Before Graduation
Santa Cruz has been a place filled with happiness and joy and countless memories for me. After all, I spent the last 4 years in this tiny costal college town, met so many people who influenced me in more than one way. I got a job offer after graduation in the Midwest. On a random Saturday during a barbecue I asked Brandon if he could drop me off at the airport in San Jose after some Friday on which I was supposed to graduate. Brandon told me he could actually drive me all the way to Nebraska, where a new chapter of my life will then begin. So I worked on our itinerary. I did not drive so it would be better if we could get more people to join us in this road trip. Eventually Colin M. and Nick H. joined our group. We planned to leave in the morning of Friday, the 12th of June.
I first met Colin M. not long before quarantine happened in California…For the first few weeks we met we were just exploring clubs and bars in town, as to catch the tail of college experience. After almost three months of being locked down at home, our minds had already been wandering to imaginary places where everybody is healthy and caring. With Brandon’s suggestion for this road trip there really began my graduation. Prior to that I’d always dreamed of driving through places in the midwest, seeing the country, rolling under the stars, always vaguely thinking and never specifically planning.
This was our original plan, according to which we would stay in Salt Lake City for two nights and then drive all the way to Omaha.
My Last Day in Santa Cruz
Despite of finishing my last essay in Advanced Ethics a couple days early, I still had a presentation with Cisco Team on a project we worked on for the past two quarters. The presentation was a success for all of us. For the rest of that afternoon I spent a few hours with G. R. at the Natural Bridges Beach, it was very peaceful. That night I called up Arielle, Nick, J. Nover and Curry to come drink with me and Leo. Leo was staying over at my house at that time.
I had not started packing at the time yet, at around 9 pm. Arielle and I drove to the West Cliff to pick up Curry and then Nick to my house. We then started drinking. It was bitter sweet because I knew it was probably my last time hanging out with them all together. While we were drinking I started packing, which actually lasted longer then the party. The party ended relatively early because everyone was already tired from this dreadful quarter and finals week. People started leaving around midnight. I spent the next 4 hours putting my 4 years of college stories into 6 boxes, two duffle bags and a big suitcase.
The Day We Left
I woke up at 8 am, when we were supposed to leave Santa Cruz. Colin was on his way, Nick still had to move his senior project to the Homeless Garden. It took me as a surprise when Brandon showed up with Sophie K. Sophie came to say good bye for the last time. We were in the library and sad when when we found out my last quarter would be all online. Sophie stayed in Santa Cruz, we would have casual barbecue parties during the weekend when Brandon gets off work. It was during one of those barbecue parties we came up with the road trip.
It turned out I couldn’t fit all my boxes into his Chevrolet so I had to mail them via USPS and only kept some stuff with me in the car. So we quickly drove to USPS and mailed some boxes.
We then rushed back home and waited for Nick. Leo and Colin was already helping Nick move his project to the Homeless Garden and on their way back. When everyone was back to my house, the hub before we went different ways.
We all wanted to take a picture before I leave this place for ever, who knows when I will come back to this hippie town again?
We cleaned up the last bit of my stuff in the house. I then had only one pillow and one comforter left. I put threw them out and yelled: “Bye Santa Cruz, bye college.”
First Stop: The Place that Always Has My Heart
After driving in the Bay Area from one BestBuy to another just to find a car charger for Brandon’s laptop, we finally arrived in San Francisco around 2 pm. Apparently UCSC mailed some kind of tote bag and some pins to my home as my graduation gifts. I would like to check out how good they are because they cost so much of my tuition for four years. How good can they be?
Right before we got to my house we saw this super slant road. We were amazed. It reminded me of the days I biked to school during high school years. We got out of the car and took our first set of road trip pictures.
Nick H.
Nick H., Brandon L. & Colin M.
Us
There we stood at the end of this continent…no more land… only the Pacific in front us. We got in the car, made a right turn on the 21st and Castro, we again had the whole continent in front of us.
