Where Have All The Burritos Gone?

So I have decided to bite the bullet and move my blog to Blogger. It’s just way more efficient than Tumblr. Sorry to all of the followers on here. But I will still be posting on this. It will just be posts to the Blogger page. Hope you understand. Probably not as big of a deal as I am making it. The new url is

www.wherehavealloftheburritosgone.blogspot.com

New York is cray cray btw.

-andrew

Road Trip to NYC - Day 3 & 4

November 11, 2011 @ 6:03pm 13 notes colorado bayfield carver brewing julio dancer twice baked potato bear tent erection grandparents

DAY 3

So Mal and I have come to find out that everything in Colorado moves a little bit slower. And by a little bit, I mean a lot. Our second day in Colorado consisted of waking up around 8:30 AM and going out and feeding the horses. My Grandpa has two of em. Dancer and Julio. According to my grandfather, Julio is a bastard. And he doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a father.

The other horse is one my grandma named, Dancer. He’s an older horse but good for riding.

Mal got to ride along the property with my Grandpa for about an hour. Naturally she told him that she use to ride ALL THE TIME. Well she did, back when she was younger than 12. So it took some getting use to but eventually she got the hang of it.

My Grandpa is an avid hunter and so is his brother and their 6 friends. So they got into town that day and I immediately realized that my grandpa and his brother, my great uncle Tom (tehehehehe) are the exact same person. Same jokes, same mannerisms, and they look identical. I also quickly realized that I was in the minority about A LOT of things. Talk of Obama, immigration, republicans, democrats, Occupy, and pretty much every other political topic came up. I decided to stay out of those convos. One of the best things about my grandparents 45 acres of property is the foliage. Trees as tall as you can see and the colors are amazing.

Played some cards with my grandma who I am pretty sure cheats, and then went to bed. Next day we were getting up early to go help set up a hunting camp. Where we quickly realized just how slow this place is.

DAY 4

My Grandpa decided that Mal and I were going to wake up around 7 AM, have breakfast, and then go with him and my Great Uncle out to a place called Beaver Meadows and help 3 of the other guys set up their hunting camp. We then sat around for about an hour and a half waiting, and waiting, and waiting till when we finally met up the the 3 other guys at the grocery store. Where we sat waiting, and waiting, and waiting till they were ready. But then we had to go to the liquor store where we waited, and waited, and waited (They bought Keystone light by the way…). FINALLY, we were on our way. We drove about an hour east and up to an elevation of about 9500 feet. All dirts roads mind you. To a big flat spot in the middle of the forest (I literally created a check in on Foursquare called, “The Middle of a Forest”) where I was told to help build a tent. I am thinking a 4 person tent. Well they are gonna be out there for two weeks. So, no, not a 4 person tent. It was probably the size of what our apartment will be like in NY.

After screwing it up a couple of times, it took 8 grown ass men, to pitch a tent (www.rimshot.com). Surprisingly not all of them were geriatrics (www.rimshot.com) The forest out there is absolutely beautiful. Even in overcast weather (aka snow weather).

After the tent extravaganza in the middle of nowhere, my grandma wanted to take us into downtown Durango. Which if you have ever been up to Julian, is just like but, 3 times bigger. We didn’t take much pictures there, but we did go to a couple places of interest. One was the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Try and guess which one the bear is…

I also found this bear.

We went to a brewery called Carver Brewing Co (http://www.carverbrewing.com/). Definitely one of the best Baltic Porters I have ever had. This was our last night with my grandparents so my grandma made an awesome meal. One of the many great things about my grandma is that she is ALWAYS cooking. And always saying, “Andrew try this. Andrew try that.” Of course, I try everything. And everything is good. Including her twice baked potatoes which is by far the best potato dish I have ever had.

The next morning we were leaving at 6 AM sharp cause it was gonna be a long drive to Austin (nothing what we expected, but you’ll see that in the next post). So after dinner we went to bed. I cannot thank my grandparents enough for opening their beautiful home to us.

(ps. I know some of these images are pixelly. Tumblr does not let you upload pictures of your size choosing. I so tried to mess with it to make them bigger but it basically just resized the default flickr sizes. I have original images that are excellent quality if anyone wants to see those. If anyone knows a way around this, let me know. I would move this to blogspot, but there is a guy who already has the blog name. And no, he has not used it in 3 and a half years. ugh.)

Road Trip to NYC - Day 2

November 6, 2011 @ 6:34pm 4 notes sunrise mather point grand canyon pano south rim north rim four corners pose

Let me tell you, getting up earlier than 6:00 AM three days in a row, especially after going out the nights before, saying goodbye to people, beer drinking, etc, is not fun. But alas, we’re up at 6:00 AM driving up to the canyon to see the sunrise from Mather Point.

I have been to the Grand Canyon twice in my life. Both times before I was 13 years old. You don’t realize how grand (see what I did there?) it is until you’re older. The fact that there are parts of it completely undiscovered kind of makes me sick.

Mals camera is a pretty awesome camera. Especially when it comes to panoramic pictures. Which you will see a lot of on this post. I promise that my nose is not as messed up in real life as it is in the picture below.

