Life After the Ranch

Since leaving 4UR, life has been an absolute whirlwind.  You work your tail off at the ranch and then nothing.  No immediate responsibilities, nowhere to be, the world is your oyster.  Part of you wants nothing more than to throw on a pair of sweats (shirt optional), find a couch on a Sunday and do nothing but sit, lay down or a combination of both and watch football from noon until the late night game ends, unable to distinguish between meals because you have been in a constant state of grazing on snack food for the entire day.  However, another part of you wants to spend this time exploring, taking advantage of this "free" time to do whatever it is you wanted to do but couldn't due to work.  I chose the latter.

My month long hiatus began with me getting a tattoo.  I'd show a picture, but I don't have any.  A.J. and Zach got ink as well, adding to the tat fest.  The following day ten of us from the ranch ventured to the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas for a few days.  We left early to 1. Get to the grand canyon in plenty of time to get to our camp site, do some sightseeing, make a fire and inevitably have a few beers in the process and 2. Avoid the giant cross country meet held at the ranch that supposedly hosted every high school in the entire southwest corner of Colorado.  In other words, an absolute fiasco that we wanted no part of.  There were five ladies and five guys going on this trip and obviously we segregated the two cars by sex.  We also utilized the bed of my truck (which has a topper) as both the luggage and gear area as well as the sleeping and entertainment zone.  First off, we loaded the girls' SUV with as much stuff as we could cram, and then organized our gear on either side of the truck bed with my memory foam mattress pad unrolled beneath everything, leaving an alley of comfort for the passenger's movie watching or sleeping pleasure.  Regardless, the car ride was made that much better leaving only four guys up front and the fifth thoroughly enjoying himself in the back.

We had a little scare about two hours shy of the grand canyon.  At the time, without going into the boring details as to why, my truck was unregistered and uninsured.  Pretty much we were riding dirty.  I'm not sure what the consequence of this broken law is, but I can't imagine there's anything good that could come from it.  As we rolled into a gas station to refuel, get snacks and relieve our bladders, some of the crew started talking to this homeless man who asked for a cigarette or change or something to aid his bad habits.  He told us that there was a fugitive on the loose that had broken out of a nearby prison and stole a car.  We didn't think much of it until he continued to say that there was a road block up ahead on the highway we were on where police officers were checking cargo, I.D.s and vehicle REGISTRATIONS!  I wasn't sure what to think of this.  We had already come about six hours and I wasn't about to make the decision to turn back.  I tried to act as cool and collected as I could but inside I felt like I was going to puke on my shoes.  And they weren't even shoes, they were sandals and God knows I didn't feel like puking on my bare feet.  I told everyone that we should keep going.  I figured the police were only looking for names to match up on the registration not for expiration dates and license plate tags.  So we pressed on.  We reached the intersection of the highways the bum had described and... no road block.  Surprisingly, it felt bitter sweet.  I was all amped up, mentally preparing myself to deal with cops.  After we saw that there were no cops, I wanted to head back to the bum and mention to him that his information was false and to take the cigarette back that he obviously did not deserve.  Obviously, we were thrilled to be able to continue on our journey without any hiccups, but you have to wonder whether that guy actually thought there was a road block or if he intentionally was toying with us.  I guess we'll never know.

The rest of the trip to the Grand Canyon was pretty uneventful.  The canyon was really cool.  Bigger than I could have imagined.  The camping was fun.  And the next morning we got up early, bought some breakfast and began our journey to Vegas.

Vegas, for those who haven't been there, is an unbelievable place.  It is definitely somewhere that everyone should visit once in their lives.  However, for me, it might only be once.  I hate Las Vegas.  Yeah, it's unbelievable, overly extravagant, and impressive, but it is like a giant leech.  It almost literally sucks money right from your bank account, it sucks your energy due to lack of sleep, it sucks your sobriety away from you, and sucks the fun out of you due to all of the above.  I was never quite sure what time it was, for the three nights I was there I amounted to about 10 hours of quality sleep, and I never quite knew whether I was drunk or hungover.  It is the only place that at 4:30 am you think it is a good idea to go gamble some more.  The spectrum of emotion that I witnessed and endured is beyond anything I had seen to date.  So again, Las Vegas is an unbelievable place, but it is one that I don't feel a drive to visit again anytime soon.  Maybe when I am a millionaire and losing 50 bucks doesn't hurt as bad as it does now.  Until then, I am just a down and out fisherman who was swallowed up by a beast called Vegas.

More post ranch saga to come...