So begins another jaunt to the other side of the equator. I’m in a cab now heading to Penn Station. It’s crappy weather out (cold and rainy), and I’m looking forward to the warm clear skies of Rio de Janeiro. It’s going to be a short trip (only 3 days there),but very needed. Got to clear my head and figure some things out. Beaches in foreign countries help out with that a lot.
Now that I know where to go once I get there, I feel a lot more comfortable about going to Rio this time. Also, I’m traveling alone, so I only have to worry about me (which isn’t that difficult).
I think I’m going to attempt to take the bus from the airport to ipanema. It’s only $3 and I arrive in the afternoon.
I scored a pretty good flight. It’s a direct flight from Newark to Sao Paulo and then a short flight to Rio from there. 12 hours in total.
I think the weirdest thing that I’m looking forward to is sleeping. On the beach, in a hammock, hostel bed, or anywhere really. I’ve had a very odd sleep habit since Saturday and I haven’t been able to break it. In the last 5 days I’ve slept a total of 7 hours and it’s been divided up at the strangest times. I would not sleep for 2 days, then crash for 2 hours around 5pm, then stay up until 11 am and then sleep for maybe an hour then maybe another hour at 9. On top of all of this, I’ve been fighting off a cold (I hope). So for the past few days I’ve been in a constant delusional state and unable to think. I just stay busy. Whatever, anything. Just have to keep occupied. If I rest or relax, I think. That’s my downfall. So, it’s time for a strong readjustment. That’s why I cashed in all my miles an converted all my cash left to Reals (Brazilian currency). I feel that it really is that important not to be here this weekend. Just leaving my apt, the city, or even the state wouldn’t have cut it. I need to go where I don’t know anyone an no one knows me (and perferrably warm =).
Yesterday I got the bright idea to bike it to Portland Maine. I figure, everyone else was doing something for labor day weekend, and that I should get the hell out of the city.
Well, according to Google Maps, I could make it to Portland in 5 and a half hours. F that.
After an hour on the road I figured, screw it. I’m just going to ride and see where I wind up =).
I wound up going to Cape Cod, Plymouth, and Boston. While I was in boston I stopped at a fetish party at Machine. It looked like it could have been fun, but I didn’t really feel like hanging out with people.
All-in-all, I was on the road for 13 hours and traveled over 600 miles! I think that was one of the coolest bonding experiences between me an my motorcycle. I’ve also named her now. Yep.. her. Her name is Betty (Black Betty). Also, after all that, I was still eager to go out and ride again today! It’s 320 miles to Portland, 530 miles to Columbus, 600 miles to Detroit, 520 miles to Raleigh, and 500 miles to Toronto. Just to give some perspective =)
It was a great time, and Now I know both my limits and hers. What a great experience. 100% freedom! I’m soar as hell right now, but it was worth it!
Oh, and here’s what I consumed: 1 lemonade, 1 footlong BMT sub from Subway, 3 Redbulls, 1 slimjim, and 1 twinkie. I was aiming for healthy
.: Adam
ps. Artists that rock while riding: Billy Idol, Dethklok, and White Zombie.
I finished off my day of work and headed to the airport to take off for Vegas for the weekend. On my lunch break I checked into my flight and expected to print out my boarding pass. The option was there, but there was another option. One that I’ve never seen before: Save to your mobile device. ?!
Hell yeah, I’m down to try this out. What it did was email a link to my iPhone. When you click on the link, the browser opens to a page that displays a barcode, and all my flight details (see the image below).
When I arrived at the security checkpoint, the little Indian man asked for my boarding pass and I showed him the webpage on my phone. He balked a little about needing a paper boarding pass with gate information, but I firmly insisted that this was all that was necessary… and he let me pass. Social Engineering Tactic #1: Success.
My next interaction was the security lady that was to check my boarding pass with my ID. When I showed her my phone, she smiled and told me how she’d heard about these but never got to scan one. I was her first. Awww. I hope she remembers me :). Anyway, after scanning my phone she didn’t even ask me for my ID. She just handed me my phone and said I could go through. I asked if she needed my ID and she said that it was verified through the scan. Ummm…what? I dunno if I’d call that an SE tactic, but definately got around security (without even trying). Success?
Next I as to strip down and walk through the metal detector. When I walked through, the security guard asked for my boarding pass. I told him thy it was on my phone. Deer in headlights. “let me see boarding pass”.
“Umm, I don’t have a paper one. I have an electronic one on my phone,” I said.
“you must carry boarding pass with you to give to me!”
“ok. Dude… It’s on my PHONE! I can’t carry a phone through the metal detector!”.
“oh. Ok. Go ahead”
?!
SE #3? Success I guess. (oh. Still no request for my ID.)
When I arrived at my gate they had just begin boarding first class. Great timing! Next they announced boarding for Elite Members. I’m not an elite member, but it’s a full flight to vegas and I’m sitting in the first row. This means I’m last to board and there will be no room for my bag and it’ll have to be cheked. Crap.
So I board :).
The ticket taker asks for my boarding pass and I handed him my phone. He looked back at me and told me that they were only boarding elite members right now. So I told him that I was an elite member, but that the status wasn’t on the phone pass thing.
This year, Skindependence took place in Billings Montana with our host MontanaPiercer. There were three days set aside for the festivities. July 3rd was the Chill, July 4th was the Festival, and July 5th was the Calm. For myself, t3chdzyn, and my girlfriend nicolonoscopy, the adventure started on the 1st.
July 1st: We met up at Laguardia airport in NYC for our 9:30am flight to Denver. When we landed, we headed downtown to grab some grub. I found a Jimmy Johns and made a b-line. They have such great subs!
After lunch, we meandered around downtown for a little while and then headed out to Boulder. We had plans to meet up with a friend of mine for dinner. Turns out that he lives on top of a mountain… literally. We drove up into the mountains for about 30 minutes outside of boulder curving around rocks and trees. About 2 miles before we were to arrive, my GPS deal-e-o let me know that the battery was about to die. Awesome! Lost at the top of a mountain where there is zero cell service. Thankfully we made it without getting lost =). Dinner turned out to be an interesting new form of eating. Some type of Swiss cooking device. It was kind of like a griddle with a broiler under it. There were separate spots for everyone to cook their food, and we each had our own little skillet / pan to cook with too. The closest thing I’ve had to this is Tsukiyaki in Japan. Lots of fun, and super delicious. I have to get myself one of those things!
