Meeting The Boss, winding it down
We are back on the road on the final leg of our 11 day western road trip. Yesterday’s drive from Beaumont, Texas to Tallahassee went smoothly but felt long thanks to us losing an hour after reentering the eastern time zone.
I contacted the wife of a calisthenics buddy of mine, Max. They both live in Tallahassee. Max is originally from Ukraine, in fact, he has only been in the US since April of 2013. Max and I started talking online somewhere around 4 years ago. His workout videos were very unique because he did them in the warehouse of the electronics store he worked at. He made a pull up bar by fastening a pipe in between a big set of shelving.
Max and I used to talk a lot when he still lived in Ukraine through chats and Skype. At the time both Max and I were very focused on being able to complete the Bar-barian requirements. Max is much stronger and younger than I am. He actually was able to do the reps within the time limit, the only thing that prevented him from being an official Bar-barian was his form on some of the reps was not quite up to standards. I never even got close to his level.
Ironically, when Max moved to this country my communication with him dropped off dramatically. Coming to the United States was almost coming to another planet when compared with Ukraine. He was busy trying to acclimate himself to life here. He found a job shortly after he was allowed to and then managed to get himself a job at the local credit union.
So anyway, I figured since we would be staying in Tallahassee I should see if Max and his wife were interested in connecting. When Max and I used to chat we always hoped that one day we would get to meet in person. To be so close and not try not make it happen would have been lame on my part. Heather said they would be thrilled to meet us for dinner so we set it up.
Originally I thought we would have plenty of time to make the 7PM time. However after our normal stops for lunch, gas and bathroom breaks combined with losing an hour, we only got checked into the hotel right before 7. We told Heather it would be more like 7:30 or 7:45. We quickly took showers and headed back out the door.
Cindy and I came out of the parking garage through the wrong door so we were disoriented as to where to go. Max and Heather came out of the restaurant to flag us down. It felt weird to meet both of them in person after being connected for years virtually. Since I talked to Max on Skype before his Ukranian accent was not disorienting. He taught himself English and since moving to America his English has gotten even better.
We headed inside and got seated at the restaurant. Cindy and Heather seemed to hit it off pretty easily and were chatting away. Max and I talked about a lot of stuff as well. He has already started getting promoted at the credit union he works at which didn’t surprise me. I already knew Max was very motivated in whatever he did. To hear his hard work is being rewarded at his job was great news.
We talked a lot about Ukraine and just how shitty of a place it is to live. Growing up there has given him a totally different perspective of living in the United States. Max said in the Ukraine, you can work hard as hell your entire life and never be rewarded for that work. There basically was no opportunity to move up unless you were somehow connected to the small inner circle of people that run the country. In the US, Max feels like he no longer is constrained and that if he works hard he can do well for himself and his family no matter where his starting point is.
That perspective makes it hard for him to understand the mentality that infects a large portion of our entitled society that puts a strong work ethic low on the priority list. People that expect to get something for nothing just don’t compute in Max’s eyes. Maybe that is because in Ukraine so many people get nothing for something.
Max’s focus since coming to the US has shifted from pull ups, push ups, and muscle ups to doing all the things needed to get his new life started on the right foot. At only 24 years old he has his whole life in front of him.
Despite not working out all that much lately, after dinner Max showed he still has some great power, doing slow and controlled muscle ups on a railing outside, stuff I could only dream of doing, even when I was in tip top shape.
It was great connecting with Max and Heather. We encouraged them to consider making the 400 mile drive down to Naples sometime to visit. It felt good to see Max living out the dream we talked about for him early on. He’s a good dude and I thank Heather for helping him make that dream come true.
So as we are tracking down the last few hundred miles of the trip it’s fun to run some numbers as well as recapping things.
It looks like our total mileage for the trip will just be under 5000 miles. I estimate in total we have spent somewhere around 80 hours in the Prius. To travel those miles we will have spent less than $400 in gas which is pretty amazing. Our best mileage on a tank of gas was 50.9 mpg which happened surprisingly while going up and down mountains in Colorado. Our worst mileage was 41.7 mpg which happened maintaining 80+ mph across western Texas.
Our lodging for 10 nights came to a little more than $900 which again, per night, is a significant improvement over what we spent for last years trip. What is unknown is the ancillary expenditures we had along the way. Things like the tickets for the train ride will pump that number up I am sure. After I undergo the lengthy process of reconciling all of the credit card receipts for the trip in Quicken I will have a clearer picture of the numbers.
As a whole, the trip was awesome. If I was forced to pick the most disappointing part of the trip it would easily be the cave dwellings in Manitou Springs. Although they were cool, there just wasn’t enough to see. It was also disappointing that we were not able to the do the Manitou Incline since it was closed for repairs.
I don’t know if I could pick out the best of the best in the trip. Visually, I think there were many beautiful and impressive things. The St Louis Arch gives you a sense of wonder that man could create such a structure. The mountains in Colorado that we both drove across and traveled through on the train offered us so many beautiful views that I couldn’t count them all. White Sands National Park is obviously one of my favorites as well, hence why I have been there 4 or 5 times.
The hike up Barr Trail and the admittedly foolish and undeniably dangerous climb up Smelter Mountain will be life long memories that we will hold onto. Our experience with legal recreational edible marijuana products at first seemed like a dud with gummy fish but changed dramatically after consuming THC granola bars. It was a sensation unlike any I had experienced before. It’s not necessarily a sensation I would be looking to recreate on a regular basis.
When I look back to night one in Nashville to day 11 today as a whole there are just so many memories in that block of time that it seems as if we have been gone much longer. Cindy and I have had so many new, unique, and memorable experiences on the trip we both feel very fortunate. I am grateful that Cindy embraces these trips and is so eager to soak up every ounce of excitement, fun, and joy they contain.
It will be nice to get back home where everyday life will quickly rush back into the forefront. However the great thing about these road trips is the memories they create are an infinite resource that can be drawn upon at any time, even when stuck behind a desk behind a couple screens.
Although this trip is coming to an end I already look forward to the next adventure, whatever it may be.
The massive picture collection is still located here.