Day 6: Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado

On June 29, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt established Mesa Verde National Park to "preserve the works of man". He did so because of the cliff dwellings and the mesa top sites of pithouses, pueblos, masonry towers, and farming structures left behind by the Ancestral Puebloans. These people inhabited this Southern Colorado landscape for roughly 700 years. (The USA is only about 234 years of age) Ancestral Puebloans made Mesa Verde their home from roughly A.D. 550 to 1300 and contrary to popular belief, they did not disappear but rather moved to Arizona where their decedents sill live today. By no means am I a credible history expert on Ancient Puebloans, but our tour guide was, and since this isn't a college essay, I will not be citing him in my MLA format bibliography at the end of the post, but I did use his words almost verbatim. Our tour guide took us down to the famous "Cliff Palace". He explained that we were viewing ancient structures, but also a sacred burial ground where many of the ancient people passed on due to draught and/or disease (Mostly Children). He encouraged us to imagine the Puebloans and how they would have lived and interacted within the dwellings and hoped that we would leave Mesa Verde with a better appreciation of the structures and the people. We did. Below are pictures from the "Palace".

Joe also got a great shot of "Soda Canyon" with the Rockies in the background.

Today was a good day, but the hours of driving have finally caught up to us. By 2pm Joe and I were truly exhausted (I have misused this word too many times) and decided to pop into a local restaurant for an early dinner. After dinner, we got back to our campsite, took showers, did laundry, and cleaned out the car. It is currently about 9:30pm mountain time (2 hours earlier than Eastern Standard) and we are planning on going to sleep soon. We will be waking up at 3:30am and heading back on the road to pass thru Monument Valley, Utah as the sun rises. It may truly be a "once in a lifetime" experience and will make for remarkable photos. Once we pass through Monment Valley, our next destination is the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Neither of us have seen the Canyon so we are looking forward. We will be staying at the Grand Canyon for two nights and plan to complete a full day hike of one of the Canyon Rims. You should be hearing from me tomorrow night with some more photos.

Below is a google map image of our current location.

Vin


See details(Google Map)

Day 4 & 5: In Transit (Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Colorado)

By now everyone knows the severity of the storm cell that swept across the South East earlier this week. We were lucky enough to dodge the 300+ tornadoes that touched down in the past few days. Below is a tornado map from CNN and I highlighted our route to show how we were lucky enough to stay clear of destructive weather.

On Day 3 (April 27th, 6:00pm Central) we arrived at our campground safe and sound in Hot Springs Arkansas. Joe and I ventured outside the campground to pickup some burgers and beer for the night. The town of Hot Springs Arkansas, was not what I had expected. I hope I don't offend anyone, but lets just say I fit in very well with a scruffy beard, dirty cloths (hadn't showered in 3 days), and a flannel shirt. I think it's human nature to make initial assumptions / judgement based off appearance. I am familiar with the phrase, "Never judge a book by it's cover" but the very fact the phrase exists is because people DO judge books by their cover... this is true because I owned every Goosebumps book published because of the various pictures and colors displayed on the cover... (I never read any of them). Despite book covers, the people down south (including Hot Springs) were very kind and hospitable. In New York City people go out of their way to avoid any form of acknowledgement or eye contact, but in the South, people say Hi when you pass by. Imagine doing that in NYC? If I said Hi to a random person on the S train, they would awkwardly smile, stand up pretending like they forgot the next stop, (It only goes from Time Square to Grand Central and back) and move to the next cart. Maybe I am being too dramatic, but I think it would be a really cool idea for us NYC dwellers to start saying Hi to random people we see during our daily commute. Wouldn't that be a fun thing to do? Let me know how it goes because I probably won't be doing it. :)

Anyway, we woke up around 8am the next day and went to check out the Hot Springs National Park. To be honest, this was a bit of a bust. We saw a few of the springs, but the park/information office didn't open until 9am, and we wanted to get on the road asap. We decided to hike an uneventful trail and before we were half way finished, we turned around and decided to get back on the road. Hot Springs turned into just a pit stop along the journey, but there was an upside to the visit. Since we had to deviate from Interstate 40 West to get to Hot Springs, we needed to take some back roads through Ouachita National Forest to get back onto 40 West. The route we took allowed us to view great scenery and get a true sense of how some people live in this country. it is truly an amazing contrast from the apartments/houses we see in the NY/NJ area. Below are some pictures I took from the road as we passed through Ouachita forest. (from iPhone so forgive quality)