We wound up taking off early evening, just as it was getting dark. Our next stop was Casper Wyoming, 4 hours north. We were going to spend the night at a friends place, and check out their new procreational success (new baby). The myth was that he is cute. I wanted to verify this myself.
On the way up, we wound up chasing / driving through a huge thunderstorm. For about two hours straight, we saw lightning about every 10 seconds or so in front of us. It was pretty intense looking. Before we drove into the storm, I stopped to take a couple night shots of Wyoming at night. I thought I had a couple really cool lightning shots, but they turned out to suck when I saw them on my laptop. Amazing how good a photo looks on a 1×1.5″ camera lcd =).
After a couple gas stops, and pee breaks, we made it to Casper. I think we arrived somewhere around 1:30 or 2 in the morning. This trip was also my first interaction with stupidly high gas prices. Living in NYC, I don’t really have to buy gas, so the prices never affected me. The last time I had to purchase gas for my car, it was just under $2 a gallon. Now it’s almost $4 a gallon. LAME!
We snuck inside, and hung out for a little bit with my friend Jack. We were pretty tired, so our next stop was bed. Finally!
July 2nd: The next day, we planned on doing some sight seeing around Casper as Nicole and Mike haven’t been there before. Before hand, we had to make a couple stops. First we hit up Jacks tattoo shop to say hey to everyone there, and to get a map on where all the sights are. I figured, what a better person to draw up a map than an artist =).
Next was onto lunch, and then to the printers to pick up the merch that I ordered a while ago. I didn’t see any proofs ahead of time, so I was a little nervous about how they were going to turn out. Thankfully they more than exceeded my expectations. Now on to the sights! Our first stop was a waterfall. Well, it was supposed to be… Turns out the map wasn’t exactly right. We wound up getting lost and helped a bird commit suicide. Well, I hope it was on a suicidal mission. All I saw was a giant splat right in front of my face all over the windshield. Jeep at 70 mph + Bird = big feathery mess. A couple phone calls later we get back on the right road and head into the mountains towards the waterfall. We missed it apparently, because next thing I knew we we on top of the mountain. Whoops.
Back down the mountain and up the the dirt road, we finally made it to the waterfall. t3chdzyn then decided to climb up the waterfall. It looked pretty easy going up, but coming down slippery rocks didn’t cross his mind until he was up there =). On the way back to the car, nicolonoscopy asked if I was going to boulder the rocks we were walking past. It looked like fun, so I tried it out. I didn’t go very high, becuase the rock was all slate and would just crumble at my fingertips. Without proper gear / crashpads, I decided to stop midway.
Our next sight to see was the hill you can roll UP! It’s a weird optical illusion thing where when you park at the bottom of this hill and throw the car into neutral, the car starts to roll up the hill. We made a stupid ghost rider video clip of it, but I haven’t even gotten close to editing all the video I took yet.
Onto our next and final sight… the deer. We were told that just past the roll-up-hill, there’s a spot where there’s a ton of deer. As we drove through the spot we counted… two. Yep, two little deer. Totally not the ton of… WOAH! A giant buck darts in front of the car as we were looking out the windows trying to find all the deer and almost killed us. I decided that was the end of our interaction with wildlife and headed back into town and meetup for dinner. During dinner we all made t3chdzyn try Rock Mountain Oysters… yep, bulls balls =). They’re really not that bad. Kinda taste like beefy chicken nuggets. A little more chewy though. What? You can hang from hooks, but can’t eat a bulls ball? Live a litte =). After dinner it was back to the house for some chill time and then to crash for the night.
July 3rd: Up bright and early (read: noon), we packed up the car and went downtown for brunch before we headed out on the road to Billings Montana. I had a seriously bad ass cinnamon roll =). Before jumping on the road, I checked the forums real quick to see if there were any updates / issues with the event. And there was… the venue burned down! After a few panicked phone calls, I found out that yes, the venue burned down, but that it was ok, because everything would take place outside instead of indoors and out. Phew…game on and on to Billings!
I drove through the mountains and desert(ish) area for about 4 hours. I did stop to buy some fireworks though off an Indian reservation. My friend Jack told me about the behind-the-counter stuff they sold there, so I had to pick up some =). We arrived at MontanaPiercer’s place with enough time to meet everyone there before we were to go out for dinner. I forgot who all was there when we arrived, but there were a couple photos snapped, so that helps…
After some brief introductions, we all headed down to Red Robin for dinner and drinks. This is were were all met up and got to start talking with one another. Everyone there was really cool, even the shy ones =)
Once we scared the locals enough, we headed over to MontanaPiercer’s studio, Oasis Tattoo.
He went over all the details with the next days festivities and gave us a tour of his shop. Most of us then headed next door to The Wheel (local biker bar) for some drinks and such. As the night progressed, t3chdzyn decided that he wanted to get the Skully tattooed on his calf. MontanaPiercer agreed to do it right then and there. How cool!
That would make 3 Skully tattoos (so far) done during Skindependence. ihaveonlyme was the first, getting it done on his inner bicep, and then linkraver21 got a little more detailed one (custom by MontanaPiercer) on is forearm. I have to say that I was pretty flattered, and envious. I want to get one myself, but I’ve already decided that I’m going to get it done by Robert Hernandez. Have him put his personal touch on it. eatenplacenta and her man were pretty exhausted from all the traveling and early departure times, so I drove them back to the house so they could crash. Lesson learned: wait until they get inside before you leave. Apparently, the door was locked and they couldn’t get in. When I returned to the studio, MontanaPiercer was leaving and told me that the couple I just dropped off were lock out. Oops… Sorry!
I think we wound up staying at the studio until almost 4 in the morning. I was starving, and thankfully, there was a 24 hour Burger King just down the street. A long night of Jager and a BK breakfast sandwich and hashbrowns sounds awesome! I don’t even remember getting ready for bed that night.
July 4th: I woke up in the mid-afternoon and got ready for the days festivities. We left for the Yellowstone Perk sometime around noon I think. I didn’t know where the place was, so we just followed MontanaPiercer’s wife. On the way there, I’m pretty sure we got put on some kind of a terrorist watch list for almost running over a park ranger =). Long story short, we made a wrong turn into a park where there was a line to get into with a park ranger checking cars at the front gate. Instead of waiting, I tried to floor it through the exit so I could turn around and leave. The ranger jumped in front of the car and started yelling at me. I couldn’t understand her, but she didn’t look happy. I threw the car into reverse and peeled out back onto the main road. No sirens, so I figured we were ok. Probably looked a tad suspicious though =).