“Downtown Davis”
Once we crossed the Bay Bridge, Central Valley heat wrapped us around in the car. We filled our journey to Davis with jokes and anecdotes about people we met during college. At around 6 pm we approached Davis, Calif. Colin suggested to have dinner there. Since none of us was familiar with Davis, we set the Woodstock’s as our destination so that we can wander around Davis from there. Nick was the one that had the wheel as we were approaching Davis, and I, was the one holding the GPS. This is the road sign I saw and Nick asked me which direction to take. I said: “Downtown.” Lol
We ended up filling up our empty stomachs in Carl Jr’s because they have vegan options.
After Junk Food
Nevada
After Davis, Brandon was also getting close to finish his work for the day and for the week as Nick was getting tired for driving too long. We arranged so that Brandon would start driving after Reno. Colin suggested playing a guessing game to keep everyone awake during the long ride through California mountains.
After a few games I dozed off, when I woke up again we had already crossed the state line. There we were the great state of Nevada. It was awfully windy in Reno, chillier than the Bay Area.
We stopped at a parking lot of Costco. As we were walking in that Costco to navigate to the bathroom, we were amazed how few people were wearing facial masks during a pandemic. Colin M. had just turned 21 not for long and had not been to a Casino. So we were determined to take a side quest to let Colin M. experience the Reno experience. We found the closet casino and drove there. Getting to the destination was our second priority, there was just so much to see, to feel and to experience.
Nick H. & Colin M. Walking to the Casino
Us & Two Girls in the Casino
A Proud UCSC Graduate's First Loss to the Casino
I contributed $2 to the Casino and Colin $1. We walked out and kept rolling under the stars. It was then estimated we would get to Salt Lake City at around 6 am the next morning. So we also needed to fuel up before everything closed. Brandon found a restaurant in Lovelock, Nevada for us to stop by. It was a two-hour drive from Reno. We called ahead to make sure their kitchen would still be open.
We got to Gold Diggers Saloon and Grub House around 11:30 pm. I was again amazed how little people gave a damn about wearing facial masks here, compared to that in California. We walked in, the bartender, a very nice and lovely lady asked me if I wanted something to drink. A guy approached us and offered all of us beer. Never would I say no to free cold beer, then we started drinking.
We were All Beat
We left the Saloon around 1 am and started our journey again to the Salt Lake. As in a dream we zoomed through small towns smack out of the darkness and passed through long lines of fields residing at the edge of Nevada desert. Brandon kept driving until the sun came up. Colin and I, in the back, kept talking about dumb shit to keep Brandon awake. It was around 6:30 am we checked in the hotel and we just collapsed and did not wake up until 6 hours after.
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, a city of sprinklers. When we woke up it was already bright and sunny. That was one of the strangest moment in my life. I woke up in a remote cheap hotel I’d never seen, far from home haunted and tired with travel. I did not know who I was or who my friends were for a few strange seconds. After we took care of our personal hygienes, we were hungry again. We headed to a mall in downtown, close to the Mormon Temple we wanted to visit. We walked around the mall as kids were amazed by countless toys. It was our first time seeing so many people congregating under one roof in months.
Colin M. & Nick H.
The Mormon Church was was closed due to Covid, compounded with construction. After talking to some mormon girls, we decided to hike on Ensign Peak Trail. People told us it would take 40 minutes, but we were proud UCSC graduates so it only barely 20 minutes for us to get to the top. We were on a hill overlooking Salt Lake City’s neat patterns of streets and buildings.
Ensign Peak
Nick, Colin and I are all 2020 grads from UCSC. Our commencement was happening while we were sleeping in the hotel. Also I did not believe in commencement in general, a waste of time and money, we have more important things to do, such as driving through the open country. We decided to buy a bottle of champagne to celebrate, in our way. But we could not find a liquor store, so we postponed out plan till later when we get into a bar. We hit up Suhas, who just got off the plan from San Jose back to Salt Lake. We drove to pick him and to hang out. Though bars are open in Salt Lake, there were queues every outside bar/restaurant. After almost one hour of walking and waiting, we switched plans from steak house to pub food.
