ago, I had considered it, and thought it was possible for me to go. It was a loaded trip! I previously had 5 separate blog entries on it. I got to see the famous studio where Harry Potter was filmed. I went on a tour of Oxford University. I got to see the Crown Jewels. I went to The Dungeon, the London Eye, and I drank beer on a literary pub crawl. I saw Parliament, the London Underground, the Tower Bridge, an Arsenal game, and I walked miles around the city. 
Overall this year was terrible and fabulous at the same time. I hope 2019 will be just as fun. I’m in the process of planning more exciting trips. They are getting bigger and require more planning. I might take you through a planning session. I don’t just go ‘why not go to Denver today?’ Usually there is some sort of idea behind every drive. Lastly, the Patriots won the Super Bowl! Go Patriots! See you next time
*not my picture, found on Patriots website here*