On the way up the hill to the Yellowstone Perk, we could see a massive amount of smoke coming up from the distance. There was a raging forest fire going on that was destroying everything in it’s path. I found it kind of interesting that while this fire is just leveling the forest, everyone around is partying and setting off fireworks. You think they’d be a little more concerned and / or trying to help put it out. Nope.
Once at the venue, we met up with a bunch of other people, and then busted out the Frisbee. That was all well and good for a while, but running around in 100 degree heat just wasn’t my bag of tea. I wound up chillin over by the suspension area (read: a roped of section with a tree to hang from) for the shade. Then MontanaPiercer pulls me aside and tells me that the venue has lost all power. Actually, the whole part of town was down due to the forest fire. Great… no power = no bands. Now everyone is scrambling for generators. Unfortunaly it is the 4th of July. So everything is either closed or already rented out. Everyone got together and called up friends and friends of friends until they got enough generators to power everything. Woo Hoo! We’re back! Partying continues. Untill… Someone tells me that it’s about to rain. Awesome. The backup plan for the “if it rains” scenerio was to move everyone to the indoor stage area, but with it burned up, that wasn’t going to happen. We just had to wait it out.
Now that the party was in full effect, it was time to start with the suspensions. First up was piercedphreack. He wanted to suspend from his shins whlie holding his kid and swinging around. I’ve never seen a shin suspension, nor a baby being swung around, so this was going to be interesting =).
MontanaPiercer and Nicoleslavich prepped and pierced piercedphreack, then hoisted him into the air. After some time of swinging around, he picked up his kid and swung around some more. It was an interesting sight to say the least.
When piercedphreack came down, stuffsh was next. She flew all the way from England for the event, and this was going to be her first time suspending. When they pulled her up, she took a little bit to get used to it, but then was clearly having a good time up there. Swinging around, kicking he legs and smiling away. A couple minutes went by before she was lowered for some water. Then right back up again. This time not as long, but still looked like she enjoyed it.
It was starting to get dark and I was pretty hugry, so a few of us decided to take a break from the heat and go have dinner someplace with air conditioning (= Olive Garden). We had a good dinner, but wanted to get back to the party. When we returned I found out that I missed a couple more suspensions. Dammit… no one told me they were going to do more. Oh well.
Now that night has come, it was time for the fireworks. We got a got amount off before the owner asked us to stop. Something about how his place just burned down yesterday, there’s no water around, it’s super dry out, and there’s already a forest fire headed this way. So we packed up what was left, but not before firing off one more of the big-bang behind-the-counter things we bought. They were an arial that made a huge explosion. Every time we shot one of those off, you would hear cheering and clapping from all over the place. Good times.
It was time again to head back to the house for the night and get our beauty sleep before the rest of us were to suspend (included my first). July 5th: Today is the day of all the modding festivities. A full day of various suspensions, a guest tattoo artist and piercer, and a lot of people hanging out and enjoying each others company. I don’t have a full list of everyone that went up, but I do remember a few. There were a total of 14 suspensions of various form. I hooked up a flash photo feed of all the suspensions for live coverage. I think the photos will better describe the days events that what I can say in words:
With all the suspensions done, and mods beginning their healing processes, we called it quits somewhere around three in the morning. It came close to 14 hours of suspensions, tattoos, piercings, and other fun activities. I think it’s safe to say that we all slept well that night!
July 6th: On the last day, we all gathered up at the park for a BBQ. There was some delicious home-cookin’ BBQ food and AMAZING cupcakes. I’m not kidding. It’s possible that they were the best cupcakes I’ve ever eaten! After a few hours hanging out, and talking with everyone, we headed over to Oasis Tattoo for more mod work. For some of us that suspended the days before, we opted to get the Off the Hook logo tattooed. I got it done just above my foot.
After hanging out a little bit longer, we had to get back on the road to Denver. Our flight was the next day, and I wasn’t really keen on the idea of missing it. I think we left somewhere around 9pm. We stopped again at my friends place to crash for the night, and then continued on to Denver the next morning. Once I got home, and read more details on here, I found out about all the other mods that took place after I left. I really with I was able to stay longer.
I woke up to a knock at my hotel door. It’s Jenni and Craig. They inform me that it’s time to go. I ask if they’re referring to the noon meeting for sushi. Nope. It’s time for the 6pm BodyMod.org meetup.
“Holy Shit!” I’ve been asleep for almost 20 hours. I guess my body needed some catch up sleep after being awake for 3 days =).
I needed to shower and change, so I told them that I would just meet them at the bar. They left me a map from the tube station and they left.
Well crap. I was planing on going to the Dali exhibit and running around town this afternoon, so I guess that’s not going to happen. Oh well.
I jumped in the shower, threw on some clothes and briskly walked to the tube station. By this time, I was pretty familiar with the underground, and knew of the station I was supposed to go to, Kings Cross. It was the same one I met Jenni and Shelli at yesterday.
To my delight, the line that ran to that station was closed for the weekend due to construction. I had to get on two different trains, and backtrack a couple stops to get there, but I eventually made it.
When I got above ground, I pulled out my trusty map and tried to make my way to the bar. The only problem was that the map wasn’t lining up with the streets that were in front of me. Maybe I got out on the wrong side. Back through the station and out the other end, I pull out my map and check it. Nope, nuthin. Well, this isn’t good.
There were a couple coppers (that’s what they call ‘em over there) hanging out front, so I showed them the map and asked them for directions. Apparently, I was waaaaay off. Wrong tube station. I was supposed to go to Charring Cross, not Kings Cross. Dammit.
Back onto the tube. Now I had to go back the way I came and then get to another train to get to the Charring Cross station. By the time I got there, I’d spent a good hour underground playing around in the subway.
When I exited, my map fit with what was in front of me. Booyah! I made a couple turns and arrived at Jewel, the bar everyone from the site was meeting up at. I was about an hour and a half late. It’s all good. I had to be fashionably late anyway. I’m the guest of honor, lol =).
The door guy didn’t want to let me in right away. He was was a “list man”. You know the type, “woah woah woah… are you on the list man?”. Simple answer, “fuck if I know”. This produces a frown from the “list man”. Apparently, I needed to be on the list to get in. So I tell him that I’m there to meet up with a party of about 60+ people, and that I’m the guy they’re all there to meet. It was a load of BS, but it’s always fun to mess with them. He waved me in, but didn’t turn that frown upside down.