After driving through the forest, we jumped back onto I40 West and headed towards Amarillo, Texas. To get to Amarillo, we had to drive the entire length of Oklahoma. I don't know if anyone has ever driven through the sate of Oklahoma, but there isn't much to see. Trucks, cows, grass, and lack of elevation is the best way to describe the drive. Once OK was behind us, we made it into Texas (which wasn't much better) and arrived at our hotel in Amarillo. We decided to stay at a hotel so we could shower & sleep in a bed. Like I said earlier, we hadn't showered in a few days, and were essentially sleeping on rocks while camping in tents, so it was much needed.

From Texas, we drove to Cortez, Colorado. This drive was roughly 9 hours and we passed through New Mexico. Joe and I thought living conditions in Arkansas were rough, New Mexico was something we had never seen. We were able to take some back country roads and pass through very small NM towns (i.e. population: 200 - 600). Some places looked inhabitable, but you could see there were families living inside. Today was the first time it really hit me, that people are struggling through tough economic times. Below are a few iPhone pics:

I am currently writing this post in a Cabin located within the campsite in Cortez, Colorado. We initially pitched our tent at the campsite, but there are abnormal winds (40-50 mph) tonight which will dip the temperature into the mid teens. My sleeping bag is made for 50 degrees & Joe's is good for 20 degrees. In short, it would have been a very cold night & our tent looked like it was going to fall apart, so we decided to pay an extra 10 bucks a night each for sufficient shelter. Tomorrow we will be up early and head to Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado (15 minutes from campground). Tomorrow's post should have some great pictures, so stay tuned.

As we approached Colorado from New Mexico

States driven through Along the Journey thus far:
NJ, PA, MD, WV, VA, TN, AR, OK, TX, NM, CO

Day 2 & 3: Cades Cove, Great Smoky Mountains National Park & Back on the Road

We are currently en route to Hot Springs, Arkansas (10 hour ride from Great Smoky National Park) and find ourselves smack in the middle of a severe storm cell which has been spawning tornados all week. We have been driving through torrential rain for about 4 hours but nothing unmanageable as of yet. I posted a picture of the Nashville skyline in the rain (nothing exciting), but first let me fill you in on our visit to the Smoky Mountains.

It took us about 3 hours to get from our first campsite to Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains. Before we headed to the camp site, Joe insisted we pick up some bear mace for our protection and sense of security. I didn't object, so we stopped at a camping store and purchased our peace of mind. We arrived at Cades Cove at 10:30am, setup camp, and ventured out to the famous 11 mile "loop" that boarders the cove. Cades Cove is famous for an abundance of wildlife within the park which includes black bears. Joe was particulary excited about driving the "loop". Besides being a pilot for continental express, he is a photographer hoping to expand his portfolio. Joe shoots with a Nikon D300S supplemented by various zooming lenses which makes for ridiculously clear and crisp photos. With that being said, Most photos in this blog will be from Joe. He is good at what he does, as I am sure you have already noticed. Check out his website if you have some time. (www.josephvincentphoto.com). Before driving the full loop our plan was to find a hiking trail and put our new hiking equipment to use. We came across a trail called "Elijah Path" but couldn't find it on the trail map I purchased For $1 (In retrospect I should have splurged on the $2 map). We decided to take the trail regardless. Below are some pictures Joe took of our hike.

After the hike, we jumped back into the car to finish out the 11 mile loop. During the remainder of the loop we were not lucky enough to see bears, but we did see great scenery and plenty of deer. On the way back to the campground we agreed to wash up, eat dinner (chex mix and progresso soup) and do a few more laps with hopes of seeing black bear. After about 4 more laps last night and 1 finale this morning, we were pleased to say the least.

So Day 2 is complete and we feel like we got the most out of Cades Cove. Last night the tent held up well against strong rains and winds, but there were a few times I was confident it was collapsing on top of us. Today will mostly consist of driving so there won't be a post tonight unless there is something of substance to report. Below is a picture of Nashville in the rain... Not very exciting, but it accurately depicts today's drive. We should be at the next campground by 8pm Central tonight.

