Alright, so I left you off with Jolynn and I leaving New Orleans and promising ourselves we would travel more while we rebuild ourselves from our recent heart-breaks. We talked a lot about happiness, and our loneliness; and decided, very quickly, that we would fill our time with new experiences rather than things. I promised myself, at the objections my employer, that I wouldn’t work close to the overtime I had in the past, and as long as I could afford the necessities of life, I would take the free time I had to travel the country. I Began offroading the “fake Jeep” more, with an off roading group, and finding new hobbies. I made several trips to the northern peninsula of Michigan where I was able to find another state high point, Mount Arvon.

Over the last few years I had several moments where I found a view, a place, or someones remarks, pull me out of a deep depression and this was one of those moments. There was a pretty long remote dirt road to the highpoint, along with some hiking. I found myself wanting to turn back to just take the “easier drive” to the top, because I was rushing myself through this trip in order to head home. Instead though, I completed the hike to the peak, and found that someone turned it into a memorial for a father who died. On the memorial was a saying, “Motto to Live by: Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a attractive well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming ‘WOO HOO, what a ride!'” I sat there and looked at the pictures on the memorial of a complete stranger’s life, and it spoke to me in a way I can not explain. it reiterated what I had decided about living life, and that the experiencing of both good and bad is what life is really about. The closed doors and open windows are the very roadblocks and actions that lead us to the stories we tell others about ourselves. A little while later, I walked over to the view, now let me point out this isn’t obviously a very high peak its only a couple thousand feet, but this view was electric, and it took my breath away! I found another memorial from the same family that said, “take in the view and let it change your life”. That is exactly what I did. I really can’t say how long I was there in that spot, looking out over Lake Superior and Keweenaw Bay, but when I finally started heading back it was dark. I had left so much of the weight of my burdens in that spot. Luckily, unlike my winter camping trip, I mentioned in the beginning of this blog, I came prepared this time with a head lamp or else this may have been an even more interesting story!

After the highpoint, I decided to head home on a route that would take me through Chicago, because I had never been there. I decided to spend two days and a night there. While I was there I had first my exposure to staying at a hostel. I know I know the very word “hostel” invokes visions of horror movies. However, the real experience is quite different! The best part of staying at a hostel is by far the people you meet! (Granted, I’m not sure people were saying that about my degenerate friends and myself, at some of our later hostel stays!) So, anyway, I checked into this hostel and was shown to the bunk room, where I could set myself down and made my way to the outside common area. When I opened the door to the outside deck, I was greeted with an ice cold swedish beer and a slice pizza, which let me say I have yet to be greeted at a hotel this way! A group including a guy from Germany, a girl from Sweden, another girl from England, and myself sat and talked for hours, drinking swedish beers like water and sorting out everything from politics, to life, and mental health. I walked away from that hostel the next morning, at ease and comfortable in life. I headed home and decided that I would open myself up to different experiences in life! After that trip to Michigan, I opened myself to social experiences that normally would have terrified me, because the social anxiety is strong! Whenever friends would ask if I wanted to go to something I would say yes! I found myself at rock concerts, 90’s cover bands, trips to New York, and even found myself sitting in a kayak in the middle of lake while I didn’t know how to swim!

Now, admittedly, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows! As the chains of seasonal depression start to take hold every October/ November; I tend to make poor decisions. This led me back to the ex-girlfriend I was with during the attempted AT hike, which a few months later in early December, foreseeably, ended in another depressive break-up. While sitting in my problems with my friend Jenny, who I call “fake mom”, we came to the conclusion that an impromptu trip to New York City was needed! So I called off work, and we hit the road an hour later, both in an attempt to find my way out of this slump and for her to see her boyfriend who was living in the city at the time. We went to Rockefeller Center, and saw the tree. I met up with old friends, which brought so much warmth to my soul. However, looking back, I wasn’t very present in the moment. Which led to, in normal fashion, fake mom calling me out on my bullshit. This, let me say, is a key character trait I desperately need in my friendships! It hurts in the moment and led to an 8 hour conversation but she was right!