Inside, I met up with everyone and grabbed a drink from the bar. I met a few new people that I didn’t meet yesterday from the site and talked a little about this and that. Most of the girls were pretty shy, so I didn’t get to talk to them much. They looked pretty in their dresses and gowns, but not too talkative. No worries though, I still had a blast =).
After my second cocktail, I was told that we were leaving to go out to dinner. Works for me, I hadn’t eaten anything since the noodles from last night. We left the bar and headed around the corner to a pizza / italian place called “Zizzi”.
Obviously, they didn’t have seating readily available for 12 people on a saturday night, so we plopped our names on a list and were told to be back in 30 minutes. Nice.
We exited the restaurant and decided to find a small bar near by and get a drink while we wait. I ran into a somewhat fast food place next door to ask where the closet bar was. The chick behind the counter told me that there is a really nice gay bar just down the road. Ummm… not really what I was looking for. I asked her if it was the leather pants that triggered her response and she just laughed. She then told me that we should head around the corner to this place called “Jewel”, but you may need to be on the list to get in. Awesome. I got nowhere real quick.
We collectively decided to head down the road and see what we could find. A little ways down, we found a small english pub and entered. Most people ordered their pints, but Mac and I voiced our love of Mr. Jack Daniels and his best friend Coke. That’s when I saw the atrocity. The most evil of things you can ever see in a bar. I saw it a couple times last night, but didn’t think much of it. Now I was sober, and very aware. The measured pour. Nooooooooo! “You want a Jack and Coke? Well, first I have to pour the Jack into a measured shot glass to make sure that you’re not getting a drop over 250ml. Then I’ll fill the glass with coke to make sure that you don’t taste the Jack and get nothing from the alcohol what-so-ever because you’re going to nurse this drink for too long as you’re not too eager to drop another 4-5 pounds (8-10 dollars) for your next one.”
When I saw this I freaked out, and Mac told me that a lot of the time, bars pad the bottom of the metal measuring cylinders with a rounded bottom to actually short you on the pour! Heresy!
Apparently, hand-pouring a drink is really rare, and not to be expected. Talk about bad news. I thought we were just hitting a bad string of bars. About mid-way through our drinks, Jenni ran in and told us that our table was ready and we needed to head back to Zizzi. Not eager to stay, I sucked down my drink and headed out.
We showed up and there was a table ready for us. Well, 8 of us. There were 2 chicks at the end of the adjoining table just gabbing away after they paid their tab and weren’t leaving. W…T…F? Why do girls do this? Apparently it’s an international thing. So annoying.
I headed upstairs to the little stand / bodega thing next door to grab a bag of chips, sorry… crisps. I was hungry and needed something to keep the stomach gods appeased for just a little longer.
When I returned, the girls were gone, and Mac and I sat down. A short time later, our waitress arrived and took our drink order. Again, Jack and Coke. She got it half right. I received the Jack, but no Coke. When we ordered dinner, I reminded her that I would like a coke as well.
While we waited for our food, we chatted away, and took some photos. Generally being annoying to everyone else around us that was trying to have a quite dinner. Oops.
When dinner arrived, we all just shoveled it into our faces with minimal talking. Most of it was, “Mmmm thish ish goodmmm…”. Though, looking back, it was pretty bland. I emptied about half of the pepper shaker into my food to give it some flavor. That seemed to be the commonality with british food. Everything tasted the same. Odd. I didn’t care though, I was hungry. 30 minutes in and our mission was accomplished. We paid our tab and then headed out to our next bar.
On the way to the bar, I saw something that was pure genius: street urinals. The city brings out these portable urinals that can be occupied by 4 men at a time (with dividers), and then hauls them away in the early morning. So smart. Keep people from peeing all over the streets, and it’s perfectly legal. This is something we need in NYC, bad.
One of the guys I was hanging out with told me that another city in England has urinals that come out of the ground every night. The raise up out of the side walks like a james bond device. Freaking sweet!
We made it to the bar, but just in time for one last round as they rung the last call bell right when we walked in (it was about 11pm). Yeah, that’s another thing that bothers me about London. Bars close anywhere from 10 to midnight, even on the weekends. The only places that stay open later are the big mega-clubs. No thanks.
When we finished up our drinks, we headed outside and started to give our goodbyes. Some of us decided to head back to the hotel and just drink it up in our rooms and hang out there. Others had a long train ride home and decided to call it a night.
Those of us that were heading back to the hotel, jumped on the tube and were pleasantly surprised to be entertained by this crazy Elvis impersonator. I was so impressed with his performance, that not only did I video tape it and give him a tip, but I also got my picture taken with him =). This also shows how I really don’t fit in the train cars at all.
Here’s the video:
When we arrived outside the hotel, we contemplated as to where we were going to get alcohol. All the stores were closed, and most of the bars were also closed. Craig and I then got the bright idea of going to some dive bar that was open and trying to buy a bottle off them. Figured it was worth a shot. So we left and headed for a small metal bar that was just down the road.
A good 10 or 15 minutes into our walk, I found a wallet on the sidewalk. I picked it up and looked around to see if there were any guys around that could have dropped it, nothing. So I pocketed it and asked Craig if I put it in a mailbox that it would get back to the guy. He said they don’t do that there, and we could just mail it to him. Sounded good to me. Then “Crazy guy” came outta no where…
“Touch me I’m hot!” he shouted at craig as he stuck his fist out for the well renowned fist-hit handshake thing. He was with some girl, and everyone was smiling, so it seemed like a harmless, drunken gesture. That was just the beginning. This guy wouldn’t leave. Originally he and the girl were walking in the opposite direction, and now he was walking with us. The girl then looks at us and tells us, “Thank god. I don’t know this guy. He just starting talking to me, and he was funny so I tagged along. Have fun with him, bye!” And she bolted. Crazy Man continued to talk about all kinds of non-sense. He even asked us if this was the UK. We were pretty sure it was, so we said yes.
Every time we walked by someone, he would do the gesture and shout, “Touch me, I’m hot” to everyone. If he really liked you, he would show off his new porn DVD that he just bought. He was pretty proud of it. Eventually he lost interest in us and found a new group of people to latch onto that were passing by and we never saw him again… in person.