Day One: Blue Ridge Parkway & Kingston Tennessee

A 3:00 am Text From Joe reads, "See you in 30". I didn't read the text until I woke up to his 3:40 phone call informing me he was waiting outside. No time for showering, no time for eating, we vowed to depart at 4:00am and indeed we did (4:09am to be exact) I must say that leaving my house this morning was difficult for some reason. There was something in the back of my head questioning the feasibility of sleeping in a tent for a month in the middle of the wilderness (wilderness = KOA certified campground...many of which have swimming pools). That's 90% true. Although we will spend the majority of our nights in certified/protected campgrounds we will do some backcountry / bear country camping where there is no messing around. For example: Can't leave open bag of cheesy puffs in your tent or anywhere for that matter.

So today Joe and I drove around 11.5 hours from NJ to Kingston Tennessee. For the majority of the day it was sunny, clear skies, and 85 degrees. We decided not to go straight to the Great Smokey Mountains so that we could spend more time on the awesome Blue Ridge Parkway. We plan to get a good night sleep tonight so we could be at Cades Cove in GSM by early AM...but let us get back to the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Parkway started being built in 1935 during Roosevelt's administration and links two parks, Shenandoah and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Today we drove through the Shenandoah part of the parkway and we actually got lost trying to get back to the main highway (Navigation system was telling us to make a right turn off a cliff...) Here are some picutures from the highway.

The above was one of the straighter paths along the way. The road is very windy without many guard rails to keep you from nose diving a solid thousand feet through bolders and trees.

One of the scenic views. We were about 3200 feet above sea level.

The couple ahead of us on the motorcycle forced us to drive at a good pace to check out the views

So day one is in the books as Joe and I try to get some sleep. Every sound we hear we assume it's a Black Bear hungry after months of deep hibernation. So far the most dangerous animal we have seen was a stray cat, an unattended pitbull, and a pack of humans. Tomorrow will be a short 2 hour ride to Cades Cove where we plan to drive an eleven mile loop (where most of the wildlife can be found in the park) and then go for a 3-4 hour hike with road flares and bear mace packed and ready. We are anticipating some good pictures tomorrow, weather permitting. Day 1. We are alive. 21 more to go.

Vin and Joe.

Shout out to Jen for informing me to seal the seams of my tent. It poured for 30 minutes after we assembled. No leaks...

The Journey Begins - 22 Day Journey Across the USA

It all started 3 years ago on the 17th floor of a New York City Office building. I was Fresh out of College at the ripe young age of 22 & trying to figure out how the hell I went from the care free days of skipping class & drinking crappy beer, to the every day grind of corporate America. I was struggling with the overly obvious fact that College was way better than working, a feeling that most people my age can very much relate to.

Fun was no longer waiting at my doorstep and I quickly learned that I needed to create it for myself. I needed something to look forward to, but was seeking more than another trip to Acapulco or a 7 Day cruise through the Caribbean. I wanted to do something different, adventurous, and potentially life changing. I remember looking down at 3rd avenue around 8pm from my office window one night. I watched hundreds of headlights heading uptown. It was a cool view so I took a picture. They were all going somewhere and it sparked an idea...

So I made myself a promise. I will Drive Across the United States of America. (Before the Age of 50)... I like to set attainable goals...

After a solid 2 years of planning & waiting... it will finally happen as Joe Costanza (My Cousin) & Vincent Cocito (myself) will be departing Hoboken NJ on April 25th for a 20+ day road trip across America, lodging only in campgrounds with an emphasis on visiting National Parks & US Ghosts Towns. Yes, Ghost Towns.

I can't speak for Joe, but my purpose is to simply get away, see new things, meet new people, and experience new adventures. Hoboken/NYC is a fun place to live, but how many times am I going to spend $145 on a Saturday night and pretend like it was worth it? Probably many more... but not between the dates of April 25th & May 18th.

My goal in the blog is to simply share stories & my interpretation of experiences along the way. I have no idea how frequently I will post new updates (Not good with the whole commitment thing) but I promise to post when I think I have something worth saying.

Joe and I depart Monday April 25th around 4:00am. First Stop: Great Smokey Mountains National Park (Cades Cove)...

Stay tuned and thanks for reading.

Vin