Due Georgia Tech being occupied by the Atlanta Committee for the (name copyrighted) Games, several of my friends and I went across the country for the four weeks of the occupation.
After leaving Atlanta we went to Vicksburg, MS where we stayed with some very kind friends of my Youth Minister. We the proceeded to Dallas, though Brandon's car had a blowout on the way the, causing us to stay over a day in Dallas while repairs were done.
We then went to Albuquerque, NM (USA) where it evidently rains quite often, and stayed there for two days, allowing us to hike Sandia Crest, the local mountain.
After a few days we moved to Mesa Verde,
where we saw several ruins, and some petroglyphs
while we were there, but I was much more impressed with the mountain itself
(my being from Georgia). We stayed in the Park with some very friendly deer for two nights
and then started West again.
On the way to Flagstaff, AZ we stopped by Canyon de Chelly, which is evidently quite a dry place... We also "drove off into the sunset" a few times, which really isn't all it's cut out to be.
From Flagstaff we went to the Grand Canyon, which is certainly Grand if anything is. A few of us got up early and went down as far as we were allowed on Kaibob Trail and the walked around the rim, though I had to pull off due to the altitude and a nose bleed, and later I rejoined and we did as far as we were allowed on the Bright Angel Trail. Though Brandon and Bobby did 23 miles, I only did 18 with them. At the end of where we were allowed on Bright Angel we met up with these Mountain Goats, obviously impressed with the multi-million dollar solar powered, self composting toilet facilities the federal government installed...
We then returned to Flagstaff to recuperate from hiking and then went on (minus Brandon and Chris M. due to another problem with the Mercades) to Joshua Tree National Park in California, where I saw a Joshua Tree for the first time, and learned that those funny looking leaves are quite painful.
From there we we proceeded up the beautiful Highway 1 to San Fransisco, and hung out there for a week.
In San Fransisco four of us went to Redwood National Forest while the others did various other things.