Right after we lost our new friend, we ran into the chick that we originally saw him with. She hung up her phone and tagged along with us as we were all laughing our asses off about this crazy man we all encountered. She was on her way to a bar in the same direction, so she decided to tag along with us and go to the bar we were off to. I believe her name was Mia. Craig gave her his full name at the bar and proclaimed that he’s the only one of them on Facebook, so I’m sure their bff now ;o)
As we waited outside the bar, I pulled out the wallet to see if there was any cash to pay for our drinks. No cash. No anything really. Just a library card, drivers license, and some misc other cards. Looks like someone found it before me. As craig was reading the guys name out loud, Mia burst out laughing. Confused, we asked, “Ummm… what?” Apparently Crazy Man told her his name during all his ramblings, and that was the guys wallet. We looked closer at the photo on the license, and sure enough, it was! We decided to return all his stuff, but I kept the wallet and license as a souvenir. Let other people buy little snow globes of Big Ben. I got Crazy Man’s drivers license =).
After a few shots of Jager at the metal bar, we asked the bartender if we could buy a bottle off him. He said that the only way we could do it is if we bought the bottle by the shot. I did the quick math and it came out to around $140 for a bottle of Jager. We passed.
We then left the bar and parted ways with Mia. We were on task to bring back liquor and we were going to do so! Craig then suggested that we ask the bodega guys to sell us a bottle on the down low. Didn’t seem too unreasonable. In nyc, you can get a 6 pack after hours if you go to the shady places. Unfortunately we kept getting denied. One guy was genuinely insulted when I openly offered to bribe him. Dude’s gotta loosen up.
We walked all around London, and tried every little store that had a liquor license and got nuthin’. We even walked through a place that was the equivalent of NYC’s times square. Not too impressive really.
After a long time of walking around London, we realized that we had walked all the way back to where we had dinner at! Talk about a weekend of stumbling in circles. It was pretty late now, and we were both hungry and tired. Figured it was best to call it quits and head back to the hotel. There was one more place to check, and Craig wanted to hit it up before turning around. Shazam! He was willing to sell! Hallelujah! We grabbed a bottle of Jack, a 2 litre of coke, and a few beers. We did it. We’re so awesome.
Now to get back to the hotel and share with everyone else how awesome we are that we found alcohol in this wonderfully dry-by-night city. We decided to grab some food on the way back because the stomach monster was at it again. Food of choice? Subway, again. There’re everywhere and some are open 24 hours. Also, it was better than “Wok in a Box”. As interesting as it may sound, I decided it was best for me to pass. I have to be on a flight to Moscow in a few hours, and I don’t want to take any chances.
When we entered the hotel, the concierge approached me and said that I had a message from a guy, “He’s in room 533″. Assuming it was Mac, who was also staying here (and I didn’t know his room number), I asked if the guy had bright red hair. “No, but he had tattoos on his arms.” Ok, now I’m confused, because the only person here that I knew with tattoos on their arms without bright red hair was me. I figured he was mistaken, and later I found out I was right. Apparently tattoos stick out more than red hair. Weird.
We took the lift to the 5th floor and knocked on Mac’s door. No answer. Ok… maybe he’s down at the girls room with everyone else. So, down to the 4th floor. We knock on their door. Nothing. Ok, I guess they all went to bed. Oh well. More Jack for me and Craig! As we were walking down the hall their door opened and Shelly shouted at us. They were asleep. Wusses. Shelly wanted to hang out though, so she came back up to my room for some drinks and chat. While we were there, she got ahold of Mac, and he came down too. This is when we found out what time it was, 3am. Oops. Guess we were gone a little bit longer than expected.
We drank and talked until the sun came up. I had to be at the airport at 10am, which meant I had to leave the hotel at 8am. It was not 7am. Guess I’m not going to sleep again. Definitely worth it. I made a few new friends, had a night to remember, and was about to start my next adventure to China. Awesome!
I made sure to try and get ahead of everyone on the way to customs. I know how bad it sucks when a whole plane is in front of you. I followed the arrows and guides all around the airport until I got to the giant customs room. Words to describe the customs waiting line / room; long, hot, silent, humid. After waiting in line for about 45 minutes, I made my way up to a guy that didn’t even look at me. Just stamped my passport and pointed to his left.
My next task was to find the subway (aka. The Underground / The Tube) and make my way to the hotel. I got the subway stop on the internet before I left, so I had that going for me. Finding the underground was really easy, and even finding the right trains were a peace of cake. The way London labels their tracks and trains is great. I really wish nyc would learn from it. Also, they’re super clean. On top of that, the trains themselves are cleaner and more comfy. They have padded seats, flip-down padded seats, and even padded butt-leaning pads for people to lean against if they have to stand. The one down side (and it’s a big one), is that they’re tiny. There’s no way in hell I can stand in them. Actually, I think anyone over 6′5″ wouldn’t be able to stand in them.
When I finally got to the hotel, it was a little after 9am. So much for my 8am timeframe. I didn’t see anyone there that I recognized either, so I figured no one got my message. I decided to check in, drop my bags off, and then go romp around town to see what London has to offer. In theory, it was a great plan. Unfortunately I was so caught up with increasing my head-shots with an M16, that I forgot to call my credit card company and tell them I was traveling abroad. So I got to talk to Satish Abudala for a while on my cell phone (racking up who knows what kind of charges) to find out that by me trying to reserve my room, it froze my account due to fraudulent activity. Awesome. Now I had go through a ton of hoops to prove I am me, and I am definitely in London. At one point I got so frustrated that I stuck my phone out towards the lobby and then asked if he heard all the British people talking around me.
Card unlocked, I was checked into my room. She wrote room 675 on my card and pointed me towards the “lift”. I went to push button 6, but it only went to 5. I saw another elevator, so deduced that the other one went to the higher floors. I excused my way out and then waited for the other one. “Ding!”, doors open, I enter, and push button… ummm… 1-5? Ok… what the hell. Now I recall that she did say something about floor 4. Ahh, I guess they don’t number rooms the same way here, that was obviously my bad. So I head to the 4th floor. Rooms 400 - 450 to the left and 451 - 480 to the right. OH C’MON! There was a maid there, so I asked her if she knew what was up. Apparently, 675 = 475. Puzzle 1 solved! For puzzle 2, I didn’t even have to try. The maid showed me to the room telling me that I never would have found it on my own. I laughed and told her that I’ve stayed in a hotel before and I could manager. She insisted, so I went along just to placate her. Boy was I wrong. My room wasn’t even in the same building. I had to go across a walkway that joined up to another building.