Finally, New Years arrived and Jolynn invited me out for drinks to ring in the new year and honestly I couldn’t have asked for a better person to spend it with. That night, between drinks and while partially sober, her and I proceeded to plan another trip! Like normal it would be on a bar napkin and we decided to invite our friend Jimmy with us. This trip would be to Key West, Florida. At this time we never would have guessed that this single place would change the path of our lives even further!

Jimmy, Jolynn, and I were the three musketeers for a while and were completely inseparable for years. Our bonds were forged in the crucible that was Youngstown EMS. Jimmy was my partner for several years, and like I said before, Jolynn was often with us as a medic student. We have countless stories of saving each other from strung out, combative, crackheads, pulling human bodies from gunsmoke filled homes, and being able to complete the other’s sentence without a second thought. Which, are all stories for another post! Anyway, we planned the trip for the week of February 10th, because we all were able to get five days off. As the days went by we would run into each other at the hospital, or on scene of calls, and in passing would comment about wanting to be three drinks down on a beach in the keys. As time got closer, Jolynn realized that she had a family friend who lived in Key West and could act as the resident tour guide while we were down there. His name is Joe (which is, admittedly, a bit confusing because Jimmy and I would call Jolynn, Jo, but try to keep track because it will be pretty funny in the next post when the Coast Guard would be called, while we were in the keys.) Anyway two months went by like molasses, but finally the day came, and we boarded a plane bound for Atlanta and then Key West! When we landed at Atlanta, we noticed that the plane stopped on the runway for a few minutes, and finally when we got to the gate we noted that the entire ATL Airport Crash Rescue Team was following our plane, and at that moment I completed understood why the statement, “ignorance is bliss” exists!

Luckily, and uneventfully, we boarded our flight from Atlanta to Key West, by this point in the journey we are all a bit intoxicated and maybe lacking a bit of normal sense which always leads to hilarious stories! This was honestly one of the most turbulent flights I have ever been on, and more times than not Jimmy and I were ordering drinks, and joking that if the plane goes down, we are going to be drunk enough to not know the difference! After several hours, and too many drinks, the pilot clicks on the PA system and announces, “listen up folks…… We are flying the largest plane in our system into the shortest runway in our system. Also, we are right at the maximum weight to stop in the allotted runway space. So, we are going to just tap the breaks and hope for the best!” Jimmy and I both raised our hands at the same time, asking the bartender…. I mean flight attendant…. for one last drink,\ before the flight is secured for arrival and with a laugh she obliged! We landed, and the pilot wasn’t kidding, I swear, it felt like we skidded sideways into the parking space, but we had made it!

Now, for any of you that haven’t flown into Key West directly, you are not greeted with a fancy covered walkway to the terminal. No, instead you walk out of the plane, down some airstairs, and onto the tarmac which, honestly, is the only way to arrive into key west! You leave your home airport when it’s 20 degrees and snowing, and 3 hours later the doors open and its 85 degrees sunny and humid… no better shock to the body then this! The three of us walk from the jet to the terminal building, and with the sun, blue skies, and heat it feels like home! As we walk inside, the first thing we find is a bar welcoming us to Key West! Walking out of the terminal we are greeted by a chicken just walking around… and yes! They really do walk around freely on the island, and if you aren’t prepared for it you have to take a second look! We ordered an Uber and get checked into our HOSTEL. I couldn’t believe it either, but I got Jolynn and Jimmy to agree to stay at a hostel! Granted it was only a four person bunk room and had three pools, but still a hostel! (God help the random fourth person that would bunk with us that night!) Once we are settled in the hostel, we headed out for food and drinks! Sloppy Joe’s is the first place on the list, we walked in, ordered food and drinks, and took a ton of pictures.

**Unpopular opinion warning** **Butthurt warning** **Don’t continue reading if youre a Sloppy Joe’s diehard**

Now, let me point out here, everyone knows I am not a fan of touristy bars and restaurants, the food is usually expensive, and the drinks watered down. Sloppy Joe’s was no different, but it is definitely a Key West staple, and it by no means was bad! Definitely go there once to say you did, then go find the hundreds of better places all over the island! After a few tacos and beers, we headed out on Duval Street to meet Jolynn’s friend Joe for what would be a night that would go down in infamy, and apparently be talked about on Key West for months!

Part two to come soon!!