2009, it's been real. It's been fun. It's been REAL FUN!

Recently, my boy Addy D joined the working world after finishing his grand and adventurous college experience. He chose his 1st big boy job in Phoenix, AZ, mostly due to the weather and Cactus League baseball. Naturally, a visit to the southwest was in order soon after the transition, to check out his situation and bring some enthusiasm to his life via the Big Guy Express. I have been a part of the so-called ‘Real World’ for 18 months now and I still don’t know what the big deal is. Can anybody tell me how getting paid to do the same work you did in college with no tests and no homework is worse than college itself? Anyone? Bueller?

Here’s the deal, I’ll give my take on why it is much better to be a working stiff vs. a college student simply based on the places I’ve been in the last 12 months. If you can make an argument for the other side, feel free to give it a shot. It seems fitting, as this will be my last post of 2009, to have a little recap of my travels around the country. I don’t mean to toot my own horn but, let’s call it what it is, exactly that. I even surprised myself after I compiled the list. So here goes….TOOT! TOOT! (This post was originally going to be about what happened in AZ with Addy and DC, and maybe some Christmas highlights but I don’t know if I’ll get to that now. I don’t know if I’ll have enough time. Sometimes these posts have a mind of their own).

Places I’ve been for leisure in 2009:

The Vegas (New Years 2009), Winter Park (Feb. Ski trip), OK City (Mar. Cowboy search), MSP* (6th consecutive Twins home opener), Dallas (April new ballpark trip), Bemidji* (May Memorial Day weekend), MSP* (May Bro/Sis b-day Twins game), Boston (May DMB shows), Boston (4th of July), Chicago (July Cubs/Cards at Wrigley), Roseau* (Aug. Wedding), Bemidji* (Aug. vacation week), MSP* (Sep. Gopher football) Des Moines* (Sept. DMB show), MSP* (49ers vs. Vikes), Kansas City* (Sept. DMB show), Grand Forks* (Oct. Gopher/Sioux hockey), MSP* (Oct. Gopher football/Halloween), Orlando (Nov. caddie for my Aunt’s Future’s Tour qualifier), Lawrence (Nov. Husker/KU football), Bemidji* (Turkey Day), Phoenix (Dec. Shawn’s b-day celebration), Bemidji* (Christmas).

Places I’ve been for work in 2009:

Wichita (58 days over seven months), Panama City, FLA (19 days during July and August), The Vegas (5 days in August).

* These places aren’t really special because of their location (since they are cities in my home state and the place I went to college) but, I’ve included them because of the distance I did travel to reach them. Once I got further in to this post it changed again from trying to prove how being a working stiff is better than a college student to finding out how many miles I've traveled in the 2009 calendar year. What a turn of events. If only someone took the time to google map that information and display it in an easy to read format. Oh wait! I already did that.

The Vegas - 1,287 mi. (I only drove one way, accompanying Addy on his way to AZ for his internship)
Winter Park, CO - 1,196 mi. roundtrip
OK City - from Wichita 320 mi. roundtrip
MSP - 780 mi. roundtrip times 5 = 3,900 mi.
Dallas - from Wichita 740 mi. roundtrip
Bemidji - 1,142 mi. roundtrip times 2.5 = 2,855
Chicago - 994 mi. roundtrip
Roseau - Omaha/Roseau/Bemidji/Wright/MSP route 1,024 mi.
Kansas City - 400 mi. roundtrip

Grand Forks - 1,110 mi. roundrtip

Lawrence - 450 mi. roundtrip

Add those all up and I have willingly spent approximately 14,276 miles in the car. Couple that with my air miles:

Vegas to Omaha – 1,100 mi.
Omaha to Boston – 2,560 mi. roundtrip times 2 = 5,120
MSP to Orlando – 2,620 mi. roundtrip
Wichita to Phoenix – 871 mi.
Phoenix to Omaha – 1,040 mi.

Total leisure highway miles and air miles equals 25,027. Now, if you’re like me, numbers like that don’t really mean much unless there is a comparative figure. As it turns out, I've thought of everything today. The circumference of the Earth is 24,860 miles. I circumnavigated the globe just during my spare time. Remember that book Around the World in 80 Days? According to my rough estimations, I would have done it in 40 days. So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

Now getting back to the second point of this post, there is no way I could have enjoyed all that awesomeness traveling around the country as a poor college student. I did go on some great trips but most were funded by other means. As I said before, make your argument if you have one. Maybe it starts being the 'Real World' when you get married and have kids, which in turn sucks all of your extra flow in to real expenses. That must be it.

Finally, I'll come full circle and say that I had a great time in Phoenix celebrating Shawn's birthday with DC and Addy. Unfortunately for Shawn, he was unable to attend his own birthday weekend celebration due to some miscommunication in the Whiting family. Despite missing the birthday boy, we tried to make the most of it. We paid tribute to our missing friend with every drink or shot with this toast: Here's to Shawn! Happy Birthday!

The trip was an all around great time but one story sticks out in my mind. We didn't really have a plan for Saturday afternoon so when talks of summiting the great Camelback Mountain came about, we thought, why not? How hard can it be? It won't take us very long, right? We certainly won't be coming down in the dark, right? Well, to answer the last three questions: harder than we thought, longer than we thought, and yes we would be coming down in the dark.

It took us a good 1.5 hours to get to the top and, not that you need climbing gear or anything, I was not in the right attire (or the right shape) for that kind of activity. Most everyone climbing it had on athletic gear, weren't carrying cameras, and had water bottles. After a look around at the top and some nice photogs, we began our descent with the sun near setting. Quite soon it was dark and we were having trouble staying on the so-called path. Halfway down, Addy realizes that his watch broke and fell off his wrist. Addy and DC decide to go back for it, in the dark, with only a vague idea of where it fell off. I took this opportunity to inform them that I would be staying in my current location, for safety reasons. How were they to find the way down if I wasn't there as a guiding light? Obviously the real reasons I wasn't going back up was because I gave them a negative 3000% chance of finding the watch and I simply didn't want to climb back up the steepest part of the mountain given the chances of success. I even included Shawn, telling him of the situation via text message. Here's our conversation:

Me: We climbed camelback mnt and made it half way back down when addy realized his watch fell off somewhere. Its dark and they went back for it. Might not make it

Shawn: Wow. addy would do that. watch out for rattlers.

Me: Ridiculous. Isnt that watch from [ex-girlfriend]? I say good riddance.

Shawn: I'd leave it too.

Me: We could come back tomorrow and look in the light. Its pretty treacherous, especially in the dark. I cant see shit

Shawn: Are u at the bottom?

Me: I'm where addy realized he lost it. U rnt gonna believe it but someone founmd it and they r almost back to me

Shawn: So your only half way down? criminy x mas trees. u best be cussing them out. i cant have them falling off a mtn on my bday trip that im not on. blundercity.

Me: No worries mate. We got down safely. Saved a chicks life and got a $50 parking ticket for being in there past sunset. All in a good hike

Well that text convo pretty much wraps up the story. Happy New Year!!

Near the bottom. I still thought it was going to be a walk in the park. Anyone see Addy? I do!

TEAMWORK! (See! Tougher than we thought.)

All fun and games until the sun goes down...

At Four Peaks Brewing Co., a Mesa Vikings bar