The room was pretty nice. Had a little sofa in it, squishy bed, nice bathroom. Only two gripes; most of the ceiling was too low (couldn’t stand straight up), and the shower head came to about sternum high.
Now that I’m on a role in completing my new set of goals, it was time to finish the last one and proceed to romp. I grabbed my camera and headed out the door. I received a city map from the concierge and studied it for a minute, but decided to ditch it and just wing it.
What I tend to do every time I visit a new country / city, I like to wonder around until I’m really lost, and then try to figure out how to get back to my home base. With the crazy streets in London, I figured this would be a piece of cake. About an hour into my walk with many twist and turns, I figure it’s time to get back to the hotel and try to contact someone I’m supposed to meet up with. Also, I would like to figure out how to get to Big Ben (pretty much the only London landmark I’m aware of =). I see a street to my left full of guitar stores, so I figure I’d start my return trip that way. About 100 yards down the street I stumble onto my hotel. Maaaaannn… so much for getting lost and having an adventure. Oh well.
The first “odd” store that I noticed was this umbrella store that was established in 1830. First off, the fact that an umbrella store even exists is amazing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it. Even in NYC. Also, the thing has been around for over 150 years! Crazy! I did make sense though. Given London’s weather, constantly drizzling, I would imagine that an umbrella can evolve as a status symbol that people carry around with them. Kind of like cell phones and wallets.
Back in my room, I flipped open my computer and thankfully Jenni was online. Jenni and Shelli were two chicks from northern england that I was supposed to be meeting up with. More importantly, they had Alex’s phone number, so they were able to get a hold of him. We talked for a couple minutes about where to meet up, and decided on a subway station close to the hotel about an hour and a half from now. Sounded good to me. I grabbed my camera, a map, and headed out to check out this giant ferris wheel called the “Eye of London” (well… it has the word “Eye” in it somewhere). The thing is massive.
Has to be the largest one in the world by far. Each capsule thing holds up to 25 people and takes 30-40 minutes to complete one rotation. I wanted to go on it for a great view of London, but once I got there and saw how long the line was, I didn’t have any time. I snapped a few photos of Big Ben and some surrounding architecture, and then hopped into the Tube to meet up with Shell and Jenni.
I arrived to what I thought was going to be an impossible situation. It wasn’t just a subway station, but a full-on train station. Like a smaller version of Grand Central. How the hell was I to find anyone…”Adam!” Never-mind, they found me! I should have figured that I stick out.
We exchange our “Hello”s and “Nice to finally meet you”s, and then I get onto the important stuff, “Where can I buy some red bulls? I’m fading fast!” I’m now into my third day with no sleep, and I’ve been walking around town all morning and afternoon. I was pointed to a nearby store that’s similar to Duane Reade (RiteAid), grabbed a couple liquid crack canisters and then headed back out to the waiting area. We were waiting for Jenni’s boyfriend Craig and the mysterious Alex. About 15 minutes in, Alex and Craig show up. We head back to the hotel for them to check in and then figure out what to do from there.
Alex lives in London, so he didn’t need to check into the hotel. So we hung out at the bar and waited for girls to come down so we could figure out what to do. About an hour later, the girls (and Craig) arrive and I have gotten to know Alex. Very cool guy. Good friend.
The decision was made, onto the pub that was right around the corner. Drinks and drinks. Except for the homeless man that stumbled in, the place was pretty cool. Very stereotypical english pub layout and feel. After that Alex had to take off. Had some work / school stuff to take care of. Shell, Jenni, Craig, and I headed out for food.
I was to have a traditional English dinner, Fish-n-Chips with mushy peas. Yes, mushy, that’s the word they use. Just think chunky mashed potatoes made of peas.
The bar we went to was pretty cool. Reminded me of Jekyl and Hydes in the city. After dinner and drinks there, it was back to the hotel. Mac had arrived and we were going to meet up with him. We talked briefly, and then decided to go onto the next pub in Camden Town. Craig told me that it was a really good metal bar. The place is called the Hobgoblin, was called the Dev. Mac and Shell opted out, so it was just Jenni, Craig and I. The bar was very cool (to begin with), then some live performance electronic music thing came on that was just horrible. Had to leave. Right before we bolted out the door, I saw someone that I recognized. Impossible I though. The only person in the entire country that I know, and they’re right in front of me? Yep! We said our hello’s but that I had leave. I was tired, pretty tipsy, and the music was unbearable.
On the way back to the tube, Craig insisted we stop at the noodle place. It’s this Chinese street vendor that sells a whole thing of rice, noodles, veggies, and chicken (well, says it’s chicken) for 3 pounds. I couldn’t bring myself to eat the chicken, but I did get some rice and noodles. I figured that they’d be the least deadly, and Craig wouldn’t let me leave until I got something. It was tasty, but I only had a few bites. I hadn’t built up an immunity yet, so I played it safe.
It was now sometime around 10pm and I was exhausted. I’d been up for 3 days, and drinking since I was on the plane. My body was tapping out.
On the way back to the hotel, we agreed to meet up around 2pm for Sushi and drinks before heading to the official BodyMod.org Meetup at 6pm. I figured I could get a good 12-13 hours of sleep. Good enough =)
A normal person would have passed out as soon as he hit the bed. I tried to watch a movie on my laptop first. One about the conditions at Guantonamo Bay. I think I got about 10 minutes in.
This is the day that marks the beginning of my travel around the world. But really, I should start with yesterday… Wednesday.
I received a gift certificate for my birthday for Ruth’s Chris steakhouse, so I took Nicole out for a nice dinner as it would be my last night in the states before I take off. I had a great steak, some wine, and dessert that I really couldn’t fit in my stomach, but hey… it was free =)
After dinner, I headed home for a little Call of Duty. Wanted to get some in before I left. Also, I was hoping to see Alex online. Alex is a guy from my site that I was supposed to meet up with once I got to London, and as of he, I don’t have contact info, or even a plan on when / where to meet. As luck should have it, Alex signed on around 6am. I played a couple games, and then realized that I had not packed yet… whoops. So I told him I’d see him Friday, signed off, and packed up for the trip.
Shit… totally forgot to get contact info, or even work out a place to meet. I signed back on real quick, but he was gone. Hmmm…
I figured I’d just worry about it tomorrow, it was now almost 7am, and I wanted to get some sleep. Welp… Nicole woke up just as I was going to sleep, so I really didn’t get any sleep. I opted to basically pull an all-nighter and just head to work.