What really blows me away about the Grand Canyon is the colors. Reds, browns, grays, oranges, and even blues are everywhere you look. Just depends on where the sun hits.

The picture that is below is my favorite picture we took of the canyon. It really shows how expansive it is. From all the way to the bottom of the south rim and all the way around the North rim.

That may or may not be a stomach slip in this picture. Hint: it definitely is.

After driving to nearly every viewpoint of the Grand Canyon, we decided to head on to the Four Corners and then on to my Grandparents house in Bayfield, CO. We had some more trouble with that damn RoofBag, so we had to stop in Tuba City, which believe me, you never need to go to. EVER. Unless you need new ratchet straps. If that’s the case, go to Vans Trading Post. They have EVERYTHING. After an hour of being stared at by Navajo Indians, we were back on the road to Four Corners.

Four states at once. That’s pretty cool. Minus the fact that the intersection is about 2.5 miles off where they really intersect. But whose counting? Four corners is great for about 5 minutes. Then you realize that you are being eyeballed by 14 Navajo women who look like they live in teepees. So we bounced their quickly and headed to my grandparents. Look tomorrow for that update. I’ll leave you with this. And yes I give you full permission to use this as a desktop background. You’re welcome.

Road Trip to NYC - Day 1

November 6, 2011 @ 10:52am 6 notes grand canyon food roo patrick arizona nyc gay bar roofbag goodbyes

After a shit ton of goodbyes from Sunday night to early Tuesday morning, we were finally on the road.

On the roof of our car we had what is called a RoofBag. Well, this thing is no very aerodynamic. Like at all. So after a couple stops of rearranging it before we even got out of San Diego County, we got it going. We were driving to Avondale, AZ to go see my brother for a very short lunch (unfortunately) at this place called Jimmy Johns, which let me tell you, LOVED their mayonnaise. I hadn’t seen my brother since Christmas of 2010, so it was good to see him. And I also noticed he looks a lot of like Simon Camden (David Gallagher) from the Camden family on 7th Heaven. Aka the most dysfunctional family in the history of families.

He also has a dog named Roo. I had to pretty much sedate her to take this picture.

We got to the Grand Canyon by literally racing the sun, just in time for sunset.

It then got dark real quick and my hair was getting gross.

So we decided to go get some din din at this place called Yippee-I-O Steakhouse just outside the Grand Canyon. Wasn’t expecting much but as far as BBQ and all around American food, it wasn’t too bad.

Plus, I was pretty sure it was a gay bar. Only men working, with tight jeans, and cowboys hats on. The one woman working there, barely passed for one. We went to our hotel, Grand Canyon Inn, which was an ok experience. The guy running the front desk was absolutely clueless and carried a gun. A good combination obviously. The tv made the worst noise ever and the wifi was balls. But other than that, it was ok.

Next post will be about the next day, which will include sunrise at the Grand Canyon, exploring the Canyon, and Four Corners.

A Quick Rant Before I Do The Impossible

October 26, 2011 @ 7:16pm 8 notes new york health insurance diabetes

startrant.

I am usually not one to rant and complain. I did that a lot in high school and it solves nothing. Play the cards you are dealt, don’t dwell on the past cause it’s already happened, and the future means nothing cause it hasn’t happened yet. Those are three things that I try and live by. I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes about 5 months out of high school. In the hospital for a week and a half getting it “under control,” and then straight to classes on how to maintain that “control.” Tons and tons, and I mean tons, of doctors visits, blood tests, prescriptions, and more classes later, I still have diabetes. And I am still working on keeping it “under control.”

Being 24, I am still under my parents health insurance. The same health insurance that has provided me with all the stuff I listed above for nominal fees. I was on Cobra for about 3 months cause it was right before the the Obamacare stuff took effect and there was a gray area, but after that 3 months, I was back on my parents health insurance. Which is great. Aside from the fact that they won’t cover me outside of California. So basically for the last 3 months I have been trying to figure out what I am going to do about health insurance. Couple of thoughts to address:

1. ”Just join Cobra again.” - If anyone knows anything about Cobra, you know how ungodly expensive it is.

2. ”Tell them you are going on vacation.” - Tried that. They still won’t cover.

3. ”Why do you need health insurance?” - Aside from me having diabetes insulin prescriptions are insanely expensive without insurance. No insulin? No living.

4. ”Other insurances can’t turn you away cause of a preexisting condition” - What that “law” doesn’t state is the small print of what they consider a preexisting condition.

5. ”Just get a full time job that offers benefits.” - Obviously that is the goal. But their will be a buffer period where I am searching for that.

I am trying to make this sounds as least as possible like the “I Am the 99% Movement” and “The Government is Screwing Me Mentality,” but it is hard not to say that. I have enough insulin to last me through the year and maybe a little more. There is no reason why I should not be able to find a job that offers health insurance, but it’s still not very reassuring. Health insurance provided me one of the worst years of my life, and repeating that while I am living in New York, is not an option. So I guess what I am really trying to say here is, “Who wants to smuggle drugs across the Canadian border for me?”

That and, I leave in 5 days. ohmygod.

endrant.