The Coffee Bandit

I had (apparently) ambitious plans to write a post for every day of the Anchor House ride this year. As it turns out, when you haven't done much training, you get tired and aimless after riding seventy miles before tea time. Between swimming, Riverhorsing at the Yellow Truck, showering, and going to dinner, I just didn't have enough extended focus to even get a single post up. Allow me to try and summarize. The only thing my great American road trip prepared me for was the six hour bus ride down. Easiest part of the week for me, by far. I chuckled at everyone's complaints. Don't they know six hour car drives are nothing? Hell, I had two bus seats to myself! Straight up lounging! Day 1, on Sunday, was forecasted to be ridiculously hot. We left accordingly, at 6am, and saw the sunrise coming up above the road in the first five miles. Virginia (& Pennsylvania later) are full of rollers, which are short up & down-hills in quick sequence. There's a trick to...

My last two days have felt strangely temporary, as if homeis just another destination of a brief stay. I arrived home Thursday afternoon,and my 41 hours in town have already evaporated. We actually spent a few morehours in New Orleans last weekend than I have at home. Before I knew it, I hadmy duffel bag and backpack packed up again, ready to leave town. This time, I’mleaving on a bus with a few more people. You’ve probably heard of the ride before if you know my Dad,or heard him talk about it for the last decade at St. David’s church. If you’reunaware of the ride or the house, allow me a brief description: the AnchorHouse is a shelter for homeless, runaway, and abused children in the Trentonarea. They provide life saving assistance to young children & adults. Theirservices range from emergency housing, life skills training, and counseling, toname only a few. A huge portion of Anchor House's operating budget comes fromthe funds raised by the riders every year, which is the m...

This article is being written pool side at home, meaning yes: we made it. This is also the first one I'll write that won't be checked by my trusty editor, so hopefully I don't screw up too royally. Our Wednesday morning on July 4th was unlike any other on our road trip. We woke up late, lounging around casually watching Wimbledon, because we were in no rush at all. We planned to leave for Washington DC from Eshani's house around 3pm, which we did right on time. Caught the metro in from Fairfax to Farregut North. Our plan was to grab drinks and appetizers around DC before the fireworks at 9 off the Washington Monument. We stopped in at a few places near DuPont Circle, namely Black Fox, Alero, and Lindy's. We got free chips and salsa at Alero, and some cheap food at Lindy's. We set up our blanket just off the fenced in lawn area on the National Mall. The fireworks were a pretty cool sight to see, especially with the monuments right there. America! After ever...

We woke up kinda early in New Orleans Monday morning, to get a good start on our way to Nashville. Grabbed bagels in the city before departing. We made pretty good time despite missing two interstate ramps and having to backtrack. We arrived in Nashville around 6pm. Clare's friend Lauren had a very nice apartment for us to stay in. We threw a bit of laundry in, and then drove about Nashville. Saw Music Row, Belmont University, and Taylor Swift's house? Went to a great burger/bier garden place called the Pharmacy. From there, we spent the night at a bar called the M. L. Rose. Yesterday, we got up much later than we would have liked at Lauren's. Drove into town and got breakfast at the Pancake Pantry, which was damn delicious. Drive thru Vanderbilt and downtown Nashville before going two hours north to Mammoth Cave, arriving at 12:30pm. Our late start meant we missed the cool tours, so instead we did a small self-guided tour. Tuesday was all driving. It's 630 miles...

We awoke on Sunday morning in the Courtyard Marriott, looking forward to continuing our longest stay in one place for the whole trip. Surprisingly enough, we were feeling a bit sluggish after Kyle-Day. After showers and retrieving the car from the worst valet service ever, (but free, hehe) we drove back into the heart of the French Quarter. When we drove by Cafe du Monde on our way to park, the line was out the tent. After walking thru some shops and the market, we were able to walk right up and grab a table. This French coffee and doughnuts place is apparently a local legend in Nola. Pretty delicious coffee, and the fried powdered donuts were tasty too. We walked around for a little longer, seeing a statue of Andrew Jackson in a park, before hopping back in the car and driving to the Garden District. Clare's friend Tim lives in that area, and we roused him from his slumbers to come out and drink with us for the Euro final. We watched the first half at a place called the Bulldo...

