ROAD TO THE ROCKIES!!

As this blog is going to be about traveling and my study abroad to Ireland I thought I would post a past trip I took on spring break in 2016! So this story starts back in December of 2015 after my first semester in College was over. It was me and three of my friends chillen in the back of my house in my hot tub just having small talk. I'm going to introduce these three friends now as they are going to be very important to this story. The first friend i'm going to introduce is Travis, my roomate at the time and best friend in highschool. Next is Ian, another friend from highschool and he went to the same college as me and Travis. And last is Sam, Travis' girlfriend from highschool who are still together and I am currently living with this summer.

So I cant really remember who brought the subject up but we started talking about what we were going to do for spring break come March of 2016. The previous spring break we attended was to Myrtle Beach, SC and we wanted to top that trip this time. So we started brainstorming and came up with a road trip. we weren't quite sure where we wanted to go at the time but we loved the idea. So we threw out a couple places and ended up with Denver Colorado. That is about how far we got in the first conversation because honestly we really didn't think it was going to work out.

Come the next couple Months it all started falling into place. All our parents said yes, we found what car we were driving (which is a whole other story of its own and will be mentioned later), and we chose the destinations we would be stopping in. The destinations we chose were Kansas City, St. Louis, Denver, and Nashville(with smaller ones along the way). On the way to Denver from High Point, North Carolina(That is where we lived at the time), we would stop in Kansas City, then on the way back we would stop in St. Louis, and then Nashville.

So the car we drove is kind of funny because its not a car you would think three guys and one girl would want to take on a long road trip. That car we drove was 2008 scion xd sports addition. Its small and does not have a lot of room for four peoples luggage for 10 days. However we managed and it turned out to be one of the best trips of my life to this day!

This is the car we drove

So come March we ventured off on our adventure at about 11 at night. Me and Ian in the front(Ian driving) and Sam and Travis in the back for the night. (And i'm not going to sugar coat any of this trip so there are going to be moments that are illegal and I want to say now that I do not approve of the things we did and I don't want any readers to try what we did). So we brought pot brownies on the trip and the people that were not driving would take one. So Sam and Travis started out with taking one while me and Ian did not because we had to stay up the whole night driving. So driving through the night was not to bad we just listening to music and talked the whole time while Travis and Sam slept in the back. So 9:00 am comes around and Ian and I are so tired that we have to let them take over.
This was taken in Missouri somewhere when we pulled over to switch.

So when me and Ian get in the back instead of sleeping we make a decision to eat a pot brownie as well. This decision was a good yet bad decision on our part. Bad because we were sleep deprived and shouldn't have taken one but good because it brought some of the funniest and memorable moments and videos on the trip. We were driving all the way through Missouri at the time(you can imagine how boring that could be) so the brownies brought a since of fun and entertainment to the boring drive.

So after driving all the way through Missouri we reached Kansas City. And the first reaction we all had to it was there were some terrible drivers!! But we got over it and moved on and we finally arrived at our first stop which was a bed and breakfast located in Kansas City. And this house was beautiful!!! It was an old style house and had the nicest staff. Here is a picture of the outside.

So after dropping all our stuff off at the beautiful house we headed into the city to get us some famous Kansas city BBQ. We found us a small place that had great reviews. Me and Sam got the normal BBQ while Travis and Ian got the special sampler plate that had so much food!! we drove around the city and were so beat from driving for 17 hours that we just went back to the house and got some rest for the next day. My overall opinion of Kansas City is that its alright some cool stuff to see but the food is delicious and the people are lovely!

So we went to bed wearing the comfiest robes given to us by the lovely staff and awoke to the best breakfast I have had to this day. There was everything you could think of, eggs, bacon, toast, cinnimon roles, souffle, fresh fruit, and more.

So we set off around 9 that day to Denver with me driving, Ian in front and Sam and Travis in the back. All three of them ate a pot brownie while I drove all through the state of Kansas and through Colorado to Denver. This drive also resulted in some great memories and good laughs. Here are some pictures from the drive.

This is travis finding a heart in the light.

So we drive up to the base of the Rockies with the most beautiful view and enter into Colorado Springs. We get to where we are staying. Were staying in Sam's roommate's parents since she lived in Colorado Springs(An hour from Denver). This house was sitting atop a huge hill with a beautiful view. The lady that owned the house was named Ms. Lisa and she was one of the nicest ladies. So when we arrived Ian, Sam, and Travis were all high from pot brownies and Sam immediately threw up in the bathroom(we blamed it on car sickness). Ms. Lisa had made spaghetti and rice crispy treats and we all devoured it. And right after we ate Ian went out to go smoke a cigarette and walked right through here screen door and broke it. So within 15 minuets of being there Sam threw up, we ate all her food, and Ian broke her screen door. Great first impression I know.

This was the view from her bedroom.

That night we went out and drove around Colorado Springs and went and saw my old house when I was little(I lived in Colorado for 4 years when I was really young). So the next morning we set out to Denver to walk around the city and shop. My first impressions were good and I liked Denver a lot. It had a nice mountain landscape and the city had a laid back feeling to it. we walked around and went into shops and got our souvenirs. We went into a medical grade marijuana shop but got turned around once we showed them our ID's. We didn't stay too much in Denver but we saw everything we needed to see.

So the first night official night in Denver we wanted to find some Marijuana to buy but we were not 21 so we couldn't buy it legally from the shops. But luckily Sams roommate knew someone in Colorado Springs that would sell to minors. So we got the address and drove into the city to a vape shop. Sam's roommate said that we say to the clerk "Can we buy some raffle tickets?". And it worked, all of a sudden the vape shop owner took out a whole cabinet full of marijuana. He said he only had 11 grams left so we gave him $200 for 11 grams, 8 pot brownies, a grinder and bowl. We took our finding home and had one of the most surreal moments of my life. Ms. Lisa's house sat on top of a hill with a beautiful view of Colorado Springs and the Mountains. So we went through the back gate of Ms. Lisa's home and sat down on top of the hill and over looked the beautiful night city view and bonded together. There is only one more moment in my life that is more surreal and that is for a different story. Me, Ian, and Travis sat there gazing off into the stars of Colorado and we all checked off a moment off our bucket list that night.

In this picture you can see the gate we went through and the hill we sat up on at night!!

So after this night that marked the half way point of the trip. We had a great time up until that night and better times to come in the next few days. I'm going to stop the story there and tell the rest in another post to shorten it up a little bit. I hope you guys have liked the story so far and I cant wait to tell the rest!!