Now on with Thursday!
I get to work and I have 2 goals, make sure all my expenses are in, and get a hold of someone, somehow, about meeting up in London.
First things first… expenses. I have a few weeks of backlog (whoops), but I figured it would only take an hour or two.
Then, the unexpected happens… a client called me, and I had to work… dammit.
I had to be in a car by 4pm to get to JFK on time for my 7pm flight to London Heathrow. It was getting dangerously close to 4, and I hadn’t reached anyone. Crap. The car downstairs is calling me incessantly, my boss wants to talk “real quick”, and I had to send out an email to everyone I knew in London with my proposed plan, and hope someone followed it. My plan was that my flight was to land at 6:30am, and I was going to take the Tube to the hotel and get there by around 8am. I proposed that we just meet up then.
By the time I got to the car, it was quarter after 4. Wasn’t too worried though, I mean, if it was Friday, I may have been a little more concerned. More people leave NYC on Fridays than Thursdays.
As soon as the driver gets outside the tunnel, traffic slows us down to a crawl… wtf? I wasn’t paying too much attention, because I was trying to catch some zzz’s. Then I noticed that we weren’t moving, but the lanes to the left were flowing fine. I asked the driver how long we were just sitting there, and he told me, “About 5 minutes”. “So why the hell don’t get in the left lane?!”… I was cranky, but he switched lanes and we started moving. Turned out that is was a combination of an accident and driver that’s an idiot.
I got to the international departure terminal for my airline, Air India (hey… it was cheap =). The retard takes my backpack and sets it on the edge of the curb, and of course it falls into the street just as a car is pulling away. Would suck if my camera and laptop were in there, oh wait…
Thankfully, someone saw it and pulled it out of the way real quick. I check in and obviously irritated the hell out of the check-in lady for the airline by asking for an exit row seat. She must have found some compassion, because she got it for me. Yay!
The flight to London wound up being an easy flight. The exit row was the kind where I could stretch my legs all the way out and not touch the seats in front of me.
Also had on-demand movies and tv shows (Bollywood mainly). The dinner on the way there wasn’t so hot though. It being an Indian flight, my options were vegetarian curry or non-vegetarian curry. Crap… I hate curry. I tried the non-veggie one for kicks.
I got sucked into the on-demand stuff, and the unlimited free alcohol =).
Next thing I know, I see the sun rising out the window, and we’re starting out decent into Heathrow. Crap, still didn’t sleep, and now I gotta deal with customs. Oh well, at least I’ll speak their language. That’s a bonus.
I wound up not really sleeping on the plane (surprise!). We landed on time, and did the whole deplaning, getting of bags, going through customs rigormorand for the last time. There was one last joke played on me though, just to remind me that I shouldn’t relax yet. Right after customs, I went to the bathroom. Right as I undid the button on my shorts, the button popped off, ricocheted off the wall and landed right in the toilet. Great.
Lugging all of our stuff down the halls and upstairs, we check into our next flight, check our bags and go through security. I grabbed my stuff after the checkpoint and started walking to the gate. I carried my shoes figuring that I’d just put them on at the gate. Well, that didn’t really happen, because as soon as we got to the gate, we found out that they already started boarding, so we walked right on the plane. I sat in my exit row seat, and busted out the PSP. On the way home, I beat Super Bomberman 2. Yes…
We landed on time, but as usual with Laguardia’s traffic, we sat on the runway for about 20 minutes taxing and waiting for the other plane to get out of the gate. Oh yeah, when we landed, it was 20 degrees and snowing. Everything was white. Nice little welcome back from NY.
When we got home, Corrine was sleeping on the couch. We briefly talked about the trip and played with the cats for a while and then decided to go out to brunch. It was just before noon, and one of our favorite places (Sunburt Cow) was opening for brunch shortly. This is the first time we’ve ever been up early enough to beat the crown. I had eggs benedict and a bottomless screwdriver. I was celebrating being home =).
When I got home, I changed into some comfortable clothes and passed out on the couch around 3:30pm. I woke up at 9:00am on the dot and got ready for work. Feeling very rested and ready, I jumped on the subway and showed up for work relatively on time.
I woke up to what I thought was noon, what would have been the perfect wake-up time. But it was actually 11. Dammit.
Nicole was already up and ready to go. Our plans for today were simple. Go to the black market (that place that had everything bootleg), buy a bunch of DVDs, come back, watch some movies, catch a cab to the airport, check in, get on the plane home, fall asleep. Well, that’s they way it worked out. For the most part.
First stop was the black market. I found a guy that hooked me up for about $35 USD, I got 42 movies. I also purchased a CD/DVD book that held 48 movies. We then walked around to kill some time and pick up a couple cheap “i gotta have this, cuz I can only get it here things.” And a pair of socks. The ones I had were way too dirty =). While Nicole was haggling with some lady on the price of some Pisco, I bent down to sneak a photo of this chicks foot. I saw this out of the corner of my eye and couldn’t let it pass by (oh, and she’s an american, so i didn’t feel bad).
On the way back to the hostel, traffic was intense. The lines on the road are mere suggestions. The traffic lights? They represent more or less what you should do. I think the only thing that keeps people from going completely nuts and speeding all over the place are the random speed bumps. They place them all over the place in the road without much warning. Again, the rule of, “which ever road has more lanes has the right of way” existed. The other thing that stuck out were all the street vendors and beggars. They would sell anything, seriously. Calculators, ice cream, toy trucks, towels, whatever. Once, this kid came up to our window and mumbled something over and over (i guess asking for money) until the cabbie took off.
When I got back to the hostel, I took out all the DVD covers from the cases, and moved all the movies in book holder thing that I bought. Then I found a rock and tore up the case pretty well to make it look beaten up and pretty used. Anything that’ll make it easier to get through customs. I figure, it’s probably not a big deal, but why take a chance.
Finished with my workings, we went to the grocery store to grab some lunch / dinner. While we were there, we grabbed some liquor, and a couple photos of the meats area. This was too good to pass up. They stored a lot of their meat in open-air. Not wrapped. Free for people like me to cough and sneeze all over. Gross. They also had shrink-wrapped Guinea Pigs. Mmmmm.
The hostel we were staying at had a liquor license, so they forbid us to bring back our own liquor. No problem. I bought a cheap bottle of "Peru Cola" for about 30 cents, poured it out, and put it in there. Dinner was a repeat of yesterday, but it was still tasty =). Nicole had some veggie-meat patties. Looked disgusting, but she said it was pretty good.