Expecting the worst night of sleep, I woke up feeling not so bad. The others felt some of the effects of the hot hot heat, as well as crickets and owls that sounded like jackhammers at our campsite. We arrived into New Orleans around 2 PM, and walked around the French Quarter for a bit while we waited to check into our hotel. Lucky us, we left our car to be valet parked in the wrong Marriott hotel. The Courtyard, which my Father graciously point-ed us, was only two blocks away. Lucky us. After some showers, we walked down the French Quarter some more to a spot named Coop's Place. Quite frankly, the most delicious jambalaya I've ever had. Sorry Ma, but I think N'Orleans is a reasonable place to be beaten out on this dish. After a filling dinner, we loitered around near Frenchman Street. According to multiple sources, this was the spot for live jazz, and it did not disappoint. We jumped around a multitude of places, namely Maison, dba, and the Spotted Cat. Eventually, w...

Our group's biggest weakness is getting up in the morning. We missed our second free continental breakfast in a row yesterday in Austin. Our exciting evening took us to a few places on Sixth Street, namely the Blind Pig Pub, the Library, and the Jackalope. A local we were talking to at a pizza stall took us to our final destination called Barbarella, a bumping local spot off Sixth. All the bars have to compete with each other on prices and entertainment... The winner is the drinker! Drinks were cheap, no one charged a cover, and there was live music everywhere. Sixth Street is a blessing. In the morning, we got breakfast at Jo's, another great spot suggested by Ms. LaSata. Coffee, water, and sandwiches can cure all your woes. After eating, we walked up and down South Congress Street, checking out all the various antique, boutique, and novelty shops. Also, a boot shop and a hat shop. Austin is a very cool town; it's diametrically opposed to everything Texas. From Austi...

We woke up rather late today, mostly because of the overnight drive last night. Since we were in a hotel, we didn't have the sunlight to awake us like we did at the Badlands. On our way out of Irving, we stopped and got a cheap breakfast at Waffle House. Three hours later, we were in Austin. We got a room at the Homestead Suites, just over the river from the city's main district. We did our laundry and just kinda chilled out in the room, watching Germany lose to Italy in the Euro semifinal. Apparently Austin is having a bit of a cricket problem due to the heat. We had a bunch of them in our room, but the hotel did have a sign up saying there wasn't much they could do about it. So it goes. Thanks to TCNJ's very own Eva LaSata, we found a nice tequila place to go to near the park in Austin. We all had a few margaritas and half-off appetizers. From there, we went to the park and tossed around the frisbee. I happened to see a couple of pickup soccer games happening, so ...

The drive from the Grand Canyon to Dallas was a little more eventful than we would have liked. I got pulled over in New Mexico on an Indian Reservation, and then Tim got pulled over in North Texas. I got fined, Tim got off scot-free. Coulda been much worse. We still made it into Irving by 4pm, right on schedule. Far too hot. We got to the Beyene household and relaxed a bit, before a delicious steak dinner. It was the heartiest thing I've eaten in weeks. Absolutely delicious. We bought tickets to the Rangers game and went down to Arlington. It was a ridiculously high scoring and sloppy game, and the Rangers prevailed, 13-9. Today. we drive to Austin, TX. Tomorrow, we drive to New Orleans.

The four of us awoke fresh and chipper this morning in Las Vegas, definitely not hungover. Definitely not. We had to check-out of the MGM Grand by 11am, so that's when we finally got out the door. We stopped at a Dunkin' Donuts, and then got on our way out. Once we had put the Strip behind us and some coffee in us, everyone started feeling much better. It was an hour from Vegas to the Hoover Dam, right on the border of Nevada and Arizona. I understand that it's a great engineering feat for our country and mankind, but it's really not much of a sight to see. We were in and out of there in 15, 20 minutes top. We drove another 3 hours from there into the Grand Canyon. Our first stop was the view from the rim next to the visitor center. To be honest, I wasn't entirely impressed at first. The whole canyon almost looks fake, and it's impossible to put that kind of size into perspective. The canyon became far more breathtaking once we began to descend. After fill...

