Preface:
If you didn’t already know, I’m living out of my truck as a means to an end. That end is: learning all that I can about the nation, people, and me in order to properly focus my passion. The past two weeks have been filled with many incredible moments and a few terrible ones. Overall, I’ve never lived a happier life, and its getting better every day. I feel free, and I wake up with a smile – reliably. Here is the recap for my first two weeks on the road!
I’m not going to add media to this post because my laptop isn’t the best at video editing, and most everything would be taken out of the streamed video. So, I’ll promise to make a totally sick whole trip recap video that will show you the transition I made (at the end of the trip). It will have music, video, and of course bloopers!
Week 1: Tahoe, Reno, Salt Lake City, Yellowstone
Week one was spent mostly on the west side of the Mississippi. The main struggles involved figuring out a comfortable sleeping situation, and how I was going to eat.
Parking outside somebodies place and hopping into the back of a truck and closing it on yourself is legal, but really weird. So I go to bed late at night, the only problem with that is waking up at dawn. I lost a lot of sleep in the first week because I hadn’t adjusted. The bed itself needed some more cushion so I put all my blankets under me and sleep in my sleeping bag. So far, I’ve been getting great rest.
The only real difficulty I was met with eating was finding an appropriate place to make my food. Essentially, I needed to get over the fact that I’m making food and eating it in some parking lot. I try to cook nearby grass so I can poor out the water when washing. (not onto concrete) I’ve gotten over this and eat well every day. I had some cravings in the beginning because I wasn’t eating enough, but I’ve solved that as well.
The successes were far more abound: it hailed in Tahoe and snowed in Yellowstone, I skated some insane lines in Salt Lake and Reno, and may have a new favorite National Park.
Week 2: Denver/Boulder, St. Louis, Chicago, Pittsburgh
Week 2 brought with it it’s own challenges, like finding overnight parking inside a major city and the pains of skating/moving a lot.
Many places like Walmart and Planet Fitness are 24/7 but have signs up in the parking lot stating tow, ticket or boot for overnight parking. I even witnessed a lady with an RV calling the police on a tow operator because no signs were posted in a specific lot. So you have to get creative, and sometimes hiding in plain sight is the only way to go. For the mean time, I’m just trying to keep my vehicle safe and in shape.
I’ve skated in all the towns, and totally wiped out once. (and I caught it on stream!) With that comes some joint pain for traveling anywhere from 5 to 20 miles in a day, it’s manageable but I have been taking a break.
On the bright sides, I’ve met so many new people, and had experiences I never imagined I would. Found some incredible secret spots, fulfilled many of my childhood dreams and made it to the eastern timezone!
CMU has been more than incredible, considering this trip’s only real justification was to visit potential PhD universities, this has been the best place so far. I connected with the CMU Delt Chapter and have already been aided tremendously by my brothers, from a bed to beers and even to program connections. I got to meet with 3 PhD students, the Director of the program (who’s a badass), admissions faculty, and many potential advisers. I’m taking the “be yourself, express your passions, find your way” approach. So far I’m in love with the program, university, and city. I haven’t seen it in winter though 🙂
Up Next: Boston, Seattle, N.Y.
I’m heading to Boston to research MIT and check out Harvard. I also have heard that there are awesome jazz clubs there and NY, so you KNOW I need to check that out.
The reason why Seattle is squeezed in there is because I have an interview with Amazon and they are flying me out for three days. I am beyond excited! Not only to I get to experience a whole new place I’ve never been, but like Amazon – that’s one of the coolest companies around. They are on the cutting edge of so many technologies. I’m pretty sure I’ve dreamed of being a developer there. In all seriousness, I hope I am the right fit for a good team in the company and I get to start work on a great product.
I’m looking forward to streaming more of it too! I missed a few days due to exhaustion and driving, but you can watch me live at twitch.tv/jamescaud. All my videos for past live streams are there too, so check out some of these incredible places I’ve visited!