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27MarchFriday morning was not busy for me. I did a bit of reading and school work related stuff. In the early afternoon I picked my sister Michelle and took her to the store and to do errands. She doesn't have a car in Provo, so I thought I'd let her take advantage of mine. Who says I'm not a good brother? We also met up with our friend Melody Splattstoesser at Sonic for half priced drinks. I took Michelle back to her place and I took a nap. In the evening she went with to dinner with a good friends and his wife at Wingers and then we all went to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. After I got back after the the rest of my evening was pretty lazy as well.
28March
Today was the day that made my whole trip. Everything before and after was great, but this day alone was worth everything. A group of us first got together to go to lunch a Tucanos. Brasilian BBQ Buffet; glorious and delicious. We had to rest after to recover and let the food settle, but then we reassembled to head down to Spanish Fork for the Holi Festival of Colors. 10,000 Mormons gathering for a pagan, excuse me, cultural celebration can only be fun. My little group consisted of myself, my sister Michelle, Tina Roper, Ben Hatch, Nathan Casper, Crytal Araujo and Heather Veit. There were sooo many people there. I ran into many, many other people that I knew and that I hadn't seen in a while. That alone was fun. So anyway, the point of the festival: to celebrate the end of winter and the beginning of spring. There is a bonfire where the witch of winter is burned and then everyone throws colored powders at each other. There is story too. There were masses of people at the Hare Krishna Temple, inside and out. We were told this was the biggest Holi Festival in North America, ever. The actual festival took place on a hill side next to the temple where they had set up a band stand. There was a false start at first, but when the actual "bomb" went off it was amazing. We'd fought our way right into the middle of the crowd. When everyone started throwing colors it was all you could see. I'd lifted Heather up on my shoulders so she could get better pictures. Huge clouds of colored smoke covered the whole area. We could hardly breath for a time. Everyone ended up covered, with powder ending up in all sorts of odd places. They had live band music going the whole time after that. It became a kind of Hare Krishna rock concert after that. There was no personal space. People were crowd surfing, pushing every way, dancing, singing and chanting. There were a couple of time we had to protect each other from surging crowds, but overall it was very safe. No one was rude in anyway and tried to help each other for the most part. I'm pretty sure no one got seriously hurt out of the whole crowd. We moved our way to the front and spent the rest of our time up there. It was a blast. I lost my voice by the end of it. I had so much fun. We stayed another hour or so and the made our way back to the cars. We took some more pictures of our colored condition and then fought our way through traffic back to Provo. We cleaned ourselves up as best we could, rehydrated and several of us ended the night with a movie and a game of CatchPhrase, made crazier by our exhausted state. Really, this day was the highlight of my entire trip.
29March
Sunday was church. I really wasn't sure what to expect from church at BYU. I ended up enjoying it. I guess with low expectation its easy to be pleasantly surprised. That's actually how I've felt about my whole experience in Provo: I've enjoyed myself a lot more than I expected. I wasn't put off by Provo. Granted I was only there 4 days, I and I knew I could leave. Anyway, later in the day in the Hotel California we had a potluck get-together with several people from San José. Nathan and Ben hosted, I was there of course along with Robert Bennett, Ashley Mordwinow, Mark Williams, Peter Holt, Jamie Hanson, and Heather (she's not from San José, but she got a pass). We had good food and good times. We even tried to play another game of CatchPhrase, and were more successful. A few of us stayed later and watched Saints and Soldiers. And I stayed up way later than I probably should have, but no regrets. It was a good end to my last day.
30March
Despite ~4 hours of sleep I said my good-byes and was out of the apartment by 9ish, did a few errands and was on the road home by 9:45AM. Besides stopping for gas, and one 20min. power nap outside of Elko I didn't stop. The drive went better than I'd expected. I really hadn't been looking forward to doing it, especially alone. Yet, I was alert and mostly comfortable the whole time. I was certainly blessed. I made in how just after 8PM local time, making my total drive time just under 12hrs. This has truely been rewarding trip. I had great fun, made new friends, had good times with old friends, and feel rejuvinated for life at home. It was worth every cost. :D
Being extremely tired/lazy every night when I got in, and wanting to talk and spend time with those I stayed with, I didn't update this everyday. That means this will be a long post.