We did our best to wake up early on Monday morning, but still didn't leave camp outside of Zion until 8:30 am. Our plan was to do the 5.5 mile hike in Zion from the Grotto up to Angel's Landing, which is the most talked about hike in park. We got to the trailhead at 10am, just as the sun was cresting over the far side of the canyon. Luckily, only the very beginning of the trail was bathed in sun. Once we got up the first mile or so, we were in between the mountains and out of the sun. The trail was at a pretty steep grade. Once we got up the long switchbacks, 2.2 miles up, we reached the Angel's Landing segment. The 1.1 mile round trip was a narrow path up to the very top of the mountain. We had to walk along steeps right next to the edge, and there were chains along the way to hold on to. There were footholds here and there, but it was still a tough climb. The view at the top was a great sight of the valley. It took us an hour and a half to get to the top. We ate our l...

Woke up to a crow hawking around our campsite at Bryce Canyon this morning. I walked up to the Amphitheater in the North Campground at 8am for Alli and Caitlin's service. It was 20 minutes long, and Alli gave a nice sermon on Matthew 6:1-15. If you're curious, the link to her sermon is here: http://hoodoowhoknew.weebly.com/1/post/2012/06/sermon-62412.html I also added Alli's Weebly to the left hand bar, for your viewing pleasure. She's living in Bryce for the summer, volunteering with Christian ministry in the National Parks, and working at the park's coffee/pizza shop. Who knows where her travels will take her come the fall! A small breakfast of dry bagels/sandwiches and coffee was had, and once Alli and Caitlin got back from their second sermon, we drove up to Sunset Point, on the Canyon Amphitheater Region. The whole view of the canyon is very impressive. We walked down the Navajo Trail, which is a huge set of switchbacks that goes straight down into the can...

While we were making the boring drive from Jackson thru Southwest Wyoming, I decided to tally up some stats. Gas: 2,850 miles in, $425 spent on gas. That means the gas fund has $625 left. We've gotten the mileage up to 23.4 mpg for the trip. Food: I haven't been tracking the individual expenditures, only group groceries. For that, we're at $182 total, or $45.50 per person. Lodging: Thru the first six sleeps, we've camped four times and stayed in two hotels/hostels. Our average cost of stay per night is $56, per person it's $14/night. We've also been playing a license plate game... 50 states, minus Hawaii plus Washington DC. The national park parking lots make it a bit of a breeze. After a week, we're up to 44/50. Missing New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Carolina, and DC. Also got three bonus Canadian provinces. We're looking for some more interesting car games. Help us out? Our drive south today took us thru Salt Lake...

Before I begin, I should mention that I left out one of the coolest parts of driving around Yellowstone yesterday. We got stuck in a bison traffic jam. But, onto the Grand Tetons. Kyle has been obsessing over the Grand Tetons for the last month or so. In particular, he wanted to do a 16 mile hike to Lake Solitude. When he called the ranger station last week, they told him the pass was still too snow covered to get to the lake, and the lake was still frozen over. Our amended plan became getting as close to Lake Solitude as possible, which took us past Inspiration Point and thru the Cascades Canyon trail. We packed peanut butter sandwiches, granola, and craisins, while I carried about 3 gallons of water on my back. After not being able to get on a trailhead at a reasonable hour last evening, we wanted to get an early start today. Which, of course, we did not. After our breakfast of coffee, grilled sausage and cheese sandwiches, and fruit, we drove to Lake Jenny to take the ferry ac...

