M&C's Epic Road Trip part 1

Coming out of high school, every kid dreams about a massive road trip with their best friends or boyfriend/girlfriend, right? I know I did, and so did every other kid I knew at Shorecrest. So basically I attended my first year of college at WSU and about half way through I started talking to this guy I had met a few months ago that went to a high school not to far from mine. We hit it off and grew really close, even though we were 1,400 miles apart.. You see, he had moved to Colorado after high school, and I had stayed in state and went to a university. Months of talking every day and all night led to a plan. The ultimate plan. A road trip across half the United States, but we only had 9 days and limited finances to achieve it. We had to do it. Period. No questions asked. 
For me it was going to be a life-changing, first independent choice I ever made, total and complete risk. I would be flying down to Denver to meet up with him 4 days after my freshman year ended and we would then proceed to drive across Colorado, Utah, Nevada, a corner of Arizona, up the California, Oregon, and Washington coast until we reached Seattle. 
No big deal, right? 
I went for it. I was in such a funk that entire year that I needed something to spark my life back into action. I bought my plane ticket some time in March and on May 9, 2012 I got on a plane at Sea-Tac airport and flew (by myself for the first time) to Denver. He was there waiting, as we planned, and everything went perfectly. 
We lounged around his house in Breckenridge for a couple days, mapping out our route and figuring out where we were going to sleep each night. 
On May 13, we headed out around 5pm to begin our adventure. 

The scenery blew me away before we even left his town. This was taken at a gas station before we set out.

We drove well into the night, and what did we wake up to the next morning? Oh.. just Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. We pulled in when it was already pitch black and had no idea where we really were. All we knew was that we were in the parking lot for the most well known piece of land in all of the Southwest United States... 

Yes, Delicate Arch. The background of the Utah license plate and also what people imagine when they imagine this part of the country.

We had gotten up at sunrise after sleeping very uncomfortably in the Subaru that was so packed with stuff that we couldn't even recline the front two seats. It was a gorgeous morning with not a cloud in the sky and we took off down a trail that was conveniently connected the the parking lot we happened to crash in. And best of all? Only about 5 other people were there when we arrived, making photos easy and the experience just that much better. 

It blew my mind, obviously. 

We spent the whole day wandering aimlessly around this incredible place, surrounded by old people (because apparently only old people enjoy looking at rock formations in 90 degree heat). Never the less, it was great. 

We decided to stay that night in the tent, and it was probably one of the most miserable nights I've ever spent in one. Ever. Hands down. The wind was making the tent hit me in the head and I thought we were going to blow off a canyon somewhere. We ended up surviving though, and woke up to this sunrise.

It was a good day to be alive, and the days on this road trip only got better and better. This post is obnoxiously long, so I'm going to cut it here and keep writing about our epic road trip another day.