After chowing down, I hung around the hostel to watch some movies, and Nicole went out to the beach to watch the sunset.
At 8:30pm, our cab to take us to the airport arrived. We piled in our bags and said goodbye (we wound up getting a free ride due to incompetence at the hostel =). On the way to the airport, it clicked as to why I was feeling so sick (soar throat and general crappiness). It was the pollution from all the cars and buses. I felt as if I was sucking on the end of an exhaust pipe. I was not going to miss Lima.
We got to the airport and checked in with Spirit. We wound up having to check 2 of our bags at a cost of $10 each. I charged them to my credit card, as we didn’t have any cash. Also, there was only one type of ATM at the airport (probably some deal made between the bank and the airport), and Nicoles debt card didn’t work in it. Whatever, we were almost out of here and $20 isn’t going to kill me.
Upstairs, we get into the next line, the airport tax line. There was a $30 airport tax fee that you have to pay manually before you’re allowed to go to the boarding area. When we get up to the teller, I hand her the boarding passes to get the stamps and my credit card. Then comes the beginning of a complete freak out…”We only accept cash”. WHAT?! A major international airport that charges everyone a departure fee only takes cash?! WTF?! Well, I certainly don’t have any cash, and Nicole doesn’t either, so I ask her what the hell we’re supposed to do. She informs us that we can go back to the Spirit checkin counter and pay with a credit card there. Arg! Fine… whatever. I just wanted out of here.
Back at the spirit counter, I skip the line and go up to the lady that checked us in. We explain. She looks confused and tells us that they can’t do it. Awesome. I can feel my blood pressure rising. “So what do we do?” She tells us that we can hang out there and pay for peoples luggage with my card and have them give us the cash. Great idea! “but the flight is pretty much all checked in, and most people payed in advance.”…*POP* <- my cool. “Then what the hell are we supposed to do? Nobody does cash-back purchases (asked) and all the money exchange places only exchange cash (asked)?! What happens if we miss our flight? It leaves in an hour and we haven’t even gotten through customs, let alone security!” Well, if we miss the flight, we forfeit our tickets (but our bags will make it to florida fine). We would then have to purchase new tickets (but the flights are booked, and we’re broke…awesome). For the cash problem, she had no suggestions and left us with a final answer of a shoulder shrug. My favorite response for any question. Especially when it means I’m going to be trapped in a foreign country with no money.
I then got an idea. We raced up the stairs to the food court and jumped to the front of the line. We then explained our situation to everyone in line and offered to buy their meals on my credit card in exchange for cash. Many of the people agreed to help. We needed to raise $60 (120 Soles) in about 20 minutes or we were seriously screwed. With most peoples order being around 5-10 soles, I had a feeling we might actually not make it. I ran to the book stores / souvenir shops to try there (larger ticket items being bought), but of course, everyone was paying with a credit card. I ran back to the food court. We were up to $40! People wound up just giving us money. That’s about the point Nicole broke. She couldn’t ask anymore. She left and sat down. Crap… now I’m limited to just english speaking people and we have almost no time left to spare! I didn’t give up. I skipped everyone in line and approached a smiling elderly american gentleman and told him our problem. He laughed, said how bad he felt for us, and gave us a $20 bill. I almost cried. I thanked him profusely, grabbed Nicole, and we ran for the airport tax line. It was about 40 people deep. Screw this. I moved all the little line thingies and walked right to the front. A window opened and a cut a lady off throwing her a gaze that she understood and stopped dead in her tracks.
I handed the lady the boarding passes and the $60. “Do you have 2 Soles?”… “What?! I just begged for this money, my flight is boarding right now, and you’re questioning me about 60 cents?!” She put the stamps on the tickets and we proceeded to customs. Great, another line. We tried to skip this one, but they made it pretty clear that we had to wait in line. So we did. We got out stamps to leave the country and then went through security. Thankfully, it was quick and short. Running to our gate (at the very end of course), we made it. Just in time to have our bags searched again by hand for liquids. Our government is plain dumb. I’m not even going to go into this one right now.
We got on the plane, and was greeted by two black women with sass. Yes! Home! I went to take my seat, and it was reached with dread, but not too much shock. It was a regular coach seat. There was no way in hell i was going to sit in a regular seat for 7 hours. I told the stewardess about my problem, and she told me to move to the exit row, no problem. So I did. I was happy. Finally, I everything was okay and my blood pressure resumed a normal level. We were to arrive in Fort Lauderdale at 6:30am tomorrow, and I have no idea when my connecting flight to New York is. And I don’t care. I try to go to sleep… didn’t really happen.
Back down the mountain and up the the dirt road, we finally made it to the waterfall. 
Up bright and early (read: noon), we packed up the car and went downtown for brunch before we headed out on the road to Billings Montana. I had a seriously bad ass cinnamon roll =). Before jumping on the road, I checked the forums real quick to see if there were any updates / issues with the event. And there was… the venue burned down! After a few panicked phone calls, I found out that yes, the venue burned down, but that it was ok, because everything would take place outside instead of indoors and out. Phew…game on and on to Billings!
Now that the party was in full effect, it was time to start with the suspensions. First up was 
Now that night has come, it was time for the fireworks. We got a got amount off before the owner asked us to stop. Something about how his place just burned down yesterday, there’s no water around, it’s super dry out, and there’s already a forest fire headed this way. So we packed up what was left, but not before firing off one more of the big-bang behind-the-counter things we bought. They were an arial that made a huge explosion. Every time we shot one of those off, you would hear cheering and clapping from all over the place. Good times.
On the last day, we all gathered up at the park for a BBQ. There was some delicious home-cookin’ BBQ food and AMAZING cupcakes. I’m not kidding. It’s possible that they were the best cupcakes I’ve ever eaten! After a few hours hanging out, and talking with everyone, we headed over to Oasis Tattoo for more mod work. For some of us that suspended the days before, we opted to get the Off the Hook logo tattooed. I got it done just above my foot.
After hanging out a little bit longer, we had to get back on the road to Denver. Our flight was the next day, and I wasn’t really keen on the idea of missing it. I think we left somewhere around 9pm. We stopped again at my friends place to crash for the night, and then continued on to Denver the next morning. Once I got home, and read more details on here, I found out about all the other mods that took place after I left. I really with I was able to stay longer.