Long day of stuff in Yellowstone. I'll start with our hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, and coffee. On our way out of Mammoth Campground, we saw a bunch of rocks to climb, so we did. Rock city, rock rock city. Our next stop was the Museum of the National Park Ranger. Quick stop, had some interesting patches, old jackets, general historic stuff. Continued south to the Norris Geyser Basin, which had a bunch of bubbling and smoking pools and geysers. Really smelly stuff, but incredibly cool looking to walk around. When we got back to the car, to our surprise, a huge raven hopped out of the moonroof. It ran off, but did its best to peck at our food: it tore off a single piece of the paper bag our food was in. Lucky us. From here we faced a decision about whether to drive further south to more geyser basins, or east to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Mud Volcano. We chose the latter, and the waterfall at the Canyon was enormous and awesome. Some lady yelled at us for crossi...

Our cozy setup in Red Lodge meant we slept in far too long. Had our exceptional continental breakfast and then got outta Lodge around 9am. Our drive to the Yellowstone Northeast entrance took us through the Bear Tooth path into Wyoming, a seasonal road for good reason. Switchbacks, upon switchbacks, upon switchbacks, all while we climbed about 5,000 feet. Got some unbelievable pictures as we drove, and at the overlooks. After crossing the tree line at about 10,000 feet, we got out and hiked up the hillside to the top. I'd say 700 feet up, about a mile out. Very cool panoramic view. Once thru the snowpacks and ski slopes, we got a delicious barbecue chicken lunch at, of all places, a Steelers bar in Montana. From there we drove back into Wyoming into Yellowstone, officially. We stopped at a Ranger Station on the Northeast corner, where we were able to circle a whole itinerary on a park map. Our planned campsite was full when we arrived around 3:30, but the second one we rushed...

Our plan today was to hit Mt. Rushmore and then Wind Cave. But, when you sleep in an hour later then intended, plans can change. Park Rangers chuckling at your plans can inspire you to change them too. We left for Rushmore around 8:45am from Custer. Our drive thru the Black Hills National Forest took us thru some tight "pigtail" bends and one lane tunnels with perfect views of Rushmore. We stayed at Mt. Rushmore for about an hour at most. Our reactions ranged from "exactly what we expected", to "underwhelming", to "not worth the hubub". Or the $11 entrance fee... we couldn't even use the $80 National Parks pass! After hearing some advice from a Rushmore Park Ranger, we decided to skip the drive back down to Wind Cave National Park, and instead head north for Deadwood, Spearfish Canyon, and Montana. We had planned to try to skip out to Cody, WY for a rodeo, but rodeos are a dime a dozen. On our way to Deadwood, we stopped at a Winery alo...

Woke up at Badlands Interior Campground around 7:30. Breakfast of peanut butter sandwiches/toast and coffee was had. Showered up, packed up camp, and went to the Visitor Center. From there we did two hikes: the first was a 1.5mi hike on the Notch trail near the Visitor Center. Lots of sandstone rock climbing, with a very cool view at the end. The second was a longer, 4.5 mile hike on the Medicine Root loop. We hiked through a long prairie before getting to these huge plateau and canyons. Unbelievable views. The Badlands was named so by French trappers in the 1800's, mostly because of how difficult it was to traverse. I can imagine so, considering how quickly the terrain changes from prairie to sandstone canyon. Got so many good pictures, but they're all on the fancy camera. It seems so desolate now, but it teemed with life before American settlement. When it became a national park in the 1930's, there were no bison remaining. A population was reintroduced in the 1960...

Tried to post this last night to no avail. We got out of the O'Connor's casa at 8:36pm, Saturday night. A few rest stops, three tanks of gas, and a full driving rotation found us pulling into the Windy City at 7:30am, local time. I knocked out PA, Clare took Ohio, Kyle took most of Indiana and Tim finished into Illinois. Chicago held us for 3 hours. Had a quick walk around Millennium Park before breakfast at Lou Mitchell's, which is right where Route 66 starts, apparently. I found it by searching Google for "legendary Chicago breakfast"... It held the first two results. Free donut holes when we walked in, solid food at a decent price, and we got there so early that we missed te line out the door that had formed by the time we were on our way out. Decided to drive thru the North Side (Lincoln Park!!) and peek at Wrigley Field & Wrigleyville for a moment. Was wishing we coulda gone to the Goose Island Beer Garden. Got gas and left the North Side at appro...