The next day we woke up with no rush, since we had already changed our plan from going straight to Omaha, to Denver. We are going to stay in Denver for one night before we make our last leg of travel.
Denver
Denver has always been a dream place for some strange reason, which I can’t elaborate. I am not from Denver, nor a frequent visitor of the city. In fact I have been to Denver once during my train ride from New York to California. It was the New Year’s Eve of 2017, I got off the Amtrak and decided to stay in Denver for a few days before continuing my journey to the West. Alone in new city during New Year’s Eve, I called R. Taylor, who was my close friend back then to say Happy New Year. Did some hitch hiking around town and read a few books.
How strange things can happen in particular times, this time I am leaving California and going East. We left the State of Wyoming with a souvenir, a speed ticket. The sun was setting as we were zooming into Denver. Alyzsha, who I briefly met last year in Santa Cruz, now lives back in Denver. So I messaged her to hang and get a few beer with us that night, she picked a place, a dive bar.
When the Colorado sun was shining on me I was already picturing myself in the bar that night, with the gang, just talk and have fun. We never run out of things to talk about or to explore. There are just so many things to keep our mind curious.
Denver was already calling me like a promised land.
When we parked next the dive bar it was already close to 10 pm. Colin and I passed the bottles in the parking while Brandon and Nick eating their drive-through fast food. It had been more than a year since I saw Alyzsha, she had been going to Medical school in Arizona and now finally moved back home to Colorado. The world is big but life is bigger I told her we would meet again, how would I have ever thought it will be a beat dive bar in Denver?
2020 Grads
the Gang
We hung out a bit, hopping from bar to bar. Not everyone was like us, with nothing to do but just to go. Alyzsha and her boyfriend had work the next morning so they left early. We kept partying until the bars closed. It was exactly like one of those college weekend nights but now we have officially been graduates.
The next morning I woke up with a huge headache, I must have drunk so much the night before. The last memory I had from the previous night we drove to the wrong hotel and it took us another 30 minutes to get back to the one where we actually had a room.
Nebr.
I popped two aspirins and off we go. How I wish I could stay in denver longer, but we gotta move! By 2 pm we hit Fort Morgan and by 5 we were driving pass the last town in Colorado before we crossed the state line. We would be in Omaha by 1 am, there was another state to cross before making the final destination.
At the State Line
Here we are, we only had six more hours to go but first we need to get champagne to actually celebrate our graduation and my moving into a new apartment. We stopped at the Walmart in Kearney to buy things we would need for the house since they were closing in 30 minutes. We kept on driving for another 2 hours until we got to Lincoln, where we would make one more stop before Omaha. We found a sports pub to eat. Colin was really getting into Guinness in those days, so that was his go-to. While we were waiting for drinks and food we were told they could not run our cards because they are out-of-state and vertical. So it was a sober night until we got to my place.
Once we got off the exit to the city, the quiet city at night unfolded itself before us. We got to the apartment around 1 am, the key and the lease was already on the kitchen counter. We brought alcohol up and set up the TV and a mattress so that we could have a proper bros night. We popped the champagne, the cork hit the celling like a gun fired across the street. We were all just sitting down, in this empty house which I now call home. Empty and new, just drinking and streaming a movie.
It was a fine night, a warm night, a windy night, a wine-drinking night, a moony night, and a night to hug your bros and talk and laugh and be heavengoing. The sun came out as we were dozing off, it was probably already 5 or 6 in the morning, we could hear the birds chirping.
The world is big but life is bigger. It’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Grace R., Arielle S., Curry X., John N., Leo Y., Sophie K., Brandon L., Nick H., Colin M. and Alyzsha M.