Close Quarters

A journey across the continent began with the rise of a new Williams star, Benji Jones. After watching my younger brother Benji graduate from high school, I piled two and a half months of sweaty clothing into the family’s Subaru hatchback and set off for my first destination, Lyme, New Hampshire. After a fairly uneventful drive, I met up with Phil, and our voyage began in earnest. Luckily, Phil brought half as much luggage as I did, but between two ski bags, six pairs of roller skis, one trunk and four duffels, our car was packing some serious weight. We woke up at the ripe hour of 4 A.M, and motored away with no fanfare. This first day of driving was wrought with multiple story lines, as it was Phil’s second day of driving a stick shift, and it was the only day of driving that had any cohesive plan. After spending some time on our beloved Rte. 7 through Bennington, we slogged across New York with a total of $14.60 in I-90 highway tolls. Phil’s stick shift driving skills were sorely tested by ventures through Buffalo, Albany, and Toronto, and I imagine the Subaru will one day forgive Phil. With empty pockets and light hearts, we stopped at Niagara falls to experience one of America's great wonders in typical tourist fashion. We briefly contemplated a dip in the rapids right above the falls, but in the end, the water looked a little bit too cold.

Luckily, Phil had managed to hold on to his passport, so our entry into Canada was largely uneventful. We quickly learned that while Canada has many great passions (see ice hockey, curling and mispronouncing words), none could compare with the national obsession for Tim Hortons. We managed to avoid any such contamination, and ate at our trusty, American, Subway. We did, however, color our adventure into Canada with a brief stop at Lake Ontario, which provided a great view of Toronto. We finally re-entered the U.S. only to find that Michigan residents have clearly avoided taxes for a number of years. The state of the highways we drove on made for a jarring ride, and reinforced our doubts about the Midwest. The generous hospitality we received from the Hammond family in Beverly Hills, MI assuaged our feelings towards the state, as well as a luxurious movie theater complete with reclining, leather loveseats.

We then entered the uncharted, unplanned part of our trip, not to be confused with our larger summer schedule. After ten minutes of deliberation, we decided to celebrate Phil’s 20^th birthday with a visit to Chicago. The 105-degree heat wave we encountered forced us inside, and we celebrated with a deep-dish pizza and an edifying visit to the Chicago Art Institute. After finally discovering the difference between Manet and Monet, we headed out amidst rush hour traffic. A brief review of our map revealed Iowa to be a place one drives through, but not to, so we decided to push through and make the 18 hour drive to the continental divide. With healthy doses of caffeine and oreos, we managed to persevere through 4:00 a.m. crash and witnessed the sun rise over Nebraska. We reached our campsite by mid-morning, and decided to go ski up the Arapahoe basin. With sunny skies and deep snow, we managed to make it up to 12,800 vertical feet before we turned around and skied back down. After 16 consecutive hours of sleep, we drove through Colorado and onto Utah, with pit stops in the Glenwood Canyon and a hike up the Garfield Mesa. Special thanks to Liz Sneath for putting us up for the night, and a shout out to Pat Noonan, a childhood friend of Keith and Caleb’s we met on our hike.

The drive from Salt Lake to Truckee was a miserable affair through the deserts of Nevada, but our campsite on top of the Tahoe-Donner ski resort made it all worth it. We ended our road trip by meeting our host family, the Deeters. They have been incredibly generous, and we have some sweet digs. Somehow, Phil and I have managed to avoid beating each other to a pulp, but we still have two months, so we’ll keep everyone posted. Pictures of the incredible on snow training will follow soon.