23March
I began my Spring Break road this morning. I left a little later than I'd originally intended, but not too much later. A part of the purpose for this trip was to visit as many temples as I could. Temples are not open on Mondays, but I thought I stop by the Fresno Temple anyway. I had lunch there and then continued on my way. I had realized earlier in my drive (about when I got to Los Baños) that I had forgotten to bring a jacket. Too far to turn back, so I planned on stopping by a Wal-Mart in or near Fresno to buy one. They had none. No jackets. Ridiculous. I was able to eventually find one at a Big 5, on sale too. I continued south for several hours towards L.A. and got off the freeway at Santa Monica Blvd. I drove down Santa Monica to the beach just because I could. I spent a couple hours at the beach, ate dinner at a little restaurant there and then continued on my way south, towards San Diego. I got to my friends Tim and Charlotte McFarland apartment around 9ish (they actually live in La Mesa a little town right next to SD). We talked and hung out for a bit but we were all tired and they had school stuff so we were all in bed by 1130.24MarchTim and Charlotte had gone to school by the time I got up. I ate, left them a thank-you note, and head off to the San Diego Temple. Google maps failed me a bit in getting me righ to the temple, but I worked it out. San Diego is a nice temple. Beautiful grounds and gorgeous inside and out. It went through a session and took pictures outside, before continuing north. I took the toll road (CA-73) and got off to see the Newport Beach Temple. If there is such a thing as a posh temple, this is it. It is an amazingly exquisite temple; from the grounds to the decal to the materials, inside and out. The area is very exclusive too, so the probably adds to the ambiance. I had just missed a session and didn't have time to wait for the next so I continued on toward L.A. (Normally you have to make an appointment for smaller temples like Newport, but they had room and would have been nice enough to let me in.) Google maps failed me again in not getting met exactly to the temple, but I made it anyway. The L.A. Temple is one of the largest and is right on Santa Monica Blvd. I ate there, but didn't have time for a session (I'd just missed one again), but I did other work there. From there I spent the next couple hours in L.A. traffic. Yay! :| I was driving to Las Vegas and I didn't get there until after 10pm. I probably spent nearly half my time in traffic. It's a goo thing I didn't go through another session. I stayed with my friends Kyle and Suzanne Hansen in their house in Henderson (just south of Vegas). Suzanne was already asleep, but I got quick tour from Kyle. I was asleep by midnight. More on them tomorrow.25MarchSuzanne ended up not having to go to work until 9, so I was able to spend time talking with them both in the morning. (She's a nurse and orginally had a 7am shift.) They have been amazingly blessed with where they are in their lives. So many things came together for them from buying the house they're in to the the jobs they both have, to the timing of Suzanne's pregnancy. It was blatently obvious to me how the Lord had blessed them and it inspired and gave me hope for my future. I'm really grateful and glad they let me stay with them, even if it was brief. That morning I went to the Las Vegas Temple. It was a nice session and I really liked the celestial room. (I can be so much closer to heaven there.) I ran one quick errand in N. Las Vegas then headed on my way to St. George, UT. When I got to St. George I had a little trouble getting to the St. George Temple (this time I'd made a mistake with the address). Fortunately Utah street design is such that it's pretty easy to find one's way around. I'd forgotten about the time change coming into Utah and thought I had plenty of time for a session. I ended up having to rush in to make it. It was nice nonetheless. When I got out and began heading north I realized my mistake with the time. I was heading to Ephraim to stay with my cousin Abbie. (She attends Snow College.) I was worried I was going to be really late, but it turned out that her night out in Provo with friends for a b-day had gone later too and we ended up getting getting to her place at about the same time. We talked a bit and she let me crash on the couch.
26March
Abbie was a great hostess, and her roommates were accommodating, too. She fed and took really great care of me. I have great family and awesome, attractive cousins. (Abbie's actually getting married in June.) I went to the Manti Temple in the morning. I'd passed it the night before (it's right on the highway) with it all lit up, you can see it for miles. It's a beautiful castle like temple. I gave myself plenty of time; I really enjoy the experience a lot more when I'm relaxed and unrushed. The workers there were really nice and I got to see some beautiful rooms and amazing pioneer craftsmanship. I did a bit of laundry at Abbie's place and hung out some. I did some writing and such. I actually had snowed the night before and parts of the day, so I was in no hurry to drive to Provo. When I got the work done all that I wanted to, I finished packing up and and headed up to Provo. My excitement on the way up was almost hitting a dear on UT-89! It saw me and I saw it, but it decided to run across the road in front of me anyway. My breaks did there job. The other odd thing from my drive to Provo is that the first Mormon missionaries I saw all trip I saw just outside Provo. Go figure. So met up with my buddy Nathan Casper and his fianceé Crystal. I'm staying with Nathan and his roommates. Their place is affectionately called Hotel California. I basically hung out the rest of the night, with them, other friends form San José, Nathan's roommates and friends. We got frozen yogurt, watched a movie, talked til late about dumb things. It was great fun. Though because this is near BYU, the honor code applies, so all girls were kicked out before midnight. There's several good reasons why I never wanted to go to BYU: that is one.
This is going to be a travelogue/adventure diary. I'm making more of a point of doing fun things that I want to do. Going to exciting (or not so exciting) places where I want to go. Seeing the things I want to see. Not to sound all selfish, mind, I just want to enjoy the life and the world God have given me and all of us. I don't believe we are intended to be recluses, hermits, or misers, so I want to get out there and live.
&lowast I will have adventures! &lowast
Here I will record my travels, post pictures and share stories. I have my first trip to record coming up in just a few days. It'll be exciting. Well, for me at least.
I may also post some old adventures and stories of mine as I feel like it. There easily will gaps between trips (I can't afford to go gallivanting around every weekend), so I may use them to fill the space. And not every event will be a huge deal. Some probably will be little excursions, but all will be fun and adventurous.
Also I will get around to formatting this blog. Eventually.
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